Going in search of our missing daughter, it starts an adventure well… Too bad it ends in fishtail
thanks to Xbox Canada who gave us a copy of the game through the program ID@Xbox in order to do the media coverage and test of it. The publisher/developer therefore authorizes us to distribute and/or use excerpts from the game for our production needs and does not intervene in any way in the awarding of the final grade.
A non-stimulating walking simulator
Launched on March 7 on consoles by the Asian publisher Eastasiasoftthe game Cions of Vega is an exploration game in the category of ” walking simulatorse”, this one created by a single soul. As I’m a lover of this type of title, I dived into it to see what it offered as a gaming experience. Here’s what I found…
A rather short and empty search
As a premise, Cions of Vega puts us in the shoes of Kenny, a dad trying to follow in the footsteps and find his recently missing 19-year-old daughter. To help us in our quest, our brother Logan will join the adventure, this one offering us his remarks, his moral support and indications throughout the adventure.
Basically, the basic story that serves as Cions of Vega’s playground might have been super interesting, but the clumsy way of bringing the narrative to life makes it all rather lukewarm and tasteless. It must be said that the mediocrity of the texts and the dubbing do not help the cause in any way. From its first minutes of the game, hearing Logan’s dialogue, I was convinced that the latter’s dubbing had been created by AI, until I reached the credits and saw that it was the work of a real person….
To add to the torture, the translation was badly done, so that throughout the adventure, Logan seems to be addressing a complete stranger! And yet he is his own brother! Even at a certain point, I noticed that Logan’s lips didn’t move at all when there were moments of dialogue, creating confusion in my head. Was it my character speaking or his brother? After paying attention to what was said, I realized that this was indeed what Logan was mentioning to our character, with a superb talent as a ventriloquist…
Once this shock passed, I might feel a pleasant sensation as my eyes scanned the surroundings. Okay, the visual rendering of Cions of Vega won’t make you drool on your sweater in any way, but the detail, lighting, and general animation of what surrounds our character is pretty good. On the other hand, we quickly go from a small smile of satisfaction to a rather dull face. And for good reason, since despite the overall visual design of Cions of Vega being correct, we quickly realize the hyper repetitiveness of almost everything in the game.
The environment is the same for almost 90% of the game, have very few different areas to explore, including a dark cave. But it is in the interior of the houses that we will be able to visit that the bottom hurts. Because the textures in these are dull and bland, poorly lit and the furniture that furnishes them once once more identical from house to house. The only small difference that we will find there, will be at the level of the documents to read and children’s drawings, which are more or less interesting for our quest. We come to read them diagonally and not really pay more attention to them…
In terms of game mechanics, let’s say it’s a “walking simulator” pure and hard, in which we accomplish practically nothing other than to explore here and there. On a few occasions, puzzles will be presented to us, but these will be like the rest: insignificant, tasteless and boring. I know it might be a little harsh, but there are so many better titles out there, it’s hard to appreciate this one because everything is failing us on all levels.
What killed me the most was getting to the end credits so quickly, following reaching an unexpected end to the storyline, with the offer of three choices to end the adventure, all leading to a conclusion as ugly as the other. Unfortunately, you won’t find any real satisfaction there, whether you’re making one choice rather than another and that’s really disappointing at the end of the game. In short, Cions of Vega had great potential, but the overall execution makes this one difficult to recommend, if only for its low price, under C$10. Other than that, save your pennies for a title that will give you at least a bit of pleasure in the end…
Verdict
To know the criteria of our rating system, visit this page.
Take note that the version tested is the one on Xbox Series X. The game is also available on PS5, Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
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