The Last Dogma [Game Review]
Game: The Last Dogma
Genre: First-person Exploration Game
Developer: Sasha Darko
Publisher: Sasha Darko
Copy supplied by developer
The Last Dogma is a first-person exploration psychological game developed and published by Sasha Darko.
STORY
The game tries to mimic other games (such as The Stanley Parable) by creating a satirical story that is way too much "in-your-face" than other games of the genre. You play as Sebastian, an ATF special agent tasked with the tracking and eradication of local firearms dealers. You will find yourself in a village of cannibals, sewers, hellish landscapes, abandoned Christian schools and in Medieval times. It's a weird, non-sensical, satirical story that falls apart from the very beginning. If you really are interested to understand what happens, read the topic created by the developer who explains the story. Something that shouldn't happen.
GRAPHICS
Made in the Unity engine, it performs really badly in the first sections of the game, with frame-rate below 20. If that wasn't enough, the game doesn't even look all that great. With pre-built assets, aggressive depth-of-field and incredibly shiny objects (IF YOU HAVE EPILEPSY AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS), I got sick after 30 minutes. I played this game in bursts of 15-20 minutes to avoid headache and pain to the eyes, something that doesn't happen with any other game.
GAMEPLAY
The game is supposed to be an exploration game, but there is little to do other than finding some poorly hidden secrets. You will encounter a couple of enemies who, as soon as they die, will start squirting blood continuosly. You will also engage in running, finding keys to open doors, collecting pages and completing a driving section. All in the name of satire. However, unlike smarter games, it is all handled pretty badly: the controls are wonky, the dialogue tree is non-existent and choice-less, the combat is pretty much absent and the satire is heavy-handed. What could've been a good product turned into something convoluted, with multiple genres blanded together for boring sections.
CHALLENGE
There is little to no challenge: the objects you need are right under your nose, the enemies take forever to hit you and the "puzzles" are the easiest ones I've ever seen. Sure, the game's goal is to tell a "compelling" story, but that's not a good excuse to not add even a small amount of challenge.
SOUND
The voice acting goes from cheesy to mediocre, while the low-quality sound effects are taken directly from freeware sites (this still is an indie game). I also believe that the soundtrack is made of Kevin MacLeod's songs, which are always nice, even though they feel out of place here.
REPLAYABILITY
There are multiple endings and two in-game achievements, as well as "30+ well-hidden secrets" (direct quote from the Store page). If you find what you've read before interesting, you will get your money's worth with this game. Maybe.
Overall, this attempt at satire fails on every point, with painful graphics, incoherent story, lack of gameplay, terrible sound and little to no challenge. I am surprised it isn't in Early Access. Avoid at all cost.
Story: 3.5
Graphics: 2.5
Gameplay: 3
Challenge: 2
Sound: 5
Replayability: 6
ENJOYMENT: 3
FRUSTRATION: 5
