Bear and Breakfast
Released: July 28, 2022
Game Length: 33 Hours
Grade: B-
Game Search
New Releases: After playing through all the Lego games this past year, it was time to search for a new game. There were several that were on my watchlist. Phantom Brigade seemed to be a decent match until I realized that Patch 1.0.3 actually made the game worse in an already less than optimal setting. Hardspace: Shipbreaker caught my eye for about 30 minutes before I grew bored of how they set you up with less than stellar tools. Entropy Center is an interesting puzzle game until you realize that you can only rewind time, not fast forward it. This means the biggest aspect will come in making sure you set your box in chronological order or you have to do the whole round over again. I had to make some major adjustments to the controls, field-of-view, and sensitivity. You are severely limited without any punching, swimming, or running. The story's ending aggravated me to no end (on purpose) as it didn't unlock any of those doors throughout the game or provide you any closure to your story.
Setting
An Unusual Start: So at the end of my list was a game that didn't have the best start. It was clear from their launch that there was still room to grow. The game didn't provide controller support until Patch 1.4.8 in September. Their December Update made a lot of improvements from increasing the size from 99 to 999, automatic loot system, more cosmetics, and a recycler. There's also word that there will be more story elements in their future, but much of their recent changes were made towards the Nintendo Switch and Japanese support. It was clear that the game was very robust: the tutorial was slow, text scrolling is slow, quest progression was linear, you cannot name your rooms, the menu interface is divided in unusual ways, and you are unable to see how much a guest will pay until after their stay. The good news is the game does gradually provide you tools to increase your travel speed, instantly travel between locations, and automate a lot of the work in the background.
Decorating: The game had a unique way of splitting up the currencies. You gather resources to craft the "main" equipment. Coins will buy things like zoning, recipes, and ingredients. Trash will get you decorations. Eventually, you will find yourself building up your rooms between 5 different locations. Each one builds on the tiers: Comfort & Decorations, Sanitation, Food, and Warmth. You can choose between advancing to the next site or progressing through the achievements. Some of the requirements will include simply getting people to stay at your place. Others will need some drastic renovations to your rooms. Unfortunately, the game doesn't do quite a good job balancing between adding more things and placing down better items. You'll find yourself cramming a room with a bunch of rugs and tiny items just as long as you meet the rising limits of the guests.
Problems: In the end, it wasn't the bad puns or how things were arranged that gave me pause. I thoroughly liked how you were able to rotate decorations and change the overlay of the buildings. No, there were just way too many bugs and glitches that made it near impossible to keep enjoying the game without stumbling over something. This started with the contention between using the keyboard & mouse or controller. The gamepad might be better while exploring but the keyboard was much better when it came to navigating through the interface. You stopped moving when you pressed the A-button. You can't click to advance the text. There were a bunch of weird bugs. I was able to loot an item through the fence. A quest item wasn't sparkling and hidden behind a wall. Guests would get stuck on so many different things and not know how to get into their room. Since everyone tried to use the bathroom at the same time, no one could. Lights would stay on after people went to sleep. Items didn't stack when you hit the organize button. You must build inventory through the interface; you can't drag items onto the room. The Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion must have been wrong since my rooms read 114 degrees. Recipes aren't immediately removed from the vendor list when you buy them.
Summary
Review: We all get the joke: a bear in the woods gets paid by humans to stay in abandoned lodgings. You collect resources to spruce up the sites. Your friends will assist when it comes to collecting decorations, gathering cooking recipes, and automating the work. It is great to observe inside and out of structures. It is awesome to rotate nearly every decoration backwards, sideways, and forward. The story is pretty decent and advances a lot longer than I originally anticipated. However, there are a lot of problems in almost every other aspect of the game from clunky controls, bad bugs, and annoying interfaces. If you are able to adapt and cope with the issues, you'll find an enjoyable experience underneath the fuzzy exterior.
4-25-2023