Review for Loading Human - Flavio Parenti's video game. Game for PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 13/10/2016
Virtual reality has entered the homes of players only a few days, but many software houses have been working for years with and for this new way of experiencing video games. It is the case of Untold Games, developer house founded in 2013 by the Italian-French Flavio Parenti, actor, director, chess and adventure video game enthusiast. The story of Loading Human and consequently Untold Games were born as a dream, realized in the project thanks to the support of those who believed until the end, supporting it with an ambitious Kickstarter and with the passion of the developers.
Loading… Goals
Loading Human's aim was immediately to present itself on the market as graphic adventure designed for virtual reality devices: the whole programming has grown around it and evolved with it over the three years of development. The interest of the publisher Maximum Games he gave new energy - not just moral - to the project, making it even more daring.
But what does Loading Human want to be? Parenti and Untold Games have aimed at creating a unique experience of its kind, pioneer of a new videogame entertainment system, able to combine the immersion granted by modern virtual reality technologies with an engaging storytelling. If the result has been achieved, only time will tell: Loading Human is in fact a title designed for episodic release and at the moment it is only the first chapter of three available. The choice was studied at the table to allow the game both to improve technically over time and to separate the narrative arcs and give each one the right weight and space.
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If it is premature to think of drawing definitive judgments of the plot, the "technical justification" for this staggered release method could already create perplexity in buyers: the "wanting to improve" chapter after chapter is a noble intent but, tricks on ulterior motives aside , could condemn the game to see its conclusion too far in time, with the inevitable loss of interest on the part of the majority of players.
Just think, data in hand, that less than 20% of owners of a Telltale graphic adventure get to see the credits, despite the fact that they are more "mass" games than the creature of Untold Games, both for the immediacy of the control system and for the release rate of the various episodes.
Sci-fi mythology
Loading Human's plot revolves around three main figures: Prometheus, player-controlled character, the father Dorian e Alice, Dorian's assistant and lover of the protagonist. Prometheus is an astronaut, the son of a brilliant researcher now forced into a disturbing machine, the Lazzarus, to keep himself alive; Dorian will entrust the young man with the difficult task of recovering the Quintessence, a powerful energy source that is very difficult to find and his only hope of survival.
However, Alice and her with Prometheus will lead the situation to become even more complicated and to the creation of a not too implicit "love triangle" between the characters. The name of the protagonist was not chosen by chance: betray Dorian, his father and "God", or abandon Alice, the incarnation of humanity so loved by the fire thief? And with what consequences?
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As software conceived for virtual reality, Loading Human goes necessarily played through a viewer - be it the Oculus Rift or the Sony Playstation VR - and a controller, although the use of two Playstation Moves instead of the classic gamepad conveys a totally different and much more immersive feeling. Instead, what damages the enjoyment of the title is the vision management system: the protagonist's movements on the same axis will take place smoothly, while the rotations of the point of view will be a real change of shot, complete with micro-fade on the screen.
The second problem is the motion sickness, a disorder that varies greatly from subject to subject and which could be completely absent in a player, such as causing nausea and dizziness for hours and hours after a half-hour game ... With references to real facts and people - and players - purely casual. To aggravate the disorder is themandatory standing position during the game session, which could add loss of balance to the list of symptoms; however, it should be reiterated that the "virtual reality malaise" is extremely subjective and which therefore cannot and must not be considered as a real software defect.
A rebellious alter-ego
Immediately after the first start, Loading Human asks you to indicate your height and make sure you play in an environment sufficiently free from obstacles and at the right distance from the screen: the request should not be taken lightly for the haste to start playing, as that data will be essential, as well as a previous calibration of the viewer and controller. Unless you want to experience a constant, frustrating feeling of helplessness in undergoing the freedom of expression of your virtual limbs, whose will will almost never be congruent to that of the player.
Thankfully, once everything is adjusted the control system works well and reacts accurately to inputs, while remaining approximate in the management of the space covered and of the frame rotations and thus forcing the player to "adjust" his direction several times in case he aims to reach an exact point or a particular object.
Loading Human, on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR, offers an interesting interaction with virtual environments thanks to realistic physics and controls - after calibration - very precise. By its very nature, it is obviously a short-lived, linear and currently incomplete title in the plot, but which proudly shows how a title and a passion can take shape before our eyes, with a pinch of talent and luck, giving prestige to the videogame reality, talented but still small and immature.
► Loading Human - Flavio Parenti's video game is an Adventure type game published by Maximum Games for PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 13/10/2016
