Estranged: Act I Review

When I first learned that Estranged: Act I  was not only available but free-to-play on Steam, I jumped at the opportunity to get it. An atmospheric action/adventure/horror game with zombies made using the Source engine? Yes please!

Unfortunately, that’s where my excitement peaked and it’s all been a little bit downhill from there.

Estranged starts with your character on a fishing boat at sea. You receive an incoming radio message from a man introducing himself as Johnathan Derril stating that he needs help. He tells you that some “things” have taken over the island before his pleas are interrupted by an automated message from Arque Corporation, informing you that there’s been a safety breach and a mandatory curfew is in effect. With that, the screen goes black for a few seconds. Next thing you know, your ship has crashed into the dock and you’re left floating in the water.

My first impressions of Estranged  were that it looked pretty damn good for a game developed in the Source engine. The lighting and shadow effects in particular were very impressive and in general the game looked very nice.

It’s clear from the start that Estranged  was made to be as atmospheric as possible, keeping you on your toes at all times and making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. To a degree the game does achieve this, though I always found myself wanting more. The zombies themselves aren’t particularly scary and are easily dealt with in general as there are very few occasions where you’re being attacked by more than one at a time. It doesn’t help that half the time you come across a zombie, they’re slumped over in the middle of a lit room and can usually be killed by the time they’ve managed to stand up. With so many dark corners and passageways in Estranged, I can’t help but feel that the developers have missed a trick. Some strategically placed zombies hidden in the shadows would have added a lot more intensity and a greater fear factor to the game which, in turn, would have given it a lot more of an atmosphere.

As far as storyline goes, Estranged again seems to be lacking. Other than the initial radio message and subsequent brief encounter with John Derril, there’s not really any explanation as to what’s actually going on, how it’s happened or why. It seems that your main objective is to simply try to escape the island. I can only surmise that this was done to create more suspense for the player but it makes the game less enjoyable to play.

Another thing that irked me was that the game was too easy. Within 5 minutes of playing, you are literally gifted a pistol like it’s an extension of a handshake and shortly after that you find a flashlight without having to really explore at all. Ammo, health and torch batteries aren’t hard to find either as not only is there plenty of each but they all have a glowing yellow outline, meaning that you can see them through a wall from the next room. Call me old fashioned but I quite like coming up with the genius idea of searching a locker or a table for items on my own. It felt like all the satisfaction that you’d derive from finding these items of your own volition was taken away from you and instead, you were being spoon-fed throughout the game. Estranged  is crying out for some varying difficulty settings and I’m surprised that this was overlooked.

This brings me onto the puzzles.

I’m a big fan of puzzles in games. Whether it’s an RPG, FPS or an adventure game, puzzles add that little extra challenge and change of pace that is generally welcomed by gamers. Not in Estranged.

Call me arrogant but in my opinion, a puzzle is supposed to be difficult to solve, isn’t it? After all, how many times have you seen your nan go out and buy a two piece jigsaw? Never, because that would be pointless. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the puzzles in Estranged feel like. That may sound somewhat harsh but let me give you an example. I’m running through a sewer when I come across a problem. Oh look, there’s some wooden planks blocking my path to the next area, whatever shall I do? Oh look, there’s an explosive barrel RIGHT NEXT TO THE WOODEN PLANKS. Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I shot the barrel with my gun. Voila, I’m a genius! I wouldn’t mind if this was just one example but I can honestly say that all of the puzzles seem to be that simple. There’s no real difficulty and therefore no satisfaction that comes from completing any of them.

Unfortunately for Estranged, it doesn’t really get any better. The loading times between areas can at times be excruciatingly long and it really does detract from the imposed atmosphere, which is a real shame as it seems like something that could have been fairly easily rectified. Add to that the bugs and glitches I encountered, such as getting stuck on bits of scenery and being hit through a fence by a zombie when I was stood a good few feet away and you have a game with more bad points than good.