So, an update on Heaven’s Vault, which I just finished.
I mentioned a lot of shagginess on the edges. I would say as the game progresses, you see a lot more of it. Piecing together certain chunks of text becomes unnecessarily fussy later on, as you have more words (probably seems counterintuitive, but it’s true). The openness of the story and of the environments you come to really restricts. And I never totally understood the economy of the game–how artifacts help you find locations and why you should translate things in the first place. I mean, it was fun to do, but I can’t tell where it helped me to have my terms right and where it didn’t matter.
The worldbuilding is very cool for the most part. There’s definitely a feeling of things being rushed at the end, so the game couldn’t totally do justice to the vision it has for its world. There were a few really evocative story beats, but at the same time, not many of them really felt like they paid off. I think they should have made the game slightly shorter in order to beef up and polish some of the later content.
I don’t regret the 12-ish hours I put into it, but I’m now having a harder time recommending this. Inkle needed a little bit better structure to their game and much better UI design. There are all the elements of an incredible game here, and they fulfill that promise in spots. I think in many ways they bit off more than they could chew.