Review: The Star Named EOS Is Short and a Little too Sweet

The Star Named EOS is the newest recreation from Silver Lining Studio, and like Behind the Body: The Best Surroundings earlier than it, the sport tells a really private story of artwork and connection in between puzzles set in panoramic scenes. Mentioned puzzles aren’t supposed to be taxing, and I had a couple of points with the marginally saccharine story, however in the event you can tune to the sport’s wavelength you’ll discover a very nice story with some pretty visuals right here.

The sport performs from the attitude of Dei, a younger photographer following within the footsteps of his mom by recreating (very literal) snapshots of her life. Most ranges in The Star Named EOS begin with a letter from Mother in addition to a photograph, which you will want recreate with what you might have accessible within the scene. There’s some respectable selection within the puzzles, although maybe a couple of too many leaned on discovering a code within the degree and inputting it elsewhere. Generally you’ll discover what you want after a couple of puzzles and easily have to rearrange it, however generally you’ll have to get somewhat ingenious. My favourite was one which concerned holding cutouts towards a poster to recreate a tenting scene in the course of a metropolis. Full the picture and also you’ll transfer to the realm depicted as you piece collectively what occurred to Dei’s mother.

My copy of The Star Named EOS got here on Swap, and whereas it ran completely and appeared good I did discover the point-and-click gameplay a bit clunky with the analog sticks. It was nothing large, however looking for particular clickables with out adjustable sensitivity was positively extra irritating than it may have been with a mouse and keyboard. This solely obtained worse once I needed to commute between a number of screens to test the sequence I used to be inputting, so in the event you plan to play the sport you must make issues simpler for your self by bringing a notepad and, if potential, enjoying on PC.

The environments and artwork usually have a beautiful, barely painterly type and the sport makes use as soon as once more of Silver Lining Studio’s panorama tech. There are additionally a couple of cutscenes interspersed, normally the place one other character seems, and the designs there have this barely Ghibli-ish high quality to them that was nice. I particularly preferred the areas set in a practice or a metropolis cafe, which appeared like they could have had a mid-1900’s aesthetic occurring, although I don’t know if the sport is expressly set then.

There’s a smidgen of replayability, must you need to return and acquire a couple of extra bits of writing by images of particular objects in ranges, however in any other case you’ll be finished inside a few hours. This can rely upon how simply you’re taking to the puzzles in fact, however typically the sport has a breezy tempo that doesn’t get slowed down regardless of the sentimentality of all of it. I might say, nonetheless, that the tempo left the story feeling somewhat too “broad strokes” at instances.

Our protagonist Dei, for instance, can come throughout as somewhat flat as a result of we don’t actually know all that a lot about him. We’re instructed a number of instances that he’s very gifted at images and is clearly very near his mother, however I didn’t get a way of an actual character past that. There’s a component the place a personality says she envies how insightful he’s, and it simply felt very bizarre and unearned. Dei looks like a clean slate everyman meant to be projected onto, however the story looks like its meant to be private in a approach that didn’t fairly click on collectively, at the least for me.

[Note: The next section will contain spoilers for The Star Named Eos]

The Mother is comparable, we get that she is clearly very idealistic and dedicated to her job however with such little details about what she’s doing and why she’s doing it the sport sort of fails to convey the gravity of it. We don’t actually see what she believed was value risking her life for, and I feel that may have been a extra concrete story beat for Dei study that too. Because it stands, it’s not arduous to come back away from The Star Named EOS with the quite unflattering learn that Dei merely replaces his misplaced mom determine with Nat, a personality who seems in direction of the top, quite than coming to any realization or expressing any progress.

The Star Named EOS has a fairytale vibe to it like the beginning of a Pixar film, however the identical breezy tempo and lightness of element can even make the story really feel flat or overly sentimental. Nonetheless, there’s a nice and affecting time for many who can decelerate and revel in it.

The Star Named EOS is on the market for the PS5, Xbox Collection X, Nintendo Swap, and PC.