Разработчик: Tale of Tales
Описание
The empty beach, the strong wind, the gentle music and a small colony of electric seagulls are their only companions. Yet their heart is full and their mind confused. Walk along the shore, until they meet the emptiness.
When it all becomes too much, they run towards each other. Enabled by intergalactic networks, they touch each other’s holographic bodies in cyberspace. A surreal game of chess becomes the apparatus through which they, man and woman, can talk. The words they have were given to them, as they have always been to lovers everywhere.
The sea remains, tugging at their hearts when not at their hairs and clothes, as it itself is tugged by the virtual moon. And as great as the desire for the other may be, they cannot stay away from the wind and the waves and the sand. Every time they find a new treasure. An abandoned tennis field. An heap of coal. A dead dog. Ordinary. Absurd. Meaningless. Yet comforting.
Enter a café, exit a villa, enter a casino, exit the ruin of an ancient colonial mansion. We know this is not real. So it doesn’t surprise us. Nothing surprises us. It doesn’t matter when you feel the pain of love. Of being in love, of falling in love, of leaving in love. There is no such thing as time. There is only love. And it never stops. No matter how much it hurts.
Поддерживаемые языки: english, german, french, italian, spanish - spain, russian, portuguese - portugal, polish, dutch, swedish
Системные требования
Windows
- OS:XP
- Processor:2 Ghz
- Memory:2 GB RAM
- Graphics:Geforce 7600, Radeon X1600
- Hard Drive:500 MB HD space
- OS:7
- Processor:3 Ghz
- Memory:3 GB RAM
Mac
- OS:10.6.8
- Processor:2 Ghz
- Memory:2 GB RAM
- Graphics:Geforce 7600, Radeon X1600
- Hard Drive:500 MB HD space
- OS:10.6.8
- Processor:3 Ghz
- Memory:3 GB RAM
Отзывы пользователей
This game was released before Itch(dot) io existed. A shame, as that was the place for an interesting experience like this to be. Unfortunately, I can't give a positive review for something that should be for free.
Loved it
No instructions cuz if you press that button, this game crashes.
Okay, so I tried and figured out how to play myself. Then when I tried to get into the house, it crashed again.
Well, this game came out later than The Path, but seems there ain't much more to see. No one criticizes you for regarding yourself as an artist, but please don't make this title so hollow. Saying that your game emphasizes on the atmosphere and experience while you can not care less about the audience's experience? Ironic. Try to be more genuine next time.
Tu as raison. C'est bientôt l'été et tout peut arriver.
After playing this, you may have two feelings:
1. The author is a genius and has perfectly outlined the pressing problems in a new light and has discovered something new for me. Helped to look from a different perspective.
2. Either I'm dumb, or there's nothing remarkable about this project.
For me, this project caused the emotions described under paragraph 2, since I did not understand the "tactile message" of this game. The execution is extremely poor, there is practically no content at all. If the game is trying to show the monotony of life and make you think about something, there are better ways to do this
It's one of those games you can never be sure whether you will like it or not before you give it a try. It's short but unique in its narrative design, especially when you find an actual person to play this with. You collect thoughts from the waves of the ocean and share them with your lover by using the pieces on a chessboard. Very slow-paced, but soothing and poetic. There are certain design aspects that might seem counter-intuitive or rushed, such as the slow walking speed, the bare landscape, the scattered irrelevant objects that appear out of the blue, etc., but it is really hard for me to say their design is objectively wrong. It's more about personal taste and sentiments.
The "video game" label might create expectations that might disappoint some people. I would call this something more on the lines of "interactive art". It's suposed to be a contemplative experience. I feel like this could be on a modern art exhibition and it would receive more praise than it does here.
A highly experimental game about nonverbal communication and/or a parody of depictions of French romance in popular culture, Bientot l’ete is constrained by its budget and asks the players to fill in a lot of gaps; but it’s still a memorable experience, and can be considered a historically important precursor to the still-nascent genre of ‘relationship games.’
Note that you need a willing partner to play this game; it can't be played solo or with random people on the internet.
Hello from the future. The game wasn't itself, which angered them... but it was true, completely. There are new ways to play chess, there are objects on the beach, but what do we make of them? Am I communicating or the computer? Students of Habermas will appreciate this game. I am in love, I hope you will come join me soon.
DISCLAIMER: This is a full review, and NOT a first impressions review
[quote] PLEASE NOTE: I recommended this game with some exceptions, overall if the game did not live up to just a tiny expectation, I would not have recommended it at all, so please read the review carefully if you are thinking of buying/playing this game [/quote]
Bientôt l'été is a game developed and published by Tale of Tales and my, oh my what a grind this game is...
The game has some really nice environments and the graphics are really well designed and laid out
The game does suffer with some repetitiveness at certain areas of the game but a fun game nontheless and is a massive grind to either walk as slow or run... this is definitely the low-point of Bientôt l'été
Bientôt l'été overall, however, is a fun game to play in short bursts and a good casual game to play!
It's definitely not for everyone, but if you be patient and follow the game's interesting story and concept, you will find an indie gem of a game
RECOMMENDED :)
REVIEW SOURCES:
[list]
[*] None
Short:
+ Relaxing "walking simulator"
+ Eerie, dreamy, surreal, transcendental design, music and ambiance
+ Bold multiplayer concept: People are strangers, no direct means of communication
- Lack of any significant, forward-driven narration/story/plot
- Lack of any significant, long-term gameplay
- Odd/Awkward, not exactly comforting (keyboard) controls
- Multiplayer barely works for the lack of people playing this game (workaround: joining Steam group and timing online time with other people)
Long:
Interesting from an art-ish and ambiance-related point of view, lacking gameplay-wise, and with an irritating control scheme.
Badmouths may call it a boring walking simulator. It provides less exploration and narration than for example Dear Esther, but a bit more than for example Proteus, and has it's own unique graphical style and ambiance. The graphics, sounds and music give you an eerie feeling, it's dream-like, surreal and transcendental, and for this alone it's interesting to look at and listen to, eventually even admirable.
You select a male or female character stored inside tubes. "It's nearly summer" you are told. You appear with your character on a simulated/virtual beach shore and walk it. Random phrases will appear drawn onto the ground. You "collect" ("remember) some of them by closing your eyes, you also hear them voiced in French then (they are always subtitled in the language of your choice). You collect some object "hidden" beneath some worldly, "holographic" thing (a tree, a bush, a crane, ...) that disappears to reveal this object (chess pieces mostly, and one more unique and confusing one which leaves room for interpretation). You enter a house, meet with a virtual partner of the opposite gender in some sort of bar, put your objects in turns on a chessboard (freely, you don't actually play chess - some spots trigger the words/phrases you previously collected to appear on the screen and be voiced), take a smoke, drink some whine or select some pre-set of music tracks to play music-box like in the background. The lines you collect and make appear are circling around the two characters and their relationship, who are or used to be lovers After that you leave the house, walk along the shore again, collect more phrases and another object and enter the house again. This you repeat as many times as you wish, at some point the simulation starts over again with you collecting about the same pieces again (the game however seems to remember all pieces you once collected - I've just started up the game again and could place all the objects I once picked up many months back when I first played this game).
The partner in the house is either A.I.-controlled or an actual human who is playing the game at the same time as you do. You don't see his/her name, he/she is a stranger, there is no text or voice chat to use, you only communicate with the words and through symbolism you can do with the chessboard and the objects, and the only indication whether there is someone else playing/waiting in the house is - from what I've been told and noticed - a window you see from the outside that has lights on. I haven't been able to meet up with a real human yet, because either the mechanics to match you up with one are not working too well or this game was never played by too many people to begin with. There is a Steam group one can join, and sometimes people try to group up through it. However this is a bit of a misleading way of playing this game, since it was obviously intended to meet strangers, an idea Tale of Tales originally came up with in "The Endless Forest", but which isn't executed too well in this game. A game that did this better was the PSN game "Journey". But I guess one must probably consider that "Journey" was a larger success than any of Tale of Tales' games ever were - the more players play these games the higher/better the chances to meet up with them. At some point no one will play these anymore, I guess, not even "Journey".
The control scheme isn't entirely bad but not exactly too enjoyable. This is a problem I keep seeing in the games made by Tale of Tales. You look around by moving the mouse to either side of the screen, you walk by holding down the left mouse button, you close your eyes with the right mouse button and run with spacebar. It feels odd/awkward and not very comforting. They could adapt to the more classic control schemes that games with a first- and third-person view give you, the usual WASD and mouse-look thing. I don't see any good reason in doing things differently there. Has it to do with being different for the sake of being different? Or are they inept and don't play their own games? I don't know, and I don't like being harsher to them than they deserve. You can play with a gamepad too, maybe I should try that and will feel better then.
"8/10" According to My Own Rating.
Highly disturbing.
Actually, the most disturbing romantic non-game game I've ever played.
"I'm a little frightened."
"I will die."
"Help me, I beg of you."
"I cannot continue."
"I would prefer you did not love me."
"I have to go."
"It is over."
Yeah.. very romantic lines to pop up in a conversation with a spectral representation of a soulmate in another dimension.
Anyways, this non-game is highly recommended especially for romantic people. It's an awesome thrauma generator.
Just dive into this world, embrace pain and loneliness, let darkness fill your heart. "I wish you were dead."
Just terrible, artsy fartsy crap that only some fedora neckbeard would think is deep and meaningful.
You play as one of two people who wander around a boring landscape, thinking random wistful lovey dovey things that don't evoke any emotion whatsoever from the player except groans. Then the game suddenly decides to take you and your "lover" inside some building, where you sit and click on items at each other, and each item activates a sentence in a nonsensical conversation that's supposed to be "deep", but instead reads like laughable emo poetry. I didn't keep playing much after that.
Where is the love story that's supposed to make the player imprint on the characters? I thought the entire premise of this art game was to draw a beautiful allegory for magnetism across distance. Absolutely none of it comes through in the final product and I found myself laughing at the tryhard writing almost every other sentence.
The whole thing reeks of a 2deep4me college freshman who just finished a game design degree at Full Sail University and celebrated by taking a nerdy girl into his room to watch Fight Club and not drink alcohol because alcohol is for jocks, and then she friendzoned him, and then he created THIS masterpiece to express his feelings about The One still being out there pining for him. So if that's you I guess this game is perfect.
This hits a very niche market... and not very well. I typically really enjoy introspective forlorn romps through artsy settings, but this is a bit of a streatch even for me.
Spoilers follow:
No seriously, there's nothing to this game, so litterally anything I say past this point will "ruin" it for you.
Don't read further unless you've either already played it our have no intention to.
So the idea is that you go for long walks on the beach reflecting on this relationship you've had. Sometimes there's something on the beach that will drop a chess peice which you can take to the house and use on a chess board to hold something resembling a conversation with an online partner... The dialouge seems to suggest that these two love each other out of necessity and not for any actual romantic reasons... they don't seem to actually like each other but are bound to eachother anyway. It's really sad...These two need to see other people, but it's clear that there are no other fish in the sea, so to speak.
Oh, and once you've collected all the chess peices, the next item to drop is a gun... well that escalated quickly. You can use the gun on the chess board like a peice. It does nothing in particular, but I think it's more meant to be a metaphore for putting an end to the relationship more than anything.
To sum up the game: Help I'm trapped in a holodeck of angst and regret! I don't know what love is and I want to kill myself because I'm so messed up about it!
Game developers should be encouraged to challenge the status quo with narrative and mechanics, but I feel that there are certain best practices for game design that Tale of Tales often overlooks for no visible reason or benefit to the game. While Bientôt l'été has the most conventional controls and straightforward instructions of their games to date, it still suffers from the same problem: some strange design decisions have little to nothing to do with the concept, and may even hinder it.
Imagine the PS3 game Journey: two players meet at random in a surreal world to make a connection. Except in Bientôt l'été, both players are chat robots stating phrases at random while smoking cigarettes, drinking wine, and playing chess (with a catch: you have to find the pieces first, but one at a time). The highlight of the game should be the multiplayer, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be very populated (a symptom of its avant garde concept, I guess), and the interactions are severely limited.
What should be a virtual date with a stranger in a surreal world becomes tedius, with no real interaction or connection with said stranger. Unlike Journey, which limits your characters' intractability to serve the purpose of the mechanics and design, Bientôt l'été's design stands at odds with its concept, preventing players from creating any kind of meaningful connections.
Before noting that I said I do not recommend this, please understand that it's not bad.
With this confusing statement out of the way, let's get started. Bientôt l'été isn't a game. It's an artistic piece, and this needs to be understood. From what I could gather, the goal of it was to demonstrate how people can communicate, even if limited by language, actions, or possible phrases (as seen by the chess board in-game). However, this requires that someone somewhere is playing at the same time you are, unless you want to talk to an AI. It's a beautiful experience when it works well, but this is so rare I can't recommend a purchase at any time other than during a sale. Due to the game's artistic goal and nature, it was heavily slammed upon release, driving away potential players. Without a community waiting for another person to chat with, more people slammed the game for not having a community. This is Bientôt l'été's biggest problem, without players it simply cannot achieve the desired effect.
For this reason I suggest buying this when it's on sale. More players are likely to be experimenting with it at the same time as you, and you're more likely to see the beauty of limited conversation with a complete stranger.
I am fascinated by this game, and yet I fear I will never get to play it to its full potential. In this game you walk around a strange, silent world and can interact with objects to gain chess pieces. You can then use the chess pieces to have a virtual conversation with a stranger. The more chess pieces you have the more options you have as far as things to say. The interesting thing is that you each play the role of lovers and so the conversation has a strange intimacy even though the participants themselves are strangers. The possibility is that you might share a moment of connection with a stranger over these bits and pieces of dialogue and action. However, I have played this game three or four times and have never been paired with a living person. The other choice is to participate in the conversation with a simulation. And in this case, interaction with a simulation is hollow and completely misses the point because there is no chance for that spark of human connection.
It's like abstract art for gaming. Interpretation is up to you. Don't expect to be told a story as for the most part the story is yours to tell, albeit it will probably be a short one. I can't really say I'd recommend this game, but I don't want to bash it either. In all honesty I feel 'meh' about it.
I really enjoyed Dear Esther. I also enjoy Tale of Tales other games, like The Path. I simply do not understand nor enjoy this game at all. I went into it with low expectations and an open mind, I left questioning exactly what should be considered "art" in gaming.
Bientôt l'été is the most pretentious of pretentious indie art games. One that is "too deep for you" to even understand whatever trivial message it's trying to put across. Let me just say right now that when a developer needs to address their entire userbase in a forum post, revealing what their inspiration for the game was in order for you to understand its purpose, then the developer has completely failed to convey any sort of rational thought with their game. Still, no one slightly understands the purpose of Bientôt l'été and those who do are obviously elitist intellectuals whose thoughts and opinions on the matter are also "too deep for you" to understand yet again. It's hard not to call Poe's Law into play.
This game has a mechanical crutch which becomes limited by its users. The main attraction of Bientôt l'été is being able to connect with other players in a cafe of sorts, decked out with a chess board, a glass of wine, cigarettes, and the ability to communicate intricately with one another. Except this all falls apart when you realise you're the sole person in existence to be playing this game at this point in time, forcing you to instead substitute a human presence with artificial intelligence. This severely impacts the game as a whole.
I never found a partner to play with so I had to resort to A.I., and after collecting all of the chess pieces I managed to find a gun... although my character holds it backwards. Does this gun do anything more than intimidate the opposing player? If not, then there is no point to this game since there aren't enough people playing this game at any one time; you can't really surprise artificial intelligence.
The entire process of Bientôt l'été took me little over 80 minutes to achieve. After collecting the gun and positioning all the chess pieces in their correct order, hoping for something to "unlock" or tell me I've done something right, only to find out nothing much happens. I decided to go back out and collect more items, coming to a stinging realisation that the cycle has restarted and I'm collecting the very first chess pieces again.
This game is insulting.
First off, this is as much of a game as you'd call something like Dear Esther a game.
The "gameplay" consists of walking along a beach and finding out of place objects like a pile of coal or a field of wheat placed on the beach. After finding each of these objects, you get a chess piece to use in the cafe that's present across from the water.
When you enter the cafe, you sit down at a chessboard and wait for someone to connect (or use their extremely awkward in-game partner connect to actually play with a friend). After waiting at least 10 minutes to connect to an actual player, the view changes to a top-down of the chessboard and you both take turns placing your own chess pieces on the board. Some spaces make your character say a line of conversation (which can be found by walking across the beach).
Icy and I played this for an hour and a half and we could not discover any sort of progression. After you collect all your chess pieces you come across some sort of pistol. This pistol can also be placed on the chessboard, but does nothing else once on it.
The story seems to be a very weak and very cliche talk of romance between artists gone sour. I'm sure the developers have an idea of what it /actually/ means and expect some users to gain a lot from the shallow symbolism, but in all honesty this would have been better as a 15 minute independant film.
I would recommend against buying this. It doesn't belong on Steam.
As many players of Bientôt l'été I encountered the artificial intelligence and was unable to best its application of post-structural linguistics. At every turn I found myself subjected to a dialog that was profoundly disturbing, of which if I am to understand Lacanian psychoanalysis properly, came to enjoy as a manner and extension of the game.
After this realization I came to wonder, and eventually resolved, why it was that I found this game so unmatched in its presentation -- it is what constitutes the substance ontology of a cosmopolitan bourgeoisie.
On an ephemeral beach they engage in this digital discourse, aimlessly embodying the transcendental human experience, exclaiming to themselves "This is what interaction amounts to; a game theory of chess and the parries of regular 21st century parlance and nomenclature." Smug and content the player makes a category error in assuming that this is "beyond" or too "meta" for the proletarian mind.
From here we see that indeed, this game is the ontological groundwork of a cosmopolitan bourgeois character.
Have you ever seen that old PS1 game "LSD Dream Simulator" ?
I think what happened is some french people found that game, and thought "we should make this, but in French, with better graphics and 90% less content. "
Pretentious doesn't cut it. When you think of a pretentious French art film what do you see? someone sprouting gibberish while smoking and drinking red wine? You get to play that guy in this game. Or walk on a beach. The seagulls don't mean a damn thing as far as I can tell, but I did see a big pile of coal. It gave me a chess piece.
Thats £6.99 a Frenchman can spend on more wine and cigarettes.
I will now ironically click the recommend button.
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Tale of Tales |
| Платформы | Windows, Mac |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 15.01.2025 |
| Metacritic | 62 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 49% положительных (101) |