Anoxemia

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I am 32 years old.

My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old.

When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand I desperately needed to ensure I could continue providing.

Upon learning the severity of the self-inflicted damage, I became almost suicidal. Keep in mind that just a few months before this, I was the happiest man, with no history of depression or anxiety. I had never experienced anger outbursts, nor was I the type to break down and cry, but I was in a tough situation that truly prevented me from seeing the light on the other side.

With nothing better to do, I looked for a game I could play WITH ONE HAND while recovering. Somehow, I stumbled upon this game and read some of the comments. I decided it was worth a try... I must admit I didn't beat the game, nor did I play as much as some of you. In fact, I may have played this game for only a day or two. That being said, after doing so, I had a new joy and hope for life. I managed to leave behind the pain and suffering that had been thrust upon me. I could experience the joy and happiness of other people. I relaxed for 5 ♥♥♥♥ minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.

After realizing this, I turned off the game and went back to work. My hand hurt a lot, but I was motivated. I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and became the father I needed to be at that moment, not the weak boy I was behaving like.

Today, I am close friends with the mother of my children. We don't fight, argue, or say hurtful things to each other. We are parents and friends.

Now I have 3 children. My third child is, wait, ALSO 4 YEARS OLD. The woman I am with was going through a very similar situation at the time of my separation, and we just unexpectedly stumbled into each other's lives. We have been dating for a year and are very happy together.

Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today. This silly little game helped me realize that.

Thank you.

Just boring, the worst crime a game could commit

Pretty nice game, not too hard, not too easy, good atmosphere. However ending is a bit rushed, last few levels are somewhat buggy (you can get stuck into obstacles or walls) and the ending itself is very disappointing and somewhat bugged itself. Also note for some reason game ERASES all your saves when you finish it...

I tried to beat this game (And I will in the future) But right now im really pissed at it.
I got 22 levels in before I couldn't go any further.
Reason being.
I had no energy.
didin't get enough energy in level 20 and had to rush through 21 cause theirs only ONE energy pack in that level.
And then i beat the level with only 4 seconds of energy left. Although the game was "merciful" and gave me a whole minute of energy. It didn't even help cause level 22 is a long puzzle level with and get this. NO ENERGY PACKS BUT LIKE 10 OXYGEN TANKS. And I made sure too! I was able to get one on the level through the boxes you find but guess what. I GOT KILLED BY THE STUPID SPIKE THINGS ON THE WALL CAUSE I WASN'T PAYING ATTENTION. And the box DOSEN'T RESPAWN. I really wanted to beat this game but I guess Ill have to at another time when im ready to go through 22 whole levels again this time remembering not to make the same mistake. And yes I had to delete all my save data to fix this.
For now Im giving a bad rating untill I finish the game and can give a proper review just for this.

this game is so frustrating and broken as all hell you play as a machine with a diver following you and I swear the moment you stop he doesn't he glides and in some cases glides to his death. which is so common that you will die over and over and it keeps getting frustrating everytime. when you try to collect oxygen good luck keeping it up because you lose it the moment you spend the entire time trying to figure out where you're going.
What's so frustrating is the fact that I would appreaciate it if there was plenty of oxygen tanks so you don't have to worry but unfortunatly there's levels that don't have any and you're shit out of luck, and good luck going back a few levels to get more because you'll start back with very little oxygen. This is nothing more than a cash grab that was trying to get Markiplier to play it and it's dissapointing that they've focused on getting a youtuber to play rather than fix their broken game.

Hey everyone and this is my review about the game!

This is a Slow paced underwater game.

Interface/Menu/Settings

• There are alot of different resolution sizes available.
  
• You can toggle between fullscreen or windowed mode.
  
• There is a minimum, Middle and a Max Graphical settings.
  

• There is a combined sound and music volume available. Between 0-3 Volume levels. But when the game starts it will be put on the highest volume level again.
  

• You can use mouse, Keyboard or a controller.
  
• You can toggle Post effects and subtitles.
  
• There are some different languages available.
  

About the game.

• The game is voiced over.
  
• There is a story.
  
• There is no options in game, Pressing ESC will bring you back to the main menu.
  
• Is rather boring and repetitive gameplay.
  
• Soundtrack is repetitive.
  
• Text font is small and you can't increase the size.
  
• Has Secrets.
  
• Gameplay is slow.
  

[*]Has Level selection and delete progress after you have beaten level 1.

Other things.

Doesn't explain how the controls work and what anything does. It's nice that it runs on Linux, but I can't recommend something this simple that makes it this hard to play.

this game is a good example for porting gone wrong:
-terrible movement control
-hook mechanic barely functioning
-the worst thing about this awful game is that it punish the player for actions made earlier in the game - so you have to do past levels again and again.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME !!

Fun little underwater platformer,
complete with acid, mines and oxygen plants.
Question your sanity, under the sea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF79uX_u1Qw

This game was kinda meh to me, but it had some redeeming factors.

Pros :
- The price of admission is cheap
- The game has some pretty unique mechanics
- It has a sombre and eerie atmosphere, if you're into that kind of thing
- A few scary moments
- You play as a little robot helping a diver survive, which is cute
- Lack of weaponery creates a sense of vulnerability when faced with enemies

Cons :
- Takes a while to understand what things are and how things work (no tutorial)
- Confusing, unhelpful U.I (User Interface).
- The game is one big escort mission. Your guy can easily get stuck/killed which is frustrating.
- No checkpoints. Especially frustrating when the level is long and tedious and you die to something stupid.
- Essentially boring. The game has a very slow pace and lacks excitement of any kind.
- Suffers from Missing Key Syndrome (MKS). Progress can be blocked because you couldn't make out a black item next to a black wall and black background...
- Hacking system does not have a mini-game. You simply wait and you have a % success rate. Kinda lame.

So basically, get this game if is on sale for super-cheap for and interesting experience.

I rather liked it.
Simple game to play a few levels per evening, if you have time but not enaugh for something more engaging.

Horrible game on PC. Can't even adjust the font size - almost impossible to read any dialogues on my 22 inch screen.
Very much lack of effort to make the game playable in PC.

If you like deep sea exploration and getting shot by underwater turrets, then this is the game for you!

I like swimming through the deep as a little robot drone, even though my human companion is hindering. He can blow things up with dynamite, so he's useful to have around.

The visuals and music are excellent. The controls and mechanics are solid. The story is unique and interesting.

Please see the one negative review and the response from the developer. Pretty much sums it up.

Well, as for me, I underline next points:

1) excellent graphics - for indie project it 10/10 (for game below 5-7$ - one of the best choices on steam store)
2) deep horror atmosphere 10/10
3) perfect soundtrack 10/10
4) all what I can say about gameplay - it's very addictive (and when I say very I mean VERY!!)/ I forget about time when I was passing through first 15 levels.
5) finally it is an honest old school underwater horror.

Not much indie games since last few years make me so happy and excited.
My recommendation is strictly positive. 10 underwater samples from 10 XD

To start, I'm not done the game yet, I'm about 15 levels in!

Like a lot of puzzle games it may seem unfair and frustrating at first. But once you get past the initial frustration and get into the flow of the game, it gets to be a lot of fun! I'm not that far, but I look forward to trudging on and making it to the end! :D

Anoxemia is a game about a stranded diver and his robot helper. You explore, collect upgrades, try not to run out of oxygen, and pass through puzzles and game stages, and collect plants in order to progress to the next level. Very simple premise.

Good things about this game: It has great art, the backgrounds in particular are nicely done. The art direction (Being a very gray low light environment - in fact I think the game only uses something like 4 or 5 colors outside of grayscale) is well executed. It is also fairly inexpensive - I picked it up on sale at about $7,99 USD.

I am very tempted to ask for my money back. Here's why:

Its not a bad game. Its just not worth even $7,99

For starters, the game is dull. Its simply dull. There is a paper thin plot: Your submarine crashed and you're on the bottom of the ocean and you think you're going nuts and that your robot is trying to kill you. No big deal, I've enjoyed paper thin plots before. However, you generally have to fill that gap with something. Anything that engages the player and says "Stick with it! You're having fun blowing stuff up!!" Or "OOOOO MONOTONOUS YET ARTISTICALLY RENDERED MYSTERY!" Or "Compelling yet one dimensional characters dieing in macabrely humorous ways!"

Anoxemia has none of these things. It fails to engage you to continue playing other than the self-flagellating realization that you paid $7.99 for this, and therefore must crack on to try and pass the movie-ticket test (In that you feel compelled by your own fleeting sense of frugality to extract entertainment value from this expenditure). That is literally why I played at it. My play time owes to the lack of a "Request Refund" convenience button for Steam. Should've played the demo. But I digress.

That said, I've encountered this before and played, and even completed, other games for longer periods. However, Anoxemia has other problems.

The controls are clunky. Most of the movement is modeled on a tethered partner system. You move the robot, the human (Which the game implies is you) laggardly follows along. Clumsily. Poorly. Stopping to pick up that oxygen container despite the fact that the DRONE OF BEE LINING DOOM is about to magically get you and kill you in one hit. Poor nameless human. Granted, you are on the bottom of the ocean (This is discussed later), so movement should be clumsy, but not unpredictably, stupidly clumsy, to the point of annoyance.

The human, by the way, seems to be functionally pointless in this game. Aside from carrying dynamite, his purpose is four fold:

1) He is the anchor for the "Robot is secretly trying to kill you" plot tension
2) He is how the player would theoretically relate to the game as a protagonist (This may have been a miscalculation)
3) He is an excuse to introduce use the color pink in the game's intro cutscene.
4) He is the generator of one half of the completely uninformative dialogue in the game.

Which bring us to back to the dullness. The dialogue in the game is almost never related to what you're doing. It explains things unreliably at best. The most useful dialogue line from the ATMA robot was along the lines of "THIS IS A MINE TURRET, IT TRACKS HEAT AND MOVEMENT. IF YOU'RE HOT ENOUGH!"

This very one-dimensional dialogue provides no real explication of why we are doing anything. It tells me I'm gathering plants. I do not know why. Perhaps it is revealed later. Perhaps they are magical plants that are the causation of this war that spread oxygen canisters and comical WWII Mines across the sea scape. Maybe they eat radiation or the magical acid that serves as the INFINITEFOREST of this game. Maybe my character is helping to secretly develop some kind of special wax for his mustache. Don't know, don't care.

And that is the failing of this game. At no point was an observable attempt made to engage the player.

But the game makes a more critical mistake.

Its not challenging. The game is as advertised in one sense: It is hard. However, the developers appear to unfortunately fall into the trap of conflating difficulty with challenge. Dieing profusely is not an indicator of challenging gameplay.

And you will die alot, but not because the game is challenging, but because your controls are poorly designed, and the enemies seems mismatched to the puzzles they are placed in. Some of the BEELINEY drones don't even patrol. They just randomly zip around until you go for the plant, at which point they tag you as the level fades out and thus reset your progress. Meaning you have to restart. Sometimes dark enough that you'll think you've won, except SURPRISE! YOU GET TO REPLAY THE LEVEL YOU JUST COMPLETED!

Which is the other failure of the game. Level start checkpoints only. Granted, the levels are generally short. But it is annoying to have to rinse repeat myself three times in a row for a simple puzzle that failed because my diver dude decided to hang on a corner or randomly pickup a canister. In and of itself, this is not a game killing problem. Checkpoint deserts happen.

It becomes a bigger problem when you consider that hitting the escape key causes the level to reset when you go to the ingame menu. There is a pause/play option, however. It is the enter key. It does not appear to have entered into the development design process to integrate those two functions (i.e. a pause menu)

Taking final stock, Anoxemia has an interesting premise that is undercut by its execution, despite its artistic merits. Its control scheme, however, does accurately render the experience of trying to solve a rubix cube in quicksand. These may seem like a harsh thing to say, but it is my honest rendering of my albeit limited experience with this game.

Based upon these an other factors, I can't recommend Anoxemia as a solid investment of your gaming dollars at this time.

NEW REVIEW -
It's OK and worth a try considering how much it costs. Since updating several times since launch, bugs amd issues that are mentioned below and in other reviews have been fixed and some gameplay mechanics have been slightly tweaked to make this a more fun experience.
__

OLDER REVIEW

Getting a bit of heat for this one, but please give my thoughts a chance.

**Please read the comments below from the developer regarding my issues below**

The ambient music, look and simplistic gameplay are nice and there is quite a bit of stage variety when you get later into the game.

The controls (using mouse at least) aren't always ideal. I found myself accidentally using the harpoon quite a lot after first finding it because it's set to the same button I used to move. I think it would be nice if mouse 1 was harpoon controls and mouse 2 was move (or something like that).

The human following you, who ATMA refers to as 'it' (Markiplier, right?), can sometimes be a bit foolish. He seems to love stopping to collect things when there is imminent danger present, so you need to make sure you lead him away from items if you're trying to get away from something. I actually don't mind this mechanic all that much, because it means he really is relying on you to get him out of harms way, so you're own movements mean a lot more.

I found that I wasn't absolutely correct in my video, as you CAN avoid all the extra boxes and still get through the game, providing you know where to go,how to get there and have a sufficient amount of o2 and power. So ideally, to give yourself a good chance on the next level, you should scout out the level, die, then give the level a quick run through getting everything you need.

Exploring the levels can be quite fun and rather rewarding. However, sometimes you can't really afford to if you want a good chance on the next levels, so unless you want to play levels you've already completed over and over, you just want to get all the plants/documents/items as fast as possible to avoid starting the new level with 1 minute of life.

I still maintain it's a bit annoying to collect something, accidentally die (which is quite easy on some later levels) and never get the opportunity to get it again, unless you completely reset your progress and start from the beginning. That seems unnecessarily punishing, especially if you start off with around a minute of power or o2 and don't really want to replay older levels.

Personally, the reason I wouldn't recommend this game is because I begin to get bored repeating older levels to prepare for newer ones, but if you don't mind that, give it a try.
____

Original review 3 hours after release -

Currently, there are bugs which cause some boxes and some drone power refills to only spawn once per play, meaning you have to speedrun this game and get everything right the first time, or run out of power and die.
The game seems interesting and has a lot of potential, but I warn you to stay away until this vital part of the game is fixed.

____
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAQJw7xfl74 - The first few levels and my experience with them.