UAYEB: The Dry Land - Episode 1

I haven't wrote a review for a long time son, but this game deserves all the credits, 1 man made this for YEARS, and look at that. One of the most complex games that i played.

Thank you to the one man jack of all trades at ICA games, Francis Courchinoux for creating a fun adventure game for me to escape and enjoy.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2832938979

UAYEB meaning: a period consisting of five nameless days added to a tun to make the 365-day year of the Maya calendar

*crafting bandage*

Let's be clear before getting started, UAYEB is a single developer indie project. This usually for myself will mean poor optimization(check), limited graphic options(check), repetitive game loop(check), lack of attention to QoL(check), and usually longer than needed(check). However, despite these issues, the adventure outweighs those negatives.

*crafting bandage*

The game begins with you Uayeb being awakened from cry sleep with no memory in the basement of your friends house. You will go through a tutorial at this point where you will learn everything you will need to know to play the game. This includes survival(food and water), avoiding dangers, keeping your PC charged, gathering resources, crafting, deciphering clues and combat.

*A quick positive, the main resources for crafting in the game are pretty abundant and respawn very quickly.

Once you retrieve the computer your friend Joanna sends a message explaining you have been frozen for 100 yrs. She also explains humanity has fallen, as predicted by the Mayans, and you being frozen was a decision made to preserve life. The remaining interactions you have with Joanna for the most part until the last mission will simply be getting clues for blueprints and artifact locations as she searches herself for what happened(she awakened a week prior). There are a few story beats here and there within some messages, a small twist and it’s just enough to keep you interested. The ending was well done setting up the next adventure leaving some ? and I was surprised it was fully voiced and not too bad.

*crafting bandage*

The game play loop for UAYEB is pretty simple and will make or break your interest. The first real missions Joanna sends you on will again be very tutorial and are all located at the house. The messages are simply telling you of a blueprint (12 total) and a clue for an artifact(20 total) she has located. After completing these first missions at the house you will then be directed to a nearby city which contains the remainder of clues and blueprints. The locations of each of these are located on the map so you just have to enter the building and look for the items. While to constantly return to the city, rinse and repeat it makes sense to make sure you are resupplying yourself with the three most needed items of the game: water, bandages(cotton/cloth) and recharge the PC. Once you retrieve these items again, it's off to the best part of the game, the dungeons..

*My 2 cents: In a shorter game this cycle is not a problem but I think a solution to save hours would have been Joanna sending you the blueprint and clues via the PC. Also an increase of carrying more crafting materials and as the car is powered by solar it could be used to charge the PC.

*crafting bandage*

There are a total of 20 dungeons(you also have to exit the same way you came in with sometimes additional challenges) to complete and all continue to build upon the previous into a collection that would make Lara Croft sweat. The clues you collect will be your only guide directing you on where to go, what route to follow, traps to avoid and correct sequences to input if needed. These clues are not overly difficult to decipher but a few can trip you up especially the late game. The variety of the dungeons are really impressive and what makes it work is the perfectly executed driving, jumping and platforming mechanics and physics. You can also save the game at any time and there is a very frequent auto save in place. This weakens any sort of anxiety/ tension of failure but still completing each dungeon there was a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

*There is one part of a late dungeon where you have to perfectly execute a swim through a cavern. It's pretty frustrating as I died over and over in view of the exit, only to run out of air.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2835337397

Performance and graphically UAYEB is not a bad looking game as it reminded me of Far Cry 2 with its desert setting but it suffers tremendously starting at the main menu. There you are limited to choices of resolution, quality and fullscreen. I have played other indie CE titles and they are really beautiful and while the menu and .cfg file says it is native at 3440x1440 it looks like it is rendering the game much lower like 1080P. The only other issue I had with performance is the city. My frame rate would tank to single digits every time but luckily it would stabilize a little once inside the town.

*crafting bandage*

These are some more QoL issues that could have been done better and hopefully will be addressed in the sequel:

-While I approve of no hud, a stamina bar has to be visible during swimming sections
-I was driving in the wrong direction so many times, a compass on the dash would be great
-I crafted maybe 300 bandages…one….. at…. a… time. If you could make it so you could craft multiples and then just see the animation once, that would be great.
-Outside the plot at the very end, combat was never needed in this game. It works, but totally could be absent
-There are a few dungeons requiring specific time of day in order to enter, make sure to include the ability to wait so time passes at the location instead of only a bed.
-Swimming was a challenge in itself in most parts and adding spikes didn't help
-Thank God for fast travel to the house, but would have loved for fast travel to the city. Maybe an option where a bed is located?
- A little bit of a highlight to the areas where spikes will rise out of the ground. This was very noticeable when picking up idols
-As jumping/ platforming is very important in the game, lighten up on the damage.

*crafting bandage*

I know a majority of this review has been somewhat negative, but as I said at the start I am prepared for these issues. The main thing for myself is the cost of admission, gameplay and does it work. While those annoying QoL issues exist and make no mistake they are annoying, the dungeons were excellent to explore and the story and setting are just fun. The game is longer than needed because of those absent QoL issues but knowing if there were more dungeons in the game, I would still be exploring.

*crafting bandage*

That is the best recommendation I can provide.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2831939791

UAYEB is not a perfect game, it's got a lot of bugs, glitches, technical and design flaws, crashes and so on. But all these problems and criticism go down the drain once you understand that this whole open-world / FPS / adventure / puzzle game with RPG and survival elements, every bit in it (except for voiceovers) was created by a single person, Francis Courchinoux, without any real financial backing. And it's fully playable, as well as interesting and fun. If I understood correctly even the soundtrack was composed and recorded by Francis and his band (he's a very skilled player!). And all of this was all done in just 3 to 4 years! Mind-blowing...

The game itself revolves around the protagonist (Uayeb) and his adventures collecting Mayan artifacts. You wake up in a post-apocalyptic cryogenic chamber with no memory, but with the help of voice messages left by a friend you slowly begin to make sense of the situation and plan your escape away from the desolate place. The story makes very little sense, to be honest, and the totally cringeworthy voice act doesn't help it either, but if you try to disregard those flaws it becomes somewhat passable. Instead, UAYEB concentrates on raiding tombs left untouched for hundreds of years. They are difficult, full of traps, require decent navigation skills, but they're also a lot of fun to figure out! Just remember to quick-save often. The only thing I never understood was how it was possible for bandits to be already inside when you set foot in a time-forgotten tomb. They must've worked out the same deadly puzzles then? As I said, don't try to make sense of this game too much and simply enjoy the adventure. The whole gameplay may become repetitive around halfway through, so UAYEB is best consumed in smaller bits so as to keep the interest in the game. Or you can just drive around collecting achievements and gazing upon the desert and the city, since the CryEngine-powered visuals are stunning as always.

At the end of the day I still can't wrap my head around how a single person could manage to deliver a great open-world game. It makes me wonder what a masterpiece it could have been had there been a bigger team helping Francis. But even as is, it's incredible and I recommend UAYEB for everyone to try out, especially aspiring game creators. I've heard Francis is working on episode 2, again in his free time and on his own. It must be difficult but I wish him the best of luck! I'll be sure to buy it once it hits the shelves.

Recommended, but only for patient Indiana Jones'es! ;)

Haven't come close to finishing the game yet, but so far it has been a good adventure with lots of exploration. Nicely done, especially for a one person studio.

The game, while not polished like AAA titles, has a lot of interesting puzzles. It's about 65% Platforming, 25% thought, 10% shooting zombies in black suits armed with the same weapons your are.

It has it's little odd quirks but it's well worth the $20 I paid for it.

My one rant - Electric cars have 100% torque at 0 RPM. WTF is this, a used iCar that has it's performance throttled to extend battery life?

UAYEB

[i]It sure ain't a game for everybody - it has some bugs / lack of polishing / poor optimisation / AI not on the bright side , but if you can get past all of this / have the patience to learn all the mechanics and love open world / exploration-adventure / solving puzzles ( that scale in difficulty ) its an engrossing experience and i sure recommend this title ( especially at the low price that i paid - 6.79 € ) - warning ( you will probably have to check a guide from time to time ) ![i]

As a novice game player, it took me a while to catch on to the mechanics and to get into the flow. Out of many of the role playing games I have played this is one of my favorites.

Game looked promising but I died 10 time in the first 2 minutes of the game trying to jump over some sparking wires. Requested a refund. Tip to developer, let people get used to the game before you start killing them.

one guy made this. too expensive but worth a try

TLDR; fun game that is just difficult enough to keep you interested yet remains accessible to all levels of gamers. PLUS you are directly supporting the ACTUAL creator - yes ONE guy did this all on his own. Fully recommend this game.

I'm careful when deciding to spend money on a game. Having been able to play this on a friends account, I realized that I was having a lot of fun and decided to purchase this game not only because of the amount of time I was spending in it but also because the game developer DESERVES and EARNED it considering the amount of time and hard work he has put in. The community for this game is very friendly and helpful and even the creator himself has reached out to players.

This is primarily an adventure game. The puzzles make you think without driving you insane or want to stop playing. The crafting and survival aspect add to the fun WITHOUT turning into a hardcore grind like some other games do (just to force in-game time.) The majority of time you will spend in game will be because you are genuinelyhaving fun and want to explore. The graphics look good and there is some beautiful scenery, especially the sunsets. There are some cool details like stealth kill animations, rickety planks that will knock you off balance, and inclement weather.

Certain aspects of this game are a little redundant (constantly having to back to the city, having to re-open the crafting tab to craft every single bandage etc...) The AI isn't the smartest but it serves its purpose - to keep things interesting. However, none of these aspects of the game detract from the gameplay experience.

I do recommend purchasing this game knowing that you will not only have fun but that you are actually supporting a genuine person who truly cares about the enjoyment of his gamers.