SOLITUNE

There were a few people here who said the puzzles were kinda nonsense, the game is more about the content and the theme it deals with. And it also says so in the description: "is a very short adventure game about escaping reality"
Well, there wasn't that much adventure in it, but it's a nice little game that makes you think about some stuff.
The soundtrack is good and fitting, the general sound design was okay, a bit too generic for my taste.

ㅤ

SOLITUNE is a minimalist "art not game" experience where you're in a minimalist/low poly room and you click on some stuff in sequence, then walk into the next room. Do that 7 times and it's over... almost no game here at all, but they want your money for it.

The game is very very short and can be finished in 15 minutes. Developers have at least some responsibility to provide enough content to make a game last more than 2 hours if they're serious about providing something of value to gamers. There's less content here than some free game demos.

From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.

There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision.

The game features lazy minimalist/untextured low-polygon "retro" assets and visuals, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the early 1990s. The lack of textures is a method that lazy devs often use to disguise their lack of talent/interest in doing the graphics properly and trying to disguise it under the name of "art", or "We made it look bad on purpose", which really isn't something gamers should have to put up with. It's unclear why the developers weren't willing to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets and high resolution textures for the game. It looks bad as a result of their decisions, and that's just another reason to avoid it.

The controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just iPhone screen tapping stuff. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here.

This looks and feels like a mobile app, but it doesn't seem to have made it to the app stores. It's unclear why this was put on Steam instead of the app stores it seems to have been designed for. Maybe it was removed, maybe it was rejected by Apple and Google (they do have more rigorous quality standards than Valve does for Steam, after all).

Regardless, for all intents and purposes SOLITUNE might as well be a mobile app, it has the same limitations and dumbed down qualities. It's impossible to recommend such a game to PC gamers. We don't spend all this money building gaming rigs so we can pretend they're iPhones and play games that might as well be mobile apps.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

You don't have to take my word about how bad the game is, we can measure the interest in a game by how much people bothered to play it. SOLITUNE has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game absolutely failed to capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for finishing the 15 minute "experience", trivial to achieve, but less than 8 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. That's a tiny, tiny proportion of gamers who even bothered with this. Ouch.

Reviewing SteamDB to check how popular this game was with players reveals a surprise... there's a very healthy spike in player counts for the game. But this only happened once, and isn't consistent with the achievement stats, that show less than 8 percent of players bothered playing the game for any reasonable amount of time. How is it possible for this game to have so many concurrent players who didn't bother engaging with this game? Trading cards. People will use card idling software to collect the cards and sell them, but this won't trigger any achievements in-game.

That tells us people only really bought this game for trading cards, and that's a damning indictment of the woeful quality. A closer look at the numbers shows the game just has a couple of players every week running up the game and idling it for cards, then deleting it. We must ask how it benefits gamers for there to be so many games like this, with little merit as a serious game, that only generate sales from people idling and selling the trading cards.

So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?

SOLITUNE is relatively cheap at $2 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

Simply story about how to be good shepard, but it's short and bad graphics and not entertain me.

SOLITUNE is a truly unique game that combines the beauty of nature and the power of music. As a player, you take on the role of a shepherd, tasked with caring for sheep and helping out others in the community. The game provides an incredibly immersive experience as you move from space to space and explore the stunning visuals. What really makes this game stand out is the stunning soundtrack composed by Ludwig Hanisch. His music helps to create a sense of peaceful escapism and allows you to really immerse yourself in the game. I highly recommend SOLITUNE to anyone looking for a truly unique gaming experience.

A "Philosophical" Short Game

What this game is:

How does it work?

How does it perform?

The good points:

The bad points:

My take on this:

Solitune is okay. The graphics are quite nice. The gameplay is functional. The music is decent. The sound effects can get a bit annoying after a while. The game is roughly 15 minutes long.

The story is surrealistic, but not particularly complicated. The intended message seems to be something along the lines of letting go of negative complications in life, and enjoy the simpler things life has to offer, taking in the here and now. And by doing so, you will feel better. Lighter.

Yet it can also easily be (mis)construed as saying that you should just quit any and all responsibilities to pursue your own happiness, and that everyone else should do the same. I don't think this is the intended message, but I also think this is how a relatively high percentage of players will understand it. And I think that's on the developers.

I also think what I believe to be the actual message, as mentioned two paragraphs up, to be based on a bit of a naïve view of the world. Not that there's no truth to it, but rather how simply it's portrayed, with a very black and white perspective.

I'm not an expert on symbolism, surrealism, philosophy, or any other relevant topic. And there are probably some stuff I didn't pick up on in this game. But the overall message seems pretty clear, yet easily misinterpreted. It's not a bad game, worth playing through once. But definitely get it on a sale. I don't think it's worth the full asking price.

100% in 15 minutes. (A single achievement for completing the game.)

A very nice, VERY short, visually interesting game about becoming a "Shepard". I would say it's about becoming a cult leader in order to escape the drag of day to day life. Either way, it was very pretty. I would describe this game more as a point and click visual story than a puzzle game.

Solitune by Rat King Entertainment is a short game about following your dreams and evolving. You control your character in 3rd person on her journey through a number of isometric offices. Each room offers another piece of the story told by the people you meet. I found it hard to dislike this game, but even if you do, it’s over before your coffee break is.

*rants about dot matrix printers and the sound they made* Whatever that sound was, the sound design in this game gets the job done throughout — as well as the music.

The game is short (took me around 25 minutes, while taking it slow). There are some light clicking puzzles and they are mostly there to add to the storytelling—just like the visuals, which are well made and set the tone adequately like the rest of the game.

Solitune tells its story more like how a popularly minded professor might explain a complex theory to a layman. The finer details might get lost in the process, but at least the layman leaves the discussion feeling somewhat wiser. The writing style is informal, mimicking how people actually talk when running into each other doing the groceries or over a quick coffee at the office—sometimes to a fault, though, as it could have done with some proofreading.

If you want to escape the harsh reality of this world we live in for a short while, this game is there to let you have some low key fun. It’s a game for when you want to get a bit of story and think about life a little, but not too hard or for too long.

Full review/rant:
https://maskinkultur.com/2018/04/26/review-solitune/

Very short game, but it was exactly what I needed today. Some simple relaxing puzzles dressed up beautifully in interesting and unique designs.

Solitune goes under the Art game umbrella and does it well; This is kind of an interactive art piece with calming aesthetic... It's more like a relaxation ambient album with visuals. Good idea for "electric" postcard to cheer up a friend or something like that

It's only about 20 minutes long, but it's a neat little Adventure where you move from room to room after solving puzzles. The game has a great aesthetic, and a neat abstract sense of style, as does its fabulous protagonist. It has a nice message, I guess, but it's a bit idealistic; its philosophy comes with problems that aren't given any real solutions within the game. Still, I really enjoyed what I had; definitely worth checking out, if you're into this sort of thing.

This is barely a game; it's mildly interactive art. I do not mind art and games intersecting but this is too short and the "gameplay" too shallow to be worth money.

Took 20 minutes to finish and after that I left it going for the trading cards.

3/10

as far as shovelware goes, it's pretty decent

the thing that boggles me is all the lost potential, like hire a good writer + OST maker and with visuals like these it could be really something

also, puzzles are for kids <12 yo
then again, didn't mean to hate, and not a fan of complex puzzles - i'd be playing Myst then or something (hate that)
just was thinking that it'd really go well with kids

overall good title for waking up at 7 am on a saturday, finishing it and going to sleep aftwerwards again (least that's what i did)

A very surreal and short little indie game. Solitune will offer users with an interesting experience with beautiful colors, pleasant music, and a unique social commentary on escapism and breaking social normalities. Plus the sheep are cute. Worth it if you want a quick and pleasant experience or have a little bit of money extra.

SOLITUNE is a very passive, very brief experience with some colorful, well-done visuals with very little player interaction that ends up being mostly nonsense.

SOLITUNE is a very short (15 minutes total, you see almost every single envrionment you will experience in the game in the 1:00 minute trailer) surreal, relaxing experience with very minimalistic gameplay. You play as a "shepherd" entering a series of small rooms which have an NPC in them you're unable to talk to until you click on the right sequence of things throughout the environment, which then unlock a door for you that leads to the next room to do the same process. You do this about 7 times and then the game ends.

You walk around and click on things and random surreal moments happen, such as trees sprouting from behind you or binders stuck in trees that then shake loose and you click on them when they're on the ground to stack them next to a character, or clicking on some lights until they match the color displayed on a computer monitor in the same room. Aside from the color-matching sequence mentioned (or another where you match 3 icons to be the same on another set of computer monitors) the "puzzles" / sequences never have much logic to them beyond just happening to click on objects randomly until you've exhausted all options and the NPC then unlocks and says a few cryptic, wannabe profound lines to you and then you go to the next room to do the same thing. You do this about 7 times then after a brief scene the game just sits there forever (did my game freeze??) with a bunch of sheep lined up below you, crouched down, until you choose to exit the game.

The incessant bleating from the sheep as you progress from room to room after helping the NPCs (get it??? The sheep are the people you're helping!! *MINDBLOWN*) becomes very loud and grating as you explore the mostly calm environments. This game's art style and colorful visuals are its most appealing aspects. I did enjoy seeing what random, surreal moments would occur in the environments and I didn't expect this game to have complex gameplay, but even when taking those into consideration I feel like SOLITUNE was pretty to look at with not much else going for it.

Well, time to flip my life upside down

This goes through a really simple story of someone sick of their life going in circles and want to become a shepherd. As you go through more doors, this dream comes closer to reality. Each room you go into holds a person wanting to change their own life. Not being able to do it, this is where you come in to help guide them. Turning into sheep following you as you go into the next room. Bringing you closer to your own goal, as your clothing, actions, and being followed by sheep is fulfilled.

This is not exactly a puzzle game, even though it may seem like it. The rooms are easy to figure out and only a few really gets you to scratch your head. I really love how each room had different designs and ways to make the resident talkative. Each being unique from each other as they represent the person and what has made that room hectic to them.

This is a really short game, coming out as a 15 minute experience for me, so be sure to know that before going in. I know that a lot of people base their choices on game time, so if you are kinda reluctant on spending $2 for a short experience I would wait for a discount.

A very short game, but at the same time a very beautiful and cute game with a philosophical story.


For those that like small and quirky games, I recommend this.

The vignette art-style is pleasing to look at, and listening to the characters talk is nice to spend 10 minutes and a cup of coffee with.

Not much more to say about this short game.

Play it if you like small, shot and cute experiences in the form of games.

Curator page

Nah.
This is probably one of those games in which one has to know something about philosophy.. or it's just plain stupid. And badly designed. And there is no story.
And it lasts like five minutes.
The only achievement anyways means "freethinker" in German (Frei = free, Geist = spirit, mind).
No, it's not "deep". It's empty.

SOLITUNE is a small daydream about escaping from the toils of everyday life, and leading others away as you do. It's not a revelation, nor does it have a particularly deep message, but sometimes it's fun to dream. And I'd welcome many more dreams if they were all as beautiful and chill as this one.

That was... odd. Very Japanese, except... it's from Germany?!? Well, weltschmerz is def. a theme in this experience. It's not quite a game (no fail state) and takes about 20 minutes. No saving! If you exit, you'll start over. You click on stuff and after enough environment interaction (it's not random though) people spill the beans about their emotional whereabouts. Then you move to the next room. You should play it with a mouse, much better control than with a controller.

Is it really deep? ... I don't know, can't say it really touched me emotionally. But it doesn't take to much investment, so give it a go?!?

One interesting point for criticism: When you click on stuff, your character moves around, which changes the perspective of the room minimally - that is a beautiful effect, but it also leads to a lot of misclicking, because the stuff changes its position on the screen. Was that intended? Is that maybe the game part of the experience, i.e. the challange? Or is it a fundamental flaw in the overall design? Again, I don't know but I found it interesting to consider.

If you're looking for something action packed or with difficult puzzles then Solitune is not for you. It's a relatively short game with a beautiful art style, fantastic music, and a story that I feel a lot of people can relate to.

The description of the game is pretty much spot on. You want a new life and take on the role of a shepherd as part of getting to that new life. You gather your flock and that's it. The puzzles are pretty basic and won't leave you banging your head on your desk. The game is also pretty short, but I feel it accomplishes everything it needs/wants to in that time. Despite the short length, the cheap price tag makes it feel as if you got your money's worth.

A quick playthrough: https://youtu.be/QcIJuW7S0b8