#Review of Eternal Suburbia Demo

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waxen pollen
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Do not read if you are avoiding spoilers

The Good:

  1. Visuals- Very nice looking map and the design/ variation inside the houses are good.
  2. Sounds/ Music- Good music, nice walking sound and door noises.
  3. Lighting- Mostly good, I will cover problems in the bad section, but overall i like the lighting. Especially how you can see at night and it is not pitch black darkness. A lot of backroosm games get darkness wrong in my opinion. Darkness doesn't have to be pitch black to be darkness and Valen did that perfectly here. Especially with no flashlight (more on that in a moment).
  4. Design- In general the design of the houses and level is good. I liked the big reveal about the true nature of the map, and how it is a dome.

The Bad:

  1. Visuals- The only problem I have with this is that the fisheye is super strong, especially when zooming with the camera (another cool addition i forgot to put above- camera zoom is nice touch).
  2. Sounds/ Music. I would prefer to hear mroe upbeat music in the level and more variation of music. Possibly even something creepy at night could be good but I think no music or sounds at night are fine, and should probably remain the same.
  3. Lighting- PLEASE DONT HAVE DARK CORNERS IN HOUSES IF THERES NO FLASHLIGHT. You literally have darkness you can see in outside, but the arkness inside is the annoying kind because sometimes i cannot see the door i know is right in front of my face. Biggest visual complaint!
  4. Design. I love the map. The way it looks, the grass the houses, the water tower, the sun, the clouds. But getting from point A to point B is not so simple. The Dreampools map was big. But it had one thing this map has- and I don't mean this in a rude or mean way. Im trying to add constructive criticism. Getting from one point to another is not so simple. Now sometimes thats fine. But when you have 500 houses and tons of paths via fences, youd think the world would be a tad bit more open world. Dreampools map felt like getting places was annoying , but only slightly. Gotta get to the next rom upstairs. But need to go through 20 rooms to do it. I can handle that. But then in this level you have to go forwards through 7 houses, backwards through 10, and to another direction through 3 or 4 more to get to that far point straight ahead. Why are the paths not more connected? Why must there be an open world that creates a linear exploration (that doesnt actually promote exploration)? Exploring was the big thing in Dreampools. Why is it being discouraged (via design) here? Why cant there be more open fields and less fences, or openings in fences to allow you to go into different paths? Why do houses have to be checkpoints more than locations of interest? Why are the houses , that could be furnished or more interesting with more rooms or furniture, serve only as a path through a ton of annoying fences?

This is the big reason I said 3/5 in my rating. The map is not good for exploring. The inner explorer in me gets frustrated when i try to explore the map. The houses could be very interesting, but why are they just a way to get through the map? Why not add some rooms or make it easier to navigate paths? Why must this level force the player not to explore in the name of beating the level. In Dreampools I could beat the level but it felt like the main goal was exploring. Here I can explore but things are made in a way that I don't feel like I am supposed to. Is Dreamcore still open world? Then why is this map penalizing me for exploring? Why am I prohibited from going where I want to, by a bunch of fences?

In summary, the map is well made and the level is fun. I like things like the painting by the key and visuals to explain the objective. My only big gripe is with the design of the map hindering exploration. I am sure this is easy to fix. Adding gates to fences or simple openings could help make this map more explorer friendly. I really do like the map, but until release, I prefer the other demo.

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I also didnt mention a glitch where you can literally be walking straight and face another way then turn and your still going in that direction you were facing. The glitch may be due to lag. It can make me walk into doors I do not intend or in directions I am not trying to.

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One final thought and I think this will be all I have to say about this level in review: Being able to climb the water tower could be a fantastic way to give the player a better understanding of the map, and maybe spot the door in the wall. Perhaps it could also hold a clue or reward (flashlight or some other useful tool ) . I also think that I have missed the water tower drawing several times in some of the first houses you can enter, so if possible, put it more frequent throughout the level in case someone misses it the first time.

ember elk
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i fully agree actually

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i do think that suburbia is good, but there is a ton of ways the design doesnt really work

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i also do think that well

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80% of the time is spent just walking in nothing

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while its well

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not rare to walk 20 seconds to get to a house, explore it for 5 and run away right after

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especially because this map is significantly simpler than dreampools to solve

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it took me around 7 hours to finish dreampools and i never got bored but well

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it took me 28 minutes for this one and i think it was very repetitive

waxen pollen
# ember elk i do think that suburbia is good, but there is a ton of ways the design doesnt r...

I think the world is good and the level is fine but there needs to be more freedom to just explore without being confined to paths with fencing on both sides. It just makes exploring feel forbidden and less open world, more linear. This is why i say making the houses some of or most of the access points to other paths is my solution, and making it so fences are broken or missing in some areas to allow the player to change paths if they want. I mean let's be real, you can do the objective still. Why would Valen not want the player to explore when that was the foundation of the dreampools? Why have one level where you can explore at will and another where doing so feels... like a bad thing?

deft geode
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I believe the fisheye perspective can be adjusted in settings, but I might be wrong

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Also, are you reviewing the first Eternal Suburbia level or the entire game?

quaint locust
waxen pollen
errant zodiac
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There's sirens at night, maybe just once per playrhrough but they're there