From what I read, the reviewers praise it for bravely tackling underused issues like psychosis and brush over the the fact, that the "gaming parts" are few and in-between (and not very good). Either it's really good at covering the first or most reviewers are afraid of appearing stupid by giving a 2deep4u game bad ratings.
There are developers nowadays that apparently are confused if they want to create a movie or a proper game. Sure, this thing can even have a fantastical story, but isn't this supposed to be a game? If you're really want to tell a story above ALL else, why don't you do a movie or write a book?
Aren't reviewers supposed to review a game for it actually being, you know, a game? Shouldn't reviewers take into consideration the elements that actually make a game unique in comparison to other mediums such as movies or books? If this fail as a good game, then why give good praise to this at all?
This thing apparently praises itself for having a story, but it's as if it shames itself for being a game.
It's as if games are too "immature" as a medium, or haven't catched up with the "artistic" level of of the movies industry -- that games should try to be movies and pretend that they are not a different medium, as if it would be too shameful to admit that.
I don't have a problem with games that want to focus on a story. Hell, most RPG's do.
As long as it prides itself on being a game, and actually allows the player interaction and provides challenges for most of the playtime, I'm OK with it.
My issue is that this thing is a very bad game, but it is being praised as a good
game for its story. WHY?
If you take a look at games from the 80's that were focused on story, most of them were actually good games as well. One of the reasons I really enjoyed (early) Sierra's games, is that they focused on story but they didn't sacrificed the quality of the game portion. In other words, they acknowledged what they were doing was a game, and respected it for what it was.
Unfortunately, the more you approach the 2000s, the more "cinematic" games seem to have become. And now that we are approaching the end of the 2010s, we can see that this trend has come a long way, and it will not die anytime soon, unfortunately.
