Solstice

Solstice is an "experimental" exploration game.  Now, I'm fine with experiments, but I have to ask what hypothesis this particular experiment was testing.  It seems to be "players will want to keep playing a game even if they're given no motivation whatsoever to continue playing it," which is a hypothesis long since proven false and the negative of which has been held as a basic tenant of game design long before games even stepped into the video world.

In Solstice, you play as a little fairy thing who flies around the world looking for sun fragments.  The sun, you see, exploded one day for no particular reason, leaving the world to fester in darkness.  Now it's up to you to fly around activating these sun fragments and filling the world's dark soul with LIIIIGHHTTTT....LIGGHTT..LIGHT...light....light....

Sorry.

In the beginning of Solstice, the game tells you that the game is not about winning or losing, but about immersing yourself in a world of music, flight and freedom.  At first, I thought that was just a little hint at how to best play the game, like in the beginning of Amnesia, the Dark Descent, but only after I activated enough sun fragments to make the plants come back and found myself flying utterly aimlessly throughout the world I'd just unmasked did I realize that they were actually foreshadowing the "ending" if you can call it that.  After a while, you're just left to fly around with no goals, no motivation whatsoever...at least I think so.  The game gives you no indication as to whether or not you've accomplished all there is to accomplish.  I would've at least started scrolling the credits over the screen or something.

Before the endgame phase, though, you're lead around the dark world from waypoint to waypoint...wait a second, waypoints?!  I thought this was an exploration game, why am I still being lead on a linear path?   Eh, whatever.  At each waypoint, a man trying to do a dark, ominous voice will explain a little bit about what's happening.  I have to say, the tone of the voice really clashes with the tone of the game.  It's like if the voice overs from Kirby's Epic Yarn featured a Norwegian folk metal vocalist to shout the dialogue to chugging guitars and bagpipes.

And that's Solstice in a nutshell.  It's insubstantial and goes from giving the player no freedom to do anything but go from point a to point b to giving the player the freedom to do anything he or she wants in a world in which there is absolutely nothing to do.  If I wanted to immerse myself in music, I'd zone out to my Spa station on Pandora.

That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay experimental.

Links
Sun go Boom: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25267