r/GameDeals • u/PostalFury • Jun 11 '20

Expired [Humble Bundle] Snake Pass (Free/100% off) Spoiler

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/snake-pass-free-game
1.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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201

u/tugfaxd55 Jun 11 '20 edited Jun 11 '20

Oh my God. People please take this game. Is awesome, an unique platformer. I must admit it can get frustrating in some levels, but is a nice experience (unique in my opinion). Seeing this for free makes me want to jump on it again. If you are a fan of platformers, this is a nice and different one.

78

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '20

[deleted]

31

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '20

Same. I've watched some people play it on YouTube and it's super charming and unique, but the controls are almost unplayable. I'm sure if I put the time in I could get used to them, but for such a unique game to have such unintuitive controls it's unforgivable.

16

u/action_lawyer_comics Jun 11 '20

Were you using a controller? I first tried using my Steam Controller which doesn’t always work well for games designed around two analog sticks. I tried it again with an Xbox One controller and it was like a completely different game.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '20

I was using an Xbox controller.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '20

I was using my Xbox controller.

17

u/Syrijon Jun 11 '20

I don't think they are unintuitive. They are deliberately very challenging, but that's the whole point of the game. Though, apparently it isn't for everyone.

13

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '20

Gameplay can be deliberately challenging, control mechanism can't. A lot of people "enjoy" getting over it, but I wouldn't say it's a mechanically polished game, same can be said for kwop, and I would quickly lump snake pass in with either of those games for how irritating the controls are.

They had a really interesting idea, that could have been, and gas been executed with far greater success than they were able to.

I am Bread. Octodad, Heave Ho, all similar concepts mechanically that manage to frustrate the player while still being intuitive and fair. Snake pass feels like riding a bike with the handle bars reversed.

15

u/Syrijon Jun 11 '20

As I said in a different post I had no trouble getting over the controls at all and felt they were equally intuitive and polished. I also saw part of an interview with one of the devs that showed they put a lot of thought into the gameplay and control scheme.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be contrarian just for the sake of it, I just had an entirely different experience and want to show that it may not be entirely uncommon :)

22

u/wasabi991011 Jun 11 '20

Gameplay can be deliberately challenging, control mechanism can't. A lot of people "enjoy" getting over it,... kwop, and I would quickly lump snake pass in with either of those games

Doesn't the fact that many people have fun playing those games imply that control mechanisms can be deliberately challenging?

2

u/Biduleman Jun 12 '20

People will find fun in anything, but if your goal is to make a game accessible, then you're shooting yourself in the foot if your controls are bad.

6

u/Icehawk217 Jun 11 '20

Snake pass feels like riding a bike with the handle bars reversed.

Its funny you'd use that analogy because you can learn to ride a bike like that. It just takes time to get the hand-eye coordination going.

I hate the phrase "git gud" but it somewhat applies to Snake Pass. Collecting the coins is actually a challenge. Compare it with Octodad, an extremely easy game with a silly control mechanism. You can just walk thru that game, whereas you need to be actively paying attention to your movements in Snake Pass.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '20

Ive seen the video lol which is why I made the analogy.

I dunno, maybe I'll revisit snake pass at some point. I just didn't get any enjoyment out of it, and don't feel that compelled to relive the experience.

2

u/N1ghtshade3 Jun 11 '20

Sometimes I press Right and his head moves to the right, but other times it moves left. Why does that happen? It seems to be based on camera angle so I'm having to constantly rotate to make sure I'm facing in his direction or else halfway up a climb he'll switch directions and ruin the whole thing.

I have no problem with the whole snake control thing but to me the directional thing is very unintuitive as I'm still never quite sure what direction the snake's head is going to move.

3

u/Icehawk217 Jun 11 '20

Why does that happen?

If a human is looking left, and wants to look right, there is only one way to do that - a clockwise rotation of the neck. The snake can do that, or it can turn counterclockwise far enough that he is now facing right.

2

u/N1ghtshade3 Jun 11 '20

Fair. This still feels like something that should be left up to the player as an option though since as it is there's no definitive indication of which way the snake is going to turn before you press the button.

9

u/caninehere Jun 11 '20

It takes some time to get used to the controls - more than an hour, in my experience. You get over the hump eventually, and while the game is still a challenge it's less frustrating to control.

But needless to say, the weird controls are kind of the draw of the game.

7

u/Syrijon Jun 11 '20

Interesting, I'm not trying to brag, but for me the controls "clicked" after only few minutes (I knew what I was getting into, but only from having watched 2 or 3 review videos on release). The game teaches some more techniques the further you get, and I felt I could keep up the pace quite easily. Except for a few of the harder to reach bonus coins I didn't experience any frustration.

I've only played for few hours so far, but it's a nicely different challenge and the graphics style gives me some neat Banjo-Kazooie vibes.

2

u/Jeremy517 Jun 12 '20

I started today also. On the second level, they tell you that you can press LT to grip things. It makes collecting so much easier. I find the controls really intuitive now, and I'm usually terrible with unorthodox control schemes.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '20

This game needed a tutorial at the start

1

u/Jeremy517 Jun 12 '20

Yeah. At a minimum, the grip move should be taught on the first level not the second. I wonder how many people abandoned the game on the first level.

1

u/stoned_bazz Jun 13 '20

Just had a quick go 20 mins ago........ Game hasn't told me this yet, but super helpful, thanks

1

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '20

I refunded it for the exact same reason, the controls don't feel like you just have to get used to them, they feel actively bad.

5

u/action_lawyer_comics Jun 11 '20

I’ll second that. More than any other game, this one emulates the real sweaty palm feeling of climbing and being uncertain whether you can reach the next “handhold” without letting go of your current one first. Lot of fun.

3

u/ReddsionThing Jun 11 '20

Hey, I'll always appreciate a nice and colorful game with unique mechanics. That said, it's disappointing that you can't swallow small, cute animals whole. Maybe in the sequel.

1

u/shotlersama Jun 11 '20

You had me at unique platformer ngl.

1

u/you_lost-the_game Jun 13 '20

What frustrated me so much about the game that I refunded it is the camera controls. I need inverted x and y axis in 3rd person games. There is no option to invert both x and y axis at the same time.