I just picked up the highly hyped Blue Prince. On the other hand reviews have also called it a very niche game. I like puzzle games to a certain extent and roguelikes, but these are subjective experiences.

Anyways, I was hoping to get the gist of it and get into a groove and decide if I like it within the refund period.

The game mechanics are explained through notes in the game at it took me 80 minutes to reach a point where an important mechanic is explained.

This could have been done much earlier, I wonder why the developer delayed the explanation when it’s just useful information

Other games also front load the prologue with long tutorials and cutscenes. So by the time you get into the meat of the game the refund window is out.

The other elephant in the room is if steam refunds are meant as a demo for everything or just to check technical issues like FPS and network connection issues

  • who@feddit.orgEnglish
    191·
    1 day ago

    IMHO, two hours is not nearly enough to get a feel for a game. At least, not for the sorts of games I tend to play. I spend longer than that just working through initial technical issues, configuration, and (in games that have one) the character generator.

    I have to conclude that Steam’s return window is either intended to be just enough to see if you can get it running, or as much as Valve could talk publishers into tolerating.

    • shneancy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      1 day ago

      imo the 2h refund window is not so you can judge if you’ll like the game, it’s so you can judge if you can tolerate it long enough to form an informed opinion

      there’s been a few games i played under 2h of and thought to myself “this is terrible, i’m not having fun and i actively dislike playing this”, Steam’s no questions asked refund was a cure for regret i’d have felt if i had to see that game in my library forever. Games that i know take much longer to judge i borrow from a friend who’s into fitness and a girl, that’s what saved me from buying Starfield or Avowed

    • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      24 hours ago

      Two hours is the length of some high-budget media; eg, movies and plays.

      I know that some games are slow-burn, but that’s something people have to weigh themselves. Ideally, you’d enjoy the slow burn itself. When I tried to “force myself through to the Good Part of Nier Automata”, I ended up hating the whole thing.