Cradle... quite intriguing, fun and impressive in the first hour or two.

Then it is a downward spiral of annoying "Tetris-like puzzle", nonsense story and with an abysmal ending. If you thought Mass Effect 3 ending was bad, you have a winner here with Cradle.

But not all is bad with this game. I feel like this is much more of a tech demo since the visuals are impressive (mostly). You get to walk around in this big open space but unfortunately, as big as that open world is, you only explore one big area (the Park) besides your yurt. Rest of the world feels very empty and there is nothing to find either. The voice acting is good and the selling point of this game would be it's soundtrack (good ambient music, very soothing too!).

Puzzles are quite bad in this game. Like I've mentionned earlier, to get some tech-device related to the story, you need to do some cube-base puzzle. At least, if you fail you can skip that boring thing (if only you could skip BEFORE starting that irritating puzzle). There was also some really unclear game objectives at times that made you look again and again everywhere to figure out what to do. In instance, you are tasked to find a "TV REMOTE". So logically, you look around the TV (can't find) then maybe near the bed? The couch? NO DICE! Went to Youtube and it was hidden under Ida's table! WHY?!%? Lots of misplaced objects in this game that only brought frustration then accomplishment.

Without spoiling too much about the ending but I can only say that the whole intrigue of the game doesn't get resolved in the ending. So you're left wondering WTF happened in that whole 5-6 hours of gameplay! Basically, you're barely informed at all in this game and left to wonder yourself about the events unfolding around you.

Even for a short game, I wish it was shorter for the whole amount of times I was annoyed by the gameplay!

Therefore, I cannot recommend this game.

Maybe worth it at 50% off though... but consider watching YouTube videos of this game to speed it up!

EDIT:
Game have 3440 x 1440p resolution and 21:9 ratio support! That is a plus but won't change my stance with the review.

Beautiful game, but make sure you get it on sale. It's only 10% of what it could be. If they came out with a Cradle 2 (similar to how portal and portal 2 came out) there would be a lot of potential.

Oh, and the game uses barely any CPU and melts your GPU, so unless you have a 970 or up I wouldn't reccomend the game either. A 960 won't even run it on high.

No real spoilers, but perhaps some hope will be spoiled/grounded in reality.

I found myself in awe at times while playing this game, it really does some amazing things. I was thinking things like.... more games need to do this... holy crap this is cool....wow, game of the year ideas... and other impressed-sounding taglines... etc

Great story setup, graphics are nice and the overall atmosphere etc is great. This game had me so excited at some points, but I guess somewhere at the back of my mind was the low pricetag and the assumption it was all going to end too soon, and I guess for me it did. I don't mean 'it was short, and Í am not happy with short games'. Thats not me. Short is good if its complete. A game could be 100 hours long and be too short if the story needed 150 to play out. What I mean is it just sorta stops right as you are really getting into it.

Also - I really disliked the block puzzles sections. Really disliked being forced to do them, and really disliked doing them. It just felt like filler for a game that knew it was already too short. Like the short kid wearing platform shoes and not thinking anyone would notice, but I noticed. I give this section 2 thumbs down. Really detracted from the immersion and the story. I get that they werer part of the story, but they didnt need to be part of the game narrative itself.

I would hands down recommend this game for the 13 dollars worth that you get, they have done some very cool things here; but would also warn that you will wish you had spent 20, maybe 40, if it meant it had the rest of the story fleshed out or more juicy information. It feels like I just bought a cool sci-fi book from a second hand bookstore only to find out the last 3 chapters are missing and someone put a post-it note saying 'its all good' and a picture of fireworks there to replace it. Play it, maybe what I am trying to say will make sense, maybe it wont. Perhaps you will race here after playing to write yet another 100% positive review, we need about 50000 more of those. I just feel people might want to know the downs, even if it is only 13 dollars.

The trouble I have is it just felt like they ran out of money or ideas and without spoiling anything, I was left feeling unsatisfied in a big way. For a game to reach so many highs to fall flat on its face was for the biggest twist of all.

Its hard to be this blown away by something and at the same time so utterly disapppointed.
THEY DID SO MANY COOL THINGS THOUGH. There I said it. So cool on so many levels. But....come on... what happened?

I give this 1 thumb up 1 thumb down.

Absolutely amazing. You are dropped into the game with little explanation. You slowly learn about the world, and yourself as you solve puzzles that have some very fun interactivity. If you find yourself frustrated, there is a hint button which tells you what you could try next.

If you're curious, you can check out the first 15 minutes of the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5xKlK4m8xM

Almost everything can be interacted with. This helps bring the beautiful world to life.
The interior of every single drawer is unique, and every small piece of paper can be read.

The characters look fantastic. I love the designs, and the dialogue. It's done in such a way that the world seems very eerie, yet wonderful at the same time.

The ending (No spoilers) left me wanting more, in the sense that the game was a tad bit short, but I really loved the world I was put in, and wanted to play more.

Verdict: If you like exploration, unique & desolate worlds, give this a try.

In case you can't tell. I really like this game.

I've got severely mixed feelings about this game. Heck, given the option, I'd give it a neutral recommendation. But we don't have that, we need to pick either a thumbs up icon, or a thumbs down icon, and as much as it pains me to do so, I went with the one pointing downward.

Allow me to explain why.

First, I was really excited about it - the premise looked solid - this is what sold me on the game in the first place. "Androids" with eyes displayed for emotions? Awesome! A futuristic yet retro tram? Yes please!

And you know what? That premise IS in fact in the game. It's a great combination of new and old, wrapped in very pretty visuals (even if there are a few technical hiccups, but these can overlooked). The story starts off on the confusing side, then gets interesting, and then...

Well, then comes the kicker.

It then ends. I've played, and finished, the game in 5 hours - and that's including that at one point I think I left the game on to get myself some tea and chat with my girlfriend.

Don't get me wrong - I don't mind short games when they offer a complete experience. Like, say, Thomas Was Alone. But Cradle just kind of ends - it feels like it ends right in the middle of something far greater. What's even more frustrating is that it ends with the words "I'll explain everything" and then does the exact opposite (a short video during the credits places even more questions). If the answers are buried in the piles of randomly discarded newspaper clippings in the game world, then that's not a fun way to tell a story. :/

All in all, I enjoyed the journey, but the sudden end left me angry and dissapointed and with that, I sadly cannot recommend the game. Perhaps if it were a lot cheaper*?

*- No, I don't mean free! ~50% off, and while I would still dislike the sudden ending, I wouldn't feel as cheated on the length.

This is only worth playing once. It lasts roughly 5 hours or less, unless you're exploring a lot - though, I don't think it's exciting enough to.

The voice acting for the main character is pretty rough. They should redub it immediately. I volunteer as tribute.

The graphics are amazing.

The actual puzzles are easy.

Half of the gameplay is a minecraft-esque, out of place, joke.

However, the story, the music, and the overall atmosphere make this game worthwhile at a reduced price. I would hold off on a sale, and pick it up if you're looking for a weekend experience.

Cradle is an interesting game along the lines of Gone Home or Dear Esther - you are unfolding a story as you progress. You will solve some not overly complicated puzzles to advance the story.

The atmosphere in the game world is hauntingly beautiful. The lighting, music, dialogue - everything is perfectly honed to create a sense of eerie sadness and mystery. I personally loved the slower pace of the game, it was fun for me to try to uncover information as to what has happened in this world.

The mini games were ok, a little tedious and you can skip them if you fail with no repercussions on the storyline.

Keen Stalker fans will recognize some similar themes here, experiments on conciousness and contaminated zones, you can see the loose influence the Stalker franchise has had here, having some ex-Stalker devs working on it.

The ending may seem abrupt but if you pay attention to the dialogue throughout, and the clues scattered around your home, it makes more sense than if you skip through a lot of the details.

This game was right up my street but if you prefer more action orientated games it may not be for you.

Why the thumbs down? Several critical issues really annoyed me while playing the game.

The game is presented as having an open world. The reality is there are two buildings; the rest of the area is barren with an occasional to object to look at.

You can't . . . can not, save your game when you wish. There is a checkpoint system for the story. At least you can load a specific moment in the story.

The mini-games I found frustrating. With the limited FOV ( not changeable ) I kept falling and having to restart. Maybe I was just crap at the game, but the game movement was difficult to land accurately.

The game advertises a high level of interactivity, which is true, but only applies to the hut you start in. After spending a good hour reading and opening things, you never get that freedom back again.

The game ends pretty abrupt, relying on a short FMV, and taking you out of the game.

Sad that I can't recommend it, as the writing and technological concepts are brilliant. When I was reading, and listening to a particular "M-Body" I was enjoying the game, but maybe that kind of experience would be better served in a book.

Cradle is a beautiful story of a mechanized post apocalyptic world experienced through the eyes of a person who lost his memory and uses a mechanical woman to figure out what is happening in the world.

Your goal is to do quests and mini games and through those you experience the world around you. It is extremely atmospheric and very frustrating. The game doesn't tell you anything and you can interact with pretty much everything. It took me an hour to do the first quest which can be done in 5 minutes if you know where to look.

I received the game weeks ago so I'm a bit surprised it is only 13€ albeit it has little to no replay value since the quests are always the same. You can expect to beat the game in less than 10 hours if you're completely clueless, probably around 4 hours in the second playthrough.

The main voice actor is a bit stiff and I don't like him but overall the game is definitely for anyone who wants to experience a strange and beautiful world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BTqE4NEyZA

Let me start by saying that it really pains me to rate this game down, and that if I could I would have given this game a neutral rating. But in the end I have to choose a side, and I’m sorry but I have to go with negative, let me explain why.

Cradle is a first person exploration and adventure game, I would probably describe it as a first person point and click, because the gameplay basically consists of clicking at things, picking things up, using things on other things, and rarely combining items. You have a limited inventory, for brief storage of key items, and it serves its purpose nicely. Going along the story you’ll have to play some minigames, which felt very out of place, and basically consisted of one simple and easy game repeated four times. These minigames were reasonably enjoyable, but felt like they were there merely as filler content in a short game. I feel like the gameplay is one of the games weak sides, of which it has a couple, but it wasn’t bad, just not good.

As for the story, I was pretty disappointed. The game takes place in a very well built world, but doesn’t utilize much of it, and delivers a story which was short and ended abruptly, without giving answers to many of the questions asked. I mean it literally ended with the sentence “I will explain everything” *credits roll*. *SPOILERS* At first it start out with a classic trope: you play a guy that has lost his memories, ‘who am I?’ But it slowly changes direction into something about terrorism, but not, and then it turns into ‘who is this girl I have sitting on my counter’. I felt like the story went all over the place, without really explaining anything. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy stories where you have to think for yourself, but this felt like the developers started a story they couldn’t quite finish, and therefore ended it prematurely.

Technically the game wasn’t good either, as it didn’t run well on my pc (you can check my specs on my profile, but I use a GTX 780), I did have the graphical settings maxed out though, but even then the game didn’t look fantastic, with subpar texture and model quality, and a problem with aliasing. The game was definitely playable, but the framerate would often drop to 30 FPS. On the other hand the whole gameworld was handled in a single world, and therefore there was no loading screens when moving from area to area, there would however be loading screens when starting a minigame, or going to a new chapter, and the loading time wasn’t brilliant.

I liked the sound design, and the soundtrack is good. I am listening to it as I am writing this. Cradle does feature voice acting, but the main characters acting is wooden, and not great. Ida’s voices are pretty good, and Tabaha’s are not as good, but good enough.

Now, the art is this games absolute strong point, and definitely what sold me the game in the first place. I have actually followed this game for years, because the art intrigued from the first moment. And I must say, the best reason to buy this game, would be as a piece of art, because boy is the designs beautiful. Set in a futuristic Mongolian wasteland, the interesting stuff is pretty sparse, but the designs more than makes up for it. The little yurt where you start the game, uses very beautiful Mongolian designs, and I am particularly a fan of the boots you’ll find in a chest later in the game. When venturing out of the yurt, you will come find a giant dome, which apparently is an entertainment park. This dome is more futuristic, but at the same time run down and overgrown. I will put some screenshots on my profile.

Overall I decided that I can’t recommend the game to the price, as it simply falls short as a game. You might be interested in it though as first person exploration games aren’t particularly common. If you are interested in the art however, this has some of the best I have seen in a long time, and I might play through the game once more just to look at stuff again. I bought the deluxe edition, but the art book isn’t worth the extra, so only get the deluxe if you want the soundtrack, which incidentally is pretty good.

TLDR; this game is a piece of art, don’t buy it if you are looking for interesting gameplay or a good story, you will be disappointed. If I could frame this game and hang it on the wall, that would be the perfect use for this game, and as a piece of art, it is worth it in my opinion.