090
INFO
FORMATPS4
ETAOUT NOW
PUBFRIEND & FOE
DEVFRIEND & FOEVANE
Atmospheric adventure grounded by a lack of polish
J
ourney’s influence glistens all over Vane.
It’s everywhere you look, in every way
it can be, from the expansive set-pieces
to the mute, stylised protagonist, to the
subtle, synthesised score. That’s not to say
it’s an unimaginative knock-off – Vane brings
many new ideas to this critically-acclaimed
table – but it’s hard to imagine how Vane
could’ve ever come to be had thegamecompany
not given us Journey first.It’s around now we’d offer you a summary of
the story but... well, we’re not too sure what
it’s about, quite frankly. You play as a bird that,
when in contact with some weird gold dust stuff,
occasionally turns into a boy, and it’s shifting
between these two states that enables you to
navigate through Vane’s alien, otherworldly
environments in pursuit of... uh, we’re not
particularly sure about that, either. Thankfully,
your journey takes you to some beautiful places,
accompanied by a truly astonishing soundtrack.
There are puzzles (kind of), although they’re
environmental rather than cerebral, and while
the telltale golden glint initially helps identify
waypoints at the start of the game, Vane
unceremoniously withdraws much of that
guidance by the time you creep into your second
hour. Admittedly these latter environments
are smaller, but given you’re required to trekacross much of that terrain
by foot rather than feather,
it’s all the harder to scan your
whereabouts for clues on what
to do next.VANE OF MY LIFE
The trouble is, for every
delightful moment you unwrap,
there are two that will make
your toes curl with frustration.
For all its style there’s too little
substance, and while I’m not
averse to narratives that focus
on evoking strong emotional
responses rather than
unornamented storytelling,
in Vane there’s so little of it,
it’s hard to connect in any
meaningful way to the world
around you. You trek from This
Impressive Environment to The
Next Impressive EnvironmentThings you learn in the
opening act are almost
entirely disregarded in
the rest of the game.without ever really knowing
why, and just as you begin to
get to grips with the painfully
imprecise control scheme –
honestly, that bird handles no
better than a broken shopping
trolley, and bringing the thing
in to land on anything other
than terra firma usually ends
in a spittle of miserable curse
words – suddenly the world
changes, and everything you
came to know about the first
half of the game is rendered
useless anyway.
In and of itself, the light-
touch tale wouldn’t be overly
irksome, but couple that with
a frustrating control scheme
and obnoxious, unco-operative
camera, Vane simply gets in its
own way. Instead of layering
gameplay experiences to createYOU’RE SO... @_vixx“IT’S HARD TO CONNECT IN
ANY MEANINGFUL WAY TO
THE WORLD AROUND YOU.”