QT30E - Hundred Days: Winemaking Simulator - Game Built Around A Gameplay Mechanic
0The newest video in the QT30E series is the PS4 version of Hundred Days: Winemaking Simulator. I wanted to play this game as it's icon really interested me and i was a little curious how it would do the simulator part and what the Hundred Days part of the game's name was. But i'll say right now, i do not recommend this game.
At the start of the game you have to create a profile and then you can chose what you want to play. Right from this point, i found the controls not to be obvious. it took nearly 5 minutes to workout how to navigate the make a profile section and start a game. it's a poor first impression and it doesn't get much better unfortunately. I chose to play the story mode and the game put me into an office in a high rise with no context with what's happening.
But it was in this office setting that the game's core mechanic is shown. in the middle of the floor, a 3x3 square is laid out and you have to put jobs in it. each job has a different shape and it takes a different amount of time. this was genuinely interesting and not something i had seen before. This is used throughout the rest of the game. But what got annoying was that the pieces i would put on to this grid seemed to have no lock-on with it and the directions i was pressing didn't seem to match with what was happening on screen. it was more irksome as i was playing the story mode, a mode where i'd assume to focus was more on telling a story rather than gameplay, so things like this should've been easier to do.
The story mode was a big let down. it felt more like individual set pieces where to do the game mechanic rather than a story being told. there were points where characters were saying things that had apparently happened between these set pieces, things that i should've seen or played myself. There was also confusion when i read what these characters were saying and couldn't see, or there wasn't, and option for it. near the end there's the confusion where i'm told to go to the city but i can't workout where that is. earlier there are two more instances related to the winery where i'm given a choice in the story but don't have a choice in-game, and where i'm told to go somewhere on the winery but the term used in the story isn't the term used on screen.
As for the wine and winery aspect of the game, unfortunately i'm not a big wine drinker nor am i that knowledgeable about it. with the game's tutorial rather lacking, there were a couple of moments where i got stuck because i didn't know what the game was talking about and there doesn't appear to be any sort of glossary or way to look up the words i don't know. sometimes i can work it out via context, but there were times i just didn't know and had to continue the game.
As i said at the start, i don't recommend this game. it very much feels like the studio, Broken Arms Games, came up with the game mechanic first and then tried to build around it. i do think it's an interesting mechanic, but the story mode they built around it pretty much fails at everything. it doesn't introduce the mechanic well, it doesn't introduce the characters well, it doesn't tell a story well, and by the time i finished with my first bottle of wine, it didn't feel like a natural progression. it felt like i did QTE's at specific points and wine came out the end. i can't talk about the other two gameplay options, Challenge Mode and Endless Mode so if you have tried them and they're different please talk about them in the comments.
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