Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story Review (but not really)

It was not that I found nothing redeemable in Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story but I do refuse to write about any of them. This is a broken game. There is a part where you cannot leave the room without waiting for a key to cool. I reloaded. I checked guides. I pressed the check key button over 100x for a time totaling around an hour. The key would not cool. Other players have noted the bug. No-one knows a consistent way to get past it. There is a chance that if I started from the beginning again it might work. I do not know. I am not doing it. I have finished with the game. It is broken. Literally unplayable. Do not buy it.

So if I am not talking about Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story as a game what is this whole article about? It is about not accepting less. Developers, limited release publishers, eBay resellers they ALL know that us PlayStation Vita players are so fanatical in our love for the console that we often accept unfinished or near unplayable products. I am not pretending I am immune to all of this. Readers may remember that I gave Night Trap a positive review despite the game soft-locking before the final cutscene. I even bought the limited edition knowing this after I paid for and played the digital edition. I forgave Timespinner despite terrible stutter and slow down making hard-mode unplayable (it has since been fixed to the developers credit). I did want to keep playing and finish Sense but not enough to restart which I know I have done for other games. New Little Kings Story has almost unplayabley terrible slow down, Salt & Sanctuary one of my favourite games of all time got a pass even though it FREQUENTLY crashed on release (also patched).

People pay HUGE sums for physical Spongebob Heropants despite the game being not fun, bugged, crashing often and 3 hours long (See also Epic Mickey 2). I raged when Hoggy 2 crashed 2 hours in to the final boss. Battle Rockets is barely a game as in there are not any redeeming qualities to it. It does not have gameplay. Awesome Pea struggles to function, also Ghoulboy, also The Long Reach. Just recently I reviewed Horizon Chase Turbo positively despite the frame rate being such an issue that I physically could not pop the platinum. A chest spawned on top of another object in Oceanhorn preventing me from ever finishing. Drive Girls FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IT IS BARELY A GAME held together with toothpicks and PVA. When I reviewed Grim Fandango it softlocked very close to the end and Double Fine told me to start from the beginning to replicate the bug and I got there and it softlocked again and I played it all the way through a third time before completing. Secret of Mana straight up does not work and that did not prevent me from giving a GLOWING review.

These are just the games I PERSONALLY played. The thing is despite all the bugs, the unoptimisation the stutters and the softlocks, I persevered. I tried my damnedest to play til the end. In so many cases I also paid for a physical version. The best part of all this these are just the games I have personally struggled with. I have also heard awful, awful things about Nuclear Throne, A Bard’s Tale, Deer God, Ice Cream Surfer and NightCry. The truth is the number of broken games on the Vita is innumerable, and we the fans have allowed it to happen. We have shown time and time again we will buy those games. We will buy them digitally. We will then double-dip and buy them physically. We will struggle through a broken game and then rave about it on twitter and in our little Vita related blogs. Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story is my last straw though. I am now saying no to restarting a game to try and get past a game breaking bug. I am saying no to buying a game even though I have heard it is bugged just because I think it looks fun.

I know that I say this now and who knows in a week I will probably be right back at it, but I feel that developers KNOW Vita gamers accept this level of game and I want to say no more to it. If you don’t believe me my boy Vladimere knows what’s up. Patches can still happen. Let’s use out voices.