REVIEW : 41 Hours (PC)
41 Hours is an exciting shooting game that narrates the story of Ethan, a workaholic scientist on the hunt for his long lost wife. The tale is engaging, and it takes several unexpected twists as it progresses across 11 Chapters and 20 hours of gameplay.
What we liked!
- Special abilities – Almost immediately, Ethan gains access to the extraordinary skills that will carry this otherwise ordinary human through the titular 41 hours. You can pretend to be Prophet from Crysis for a bit with your Predator-like cloaking power. The second of Ethan’s abilities, and by far the most helpful and entertaining, is the ability to slow time for everyone but you. As a result, you keep your average movement speed and reaction skills even if they are moving in slow motion. It’s a lot of joy to take out a whole gang of human adversaries in what appears to bystanders to be a moment. Even great when it’s a massive robot. Both of these abilities require you to have a specific amount of energy stored up before you can use them, which means you can’t use them all the time or have to constantly kill things and locate blue orbs to keep them active. Finally, you will gain short-range telekinetic skills. The only time I’ve found these useful is during the environmental riddles that 41 Hours occasionally throws in. While it gets the job done, it will take some practice.
- Gameplay – The gameplay in 41 Hours is a bit of a mixed bag. While it can be somewhat rewarding at times, it is, most of the time, at best, boring. It doesn’t throw enough foes at you to make things difficult, but those adversaries aren’t powerful enough to be a severe problem if you use your powers effectively. You frequently obtain either low ammo of a particular type or continually have total bullet reserves. I also discovered, relatively late in the game, that monsters guarding landmarks spawn in waves. But not correctly; kill them all before the next group of waves spawns. While this creates an exciting flow of foes in some circumstances, it prevents you from ever searching for a place for whatever objective you have to gather.
- Graphics – 41 Hours is visually appealing, but it isn’t something to write home about. The guns all appear to be highly realistic, with a good eye for detail. However, there are several discrepancies in the amount of realism and model quality between the various enemy kinds. As a starting point, consider standard human soldiers. When you look at the robotic enemies, you’ll see that their models are significantly more extensive and less detailed. Except for the more miniature robots, which I assume are simply scaled-down versions of their larger counterparts. The opposite is true of the ghoul-like aliens that can be found. And, while the majority of it appears to be correct in its area, seeing them side by side can be a little unsettling.
What we disliked
- Telekinesis puzzles – Every level I’ve played contains at least one challenge that must be solved using telekinesis and close or distant objects. While I’m not opposed to solving puzzles by thinking outside the box, almost all of them were a pain in the backside to complete. I’ve gotten to the next level at least twice by using a wormhole six or so metres in the sky. The tutorial would urge you to look for certain boxes early on in 41 hours, straightforward, right? Oh, it’s simple, but it’s time-consuming. More than just this recurrent challenge, you usually require at least 2 or 3 boxes from a location halfway across the level. one at a time. While this is already a deal-breaker for me, attackers respawn around you as you go.
- Audio – This was in the prologue and is still in 41 Hours, my main complaint. To begin with, there is no audio setting. Yes, there is a beautiful audio button in the menu, but when you select it, you are welcomed by simply one more button to “turn on / off the music,” making no discernible change. This implies that when most of the sound effects or background sounds are playing, the game is screechingly loud. The animal cries appear to have been reduced slightly, but not nearly enough, in my opinion.
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