Brilliant Concept, Lackluster Execution

This is by far one of the most interesting games I have ever played. Ive always been a fan of auditory games, and with my poor eyesight its sometimes hard for me to enjoy games. The fact that A Blind Legend is based on sound solved that problem.

For reasons Ill discuss later in the review, I wasnt able to make much progress on the game, but the little progress I did make left me with a good impression of the world the story takes place in. The sound mixing was done very well as far as the area around me was concerned, but Blakes speech seemed forced and choppy. Sounds overlapped nicely for an almost 3D feel.

Almost.

Navigating was a horrible experience. Blake didnt want to move the way I told him at all, and I had no idea where my daughter was. A 3D sound array is forced into 2 headphone channels and just doesnt work right at all. Its impossible to tell if something is in front of you or behind, and heaven forbid something is ahead and to the left.

I gave up on the very first combat instance. I spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to hit the wolf (large cat??) and it was an absolute disaster. It sounded like the stupid thing was to my right, but no matter how many times I tried to hit it I just got knocked down. I tried swinging left, right, up, down... None of them worked.

The warning growl did eff all too. There were no instructions on when it was actually growling. Was the growl start the second you hear the sound? Was the growl when the volume picked up?

Controls need major refinement for this game to get playable.

MissSane about A Blind Legend, v1.1.4