A Review of Changed: Why I don't like it

This review will contain SPOILERS!

So I have just completed the original version of Changed from the Steam store. Getting all 3 endings (5 if you count the choices at the end). And after playing through it all... I have mixed opinion on it. On one hand, I really liked the dynamics between Puro and Colin and their attempts to escape the tower, as well as the ending when they finally do so. But on the other hand, the path to get there is soo frustratingly difficult that I can't help but recommend that you watch a playthrough instead of trying the game out youself. Which is why I made this webpage to vent out my frustrations with the game

REVIEW

I will split up the game between 3 parts:

  1. The first part being the intro 'till the introduction to Puro
  2. The second part being the introduction to Puro 'till the introduction to Mr. K
  3. The third part being the introduction to Mr. K 'till the end of the game

First Part

The first half of this section really got me hooked into playing through this game! Just seeing all these goofy and cute monsters as well as the atmosphere outside made me interested to see what has happened to the world as well as who these strange people were (admittedly enough, I missed the opportunity to play Lemon Demon's Gadzooks. Oh well :p)

Now. I will admit, I got stuck at the floor puzzle at the start. And I felt REAL embarassed when I watched ManlyBadassHero's playthrough and finally figured it out. I complained a lot about the game for that. But looking back, that was definitely my fault for not looking properly at the note and interpreting the floor puzzle as is. I thought there was some secret button :(

I liked the part where the latex creatures were hunting around the room with the lights flickering and you had to stand still to make sure they don't see you. It added a lot of tension to my inputs as to make sure I don't get caught. There was this one room which had a savepoint, but I still had to be careful when moving. Which made for some really intense moments

The Quick-Timed events felt randomly placed, but welcomed enough for me to care less about their existence (Did I use that right? I have listened to Weird Al's Word Crimes to understand what that meant)

The sliding puzzle was actually really fun to solve! Though I didn't like how making random inputs whilst sliding still made the enemies move regardless on if that input mattered or not. It really felt janky in my eyes. It was also really hard for some reason, this is the point where I really felt frustrated with the puzzles for this game. And it's not going to get better at all with the future puzzles

The boss fight with the big guy was pretty cool, I also really love his design! but it kinda sucks that they only appeared once in the entire game. It really felt like a missed opportunity for me

The sideways MOON puzzle was pretty tricky for me, which brought me back to the playthrough. I will admit, this was also something I could've possibly solved through enough careful thinking. So I don't really have much to complain here

The initial encounter and chase with the tail creature was pretty fun. I like how the game established a hiding place behind the tree before the encounter, it helped encouraged the player to interact with everything inside their room, as well as their ability to pick out specific important details that could be useful. Though I find it mildly redundant how you have to do the entire puzzle all over again. And for some reason, I kept dying at this part over and over again. Not enough for me to dislike it, but enough to put me on edge and start being more critical about the future stuff


Second Part

The second part.. Oh the second part.. I do have a lot to say about YOU

Let's first start with the important question. DID I LIKE PURO? Yeah I guess I did, I enjoyed his introduction and his character, and really felt happy getting the true ending. IThough, I didn't really like how learning about the lore of his character required you to GO THROUGH EXCRUTIATINGLY, PAINFULLY, UNBEARABLY LONG DIALOGUE TREES. I spent uncountable amounts of time, sat down on my PC, constantly reading through dialogue of Puro telling me jackshit. I would've preferred that we learned about Puro's story from our bonding time, instead of having him tell us a bedtime story for crying out loud. Now admittedly enough, I could've just ignored his dialogue and went on my own way. But the thing is, I really wanted to try and get attached to Puro. Since that is why a lot of people seemed to like this game. So I kinda had to go through his extremely lengthy dialogue just to get a feel for his character. And when I finished, it felt more like a chore I completed rather than an actual experience with him. Not fun at all. I also had one other thing against him, but it's soo minor I am going to dedicate an ABBR Tag to it. Hover the cursor over this text to figure out what that minor nitpick is!

The second chase with the tail was also pretty tense. The controls made things very awkward when trying to go through tight corners. But nothing prepared for the SHADOW THAT MOVED TO MY LOCATION WHEN I GOT CLOSE. I genuinely kept forgetting it existed for every attempt I made, and it really felt like a cheap trick than a bamboozle for me. Nonetheless, I found a speedrun strat where you can just beeline directly to the door and skip the chase altogether. I actually really like these goofy speedrun skips in games! I don't think it's enough to change my opinion, but I liked it!

Eventually, I found Puro's home inside the ventilation system, and got some decent rest with the lad. It was really nice! Though after that, I had to figure out how to escape the ventilation system. When I found that the second room was a dead end, I backtracked soo much and got back to the balcony. Where I encountered the slimey creature once again. And yes, I did see the cutscene. It was pretty weird

Eventually, I gave up and watched a playthrough again. And it turns out, the map from the second room was actually a clue to open a secret wall on Puro's room. At this point, I had searched up a playthrough for the third time, so I was just losing my patience. And this puzzle certainly did not help. It actually felt like the answers were nonsense than me being an idiot

The ventilation maze and the chase was pretty alright. I did get transfurred a ton of times via not being able to see. I also didn't understood the snakes that much, it felt like they just appeared for no reason to kill you unfairly. Not that it mattered much for me though

Eventually. I get to the point where I have to input a code to open the door, but I could not figure it out for the life of me. So once again, I looked up Manly's playthrough. And oh.. my.. gosh.. This is actually the worst answer to a puzzle in this game. Back in the ventilation maze, There is a note which details the answer in a very cryptic sequence of directions (Up, Down, Left Right). I initially through that this was referencing a path to escape, since this was around the midpoint of the maze. But it turns out, THOSE ARE INPUTS. THAT YOU HAVE TO DO. IN THE KEYPAD. TO GET THE CORRECT ANSWER. THAT ACTUALLY FELT VERY UNFAIR! This was when I was really starting to lose my patience and I was honestly starting to lose out on love. If it wasn't for Puro, I would've probably just stopped playing, or at the very least, gave it a really low score

I really liked the shark segments a lot. Having to lure them far away from your planned path and them barely touching you was very tense at times. I enjoyed it a lot. Though I was not a huge fan of the Shark boss. I think the main reason why is because this is where you have to learn about how the AI works in this game, so that you can properly avoid the sharks as much as possible. This would've been fine, but the awful controls just made this fight much more harder. Eventually I ended up just cheesing the boss with another speedrun strategy. I did it once, I can do it again!

The second boss was also really annoying. The tentacles always grabbed me and I had to go through a bunch of walking just to retry again. It also took me way too long to realize that the tentacle boosting damaged the boss. I would say he is my least favorite boss fight by far

At this point, you are confronted by Puro for a serious conversation. In my playthrough, I managed to befriend him enough that we ended up as a team! But I found out that he straight up assimilates you if you didn't bother becoming his friend. I am fine with how this works. But the problem is that there are 4 total "odjectives" you have to do throughout the entire game. And if you don't complete even one of them, Puro won't be happy at the slightest. I don't really like how that works. Personally, I would've gave more leniency with the adjectives, allowing 1 missed objective until he gets angry (though I may also add more dialogue for how much Puro likes you)

Afterwhich, we travel along the white forest, in search for a continuation. The obstacles and the enemies made this part really tricky to navigate. Some of the foliage are actually big enough to act as roadblocks, which made up a few unfair deaths. I was not a huge fan of this section, but at least we only have to do that once.. right..?

Oh gosh... THE TIGER! Oh how I HATE this section. The maze like section with the tiger is easily the worst part. Think of what I said from the last paragraph, but make it even worse. My patience was already really thin up to this point. But oh gosh, the monsters kept grabbing me with their bodies, and those pillars were also very hard to dodge. It took me forever to figure out the strategy for this part. But at that point, I was really starting to hate this game. The rest was also pretty fine. I like how the tiger died by simply getting squished, that was really goofy!


Third Part

Okay. I promise things will get good here..

I will admit. The cutscene with Dr. K and his introduction was very good. He goes on a rant about how Colin is infected with the virus, and that he must be kept inside the laboratory, before leaving Colin trapped to take care of Puro. I will admit, his introduction was actually really cool.. For the first time you see it. The problem is that you actually have a lose condition inside your room without any savepoints. And if you die, you have to read through his dialogue all over again. That just isn't fun at the slightest. Eventually, we get to the robot puzzles. I actually really like this one! You control both Colin and the robot at the bottom of the screen, and you both have to make your way past obstacles to ensure your escape. Honestly a really fun puzzle to do!

Once we escape. We try to confront Puro and Dr. K. Unfortunately in my playthrough, I was not able to save Puro and Dr. K turned me into one of them. I thought I had to do something extra, like bring the creatures from the robot puzzle to him in hopes that they attack him. But it turns out, there was another pair of objectives that I was not lucky enough to get. One of them was having Puro pathfind all the way towards me at the latex forest, which required waiting for me. I am not really a huge fan of that at all. Once again, some leniency or better indication would've been real helpful. But anyways, I restart and now Puro has beaten up Dr. K! Go Puro!

The final puzzles actually brought back some good faith in this game. I really like the Puro throwing mechanic, the sliding crystals, and the exploding ones. Just sucks that you only see them once at the final parts of the game

The final conversation with Dr. K was damn interesting. With him weighing Colin down with the circumstances of the final humans and the final choice that he has to make just makes it soo damn interesting. Would you sacrifice yourself to save humanity? Or follow along with Puro's desires? It is up for you to decide as the player, and what your ideals are

I first picked to sacrifice myself. Which really broke my heard like a damn sniper rifle. Just seeing the ending where Colin and Puro go their seperate ways is soo damn heartbreaking. I almost cried in this ending when I first got it

The other ending was that you join with Puro and both live happy lives. Which is the true ending I always wanted to get :D! As much as I hate the middle section, seeing this ending was soo damn worth it. It kinda sucks that we couldn't bring Dr. K along, but oh well, I am happy with my outcome!

So uhh... Whilst I was making this page. It turns out I actually missed a crucial 5th ending where you simply pressed ESC at your choice! Dr. K offers Colin to reject his humanity to ensure that humanity stays intact. In which he agrees and gets a procedure that turns him into a creature without loosing his consciousness. Dr. K also gives Puro a robot body which allows him to never need another host ever again. Afterwhich, Dr. K let's them free and they both lived happily ever after. Damn.. I though I was originally happy with the previous outcome, but this. My heart has gotten the warmth it needed from all the rage I was experiencing from playing this game. I actually love this ending a lot! Just note that this is a very late addition to this page and it is getting way too late for me. So a lot of the contents will not be updated to include this update. Sorry :(

Others


But anyways. That is it for my review! For my final paragraph. I am giving this game a 5/10, C, and an "OK" rank. Between the horrendous puzzle design and the actually heartwarming endings. I think it suits itself in the middleground quite nicely! I might change my opinion to be more biased towards it, but I really cannot stress enough how awful the puzzles were