Okay, lemme dump my two cents about Story Atlas: Eternal Burden. Been eyeing this game after seeing folks argue online about whether it’s actually fun or just a fancy time-suck. Spoiler alert: I bought it last Tuesday night.
First Boot-Up Stuff
Cranked it up Wednesday morning with my coffee. Opening cinematic looked real pretty – like one of those artsy indie films. But the moment I got control? Walls of text. Like, paragraphs everywhere. Seriously, felt like reading a damn novel before I could even move my character. Hit the “X” button so much my thumb got sore trying to skip dialogue.
The Actual Playing Part
Gameplay loop goes like this:
- Run around shiny forests talking to NPCs who all sound like philosophy professors
- Solve puzzles that involve moving glowing rocks onto pressure plates for 30 minutes
- Get bombarded with lore dumps about gods and “eternal burdens” during loading screens
- Die instantly in combat ’cause I didn’t grind enough beetles to upgrade my spoon weapon
Combat’s janky too. Dodging feels sticky like walking through peanut butter, and enemies respawn every time you blink. After three hours? My dude was still shuffling around like his shoes were made of concrete.
Hitting The Wall
Thursday afternoon I got stuck in some temple maze. Map’s useless – looks like a toddler scribbled on it with crayons. Wasted an hour trying paths that looped back to start. Ended up Googling the solution like a chump. Found out you gotta light torches in “spiritual sequence” or whatever. Zero clues about that in-game. Just… why?
Also tried co-op with my buddy Mark. Total disaster. Lag made it feel like playing underwater during a hurricane. His character kept phasing through walls while mine got stuck inside a tree. We quit after twenty minutes of screaming at our screens.
Final Verdict Time
Played fourteen hours total. Best moment? Found a hidden fishing spot behind a waterfall Tuesday night. Sat there casting line for forty peaceful minutes – no dialogue, no combat, just water sounds and fish biting. Then a lore spirit popped up to lecture me about piscine existentialism. Ruined it.
So fun? Nah. Feels like homework disguised as a game. Gorgeous visuals with zero actual game juice under the hood. Your “eternal burden” ends up being your time wasted.
