Yooka-Laylee: Out Now!

[ontels]

IT'S OUT REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[YookaLayleeFan]

It makes my eyes tear up just thinking only years ago it was just known as project ukulele and we were all trying to guess the main characters. Thank you Playtonic for making us a beautiful game and thank you guys of the playtonic forums for giving me joy and excitement in times of stress.

[Yavga]

Work is done. I'm home and I'm going to play Yooka Laylee, this is so surreal!

The past weeks I played and enjoyed a lot of platformers to get in the mood. I really wonder what kind of impression this wil give me.

Look out for my own review later down the road, I'm a 3D platformer junkie. for now everybody enjoy playing the game! Make it worthwhile!

Adios

Edit: aaaaand it's not released yet on Steam... F5.....F5.....F5.....

[DarkTone]

Yay...............?

[MazLad]

Are we looking at the usual UK 6pm release for Steam do we think?

[Taylor]

[Hopix]

[MatiZ]

Today I was searching for psychical PC copy in few popular electronic shops in my country and didn't find even console version. On shop's websities I can see only console version available. Do you found some psychical PC version in your shops?

[Yavga]

CHAAAAAAARGEEEEEE!!!!

[ShanPen]

[dotEXE]

Now that we've had the game for a day is it time to start speculating on Twoka-Laylee?

[The Noob]

[Ciro]

[Taylor]

[The Noob]

Is it possible to have DLC for Yooka Laylee?

[Taylor]

[DrGoodnick]

Still haven't received my physical copy in the post. Was hoping to have it in time for the easter long weekend but it didn't turn up I wonder if there is a problem as my backer kit status is still saying "ready to ship" and not "shipped". I'm hoping that it just hasn't been updated. Anyone else experience this or know what the best way to find out what is happening?

[dotEXE]

Mine says Shipped and still hasn't come. Pretty poor decision to ship without tracking.

[Yavga]

Just an update. Played all worlds, expanded one. Still loving it!

The game is a blast but I DO understand certain key critic points.

The gameplay feels solid but the "magic feeling" isn't really there IMO. The character conversations are a bit random and forcefully at times and that is hurting the experience a bit. The worlds feel like giant fun sandboxes but they are missing something that Banjo levels had. In that aspect I kinda liked the toybox map better than some actual levels in Yooka Laylee so far. Which are at times... Way too systematically approached and way too open. The theming and open-world approach doesn't really work out. But the toybox was meant to be systematically approached so it DOES work there. All in all a bit dissapointing as maps and theming made the Banjo games so awesome! Sometimes smaller may be better. And maybe the walls/backdrops as well? In Banjo games the world was somewhat more clustered and there were walls, these walls aren't really existing in Yooka Laylee. It's like every level in a way is a Cloud Cuckoo Land.

My favorite map so far is the one where we trade items for pagies (trying to avoid spoilering here) because the theming actually made the map feel like the legit thing. Also the first map was nice.

The moves... yeah they're "OK" but I was really dissapointed when I got that move that made it possible to traverse "anywhere", others will like it (speedrunners) but for me part of the experience is discovering ways to reach certain spots to discover secrets. That's part of the adventure! Not bouncing into invisible walls, come on! Big points lost there for sure. Feels a bit like a cheap filler that move (and some others as well, as you're basically almost never using them for anything else than puzzle solving)

So... so far the Gameplay is really solid! But the feeling of immersion or anything is really lacking for me. Worlds in a sense are indeed too shallow even if there is enough to see and do!

It's like the graphics artist did an awesome job making assets but nobody really knew how to place and arrange them well.

And the secret stuff isn't really hidden that well, which I kinda understand as this game has to appeal to newcomers as well.

I'll wait with the rest of my review but for now I'll give it a 7.5/10

Solid platforming gameplay, nice graphics and effects, fun minigames, enjoyable collectathon but definitely missing the certain sparkle that makes it spark like a fairytale like many past Rare games did. Perhaps it's a budget thing?

Oh well, it's still worth all the money!

[dotEXE]

I really disagree on the "too open" point. Banjo Kazooie AND Tooie worlds were totally open. You walk in, then you can go anywhere. Sometimes there's light funneling (most levels slapped a door or path right in your vision to "suggest" a path) but they all plopped you in and let you go. I get that EXACT same feeling from Yooka Laylee.

Enter a world, do some mental mapping, make notes of places to go back to, sweep from one end to the other collecting everything.