💎 PREMIUM: App/ - High Quality

Aeonic is a game with a genuinely intriguing core idea. The concept of time travel, exploring different eras, and experiencing alternate realities has a lot of potential to become something rich and engaging. Unfortunately, this is a clear case where a strong concept is completely undermined by weak execution.

The biggest issue lies in how the story is delivered. Instead of an immersive narrative, the player is bombarded with endless walls of text that quickly become exhausting to read. There’s little sense of pacing, no real flow, and a noticeable lack of narrative finesse. Rather than pulling you into the story, the game overwhelms you with poorly structured exposition.

The visual side doesn’t help either. Images has been created with AI.

In the end, Aeonic feels like wasted potential. The idea of exploring timelines and alternate realities could have been something truly compelling, but the poor execution, overwhelming text, and uninspired visuals prevent it from reaching that goal. It’s difficult to recommend, even to fans of narrative-driven games, as there are far better alternatives available.

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Generative AI tools are used to create some of the assets

This whole as game is nothing but AI slop

This product is revolutionary: It brings to you the latest in Steam Store-cluttering AI slop technology! It’s a point-and-click adventure game with two, count ‘em, two choices¹! It has AI generated images that look like what we all left in the toilet this morning because they couldn’t even be bothered to hire a Real Artist© to at least touch them up, thus contributing to their ability to afford food!

Do you love reading Worthless Drivel™? Well, take it from a writer; I love to write it²! As a writer and an amateur historian, I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is the most revolutionary application of Worthless Drivel™ innovation! It will spark a new generation of game developers on Steam; the AI-driven ’learning’ game saga! That’s right; no human thought required³, just a down payment for the listing and you too can clutter Steam with projects you had nothing to do with!

That’s right; very soon, the Steam Store will be so inundated⁴ in Worthless Drivel™ that you too won’t be able to find a game that was graced by the hands of a Real Artist©! Their Patreons will dry up because no one can find their artist pages where they toil ten hours a day, pouring their hearts out to show the world a piece of their souls!

Just as well; writers such as myself will drown under the sea of AI generated ‘content’ that people like you love so much! It truly is The Dystopia⁵ We Deserve®!

¹: Sometimes, ig.

²: At least my Worthless Drivel™ has girls kissing.

³: Okay, fourth wall breaking time! I love to write, it’s one of few things that brings me joy in this world. The idea that someone couldn’t be asked to cajole a friend into writing a few lines is criminal. I know there are numerous folk out there just like me who would’ve leapt at the opportunity to write what is essentially a speculative fiction short story for a product a friend is working on. Just don’t tell them you’re using AI images, if they’re like me.

⁴: Steam’s decline, if it comes to pass, will be in large part due to their lack of moderation for slop like this. I hope people like this product’s developers do it more, maybe Valve will finally do something about it.

⁵: Let’s face it: it’s only a matter of time at the rate we’re dumping money into these companies—big AI, and AI startups alike. If it somehow manages to make life immeasurably worse for everyone, it will have been deserved.