Introduction
41 Hours is a first person shooter, developed by Texelworks and published by Valkyrie Initiative to Steam, where it was released in May 2021. EastAsiaSoft helped port it to consoles in October 2022.
Video Review
Review
As Ethan, you jump through wormholes to try to find a universe where your wife Clara is still alive. Instead you find someone who looks just like her. A cyborg known as Lea, who has 41 hours before she’s going to be taken offline because she hasn’t checked into the Cyborg offices yet. So you and her go on a journey to try and stop her from being decommissioned….or something along those lines.
Look, I’ll be honest, the story in this game made absolutely no sense at all. It was jumping all over the place, it was incoherent, and the voiced lines in the comic book strip styled cutscenes left me more in disbelief about how bad they’re delivered, to actually pay attention to whatever the hell is actually happening in this game. Even when I did try to pay attention, it made no sense, especially when it came to scene changes. One second I was in a science facility, hacking computers to try and find Lea, only to step through a door and be in one of the seven circles of hell, as I’m going “HOW DID I GET HERE!?”
So maybe I’m not the best person to ask about anything when it comes to the situation in the story, but when it comes to the rest of the game…well it’s kind of hit and miss. Mostly miss to be honest. The game is a fast and frenetic time that reminds me a lot of past shooters like the original Far Cry or Crysis. I was always zooming around the maps at crazy speeds and I felt awesome because of it. The gunplay was alright. The guns felt alright to use except the biggest issue is that the bullets didn’t go straight. This is a big issue, especially when I’m trying to snipe enemies far away, and I can’t even hold my breath! Doesn’t help that even with a silencer the enemies knew where I was.
You can put attachments on your guns, but it’s so unfriendly in the controls that I felt like I was trying to remember how to do a damn fatality in Mortal Kombat. Hold this button and press this button to switch this attachment, or to add this attachment, or use this ability. Just give me a damn menu or a choice wheel while holding R1 or something!
The game has some super moves you get at your disposal, like the ability to go invisible to sneak past enemies, or if you’re like me, you just slow down time the whole game. This gave me the chance to dodge damage and if I got hit, it was only for half damage. The best time I had in the game was sliding into enemies in slow motion, which killed them instantly, and watching them just ragdoll around. It never got old.
The levels took place in giant sandboxes that were mostly empty, and had you always running from one side to the other to do your objective. Luckily the objective is always marked for you or I’d be lost constantly while running. It didn’t help that while you ran you had to hold the sprint button as opposed to toggling the sprint. Sure it was an unlimited sprint, but you could at least save the players muscles by not making them hold the button through these giant landscapes. A few have some platforming that require you to either just jump generally from platform to platform, and some that require you to use your telekinesis and build up a platform. These both had their issues.
With telekinesis, you could not rotate the items you have held at all. This made it extremely difficult to position stuff. Oh sure I could move it closer to me or further away, but what good does that do? When I had to jump from platforms, especially ones that were moving, I found myself propelled off of them in the direction the platform was moving. Even if I went off it backwards, while being slow. It was aggravating and made me rage a ton. Why have these mechanics if you don’t fine tune them!?
Rating
Pros:
- Sliding Into Enemies
- Feels Fast Like Classic Shooters
Cons:
- Nonsensical Story
- Bullets Don’t go Straight
- Platforming Sucks
Summary
I don’t know what else to say. This game is not great. Sure I had fun sliding around really fast, but outside of that, there’s so many issues and it doesn’t even have a story to save it. I don’t think I could recommend this game. It doesn’t help that it’s advertised as a 20 hour journey, but I had it done in maybe 6 hours. Just lies and tragedy everywhere!
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Game & Developer Information
Developer Website: Texelworks
Developer Socials: FaceBook
Publisher Website: EastAsiaSoft
Publisher Socials: Twitter
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