Delicious Fruit
Download Game Screenshots
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by Bob
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by Cosmoing
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by Cosmoing
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by Cosmoing
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by YGamingDude
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by YGamingDude
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by Cosmoing
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by Bob
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by Bob
12 Reviews:
Cosmoing
I think a fair disclaimer is in order: this is one of my least favorite fangames. I stopped on the second to last boss, which does mean I've experienced all the platforming. I'm probably going to be a bit harsh and not very objective at all in this review.
Gaze at the Horizon is a very long adventure game with a strong focus on the IWBTG fangame style of puzzles. A one of a kind experience, it pushes this genre to its absolute limits in both complexity and difficulty, and in large parts, I found this to be for the worst.
Let's start with the parts I enjoyed since it's pretty short: Necoroneko's visuals are awesome. Everything seems to have been made by them and there's a lot of effort put even in the smallest details here. Special mention to the kid transformations into slime and spike. I also enjoyed the second half of stage 5, as it had very little platforming focus and individual screens didn't take long. Stage 6 as well for similar reasons. I think that about does it.
There's a lot to dislike about this game, whether it's the touch saves, weird difficulty balance in the platforming parts, extremely questionable gimmicks (pink slimes and nuclear tetris), penalty areas for pausing in a boss... but I think the core offender has to be the maker trying to use every inch of every screen. Some of these puzzle screens have some good ideas which involve using known gimmicks or combining gimmicks in new and creative ways, but this ALWAYS ends up being maybe a tenth of the actual save. The rest of the screen will be filled up with the exact same stuff you already know how to do: you just need to do it in the right order! On top of that, this maker loves tedium and will make you run back and forth between 2 parts of the screen, so expect saves to last several minutes. And since it's IWBTG, you make a single mistake, and it's all back to the start. This is truly the peak of IWBTG fangame puzzle platforming as it showcases its inherent flaw in ways that go beyond infuriating. I gave up halfway through keypick and started using other people's playthroughs.
The bosses are also pretty bad in general. They usually reference the stage gimmick or theme in some way, which is good, but every single one of them has at least one really terrible thing which ends up ruining the fight, ranging from way too much HP to relying on random attacks to progress to Needle Jumpscare. All really simple things that anyone could play and think "Yeah, this would be better without that".
So the platforming is generally some of the worst I've ever had to go through, and the bosses are a disappointment in nearly every case. I'll remember the few good moments I've had playing this game very fondly and wish they had a bigger highlight, but as it is, I cannot recommend this game. Just go play a real puzzle game.
[3] Likes
Gaze at the Horizon is a very long adventure game with a strong focus on the IWBTG fangame style of puzzles. A one of a kind experience, it pushes this genre to its absolute limits in both complexity and difficulty, and in large parts, I found this to be for the worst.
Let's start with the parts I enjoyed since it's pretty short: Necoroneko's visuals are awesome. Everything seems to have been made by them and there's a lot of effort put even in the smallest details here. Special mention to the kid transformations into slime and spike. I also enjoyed the second half of stage 5, as it had very little platforming focus and individual screens didn't take long. Stage 6 as well for similar reasons. I think that about does it.
There's a lot to dislike about this game, whether it's the touch saves, weird difficulty balance in the platforming parts, extremely questionable gimmicks (pink slimes and nuclear tetris), penalty areas for pausing in a boss... but I think the core offender has to be the maker trying to use every inch of every screen. Some of these puzzle screens have some good ideas which involve using known gimmicks or combining gimmicks in new and creative ways, but this ALWAYS ends up being maybe a tenth of the actual save. The rest of the screen will be filled up with the exact same stuff you already know how to do: you just need to do it in the right order! On top of that, this maker loves tedium and will make you run back and forth between 2 parts of the screen, so expect saves to last several minutes. And since it's IWBTG, you make a single mistake, and it's all back to the start. This is truly the peak of IWBTG fangame puzzle platforming as it showcases its inherent flaw in ways that go beyond infuriating. I gave up halfway through keypick and started using other people's playthroughs.
The bosses are also pretty bad in general. They usually reference the stage gimmick or theme in some way, which is good, but every single one of them has at least one really terrible thing which ends up ruining the fight, ranging from way too much HP to relying on random attacks to progress to Needle Jumpscare. All really simple things that anyone could play and think "Yeah, this would be better without that".
So the platforming is generally some of the worst I've ever had to go through, and the bosses are a disappointment in nearly every case. I'll remember the few good moments I've had playing this game very fondly and wish they had a bigger highlight, but as it is, I cannot recommend this game. Just go play a real puzzle game.
Rating: 2.0 20
Difficulty: 85 85
Oct 12, 2022
Chance
It's a great puzzle game but I think I'm too wooden-headed to play through it WutFace
Tagged as: Puzzle
[2] Likes
Rating: 7.3 73
Difficulty: N/A
May 2, 2018
Nick24
Welcome to horizon - it used to be the hardest puzzle fangame before lockpick's full release, but it's still one of the hardest platforming challenges out there. Idk what others were cooking giving this game under 90 and one of the reviews straight up 62 (???). Definitely mostly a delfruit underrated moment. Like there is a bunch of saves which take 5 or more minutes to solve even if you know the route, and if you mess up somewhere - to the beginning you go. That doesn't sound like below 90.
Despite the hardest puzzle game title, the game has a warm welcome. Tutorial stage was fine, except you can ponder on the first puzzle for a bit, but it won't take hours. Just like 10 minutes.
The actual first stage is, in fact, not even a puzzle stage. It's just needle with weird spike shapes and some killable slimes thrown in, sometimes just to make saves longer, but yeah, nothing special. The first boss was also manageable, the only hard attack is a pattern, so there's no point in dropping the game here.
And then we proceed to stage 2. This is where the real game begins. Welcome to slimepark, the stage which will screw you up countless times - besides just puzzles, they are also based on slimes. And if you played slimepark, you would also know that those things can move, and just in general there would be a lot of tight movements to pull off. Pain! Midway through the stage, there is a big green slime "miniboss" which was inspired by boshy I guess. it's ok, but forces you to be patient. After you manage to get past that slime hell, you will encounter a pretty easy boss, which is honestly fine since the stage was mindblowing already. Game balance and stuff.
Moving on to stage 3, we, once again, encounter just platforming stage. Honestly, I would thank the author for letting us take a small break from puzzles like that. However the needle now has cycles involved and looks like genki game, but it's fine. The boss however, was a bit of a luckyfest which involves you praying for rocks to go to the direction you want.
And now, if you didn't already have enough slimes in the game, guess what? Yep, once again, a slime puzzle stage! Why... Let's just move on, the boss of this stage was free anyways.
Entering stage 5, conveyors now make an appearance. I honestly enjoyed this stage overall, and even when it threw literal pachinko at me in the end, I still had fun. Good stage, saves might be a bit long though. The boss of this game also blew my mind by how good it is. It feels like an actual boss compared to others so far - it moves, it has an area, it has various attacks (in order). The only ridiculous thing about this boss is the saws attack, but it's still learnable, so no problems at all. GB roll is also hilarious. Neko is quite the comedian.
Stage 6. Barley-break. It's those kinds of puzzles where you move pieces around in a closed space. Inbetween them, various mazes were also provided, the design of which blows my mind by how well it was made. And after beating this stage, the game ends! I had several runs of beating the game from the beginning to clearing this and I had a lot of fun! It's a great gAAaAaaaAammMeee--------
As if it would end like that. I just mark this as a check point. Just like the game really begins on stage 2, the game becomes BRUTAL starting from boss 6. Also starting from here all bosses except the final are in 3x3 square area. This one 3x3 squarer is a memory boss! And it's inhuman... Luckily there is a later version of the game which has 3 hints available, so it's all about just getting lucky to survive one long memory part.
Note: starting from stage 7, I started literally putting transparent video playthrough on my game window, so I won't even bother commenting anything about them. The only thing I can say is that I found spike doors hilarious. However I do have to say something about the boss here: it has a huge exploit - you just concentrate on a single door while standing in the left corner. Also shoutouts to this boss being literally named "Chad". The comedian strikes again, I'm not even sure if it was before the meme hit...
Stage 8. You move tetris blocks around by shooting them. Good! Can you guess what went wrong? Yep, why not add a timer on how long you can move the blocks around. Freaking incredible my dude... Now who on earth would be willing to beat that----- oh wait... I did... Hehe...
And this is where I stopped - the boss of this stage. And honestly, if you already saw the game, the reason becomes REALLY obvious. I won't even begin explaining how murderously difficult this boss is and the size of the brain you need to have. Just watch a video! Luckily someone even speedruns this game...
uh so, remember how I said boss 8 is murderously difficult? well, I beat it... apparently I gave it a shot after a year and for some reason it became really learnable. Also shoutouts to hints for being a real mvp and skipping entirety of gravity switch final, even though I still choked the performance part of it a bit. Definitely the hardest boss in the game though.
Well, look where we arrived now - it's the final stage! The platforming in this stage is basically almost non-existant, just a filler for the "impending doom approaches" feel I guess. You might think I'm bluffing, especially if you though the "needle" screen, but no! The thing is, there is a... uh... "skip" on it. For more information on that, read Xplayerlol's review, I'm just gonna add to it that giving up is pressing the esc key. And just like that, the time has come to Gaze at the Horizon once and for all!
Finally, time to end it all with last boss. Being honest here, this one was not bad at all! I even kinda liked it. The theme of this boss is "everything you learned", which is honestly the only way good puzzle fangames go these days. It starts with not so hard to learn pattern, then goes into something like colonel platform phase with flying slimes, followed into a bit of bs rng phase for 20 seconds. Phase 4 is quite a patience check, but nothing too bad, there are some strats for exploding the blocks in any state. Phase 5 is honestly the most fun part, the jump roullette. Phase 6 is, oh no, a memory boss, however you get a really fat hint in a latest version which essencially skips the bs part, making you memorize just 6 swings on the easy part. Phase 7, just like Chad, is totally abusable in the corner, makes the fight a bit longer though. And finally, the last phase being boss 8, with gravity flips each turn, which is just how final attacks go and should be - absolutely insane. Luckily you get a hint for like 3-4 turns, so you're being forced to read just 6-7 turns. However, something that I did, and you might call it a bit of unfair play, is dragging a window... Hey! The boss literally has an animation of dissolving into pieces and flying up, so you have all time in the world to put your mouse on the game border. There is no way this is not feature, right?
And just like that, the game is finally over, and what a freaking journey it was - spanning for 4 years of random attempts trying to come back to the game, only to hit a wall again and then repeating the process. At last, there are no walls left to hit now, crazy... Honestly speaking, I actually liked the game - not as a puzzle game, but more like a challenge. Final boss was also really fun to me so here's another reason. So yeah, if you ever feel like challenging yourself in the weirdest way possible - I would totally recomend this game.
[1] Like
Despite the hardest puzzle game title, the game has a warm welcome. Tutorial stage was fine, except you can ponder on the first puzzle for a bit, but it won't take hours. Just like 10 minutes.
The actual first stage is, in fact, not even a puzzle stage. It's just needle with weird spike shapes and some killable slimes thrown in, sometimes just to make saves longer, but yeah, nothing special. The first boss was also manageable, the only hard attack is a pattern, so there's no point in dropping the game here.
And then we proceed to stage 2. This is where the real game begins. Welcome to slimepark, the stage which will screw you up countless times - besides just puzzles, they are also based on slimes. And if you played slimepark, you would also know that those things can move, and just in general there would be a lot of tight movements to pull off. Pain! Midway through the stage, there is a big green slime "miniboss" which was inspired by boshy I guess. it's ok, but forces you to be patient. After you manage to get past that slime hell, you will encounter a pretty easy boss, which is honestly fine since the stage was mindblowing already. Game balance and stuff.
Moving on to stage 3, we, once again, encounter just platforming stage. Honestly, I would thank the author for letting us take a small break from puzzles like that. However the needle now has cycles involved and looks like genki game, but it's fine. The boss however, was a bit of a luckyfest which involves you praying for rocks to go to the direction you want.
And now, if you didn't already have enough slimes in the game, guess what? Yep, once again, a slime puzzle stage! Why... Let's just move on, the boss of this stage was free anyways.
Entering stage 5, conveyors now make an appearance. I honestly enjoyed this stage overall, and even when it threw literal pachinko at me in the end, I still had fun. Good stage, saves might be a bit long though. The boss of this game also blew my mind by how good it is. It feels like an actual boss compared to others so far - it moves, it has an area, it has various attacks (in order). The only ridiculous thing about this boss is the saws attack, but it's still learnable, so no problems at all. GB roll is also hilarious. Neko is quite the comedian.
Stage 6. Barley-break. It's those kinds of puzzles where you move pieces around in a closed space. Inbetween them, various mazes were also provided, the design of which blows my mind by how well it was made. And after beating this stage, the game ends! I had several runs of beating the game from the beginning to clearing this and I had a lot of fun! It's a great gAAaAaaaAammMeee--------
As if it would end like that. I just mark this as a check point. Just like the game really begins on stage 2, the game becomes BRUTAL starting from boss 6. Also starting from here all bosses except the final are in 3x3 square area. This one 3x3 squarer is a memory boss! And it's inhuman... Luckily there is a later version of the game which has 3 hints available, so it's all about just getting lucky to survive one long memory part.
Note: starting from stage 7, I started literally putting transparent video playthrough on my game window, so I won't even bother commenting anything about them. The only thing I can say is that I found spike doors hilarious. However I do have to say something about the boss here: it has a huge exploit - you just concentrate on a single door while standing in the left corner. Also shoutouts to this boss being literally named "Chad". The comedian strikes again, I'm not even sure if it was before the meme hit...
Stage 8. You move tetris blocks around by shooting them. Good! Can you guess what went wrong? Yep, why not add a timer on how long you can move the blocks around. Freaking incredible my dude... Now who on earth would be willing to beat that----- oh wait... I did... Hehe...
And this is where I stopped - the boss of this stage. And honestly, if you already saw the game, the reason becomes REALLY obvious. I won't even begin explaining how murderously difficult this boss is and the size of the brain you need to have. Just watch a video! Luckily someone even speedruns this game...
uh so, remember how I said boss 8 is murderously difficult? well, I beat it... apparently I gave it a shot after a year and for some reason it became really learnable. Also shoutouts to hints for being a real mvp and skipping entirety of gravity switch final, even though I still choked the performance part of it a bit. Definitely the hardest boss in the game though.
Well, look where we arrived now - it's the final stage! The platforming in this stage is basically almost non-existant, just a filler for the "impending doom approaches" feel I guess. You might think I'm bluffing, especially if you though the "needle" screen, but no! The thing is, there is a... uh... "skip" on it. For more information on that, read Xplayerlol's review, I'm just gonna add to it that giving up is pressing the esc key. And just like that, the time has come to Gaze at the Horizon once and for all!
Finally, time to end it all with last boss. Being honest here, this one was not bad at all! I even kinda liked it. The theme of this boss is "everything you learned", which is honestly the only way good puzzle fangames go these days. It starts with not so hard to learn pattern, then goes into something like colonel platform phase with flying slimes, followed into a bit of bs rng phase for 20 seconds. Phase 4 is quite a patience check, but nothing too bad, there are some strats for exploding the blocks in any state. Phase 5 is honestly the most fun part, the jump roullette. Phase 6 is, oh no, a memory boss, however you get a really fat hint in a latest version which essencially skips the bs part, making you memorize just 6 swings on the easy part. Phase 7, just like Chad, is totally abusable in the corner, makes the fight a bit longer though. And finally, the last phase being boss 8, with gravity flips each turn, which is just how final attacks go and should be - absolutely insane. Luckily you get a hint for like 3-4 turns, so you're being forced to read just 6-7 turns. However, something that I did, and you might call it a bit of unfair play, is dragging a window... Hey! The boss literally has an animation of dissolving into pieces and flying up, so you have all time in the world to put your mouse on the game border. There is no way this is not feature, right?
And just like that, the game is finally over, and what a freaking journey it was - spanning for 4 years of random attempts trying to come back to the game, only to hit a wall again and then repeating the process. At last, there are no walls left to hit now, crazy... Honestly speaking, I actually liked the game - not as a puzzle game, but more like a challenge. Final boss was also really fun to me so here's another reason. So yeah, if you ever feel like challenging yourself in the weirdest way possible - I would totally recomend this game.
Rating: 9.7 97
Difficulty: 85 85
Jan 9, 2019