《My Arms Are Longer Now》有伸展但缺乏抓握

My Arms Are Longer Now Preview

Jackbox Games has built its reputation on party games, so a single-player heist comedy about a ridiculously long arm is quite the departure. Developed by Melbourne-based Toot Games, the studio led by Matthew Jackson and Millie Holten, this 2D stealth game marks Jackbox’s first published title from an outside team. CEO Mike Bilder says players wanted a solo adventure with the company’s signature humor, and My Arms Are Longer Now is the result. After playing the demo, two things come to mind: the concept is hilarious, but the execution needs plenty of work.

In My Arms Are Longer Now, you play as, well, an arm. Said arm snakes through each level, grabs whatever isn’t nailed down, and retracts to safety like a vacuum cord. Hot on your heels is a hard-boiled detective who’s just one week away from retirement (please don’t die). The store page even teases a sock-covered hand flirting with a lonely guard, which is precisely the kind of ridiculous nonsense I’d hope to see from a game about being an appendage.

Steal Everything

The developers also promise missions ranging from bicycle theft to sabotaging children’s birthday parties. I can’t comment on those just yet, since the demo only offered a small taste of what’s to come. Still, the premise had me hooked almost immediately. Slapstick comedy mixed with puzzle-solving has been the basis for some brilliant games lately, like Thank Goodness You’re Here. If My Arms Are Longer Now can tap into what made that game great, we’ll have a winner.

The writing is easily My Arms Are Longer Now’s biggest strength. The dialogue is funny, and the voice actors deliver every ridiculous line with the kind of oddball commitment that makes the absurdity work. The problem is that you’ll hear the same lines repeated ad nauseam. Dialogue repeats so often that the humor wears thin quickly. A joke that made me laugh the first time had me rolling my eyes by the tenth. To keep things fresh, Toot Games needs a much larger pool of dialogue before launch.

Mixed Bag

The visuals complement the comedy nicely. The crude art style fits the experience, and nothing about the presentation feels like it’s trying to be something it isn’t. The soundtrack also keeps things light with its bouncy tunes. I caught myself nodding along during my time with My Arms Are Longer Now, but the music loops far too frequently. By the end, I’d heard the same track so many times it could last me until I’m in my sixties.

Unfortunately, the fun starts to dip as soon as I actually get control of the arm. Everything feels incredibly janky. The tutorial barely covers the basics of movement, and while the controls themselves are simple enough to learn, the game does a poor job explaining its mechanics. A few additional prompts would make a noticeable difference.

The Future Could Be Bright

The bugs only make matters worse. Items clip through objects and disappear entirely, which is especially frustrating in a game built around physics and a flailing, stretchy limb. Precision matters when you’re trying to steal loot from right under a guard’s nose, and these hiccups severely hinder the experience. I understand that demos are unfinished by nature, but the problems here are hard to ignore.

Jackbox has really carved a name for itself over the last five years. If you want games where you and your friends can get together and laugh, they’re hard to beat. And I do think this solo experiment has enough personality to stand on its own. It simply needs tighter controls, more dialogue, and a better tutorial. My Arms Are Longer Now is scheduled to arrive on Steam, Epic, and consoles in 2027. On the plus side, its modest system requirements mean hardware shouldn’t be a problem. But if these wrongs aren’t corrected before launch, we’re gonna have an issue.

***A Steam key was provided for this preview***

The post My Arms Are Longer Now Has Reach But No Grip appeared first on COGconnected.