The main mechanics of Haydee are exploration, platforming, puzzles, and combat. The difficulty of this game comes down to very limited resources, high stakes in any encounter and severe punishments. Outside of the silly pictures of nude women plastered on key cards and consumables in the uncensored mode, there is no actual sexual content in this game. 1. Exploration The map is structured into separate, colour-coded sectors. Within each sector, the room layouts can veer rather complex. Often, the game subtly nudges the player where they need to go. Other times, it has them running around in circles. Frequently, secrets as well as progression are hidden in rather obscure places, demanding the player be careful and attentive in their exploration. The game loop for exploration in this game comes down to picking a door or hatch that is not locked and seeing where that takes you. Some paths branch off into wildly different directions, which is why it is easy to get turned around in this game. 2. Platforming There are a lot of bottomless pits to jump over and boxes and ledges to climb. The controls for the movement are rather stiff and feel slow. But after a bit of getting used to it, Haydee controls well: The jumps come out with no jank, and the game is pretty fair about what it demands off the player. It is very punishing, though, so attention should always be payed before each leap. The game loop for platforming in this game comes down to checking rooms for jumpable gaps and ledges, and after every jump, looking for the next jump that won't be fatal. Some jumps lead the player down the garden path, though. Hence, the careful player will look where they need to go before taking a jump there is no returning from. 3. Puzzles This game is Metroidvania in the following sense: It will present the player with locked doors to return to once they have found the fitting key. Often, useful secrets and progression are found via backtracking to other sectors. Beyond that, Haydee faces the player with the occasional platforming or logic puzzle. Those mostly turn out as pretty simple, however. The puzzle solving game loop of Haydee comes in three flavours: - For platforming puzzles, the player identifies a jump that brings them closer to where they need to go--or anywhere at all--and takes it. Repeat until finished. - For logic puzzles, the player identifies the pattern of the puzzle and then beats it, either methodically or by seeing what sticks. - For backtracking, the player has to remember some locked passage, continues exploring, and then returns with a suitable "key." If the key does not fit, try again. The Black sector and Yellow sector are noteworthy examples of an overarching puzzle underlying the exploration of an entire sector. Those are likely the most intricate and time-consuming individual puzzles in the game. 4. Combat Over the course of the game, the player encounters two enemy types, and may find a variety of weapons, some being out of the way. Despite the limited enemy variety, the game throws plenty of difficult scenarios at the player. That includes plenty of suckerpunches, where enemies spawn in behind the player or out of sight. They do make a signature sound as they spawn, but a player still needs to be always vigilant if they intend not to die to those too often. The game loop for combat in this game comes down to keeping a gun in the quick bar, entering rooms with it at the ready, peeking around corners and expecting enemies to drop in anywhere, even in rooms that were already cleared before. 5. On the difficulty of this game: a) Limited resources Player find three kinds of pivotal resources in this game: ammunition, medkits, and save diskettes. The game hands these out in scant amounts, leading the player always be at risk of running out if they are not strategic about their use. Furthermore, the player's inventory is also tiny, making any loadout a painstaking choice of utility, survivability or practicality options. Without bullets or mines, the player has no way of defending themselves, putting them at significant risk of dying. On top of that, each weapon as well as its ammunition takes up a precious inventory slot, making it unavailable to other important items. Furthermore, the stacksizes for ammunition are pretty limited. Either, the player takes along multiple stacks of ammunition--if they can gather that much--or more than one weapon to make sure they never run dry. Haydee is super squishy, and nearly every missed jump and every enemy attack takes a solid chunk out of it. Every medkit is a full heal, thus making it a significant survivability option. Especially with how scarce save diskettes are, medkits pose as means to mitigate the need for impromptu saves. In this game, the player saves at savestations. Not only that, the player saves using a consumable: save diskettes. Those are also in very short supply. With there being no autosaves, each death prompts the player to load one of their saves. With strategic use of these diskettes, hopefully, the player won't risk hours of progress each time they have to make a dodgy jump or enter a room. 6. On the star of the show, Haydee: To find the camera of this game obstructive would be a fair assessment. Haydee plays off of the male gaze--viewing bodies as objects for consumption--to comedic excess: Haydee--in this game about exploration--takes up nearly half the screen, frequently with her ass taking center stage. Additionally, her boobs are so big and have so much bounce to them, they always manage to sneak into the player's vision, even though Haydee almost always has her back toward the camera. Her movements are also dramatic with a certain zest. Although it is easy to see why Haydee is commonly read as sexual, I find, the feminine energy she brings to this "hardcore" game is refreshingly brazen--as opposed to patently sexual--and helps soften its cold, unkind edge. Having played all three titles, I consider Haydee 1 my favourite, mostly because of its presentation and its restraint. To those that enjoyed this game, I recommend Haydee 3, because it has Robot-Haydee, it builds on the platforming established in the first game, and is all in all a more full-bodied experience compared to Haydee 2.
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