Posted on: June 7, 2024

Egathentale

Games: 52 Reviews: 5

A great game with issues

This is a tragicomedy detective game about a slightly crazy amnesiac detective and the many voices in his head trying to solve a murder case in a run-down, diesel-punk low-fantasy setting. The game can be broadly divided into two parts: the first half is about the investigation, where our detective tries to find out more about the case, the people of the neighborhood, their own past, and the police gear they misplaced during the events leading up to their amnesia. This is by far the strongest part of the game, full of memorable characters, great moments, and an actual mystery to unravel. The player has to figure out who's lying and why, all the while taking care of side-tasks and making sure to earn enough money on the side It's a slow but engaging start, but even here, a bunch of problems are present. First off, the copotype is already a bit heavy handed, but the real problem is the whole "political alignment" system. The player's options on said politics are more often than not just childish, with the available options all being over-the-top caricatures and various flavors of crazy (except for communists, of course, who are just well-intentioned underdogs). They distract from the actual murder mystery, and even if one tries to just avoid them altogether to focus on the plot, the game still labels the player a "laughable centrist". Overall, I think that ignoring the political options altogether is the best way to play the game. The bigger issue, however, is the last stretch. You strike out all the suspects, wait for some big reveal to turn everything upside down, you get an (admittedly really good) action sequence, and then... it turns out there's no twist. The real killer was just some old guy on an island driven mad by a certain poison whom we've never seen or heard of before. You interrogate him, he confesses, then there's a final evaluation of your performance, and then FIN. It's still a one-of-a-kind game, but damn, that was a bit of a let-down...

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Posted on: November 5, 2019

bdbabiak

Verified owner

Games: 13 Reviews: 2

Outstanding, novel game

This combines elements of open world games, text games, and RPG games. It's also a giant open world. It's easily over 200 hours of content with multiple outcomes and interactions for your character. The dialog can get quite out there, esoteric, and laugh-out-loud funny at times. Some parts like the dream and vision sequences can have alternatively a horror edge. This is quite a unique game, very well written and lots of emotional range. Your character levels up different emotional, physical, or intellectual traits as desired. The clothing and drugs acquired also adjust these same traits in certain ways. Certain tasks and interaction are dependent on dice rolls with ability points plus clothing points, much like D&D. Also, certain psychological thoughts you can dwell on can overcome certain obstacles or open up new areas, but since you're limited in how many of these thoughts you can install at a time, there's in no possible way to explore it all in a single play through. There are many crossing paths and outcomes, and whole different places can open up over time. There are religious, political and social themes your character can adopt in the game.

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Posted on: November 12, 2019

diskdusk

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 2

It's just perfect

This game includes the best dialogue writing at least since "Planescape Torment". It's intellectually stimulating, has an unbelievable clever humour that made me laugh really loud a lot of times. It really takes you on a trip through a maze of interesting, absurd thoughts and a solid crime story. I suggest this even to people who normally don't like "RPGs" but enjoyed Point and Click Adventures, because it's kind of a cross-over. And it belongs to the best game of all times in both genres. I am in love!

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Posted on: March 21, 2020

sunshinecorp

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 9

An Absolute Masterpiece!

For me. this is the game that finally dethroned Planescape: Torment. While utilizing completely different mechanics (which are in themselves brilliantly unique and quirky -- in a good way), the writing is not only THAT good, it's WAY BETTER. The world and the lore and the characters and the introspection and the inner demons and the case itself... oh dear... every bit of this game is flawless. A flawless little gem that ruined gaming for me for a while. Because what can I now play that will top this? Nothing that I know of...

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Posted on: April 1, 2020

Calkebab

Verified owner

Games: 330 Reviews: 3

A true masterpiece

Remember the glory days of Planescape: Torment? This game is like that. I realize the weight of those words, and I still happily write them. In my opinion, this is the first computer roleplaying game that is on par With Planescape: Torment. Some games came near, like the excellent Shadowrun series, Planescape: Tides of Numenera or Tyranny, but this game overshadows them. The writing is superb, in a noire dystopyan setting that challenges your moral stance and political beliefs. Everything is dialogue driven and there is no combat at all (you can punch someone in the face with a dialogue choice though). You start the game by waking up with a hellish hangover and no memory. You're a detective trying to solve a case. You'll meet many colourful characters along the way and many dialogues can play out in entirely different ways depending on your approach. Your 'skills' are composed of 24 different aspects of your brain, devided into four categories: intellect, psyche, physque and motorics. The higher the skill, the stronger the thoughts in your head. This can also be 'negative'. If, eg. you put points into electrochemistry, the 'skill' of doing drugs and of giving in to seduction, thoughts related to these are stronger. Note that I put negative between quotes. That's becasue this is a perfectly viable way to play your character. The downsides are minor. The game runs very well on my machine. The only downside is that some skills are more useful than others as they pop up more. Oh, if you hate reading a lot and/or like combat intensive games, this game is not for you.

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