Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure

The technical implementation is a bit lackluster; the game is so incredibly resource hungry, that, on lower specs (yet above minimum), when rain sets in on a complex scene, the mouse cursor starts developing up to 3 seconds of lag. Pathfinding has issues where characters get stuck in a shuffle for 20+ seconds until it gets resolved (luckily automatically, since most of the time the cursor is disabled and you cannot abort your action). Clicking on an exit arrow by accident cannot be cancelled. A bunch of functions aren't accessible with just a mouse; you cannot access the menu or save without a keyboard. And there are rare loading time spikes (>1minute on SSD). The majority of puzzles are very easy, with five exceptions: - Using items players have to assume are for an entirely different purpose to open up an inaccessible area with the only clue to do so being your own desperation. - Tedious manual jumping puzzles (great with a laggy mouse cursor) because the pathfinding does not cover the level layout. - Requiring a basic grasp of latin to not have to brute force your way through a collection of books where it's not obvious you can even select words. - Puzzles that become near impossible if you start from the wrong panel (there's no hint nudging you into the right direction if you're stuck at the "wrong" beginning). Just because this is a point&click adventure game this doesn't mean one has to flood it with in-your-face references to games from other studios. If all references would be as tastefully integrated as the Rap Battle, this would not be an issue - but there are items solely for the purpose of being a reference. This is really sad and takes from the experience. While the game has its flaws, it is a nice story that gave me 10 hours of fun (and 2 hours of frustration). I'm sure a couple of the issues might get fixed with a patch. This is one of the few games I played to completion, which means a lot these days. If you like point&clicks, pick this one up.

Visually this is a good-looking game, vibrant colors, pleasant designs, the animations are well done and fairly fluid. Voice acting is decent, no complaints there. Humor is so-so. Only some of the jokes land, a lot of them come off as too forced, with one too many 4th wall breaking gags and wink wink type humor. Next to no toilet humor though which I always appreciate. Puzzles range from very obvious solutions to mind-boggingly convoluted. (The Pentagram puzzle... sweet lord. That was roughly 3 layers to abstract for a mere mortal to comprehend.) Gameplay is classic pointing & clicking. Not a single quick time event! Yay! Also you have 2 main characters: Buzz the everyguy (plus his talking, snarky cat) and Don R. Ketype (get it?) who is a personified 60s Noir Thriller pastiche. I enjoyed Ketype's portion of the game much more than Buzz's. He's oddly likable for the walking cliche that he is, and managed to actually make me laugh now and then, and his puzzles were better thought through as well. Buzz on the other hand has no personality to speak of, and partakes in way too much filler dialogue with NPCs that ultimately goes nowhere. I think Gibbous' biggest flaw is that it's way too in love with its own lore. Regularly characters will info-dump you for 10 minutes straight about stuff you could not care less about. There's also a real tonal problem, the story can't decide whether it wants to be your typical fantasy/geek culture parody or have an actual storyline. It even throws a pointless and unearned tearjerker ending at you. Oh and a sequel bait too while it's at it. Argh.

I grew up playing LucasArts and Sierra adventure games and Gibbous does a very good job of capturing the same feeling I had back then. The music is great, the art fantastic and the puzzles won't make you feel stupid. And if you're old like me, there's a whole lotta fun references and jokes to make you feel your age ;) Gibbous is well worth the time and cost, recommended.

I've only just gotten to the 2nd chapter so I'm giving my overall impressions. The art in this game is amazing, all the detail and the animations - wow! The lines are funny too, love how there are several replies to the same action. I'm not a die hard point-and-click gamer or Lovecraft fan so some of the references were way over my head but that's really the only thing I could find to comment on - less references would make every line equally enjoyable for people like me too, but the game overall is great as is.