Lair of the Clockwork God

It's pretty cool visually and the tutorial seems okay and funny but: - platforming is millimetric which i hate, you have to be extremely precise. - the humour gets old really fast. - puzzles are not that smart. - lots of collision bugs. - did i mentioned it's very annoying at how precise you must be when "platforming" ?.. Not a bad game for maximum 4€..

Love the humor. Breaks the fourth wall in a very interesting way at times, not just with the jokes but at often with the gameplay itself. Interesting story with some fun twists and turns. Some puzzles are easy, some are very obtuse, and some are amazingly clever. The game is easily played by people who are not experts at either of it's 'genres'. It's more about enjoying the fun interactions and banter between the duo. Lots of accessibility options including "platform assist" to make the platforming sections easier, options to turn off camera shake, color blindness mode, dyslexic-friendly font mode.

11 years after their last collaboration, Ben Ward and Dan Marshall released ‘Lair of the Clockwork God’. This game is unlike their previous works in that it’s a platforming and adventure game hybrid. In ‘Lair’, Ben has remained faithful to old-school adventure games, and Dan has moved on to side-scrolling action platformers. Ben refuses to do anything action-y (not even taking a step up or down) and Dan refuses to pick up anything or solve any puzzles. Their divergence sets up some interesting gaming fun. The mix of action platforming and adventure gameplay will require you to switch between Ben and Dan, making use of former’s adventuring skillsets, and latter’s platforming prowess, to complete each level. If you have strong distaste for either genre, ‘Lair’ may not be for you. If not, you just may find this game to be one of the more innovative, creative, and funny games to be released in recent years. I found the difficulty level of ‘Lair’ to be just right. While I’m not that great at platformers, I never found the platforming to be frustrating. Both adventuring and platforming sections require lateral thinking at times, especially when there are cleverly implemented fourth-wall-breaking gameplay. To write more about this will simply give the brilliant parts away. Humour in ‘Lair’ is on-point: self-referential and geeky, sprinkled with puns, pop culture references, as well as mature and scatological jokes. The gags start from the very beginning (check out the title cards) and don’t stop until the game is over. All the while, Ben and Dan don’t shy from commenting on game designs and tropes of past and present. I think fans of video games will find their insight both funny and perceptive. I find it very easy to recommend ‘Lair’. It’s fun, smart, witty, and well-designed. Although its mixed genre gameplay may give you pause in getting it, I believe you will find it to be nicely balanced, and you will likely enjoy it regardless of your genre of preference.

i was sceptical about the platforming first, but aside from having to try some parts a couple of times (respawning points are fair set), it was pretty smooth. very varied level design and gameplay, with some fun out of the box puzzles. just some weird bugs/glitches (not talking bout the intentional one) are annoying, had to restart the game on 2-3 occasions because of that. as a point & click fan i must admit that i actually enjoyed it even a bit more than their point & click adventures (gamepad highly recommended though).

Loved the previous adventures, so was reeeally glad to get another adventure. And I got that. But I got more. A lot more. Genius combination of genres, with the switching betwwen the characters and their skills adding another genre, Great puzzles, hilarious dialogue, great story. The platform parts were challenging but not impossible at all. Thank you Ben and Dan!