Lilly Looking Through

There was a time in which I thought gaming meant, by definition, being a first person shooter or battle strategy enthusiast (which I am not). By chance I found Samorost/Samorost 2, and from there Machinarium, and from there the entire spectrum of indie/adventure/puzzle games which both piqued my interest and expanded my definition. I mention this to point out that a lot of the flaws other reviewers found in this game -- short length, pixel hunting, repetitive actions, progress-slowing animations -- brought me back to that first time I played Samorost, inspiring more happy nostalgia than frustration. I can not overstate how much I loved playing this game. The art is gorgeous, reminiscent of both film animation and fine children's books. The gameplay mostly exists to support/further the art, but if you're into the atmosphere that can be surprisingly ok. Why, then, the low star rating? It's all about the ending. There's so little to this style of game that their storylines alone can make or break them. Realistically they are interactive stories more they are proper puzzles. Until the very end, Lilly Looking Through was a simply told story with a low-key undercurrent of suspense. And then ... nothing. No conclusion, no closure, no explanations, no return home, no nothing. The problem is not that the game is short -- wonderful stories can be short -- it's that it's either incomplete or a poorly told tale. It would have taken very little to give Lilly a reasonably satisfying conclusion while still leaving it open to sequels, if the creators so desired. Shortening it by a chapter would have nearly accomplished this by itself. Having chosen instead so ambiguous and abrupt an ending is confusing, frustrating, and was, in the end, destructive to the quality of the game itself.

The good: It does look very nice. The places you visit almost look like a myst game. The background musik fits and puzzles are not too simple or too hard. The titular game mechanic is interesting . The bad: It is quite short. If you play adventures often, you will need 3-4 hours tops. There is kind of a story, but the game begins and ends too abruptly, giving you only a glimpse of a wondrous world. Beware: color blind may have a disadvantage. Buy if it's on sale or you have an rainy evening to get past.

Bought this for the kids. The artwork is beautiful, it's sort of a click-thru story, but the mechanics of the game are unfortunately lacking. Main complaints: 1. the kids got stuck on a puzzle, I tried it & couldn't figure it out (what thing am I supposed to click on that I'm not clicking on?? Yeah I've played thru several zeldas, I get puzzle games), that was GAME OVER for us. 2. some of the puzzles require you to tediously click thru several steps in sequence. If you get a step wrong, the puzzle resets and you have to click thru the SLOW sequence of steps all over. This just gets boring if you're stuck on a puzzle-- each attempt iteration simply takes too long. Add more hints for kids or make the things to click on more obvious in time or something, & make it so you can iterate thru the puzzles a bit quicker.

LLT is a nice demo of a game that should be. Graphics are lovely, gameplay is ok, but it's too short to be called a complete game.

Wonderful indie game, with beautiful hand drawn graphics and animations. However, the game is very short and the ending is a major letdown. The game is divided into ten levels. Each level requires the completion of a set of linear point-and-click tasks and puzzles. Lilly has the ability to alternate between the present and the past using her goggles, which is required to complete the tasks. This ability opens the door to very interesting game dynamics, but, unfortunately, the developers did not explore it sufficiently. Most puzzles are straightforward but somewhat rewarding, although they become repetitive. The colour puzzles in the last levels, arguably the most difficult in the game, are logical once the mechanics become clear, but that requires annoying and time consuming experimentation due to lack of feedback. In any case, I completed the game with a kid in ca. 3h without any walkthrough. So, the game is very short. The alternation between past and present makes for an engaging story that could have been completed in multiple satisfactory ways. The major issue with this game is that it abruptly stops on a cliffhanger that adds absolutely nothing to what was experienced so far. Even if this game was meant to be the first part of a series, the ending would have been a complete disappointment. But this game was funded in Kickstarter as a single title, not as a series. To make matters worse, the developers got double the funding they requested in Kickstarter, so the unfinished ending is simply unforgivable. I rate this game 2 starts because it is somewhat rewarding, especially if you play it with a kid. But even the kids will be disappointed with the ending. Only buy this game at a major sale.