Memoria

If you liked "The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav" you will probably also like "Memoria". The game looks even better than its predecessor, especially the sections with princess Sadja's story which have a strong eastern theme. The animations are smoother and the effects are better. I liked the story. There were some unexpected twists towards the end. For me personally, the story of princess Sadja was the one that I found more interesting. While I also liked that Geron and Nuri's story got its closure, their story felt like it wasn't the main focus of the game and it was just kind of there. I liked that there were some returning characters from the previous game. One of the new characters that I did not like was Bryda. Without going into spoilers, I felt that she did not have enough character development for her story arc to finish the way that it did. The puzzles are better and more diverse. There are some new spells, with very interesting mechanics, that you have to use in order to solve some of the puzzles. Overall, it's a very good sequel which improves upon many aspects of the previous game. I definitely recommend it, again, especially if you can get it on sale.

This is one of the rare cases where the sequel surpasses the original in every way. The game is more polished, has a more better written story, more intriguing characters, better voice acting, a hint system that prevents player from getting stuck (and having to look up walkthroughs)... this has to be one of my favourite point-and-click adventure games of all time. A must-play for any fan of the genre.

I just finished the game and I am really impressed with the story. Not only is Sadjas part well written but also the connection to the first game, Chains of Satinav, is fantastic. And I don't just mean the adventures of Geron and Nuri. For me it was just like playing one game with 2 big chapters. The gameplay itself is good but sometimes a bit too easy for my taste. It doesn't hurt the game much but if you are looking for a game with challenging puzzle you might get disappointed. On the other hand there are a few very fun puzzles that doesn't just resolve around combining items. Overall it is an adventure that I can only recommend to anyone who enjoys these kind of games, even if its just once in a while.

After playing the first game in the Dark Eye series, I immediately played this one. I also reviewed Chains of Satinav and I thought it was an adventure with beautiful artwork, mainly let down by a main character which was dull and for which I didn't really care during the game. In this game Geron returns and I like him more this time. He's a bit more positive and with a strong will to save his love from her entrapment in an animal body. However, you'll be mostly playing as a second character in a time long before Geron's time, but her adventure is closely connected to what happens to Geron. It's nice how both stories are connected and interchanged during the game. The artwork is again very beautiful just like in the first game. However, I found the game far from perfect. The voice acting is ok, but when I played the game, it sometimes sounded like sentences were pasted together causing them to sound a bit unnatural. I also found that the game ran a bit jittery; this was the case with the animation but also with the mouse movement, a problem I didn't experience in the first game. Not a biggie, but still. The puzzles in the game are quite logical, although I found them to be more trial and error than in the first game. I also found that the puzzles are pretty contained, mostly consisting of one or a couple of screens. This makes the game quite easy. It's certainly not like the point-and-click adventures from the nineties in which puzzles spanned large portions of the game world. Lastly, I found the story pretty nice and complex, but sometimes a bit too complex with all the names, twists and turns. Especially when picking up the game after a few days, I'd often forgotten quite a few things, names and connections. Maybe because I didn't find it all very interesting and a bit illogical. This caused me to find the game a bit uninspiring, but that's my personal opinion. So, not a bad adventure game, which maybe doesn't warrant the full prize, but is nice at a discount.

As with it's predecessor The Chains of Satinav, the first thing that will strike you about Memoria is the gorgeously rendered art. The illustrated style is beautiful and every bit as suited to the narrative, as it is to the concept of traditional fantasy. The animations are smoother and more realistic than in Chains of Satinav, and the transitions are more realistic. The orchestral soundtrack is wonderful, its not overpowering and does not detract attention from the gameplay or environmental sounds. The voice-acting is particularly pleasant and the actors they have chosen are very good, (in English, I'm not sure of other language localizations) carrying across their characters emotions in a sincere and convincing way. In other titles, Daedalic have hinted at their capacity to tell stories well, and here in Memoria, they have reached a pinnacle. Each character is distinctly realized, and stay true to their motivations. The narrative itself is both an interesting interpretation of the quest story, whilst also introducing the Dark Eye setting. Less lore is revealed in this game than its predecessor, but what is revealed is done in small sections that are quick and easy to assimilate letting the story continue without getting distracred bo too many details. In addition the intertwining narratives are skillfully executed, both Geron's and Sadja's quests mesh well together and the juxtaposition and movement between the two is executed well, without becoming dull or uninteresting. The gameplay is amazingly logical. There are a few moments where you will be surprised at the combination of items, but on the whole, the interaction between objects+world is surprisingly easy and consistent. Where the game does throw a curveball though is in the environmental puzzles, as these may become quite tricky to resolve, especially if you haven't paid attention to the clues from dialogue and scattered about the environment. This is most definitely a game that encourages observation.