Quern - Undying Thoughts

Quern is probably the best adventure game that I have ever played. While there are minor issues like a lack of variety in music or the only footsteps you ever hear in game occurring while climbing ladders I don't think they warrant removal of any stars. Puzzles are logical and the sheer attention to detail was astonishing to me. The way they managed to reuse puzzles was particularly interesting. Perhaps however, what really sold me on it was towards the end. In so many games there and multitudes of puzzles with no real explanation as to why they are there or how they were set up. Puzzles just exist and that's the way it is. Quern goes above and beyond to even let you see how things were set up for your arrival and manages to make even more puzzles out of that. I wish the endings would have been a bit more substantial, but I'm absolutely satisfied with this purchase and have recommended it to every puzzle game enthusiast that I know. I really hope that this company makes another puzzle game!

Not allowing a remap of all the keys is just plain lame. Left handed mousers num pad fans can hang, apparently.

I've heard about Quern and how similar it was to the Myst series of games, so I thought I would purchase it to see what it was all about. I have to say, this was without question the best puzzle-adventure game I have ever played! Even better than any Myst game. I can't tell you enough how much I enjoyed this game! First of all, there are puzzles galore. There are so many items that you need to find to either combine with other items or to use them on their own. This is also definetly not a begginers game. The puzzles range from being easy to head scratching. Quern definetly makes you think! I did have to resort to using a walkthrough two seperate times just because I was stuck for so many hours. I couldn't stand not being able to progress in the game while trying to solve a cetain puzzle. I do regret using the walkthrough, because even though I thought I had tried everything, there was just one other thing I needed to do in order to solve that particular puzzle. Please don't use a walkthrough like I did, even for just one puzzle. Try to figure it out on your own. There are clues scattered all around Quern. You just have to figure out what they mean. The puzzles in this game are also very unique. I don't remember trying to solve most of the puzzles in other adventure games that I've played. Kudos to the developers for thinking outside the box with that! Here's another thing I need to mention. This game is long! It took me just about 40 hours to complete, which is absolutely incredible for any adventure game. There were times I thought I was close to finishing it and it turns out I was probably only halfway through. Once again, I sincerely enjoyed playing Quern and am looking forward to playing it again to get the remaining acheivements I need to collect. Please take into consideration making Quern 2. This game and its players should be able to experience this game all over again!

The only games I play are Myst-like adventure/puzzle games and a couple of RC flight sims to practice tricky manouvers so I don't risk my helicopter or plane, so this is the type of game I know the best. This is everything, in my opinion, that someone would want from a Myst-like game - captivating scenery, good (if somewhat repetitive) ambient music, challenging puzzles, and a story. The story was quite interesting, and like Myst, your understanding of the information presented to you can influence your actions, which in turn will have consequences in the game. There are a couple of sound puzzles, and pretty much everything else is visual. This is a wonderful game, and I plan to pull it out again in a year or two to enjoy it again.

It's pretty and I'm a fan of such games. But it doesn't really get to me. There's something missing. I feel a bit like being a lab rat in the labyrinth that's rewarded for each unlocked secret. Sure, that's what other games of that genre do, but a game like Obduction feels somehow different. These games really got to me while Quern, as much as I want to like it leaves me mostly cold. Another big downer is the music. At first it's alright but after a while it gets very annoying. It's generally the same thing playing over and over again. Turned the volume down but a game like this needs the right kind of nun intrusive background music. A small bug relates to joysticks. I have two controllers connected via USB at all times. Usually they don't interfere with games that don't need them. Quern however picks them up and constantly spins. It's a known problem on the Steam forums. For me it means crawling under the table unplugging cables in order to spend some time on Quern. The devs clearly put a lot of great work into this game and I hate to rate it with just 3 stars. A great adventure for me is one that doesn't let go, sucks me into this world the developers created and constantly occupies my mind. Quern just fails to do this for me.