Shardlight

Most of the other reviews had been written before the COVID pandemic or the war in Ukraine, so now the story feels weirdly appropriate. Even if the writing is not as profound as some would like or the puzzles are not as complex, I do not really care about those details when such an important thing is happening in our world now. There were quite a few times when I wished game characters would just shut up and stop talking so I could have my mouse back, but that is a general thing to have to suffer with in many adventure games. Mercifully there is often a way to cut their inane drivel short once you have played through the whole game enough and know what needs to be triggered next.

I was coming into this game a little jaded after playing some other adventure games from other publishers that weren't so enjoyable, but this one restored my faith that there are good adventure games still out there. I wasn't too crazy about the low resolution graphics, but the background art and characters are wonderful. I really hope this game gets remastered someday to higher resolution graphics so that the already high-quality backgrounds and characters can be more fully appreciated. But what truly kept me playing the game was the story and game play. It was very interesting and didn't stay on one thing before moving the plot along. Problems/puzzles weren't very difficult to figure out either. I highly recommend it!

Within the first 5 minutes of starting the game, the events the main character experiences has you hooked. The voice acting is professional and outstanding, free of any sort of amatuerish or cartoony cringe. The lead female character is no mary sue; and is instead quite naive & inexperienced at first. The art is haunting, and does a great job of making you feel like you're in a world that has recently ended. The game never overstays its welcome, and leaves you wanting more. There are a few inconsistences with the lead's character develpoment in the 2nd half of the game, but that's about the only gripe. The best part of all this is - unlike the vast majority of games made after 2017 - is that you get to fully and completely enjoy this game without ever encountering even the slightest hint of modern left-wing woke identity politics being shoved in your face. No "whites are bad." No "men are bad." No forced 'alphabet' characters or 'alphabet' propaganda. Nothing of the sort. The devs focused solely on telling a story with great characters; they didn't use their game as a vehicle for political propaganda. And that's EXACTLY how it should be for any dev that wants their game game to be successful long-term, across multiple generations.

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Didnt expect much from this game due to the really blurry looking graphics, but playing on windowed mode helped a bit and pretty soon I was immersed in the story line and exploration. This is a pure point and click adventure game with some very easy combat few and far between. I was between games, tired from 180 hrs of Divine Divinity EE and not really wanting another huge game. this one was just right, it took me around 12hrs to play, pretty much nonstop. like i said in the header, it was pure enjoyment. Pros: Really beautiful handpainted backgrounds and detailed landscapes and character portraits. Lots of flavor text and objects to look at. Inventory was kept to a few items and disappeared after use so that limited alot of random combining irritation that is found in most P&C games. Everything was very easy to use, UI, inventory, save anytime you wanted with an autosave in case you forgot. Load time was minimal, in short, no mechanical problems with the game. Puzzles were pretty easy for the most part. I did get stumped early on as i didnt realize to rt click an item after use and missed vital clue. One very clever and unique puzzle. Lots of exploration, dialogues and characters to interact with. The voice acting was superb, enjoyed the female lead immensely.the music is very good, indeed the end credits song was stellar, done by the devs themselves. The story has multiple endings . Cons: Sometimes quick travel had to wait as your character traveled to the exit first, which was required before accessing the map. in settings you could enable a faster walk. One puzzle had an annoying length of replay text to get thru as you tried out various ideas, all skipable but could have been handled better. The game is very very grim and macabre at times. appropriate for an post apocalypse game. I found it mesmerizing and the lack of the usual UI or puzzle irritations found in this genre just let me play it with full enjoyment. well done