Posted on: September 4, 2025

Wilhemina

Games: 36 Reviews: 9

Well below the developer's best

I've enjoyed some of the developer's other games (Technobabylon, Unavowed, the Blackwell series) but by their standards this is very thin soup. An insipid main character, a lame religious cult, no engaging emotional situations or interesting moral dilemmas, uninspired scenario and scriptwriting, formulaic gophering puzzles. Sci-fi can say interesting things about the present, but not in this case. The scenario reverses reality. American society has been destroyed in a nuclear bombardment (that is somehow failed to counter) and a permanent pandemic is raging, with a government maintaining control by controlling supply of remediatory medicine (which they call "vaccine"). I suppose that part could have been interesting, but why is the government doing this? Well, the dictator reasons, the original bombings were by jealous Chinese and Russian states, who wanted to take America's material resources. If people recovered from the disease, America would thrive again, and the Chinese and Russians would just bomb again. This scenario obviously bears no relation to reality, and tells us nothing about the path by which an American authoritarian regime might ascend or how it would reason. Nor do the political factions chosen, who are styled after the French ancien regime and the Jacobin left, with the moral apparently being that dictators are bad (which is true but hardly very insightful). So we're dealing with a gritty dystopia which is really an escapist scenario in which no internal fissions in America's society are identified, America is absolved of its own behaviour (bombing countries to control their resources) which is projected onto its official enemies, and the political dilemmas posed are those of 18th century France, understood through the lens of a late 20th century liberalism that is not interrogated at all. It's an almost systematic evasion of the realities an interesting sci-fi would be exploring.

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Posted on: February 3, 2018

N21LV

Verified owner

Games: 405 Reviews: 15

Good, not best

Disclaimer: I've been forever spoiled by Primordia, so my grading might look a little too harsh. But if you compare Shardlight to Primordia, you will see the difference for yourself. WadjetEye is known for delivering good oldschooley point-n-click adventures that remind you of the good old LucasArts point-n-click games. Shardlight is a good contender, but I think it lacks a bit in terms of story and characters. One of the best-developed characters in the game, IMO, is the old man in the Fripp Square. His role in the game is very subtle, but he delivers the best representation of how the life in Shardlight has changed the society. Denton and the Minister, on the other hand, are just two extremes, and, I think, are too cartoonish. That's why I chose neither of the two in the end. The world of Shardlight doesn't seem very convincing to me either. We know the bombs fell, but there are no clues in the game about why it happened and how the world ended up like this whatsoever. This leaves a lot of unanswered questions which ultimately are let to rot after you finish the game. The last act seemed a bit rushed, especially the train part. I wish there was more to Shardlight's story, I really would. It is always an interesting experience to see how humanity survives in the wake of a nuclear conflict, but without knowing how things ended up like this the game loses a big part of it attractiveness. I would still say this is a good game, especially if you long for a good point-and-click game like one you played in your teens. I cannot say I recommend this title to everyone, but a fan of WadgetEye games would defintely like this.

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Posted on: June 16, 2023

Black_Hart

Verified owner

Games: 289 Reviews: 27

Really good adventure game!

Yeah, 5 stars is a bit high for this, but there are waaaaaay too many negative comments. I've played Gemini Rue and Technobabylon from Wadjet but IMHO this is better! The previous ones are overrated, while this is underrated. The main heroine is likable and nice. Just a plain girl trying to get by, one can easily relate. While the situation where people are walking in masks on the streets, while "pandemik" rages. Does it remind you of something *cough* *cough*? ;) It has a retro, 90's feel about it. One of the coolest adventures games I've played. And it's very mature. Thumbs up!

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Posted on: September 7, 2023

user_kane

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 12

Interesting setting, shallow story

While the post-apocalyptic setting is quite interesting, as is the general tone of the game, unfortunately the chatacters and the story fall flat and are both rather shallow and two-dimensional. Which is a shame, as the puzzles are mostly logical, dialogues are mostly well written and voiced, and the graphics and sound/music are pretty neat. Some annoying things regarding the UI: 1. There is no key to highlight all hotspots on the screen. This results in some need for the dreaded pixel-hunting (aggrevated by the issues mentioned below). 2. No fast-travel. Not a huge issue as screens are not that large, but still. 3. When you click on a hotspot that action is done no matter what, and you cannot "undo" your click. Instead you need to wait until the character has done what you told it to do.. That's particularly annoying when you need to watch the character stroll to the exit of the screen where you have clicked by accident (see 2.). You would think that by this day and age adventure game developers would have accepted these as standard quality of life features, but you'd be wrong. Overall, a welcome addition to the genre, but does not stand out. Play Whispers of a Machine instead, much better. PS.: A technical side note: One thing that made the game harder for me is that it is pretty dark. This goes so far as that some elements are barely visible, resulting in the good old Indy3-style "find that pixel in the dark" action. A good example of this is the fan control in the very first room, which is hardly visible. This seems to be a problem on the Mac, as the screenshots here on GOG are much brighter. A brightness control would have fixed this.

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Posted on: April 5, 2024

vv221

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 11

Shardlight

Last night I completed my second game for 2024: Shardlight, by Wadjet Eye Games. As usual with Wadjet Eye Games, this looks like an old school point’n’click game despite a quite recent release date (2016). It can even be played using ScummVM — @scummvm@corteximplant.com — so you can enjoy it on Linux even if you only have access to a Windows build. The game itself takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, 20 years after the fall of the bombs, and tells us a nice (but not very original) class struggle story. Beware that they take their setting seriously, and you should expect graphical depiction of violence that the pixelated nature of the game does not attenuate. I really enjoyed my ride for what I think is my only my second Wadjet Eye game played through the end (surely not the last), and will probably try another one soon (Technobabylon is close to the top of my list). But before that I might give a try to one of the Clifftop Games adventures based on the same engine: Kathy Rain or Whispers of a Machine. Get your copy from Humble Bundle (using the link from the game website) to ensure the devs gets the highest cut, or from GOG if you want to get access to a native Linux build. Don’t waste your money at Steam for a game that is available DRM-free in other places. — https://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/shardlight/

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