Shardlight

Very interesting point and click adventure! Likeable characters, good story and quite a plot twist towards the end, I also liked that there were multiple endings depending on you choose in the end. WadjetEye is known for their great point and click games and this one doesn't disappoint.

+ Fun Puzzles, which are mostly logical + Beautiful pixel-art-style + intriguing story with an interesting setting/world - Settings are lacking

Another infamous example of game design gone wrong. I like the setting and backstory of this game, the somewhat sad and hopeless "future" where people struggle to come by but still try to be civil. The art style does a lot to emphasis that. The game begins as a standard point&click adventure, good voice acting and not too many locations to get confused early on. You pretty much get thrown into this bleak world and know, you're in for good. It's a nice touch the ui gets completely out of the way if it's not needed - more games should do it like this! But then there is this point about an hour or so into the game where you hit a wall. There's a calligraphy puzzle and whoever decided to come up with this should be banned from game design and development - for life. Along with anyone allowing this to be part of the game and anyone not catching this during the testing phase and anyone being part of the management and not having the guts to kick these people out. I'm serious. I have no idea how anyone could come up with this and how it survived the initial design & review. The "solution" - if you can call it that - is given in-game and I even printed it out, but still couldn't solve it. I found a savegame just after this spot because apparently many people run into this and after countless tries for several days I finally managed it, once, but stopped playing the game and put it on my "never again" list. If this is a sign of how the remainder of the game is designed, I'd rather not waste my time on it, independent of how good the story or setting may (or may not) be. How none of the playtesters caught this and how the one who came up with this wasn't held responsible is beyond me. Unfortunately, this is increasingly common nowadays. And yes, I did try to use a graphics tablet instead of a mouse but it still wouldn't work. Now, imagine someone suffering from ms or parkinson attempting to play this game. Ouch…

A beautiful game, melancholic and fascinating. The story as well as the gameplay are well done, and it is simply a very good game

The main problem is how political the game is. It feels like a half baked revolutionary tale with some gender theory and other SJW-things sprinkled over it. It's not extreme in any sense but sometimes peeps out and does some harm to the story, atmosphere and believability. Example quotes "Strong women make the best leaders" and "I'm going out for fresh air" (by the father, as his wife is giving birth and is in a very bad situation, needing help). Other times, people are excused for things such as stealing and bullying as they are poor. There are many small things like this but they never dominate completely. Many won't even notice. As a swede I've become kind of allergic to SJW stuff like this. Others not constantly bombarded may find it less annoying. None the less the game isn't that great, even if I'd agreed with the philosophy. The character design is the worst of the wadjeteye games I've played. Just looks ridiculous with these wigged french revolution era inspired guards and politicians. Makes no sense. People are not stupid. They don't need things to be that obvious to get that there are some parallels. Puzzles are the easiest in any of the wadjeteye's I've played, by a fair margin. It was kind of nice to for once play one of their games without getting stuck but overall I prefer the puzzles to be more difficult. The music is good. The game is varied. The design overall, besides from half of the characters, is great. Good length. Lots of extras for those who likes commentary tracks etc (I think there were 3 different commentary tracks, by designer, musicians, director etc). I liked the way you skip between screens. It gets a 3/5 for being a fun game. It would have been a solid 3 had the game been less political. Now it's a rather weak 3. 6 hours playtime. Worth it on a sale.