The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav

I am in the middle of the game, cant speak upon the ending or anything but the game itself is gorgeous, absolutely stunning looking and has such an awesome old school feel too it. The dialogue, the music, the atmosphere...spot on. Dont buy into the misleading reviews, if you are a fan of adventure games dont even hesitate, pick this one up and enjoy!

The game has visually appealing scenes, charming music, and an interesting story. Unfortunately, the plot is quite linear, puzzles in most cases are simple, and characters, or character interactions, miss some depth. The ending is quite short and rather abrupt. I really enjoyed excellent drawing of locations and background animation. Music is enjoyable and helps to immerse into the world. The story is interesting and is developing throughout the game. However, the plot overall is linear and whatever you do, you will have the same ending. There are multiple occasions where you can have different dialog responses that I hoped would result in brunching of the story. Unfortunately, this is is not the case. Puzzles in most cases are very simple and I knew exactly what I supposed to do and only needed to follow steps predetermined buy the game. The only exception is the fairy world that defies common logic. I also was disappointed in how relationship development between main characters was shown. It is a touchy love story of sacrifice and the authors could use it much better by adding more depth and more facets. Finally, even though by the end you already know the ending and what would happen, still the ending was rather abrupt with only 10-15 minutes of animation. On a subjective note, as a big fan the Realms of Arkania trilogy I was excited to get back to Aventuria and play into DSA (Das Schwarze Auge or The Dark Eye). However, the only reference to DSA in the game are the names of the twelve gods and a single mentioning of thorwalians. So, the game could have used any generic dark-age / medieval Europe environment. In sum, The Dark Eye - Chains of Satinav is a good game with beautiful scenes, but it is relatively easy and lacks sophistication. P.S. The easter egg in the game is ... inappropriate.

For fans of the genre, especially fantasy loving adventurers, this is a must. Graphics lovely, soundtrack perfect for the occasion, and the story is quite good too. Puzzles are annoyingly simple in the beginning, but they get a bit better as the game progresses (don't use the support function, you can solve everything without anything more than a mild frustration). There are some downsides though which could be avoided: - too much pixel hunting unless you enable hotspot viewing (not recommended, it ruins the experience IMHO) - bad bad English voice acting (with the exception of the fairy) - too linear story, although the game constantly tricks you into believing you can alter course of events during dialogue mode - definitely overpriced

While I'm not quite as wild about this one as the Deponia series, it's still very good. It's got beautiful scenery and great puzzles and a story that really gets you by the end. Daedalic is working on a direct sequel called Memoria, which, believe it or not, continues the story of Geron and poor, cursed Nuri in addition to introducing a new major character. I'm pretty excited about it.

This is a very good entry in the point & click genre. A delightful, fairytalelike story with a moody atmosphere, feylike soundtrack, interesting fantasy setting and a very likeable and well-rounded duo of main characters, who greatly complement each other in the narrative. It is not a difficult game, and sports some innovative features that stand out from the somewhat staid interface dogmas of the genre, so you get to enjoy the story without too much frustration at getting stuck. It's too bad GOG couldn't provide the German voiceovers, but the English voice actors do a fine job of it. Definitely not to be missed by p&c enthusiasts and casual gamers alike.