The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav

Visuals and voice acting are quite good. The story is good, but the characters are not very interesting, maybe they would work better for teenagers but I don't know. As usual with these kind of games, the puzzles have to be logical, otherwise it's frustrating to try every combination. It's mostly there, but I particularly hated that you sometimes have to go back to a place without a good reason, and something is changed (for instance at the bathhouse). Fortunately there aren't many such instances.

Since most point'n'click adventures try to imitate the wacky graphics and humor of classical LucasArts adventures, it's nice to see a different approach for a change. I wasn't totally happy with the graphics though. While the backgrounds are somewhat beautiful in a concept art way, some of the faces of supporting characters look distorted and ugly. There is also a certain inconsistency in the way e.g. Nuri looks in different scenes, conversations and as animated character. Talking of animations, while Geron has fluid walking animations, that's about it. In a nutshell, there aren't any major animations in this game. Besides, even the scrolling judders and Geron moves around like he's on drugs. Which brings us to the next problem: Gerold is a dull character and Nuri behaves like a 12 year old hippie girl most of the time - which is emphasized by the voice acting of both main characters. So their desperate love seems somewhat weird to say the least and it's kinda hard to identify with either Geron or Nuri. Then again, the story is interesting enough to keep you going and the puzzle design is very solid. Like most of the puzzles are logical and some are even quite clever. Unfortunately, the user interface isn't all that great and I got stuck a few times since I overlooked items that blended to well into the background (and there is no way to highlight them). All in all, it's a very solid adventure game and even if its successor "Memoria" is better, I kinda enjoyed it.

I played Memoria first, not realising it was in fact the sequel. It didn't matter, both games stood alone well. The graphics are beautiful, the landscapes and what not are stunning. There are a few glitches with the art and the animation at times. The puzzles are quite simple, having not used the hint system on either game. The story comes together well, this game is not as good as Memoria or as challenging. But I'm glad I played it.

I really liked the artwork. The begining of the story is pretty nice, and the main characters are likeable enough. The story unfortunatly turns into a generic fantasy story that didn't really catch my intrest. The game mechanics are really basic point and click with a few qualtiy of life improvements. There's a lot of moon logic and I wouldn't recomend trying to get thourgh it without a walkthrough nearby.

Some people working on this game might have done a good job, but others flushed it into the toilet. Among reasonable puzzles you will encounter nonsensical ones that will ruin your sense of achievement. Choices in the game are fake, except maybe one case. The game is super linear. The story has an ok concept but was obviously inspired only in the beginning. They didn't know what to do as the story was nearing its conclusion, which feels unfinished. The main villain conclusion is super weak and the the game itself ends before the whole story is finished. If you play on the mode without visual clues, you will sometimes be expected to click on spots where is no visual indication that you should click there.. yes, I talk about the dove egg in the cage for example.