The Samaritan Paradox

This game is, for the most part, a decent political thriller about interesting issues with real-world implications. Then, ten minutes before the end of the game, a huge plot twist comes out of nowhere, and the game becomes the skeeziest, grossest thing I've played for at least a year, and I played Spec Ops: The Line last week. I won't spoil it but it left me wanting to vomit and cry at the same time it was so bad.

This is a solid, classic-style point and click adventure game. A sensible plot, some good characters, and almost all the puzzles are logical. It was long enough to keep me entertained without getting bored. The points at which you discover lost chapters of a book are fun -- you get to play a different character in a different world. The ending is very odd -- disturbing, in fact. I wasn't really sure what to make of it. Some of the voice acting was lacking emotion. Some of the art style was inconsistent. I suppose that's the polish that makes the difference between good and great. Recommended.

Good and not very long length with 6-7 hours of gameplay and story mixing crime mystery and fairy tale. Kind of open world rather than close chapters type, with amount of places to visit limited to one city area. Great addition is a three "out of this world" fantasy chapters which nicely fit into the story line. Main character is a low-spirited one but its not becoming tiresome for the player throughout the game. Being in difficult life situation felt genuine and made it easier to identify with him right from the beginning. Of course also made me eager to help poor chap in solving his problems. His perfomance was maybe not top notch but it was fine in contrast to some of the remaining cast which felt kind of flat and one dimensional. Sound effects does stand out but only by being too loud occasionally in comparison to the music which was great and set a mood for the game perfectly. Its rather easy endeavour but not too easy, with standalone puzzles nicely embedded into the story causing some more thinking. One of the puzzles (sundial) requires you to possess out of the game information but still its college kind of knowledge and can be easily looked up on the internet. All in all, despite some minor annoyances regarding puzzle and story design it was a very good story to follow. I agree with some other reviewers that main topic unvraveled at the end is taken a bit lightly but overall its good that mature topics starting to appear in adventure games world.

The Samaritan Paradox maintains its retro aesthetic with great low-resolution graphics that are complemented by atmospheric high-definition sound, music, and voice acting. STORY: The story is told in inventive ways and gets off to an engaging start. However, it seems rushed, and the modern penchant to "subvert expectation" hurts the ending. Additionally, it finishes abruptly and with a sense of incompleteness. The 10% of interactable objects that have no purpose or information is another sign that the game was shortened. PUZZLES: If you manage to gather all the hints required to solve the puzzles through interacting with things, inventories, and people, the riddles are not that challenging. I did not follow this rule and got stuck twice, trying out all the overcomplicated solutions I could think of. Until finally, with all hints, it always turned out to be the most simple one. There aren't many objects that are challenging to locate with the mouse pointer, and those that do tend to be inconspicuous rather than small. CONCLUSION: If you enjoy point-and-click adventures, you shouldn't hesitate to purchase at this price.

You play Ord, a cryptologist piecing together the mystery of a writer's suicide and the trail of clues left behind. GOOD: The story is engaging and I was interested in seeing where it went. The characters are reasonably well developed. The puzzles are varied and whether you like them or not, the developers should be commended for at least making them interesting. Some of the game involves playing through a fantasy story left by the dead man in an unfinished book, and those fantasy scenes are some of the best in the game. NEUTRAL: Puzzles range from neat and clever to "how would I ever have known this". The game is hard, occasionally agonizing without hints or a walkthrough. Voice-acting, sound and and music are passable. Writing is okay even if some of it seems a bit amateurish. BAD: There's a significant amount of pixel-hunting involved: objects I didn't know were there, exits I didn't know were exits, etc. There are a few tactical/action sequences which are frustrating. And the ending, which I think is actually great in concept, is not handled with enough seriousness.