The Samaritan Paradox

Apparently my review was deleted. I don't remember what I wrote five years ago, but according to the fragment retained by my activity feed, it's a decent enough game marred by spotty writing, shallow characters and a ridiculous, unsatisfying ending. It doesn't reach the heights it aims for, instead crashing and burning just when it seemed like it was getting good. The fragment cuts off at "The Samaritan Paradox..." The Samaritan Paradox what? Sadly, thanks to whatever obscure forces conspired to delete my review we'll never know what profound insight I had to offer. But I bet it was something special. Thank you, past me. I'm sorry I couldn't do you the justice of replicating your review in its entirety, but I can at least tell people how much you thought the ending sucked.

Just finished this game and I'm left with mixed feelings... Although it's quite well done, with an intriguing multi-layered story and interesting characters, clever presentation and mostly solid puzzles, it lets the player down by its abrupt and left-field finale. It seems like the money run out and they needed to find a quick closer. It makes the whole game and its mysteries pointless. I'm getting angry just thinking about it. The wasted potential is enormous. Anyway, at least the gamer will get some enjoyment up until the fifteen minutes of gameplay. I really wished this game could have been twice as long and lived up to the build-up it created for the most part... Get it ONLY when found at a bargain, not really worth a full price. For solid story telling throughout best get Gemini Rue or Resonance. Better yet, get Primordia.

Samaritan Paradox is quite nice retro point & click adventure game with an interesting story. The graphics and play style of the game is very similar to Blackwell series (or other AGS-written games) and as well as Blackwell games it is trying to present a more mature story. And even though it's falling behind Blackwell series in many aspects, it is quite a good game and will provide fun for some 10 hours or so. The game contains quite a lot of puzzles which were quite good quality and difficulty level was ok (not too hard and not too easy). I was actully getting stuck more on issues resulting from poor game resolution. Due to pixelated graphics and it's quality I've easily missed certain items or paths to new locations and this got me stuck few times. It would be nice if there was an option to display all interaction spots. As written above the story is trying to be mature and presenting a darker and partly-political story but for my taste the authors are trying to fit in too many parallel storylines and twists. The results is then a bit chaotic and feels like too many questions remain unanswered by the end (that may be a good thing, but here I mean it in a negative way). What I liked though is that you are basically playing 2 stories in one and how the authors implemented the transition between them. The sound, voices and music is average or below average (some voice casting is very dull and sound levels behave bit strangely), but it didn't affect the overall experience that much (I liked the voice of main heroine). Overall I'd score a 3.5 to 4 stars for this one. If you liked Blackwell series, you should try this game.

The Samaritan Paradox is a game produced in the coattails of point and click adventures' resurgence - think Wadjet Eye Games. It's a homage to the classics that, without bringing much new to the genre, retains the player's interest with a solid storyline (and a game within a game) and a novel setting (Sweden in the 80s). At the same time, the Samaritan Paradox carries a lot of buggage from the classic adventures it was inspired from: There are timed sequences, there is a lot of pixel-hunting, there is the good ol' 'use everything on everything' routine (with many prompts missing), and a faulty interface that makes your character hide the objects they're in front off, and has the inventory panel cover possible areas of interest.

Really liked the pixel art and was pretty satisfied with the story. Many reviewers here have complained about the voice acting, but I thought it was OK. The controls weren't great and some of the puzzles were quite stupid and annoying. I also had a potentially game-breaking bug (apartment had disappeared from the map), but luckily I could repeat the steps to find it again. I did not like the fact that there was no option to tell the truth at the end.