Unavowed

This game is an example - a largely successful one, in my view - of how to implement the narrative structure typical of modern plot-heavy RPG into a graphical adventure. The result: you can to a certain extent customize the protagonist, by choosing sex, name and one of three origin stories; you try to achieve a long term objective by completing a number of quests that are accessible from a central hub/base; you embark on these quests with a party by selecting two among a group of possible companions... there are more parallels to be drawn, but this is as far as I will go in order to avoid spoilers. At the same time, there are no HP or stats, every challenge is overcome by using the right item in the right place or by saying the right thing to the right person. In summary, all the ingredients of Unavowed are well-known, but how the game combines them is quite clever. The story is also very interesting and well-written, set in a contemporary New York where ghosts and magical beings coexist with ordinary people with the latter unaware of their existence... if you liked the Blackwell saga, chances are that you will like the story and setting of Unavowed as well. Finally, the "shortcomings": for a graphical adventure, Unavowed is quite easy. On the one hand, the compartmentalized structure of the game limits its complexity because for each "quest" there are a limited number of locations, objects and people to interact with; on the other hand, it is quite clear that the game was designed not to be very hard since you can always ask your companions for a hint. In my view, the game compensates for this by its breadth: although the number of distinct endings is limited, there are many different ways to get there, depending on who you take with you and how you solve the various quests. Some reviewers here complain that everyone has voiced dialogue but the protagonist; this was never a problem for me and, as it turns out when playing, there's actually a reason for it.

Adding RPG elements - character backgrounds and party members with their own uses and personalities - to an adventure game is great. I hope that Wadjet Eye explores this further in future titles. Unfortunately nothing else about Unavowed really stands out, with the possible exception of the UI. You can use your party members to solve puzzles but what they actually do is often quite bland. For instance, one of them is a centuries old half-jinn whose pirate queen mother taught her how to fight and you mostly just use her sword as an impromptu crowbar. The puzzles in general are usually simplistic and way too many just come down to "exhaust all dialogue options" or "find two documents to figure out code/password that blocks access to area/conversation topics". The story is formulaic and while the world has many interesting aspects, few of them are fully realized. The latter is a problem with the game's episodic case structure: since most cases introduce entirely new aspects of the world, there's rarely time to really explore them. The party members and their stories have potential but their reactions to cases are often very one-note. When it comes to the game's aesthetics, the areas look nice and the voice acting and music are generally good but the animations and sound effects are lacking. Overall, it's a game that is worth playing for its mechanical innovations but also brought down by many flaws making it less satisfying and immersive than it could have been.

Having been a fan of Wadjet Eye adventure games, I decided to hop on this when I saw it on sale. I'm not disappointed with it at all, it was a good game, and had a great premise. There was something really lackluster though about the main story, it had it's twists and turns and great characters, but feeled a bit forced. I was hoping for more backstory from the characters but they were more of a minor role. The game is similar to Blackwell except you choose up to 2 of the 4 supporting characters to help you. Your main character is generated at the intro and can be male or female and has various roles. From there on you chase after a demon that left his footprint on the world in the year he was active. I've beaten it once and am working through a second playthrough to see if being a different starting character makes a difference. It's not expensive and it delivered so I can recommend it. But if you enjoyed blackwell, you'll also notice that the story suffered as a result of having to script so many different variables (e.g - dialog and different puzzle solutions if you brought different NPCs to help on a particular mission.) Whereas with blackwell it was just Joey, Rosa, and the NPCs. This one they almost seemed to cram too much than they could handle into a game. Again, they didn't break it, and I still liked it, but get it for $15 or less.

Like another reviewer said, this game tries to walk the line between traditional early 90s adventure games and a modern Telltale game and fails to capitalize on the strengths of either. The puzzles are minimal and the story nothing special. Puzzles- You will almost never have more than 1 item at a time and its use will be super obvious. We're talking brain twisters like "use screwdriver on screws" or "use brick on window that a character just told you to smash". Not once was there a "oh that was clever" moment. This game is strictly story first, puzzles afterthought affair, which is a problem because... Story- Since the puzzles are so minimal, the story needed to carry the game, and it falls short. It's painfully obvious that they got a Bioware writer to do this. You're going through the exact same beats as Knights of the Old Republic with the exact same character templates but without any of the charm. They're just going down the formula checklist, including a TWIST shoehorned in that changes nothing about the story. Setting- Wasted potential. This could have been a spiritual sequel to old adventure game Bureau 13 where you use a cast of supernatural X-Files type team and their crazy abilities to investigate. But half the cast have no powers (the protagonist, and a character whose special power is making phone calls to ask other people for favors), and the half that do are used for boring stuff. You have a half-genie sword master with superhuman agility, but you literally never use her for anything but prying things open with her sword (I seriously can't remember a single time she was used for anything else). You have a fire mage, but 90% of his use is just reading old burned documents. They're just a glorified crowbar and kindle reader. If you dont take the genie one mission, they spawn a butter knife to pry a puzzle object. She is so lame she is literally interchangeable with a butter knife. It can be an OKAY way to kill time, but its a weak entry for Wadjet.

The last point and click game/s I played were carmen sandiego and zoombinis which was obviously years ago. I saw the trailer for this and it was on sale, so I figured why not. I'm not good at writing reviews, so here goes nothin. The story is really cool. If you're into fantasy books/stories, this game fits right in. I want to go into details but fear that may spoil some things. The insight given to some characters pasts/abilities are deeper than expected but not to the point where you're reading forever. The voice overs are great honestly. They all look how they sound, if that makes sense? Except for one character, but it's not enough to be annoyed by. As a New Yorker, I LOVE the detail they put in the settings. I live in one of the boroughs you go to and I was really surprised by it. The street name, the...facility(again, trying not to spoil it)- it was just cool to see, especially because I travel through there regularly. There were only a few puzzles I couldn't solve at all. After googling them, I realised I would've NEVER solved them because they were a bit obscure. But again, not bad enough to damper the game and it only happened two or three times. I'm hoping if/when they make another game, the graphics are a bit fancier. Don't get me wrong, I'm down with the pixelated graphics, but I think they could be better. Otherwise the game was dope, it's got multiple endings, the choices you make matter, and it's cool.