Verne: The Shape of Fantasy

There are lots of decent point & click adventures that, at some point, include a situation where you have a timed or other driven motion to accomplish. This may appeal to many, for me it is the death to any point & click adventure. This particular game is killed in about the second minute. Not sure what it adds to the game, but to me it takes out the relaxed puzzle-solving mood. Restarting the scene again and again also erases any immersion that could have developed. So, no idea what the other 98% of the game looks like, but if you don't like pressing keys to avoid getting killed, this game is not for you. The first minutes revealed nice graphics and not so nice voice acting.

A nice, short adventure filled with puzzles that are simple enough, but still require a minimum of thought. An excellent tribute to the work of Jules Verne. If you've read his books, especially 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, you'll probably like it. If you know little or nothing about Jules Vernes, this game will probably not appeal to you.

Spoilers will be clearly marked Let's take the good point first: the art is brilliant, especially the environment with all the various landscapes, and the voice acting really gives character to this game. The puzzles are also good, albeit they are almost all variations of the 15-puzzle, I found those very enjoyable. The stealth sequences and the QTEs are meh, but at least QTEs are skippable. Also, I suffered the lack of an icon that signal if there's a reality crack nearby: I ended up navigating with the imag always in hand. Also: unskippable end credits. Unfortunately, imvho point-and-click are as good as the story itself, and I found the story not good enough: for me the finale is very underwhelming, because it revolves around a concept I find veeery overused and that does not give justice to the rest of the game. [SPOILERS FROM HERE] [SPOILERS FROM HERE] [SPOILERS FROM HERE] I honestly think that a finale that leads to the "it was all just a dream of the main character" trope can stand up only if every mystery is tied up well before revealing... Otherwise it just "truncates" the hooks that fascinates the reader. And I find this is the case, here :-( [SPOILERS END] [SPOILERS END] [SPOILERS END] Only exception: if you are interested in *the life and the operas* of Jules Verne you might find this much more enjoyable, because I still recommend the game if on an aggressive sale, though: this made me think about purchasing Lacuna and Between Horizons: the gameplay is solid, and if these have more concrete plots the experience will be much better

I really enjoyed playing this lovingly made homage to Jules Verne. I've no idea why this is characterized as point and click - it's more of a puzzle sidescroller / visual novel with a linear story. There's a lot to read, collectibles to be found, a bit of exploration, a variety of puzzles. Voice acting is really good, sounds and music too. My only gripe with the game is that there is no level select. Sometimes it's not clear that a specific action leads to the end of a chapter and certain side quests can't be finished.

I bought this game because a steampunk-style story centered around Jules Verne and Captain Nemo looked pretty interesting. Unfortunately the writing and dialogue is so bad that it would've ruined the entire experience for me. The QTEs (although skippable) don't help either. Refunded.