VirtuaVerse

+ nice in-game nerdtro + music and sound is ok + no searching for inconspicuous small areas to be clicked on o immersion never catches me - devs have no clue about perspective drawing - devs have no clue about writing: everyone talks the same style, dialogues are like the same person is always talking - devs have no clue how to design riddles Every 5-Star Reviewer did not play the game with riddles enabled on their own. Because there is absolutely no logic behind them. For example **** SPOILER **** You need to access the only working computer in an internet cafe, which of cause is occupied. The only way to get the seat is to seize a car repair shop next door, crash a lifting platform in to the roof to scare a cat of the next shops roof, then cut the mechanics dog line lose to chase the cat, they of cause by most convenient gamedev-logic run into the internet cafe to fight there and scare of the only other customer. ******************* I stumbled through this by chance, baffled, and it only gets worse

Judging from the achievement percentage completion (almost all of this games achievements are story based), I gave up on this about a third of the way through. I'd had enough at that point. This game is competently made from a graphics, U/I, basic functionality and presentation standpoint, enough so to at least keep me slogging through a third of it. So I won't give it 1 star. But, really, it has very little to recommend it. Cyberpunk is about as tired a genre as zombies or superheroes and steampunk. The mush is annoyingly repetitive. But the biggest problem is how completely random and nonsensical the puzzles are. And as many reviewers have noted, the random, pointlessly convoluted solutions a number of times force your character -- who is clearly not meant to be a villain -- to be an evil sociopath. A character has an item you need. So you arrange to have him murdered and loot his corpse. A guy on a boat is listening to a loud radio, and can't hear you calling him. So instead of, oh I don't know how about picking up a random piece of the garbage on the street you're surrounded by and throwing it at him, you BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN. The whole story is set in motion because you stole your girlfriend's, who is wanted by the police, credit card and used it all over town, allowing the police to locate her.

Well, after putting in some serious hours into this and eventually finishing it yesterday, I have to say I loved every second of it. Since I'm not that big of a writer, I'll just do a short pro and con list, so here we go: Pros + polished neon cyberpunk pixelart + noisy synthrock soundtrack + interesting dialogue and social commentary + variety in puzzle difficulty + location variety Cons - some puzzles are tedious - I'm sure there at least another, but i can't think of it right now

The story: while not mind-blowingly original, is good and not cliche. The music: immersive and appropriate with the theme. The puzzles: if you expect to solve them half-asleep and with a big hangover, then this is not for you. You'll probably get stuck a couple of times, but so what? I think they're well thought and in line with "the scene". Graphics: just one word: beautiful! This game was created by one coder, one artist and one musician. Hats off! I guess this game will appeal more to old farts like me, but if you liked Monkey Island, Broken Sword, etc, then I think you'll enjoy it.

I'm deducting 2 stars because the game at its core has major issues. But I added 3 stars for the amazing artwork. Minor spoilers below Pros: - Story is OK. It's cyberpunk-y and insane. Fits the game - A lot of techy and geeky, real world references. - 50%+ of the inventory is never used. You pick up a lot of junk and that's kind of refreshing - Some of the game's locations are clever - Artwork is in the top pixel art ever. There are some fantastic detailed cutscenes - Game is pretty LONG! Cons: - The MAJOR problem with the game is writing. Item and world descriptions are not enough to help you understand WTF is going on. If the game were rewritten to include more clever language to help players advance, it would likely fix a lot of the plot and puzzle problems. For example: you find a "locker" that is "flat and magnetically sealed" but then you use a wrench to open it. Why can't there be some description somewhere that hints that a wrench-like tool opens the locker? - Second main flaw is the puzzle design. Many many puzzles are just craziness. For example: poison someone's food, to get a guy to take out the trash, to literally make another guy look away for 1 second so you can put something in a certain place while he's not looking. - Game is text-only. So you have AAA visuals and AAA music but no voices/narration? - Finally while it's awesome that there are many locations some just look out of place, almost as if there was a second game that was never made so those assets were flipped for this game. - Many bad adventure game tropes are present including pixel hunting and finding fuses for things. The pixel hunting is what drove me to use a walkthrough at some point.