Breja: So, I assume the very Sierra-looking A Tale of Two Kingdoms has all the "good stuff" typical: lots of deaths and dead end states, timed puzzles, moon logic and just in general utter, pull-your-hair-out frustration unless you're playing with a walkthrough in your lap?
From
a review I glanced at:
"Despite being an ode to the point n’ clicky classics of old, ATOTK nonetheless manages to innovate new mechanics. You can ask characters you meet to “do you a favour”. If they accept, you’ll be able to interact with the world through them, using their inventory. [...] Of course, this gameplay variable means there are even more possible combinations of items to use, which adds even more depth to the puzzles.
What’s both enticing and offputting about A Tale of Two Kingdoms is its impenetrability. Like the point n’ clickers of yore, what you’re meant to do next is usually pretty vague, and hints are hard to come by. Crucial items you’ll need are usually conspicious, but sometimes they’ll just be a small bundle of pixels that fade into the background. It’s not even always clear where the exits are to whatever screen you’re on! It’s easy to miss a grassy path into a clearing or that you can walk through a stream or lake to get to another screen.
The puzzles range from the straightforward to the maddening. Sometimes puzzles are as straightforward as throwing a bucket of water on a torch to snuff out the lights and escape a guard-filled room. Other times they’re convoluted affairs that require a time-limited use of items and making you to find a certain zone to walk to. [...] It’s some puzzles like this that might have you relenting and dashing for a walkthrough. But if you persevere and solve them yourself, you feel like the cleverest of clever clogs!
After a certain point, different possibilities really start to open up. In the top corner of the screen there’s a meter that tallies up your “honour” and “wisdom”. You get wisdom for finding clever clogs solutions to the various puzzles. You get honour for being a goody two shoes and doing nice things [...]. The final tally of these two scores helps determine which one of the many endings you can receive.
A Tale of Two Kingdoms is not a casual linear adventure game by any stretch of the imagination. Choice and consequence is heavily emphasized. [...] Even the most seemingly mundane of puzzles and choices can have big implications for later, so you can never relax too much!
[...]
A Tale of Two Kingdoms follows the time honoured traditions of its genre reverently both in its wonderfully realized style and its frustratingly obtuse puzzles. If your memory of nineties puzzlers is of annoyance (or not existing to play them) then you might not get such a kick out of ATOTK’s traditionalism. However, if you have lots of fond memories of desperately trying to use items on other items in increasingly nonsensical ways then ATOTK will be right up your alley… or fairy-enchanted glade."
karnak1: Man... Seeing "Home of the Underdogs" mentioned in one of the trailers sure brought back memories.
Indeed. Even if I barely used it, just the name brings memories and fond thoughts of another "age" of the Internet.
Darn few "old school" places left.
