Sorry, not for me. Big time waster.
I bought this game on Steam on release, and have regretted it ever since. If you've ever played the developer's other games, such as Monkey Island 2 or Thimbleweed Park, you know that the developer HATES game endings; to the point where in this one, he just gave up entirely, and didn't even bother. The game just stops midway through a chase scene. Not even a cliff hanger! It just ends. After this, the developer leaves a message in the game saying "Games shouldn't have an ending, as it's the journey, not the destination that matters!". Honestly, I don't care what the dev thinks! Imagine if Star Wars just ended when they got to the Death Star. That's what this feels like. There's zero pay off. Check out the video review of this game by The Escapist. They sum it up pretty well. Most annoyingly, the game is now on Gamepass... so I could have saved myself the money if I had just waited 2 months. Very annoyed. Will never buy another game by this troll of a developer.
I don't think I'm patient enough for this game. It just feels full of junk... too bloated... too slow... too surreal. I've tried to play it twice, and it just feels like I'm bored out of my mind and wasting my time.
Remember the TV show "Lost"? Remember how good that started? Remember how it just spiralled down into a confusing mess with a sudden and even more bizzare ending? Yeah, that's how I felt with this game. It honestly feels like the developers weren't sure how to end the game, so just came up with something convoluted whilst thinking themselves clever. The game does things most developers avoid. For example, I was stuck for ages, and it turned out that completely randomly a building I needed to visit had opened, while it had remained shut for the the vast majority of the game. There was no indication that it was open or that I needed to visit it. I just randomly clicked on it after wandering around clueless for ages, and I suppose got lucky. Again, bad game design in the modern age. MINOR MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD So, you start the game as a detective trying to solve a murder. HOWEVER, you never ever get to really solve the murder. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure who committed the murder. I mean, I have an idea, but if I was to actually give the killer a name, I wouldn't know where to start. There's one character (the clown - who actually was my favourite character) who does literally nothing throughout the entire game. Honestly, thinking back, I reckon I could finish the entire game without ever controlling them. Unless I need him to eat a hotdog... if that's all he's there for, then that's just stupid game design. It felt great being back to a classic point and click game, but the developers had a great story, and I was making guesses, excited about the possibilities... but I was thrown sideways when the curtain was lifted. The game also allows you to finish it without finishing everyone's stories. Imagine playing Day of the Tentacle, getting Bernard back to the present and the game ending before you manage to get the other 2 home. That's how this felt. What game designer does that???
The game itself is good, and it does bring back wonderful memories of the past games, such as Myst and Riven, but the loading times are far too long. Booting the game takes 2 minutes, but pressing resume takes approximately 10 minutes! Strangely enough, I found that if I press LOAD rather than RESUME, it only takes 2-3 minutes to load my last save. Inside the game, however, there are more loading issues, such as moving from one zone to the next. These take another 2-3 minutes, and some puzzles require you to regularily jump back and forth. I have an i7 machine, which is capable of loading other games in seconds. I found that even after installing it on an SSD it's still very slow. I'm hoping the developers can do something about this, but at the moment it just looks like they've done a poor job optimizing the game. Beyond that, it's beautiful, with some interesting (with the occasional stupid) puzzles.
![Event[0]](https://images.gog-statics.com/d4896b846c2d4ce873108363f48b2cd1496dc5abf27e35dbcd16e1d0d4e746f2.jpg)
AI: I need you to leave the room ME: OK AI: Good ME: Can you open the door? AI: No ME: Why? AI: Why what? ME: Why can't you open the door AI: I can open the door ME: Will you open the door? AI: I think we're going off topic ME: What? AI: I agree ME: Do you want me to leave the room? AI: Why do you want to leave? ME: You told me to! AI: She was my friend ME: What? Who? AI: You are a human ME: Open the door! AI: OK, opening the door... This isn't taken from the game, exactly... but it's pretty much how I felt throughout the whole game. A lot of the dialogue is scripted, so no matter what you say, the AI will just ramble on until theyve said their piece, after which point they revert back into a rambling mess. I thought the story was just about to open up, when in fact, it just ended. Turns out this game is only about an hour long. An hour long... for a game with little story, not great controls, and an artificial intelligence that missed a few grades at school. Massive potential... massive disappointment.
