This is a game that reminds me that cheap does not always mean crappy. If you are looking for a PnC adventure game with a good story, innovative puzzles, and smooth actions that actually make sense in the context of the story, look no further. Jane Jensen's games are always top notch when it comes to story as she writes her stories from the perspective of a novelist. Too many adventure games construct a story as merely a frame to hold actions and puzzles, but in Jane's games story and character development is primary. In this game, all of the actions you have to figure out make good sense in the context of the story and one doesn't have to feel like they have to read the developer's mind to figure out what to do. I may have looked at a walkthrough once in the game, I think, and that was only lack of patience on my part. The puzzles are ingenious as they are mainly related to the role of the protagonist as an analyzer of people and patterns. You won't find any slidey puzzles here. I also like that the player is switched back and forth between playing either of two main characters. It gives variety and a nice break from the pomposity of the main protagonist. That being said, I found Malachi's personality very amusing, probably because I do not personally know anyone like him. Her game Grey Matter had the same kind of character switching mechanic. I really, really hope that we see more content coming from Jane in the future. Another plus is that this game (as of 2018) is fairly old now and you can find it for very low prices during sales and bundled with other games at sites like Fanatic and Humble Bundle. Check out Jane's other outstanding games such as: Gray Matter, Cognition, and Gabriel Knight.
Love this game. It has the right blend of beautiful yet unsettling art, terrific story, and challenging but not impossible puzzles. I didn't feel like I was supposed to read the devs minds to figure out what to do. The clues were right there to move me along. I consulted walkthroughs a few times to jumpstart my brain, mainly because I was impatient! The dynamic of switching between worlds was ingenious and a great way to add challenge and interest and artistic variety. Will be following this dev for future games.
