The game has some issues with controls but generally a beautiful picture and creepy enough locations, but it all fades when you get to know the whole storyline. Spoilers below (just in case), but honestly I just advise you not buy it, discount or not. From the start of the story we find out, that when the main character (Nicole) was 16, it turned out that her father was raping ("had an affair", I believe, it is said in the story) a 16-year old girl, Nicole's classmate - Rachel Foster. Eventually Rachel got pregnant and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. At the same evening the news of "the affair" got out, Nicole's mom understandably had a huge scandal with her husband and left, taking her daughter with her. In the game Nicole returns to the family hotel where the whole story happened, to sell it after her father's death. Instead she gets locked in it by a snow storm. This serves as a start of a horror exploration game, which would have been nice, if in the end you didn't find out, that a 40+ aged man, having sex with an underaged girl same age as his daughter (we can assume, that Rachel was 15 or even 14, when the whole "affair" started) is a misunderstood martyr, the whole abuse story was, in fact, true love, Nicole's mother killed Rachel out of jealousy, and the best way to deal with this info is to commit suicide. The game says that it deals with triggering and difficult topics, and like hell it does, but crushes and burns while doing so. As many other reviewers have already mentioned, it truly seems that the whole game was created to state, that child molestation is ok. Simply disgusting.
If you like Wadjet Eye point-and-click quests, this is definitely the game for you. It is rather short - I have finished it mostly in one day, - and very dinamic. The plot hooks you in and won't let go till the end of the game. Also, unlike many p&c quests, this has absolutely none dumb or below the belt jokes. The storyline is serious and dramatic, and the world around is very dark. Be ready for that. Mostly the story is linear, though you do get to make a couple of choices on the way. However, I don't feel like a big tree of choices is imperative to a game like that, and also mostly main character chooses as I would have wanted her to, so - no problem with me. The concept team for the game has done a brilliant job. The picture is very atmospheric with a lot of details, and the pixel hunting process has a lot of in-game logic in it. Also the music! Really loved it. So if you love point-and-click quests and dramatic stories, and a certain flair of "the post-apocalyptic world is an awful place to be in" doesn't scare you - I definitely recomend Shardlight to you.
