I had this game wish listed for some time as the Demo wasn't bad, though short, and there was alot of potential.. sadly, the game doesn't deliver. While it's mostly a so-so game, puzzles are mostly pretty logically but some are.. a bit out there as they aren't 100% stupid, so just tricky and some pretty weird really compared to others. The main problem comes from the story. It sets up this murder mystery but does very little with it. It has this board of suspects which gives you some 'motives' or more details on the characters but often this is before you seam to have learn this, and even then, you can't really gain much information and use it to work stuff out. In fact, you barely talk to anyone for more then a few moments so you don't really get to know anyone and thus any part of 'figure out who did it' is basically stripped from the game's story. The story also appears to hint at stuff which nothing gets done with and when it does do something with some of it (like the characters back story) it doesn't really make sense.. Without spoilers, right at the start you find out you are in a suit because you had an accident and you are soo messed up that you can't survive without it.. well, when you find out more it's meant to be a bit of shock and add some weight when it's revealed but.. well, it's pretty much what it told you it was like right at the start.. A bit more story and character would have really gone along with to give some value to this reveal. Also, when they reveal the motive for the killer? very weak. I know how in real life, Murder is often done for stupid reasons, but there is little real motive, mostly because yet again, the story is soo sparse and you haven't really interactive with the character so there is just nothing really there to bring a full story to a conclusion. Really, it's a nice enough game and not even priced, the odd little bug which isn't really to worry about but the story needs alot of work to flesh it out into a full game.
I got the 'demo' years ago and didn't notice when the final thing finally came out after a number of delays. Fair enough.. things happen. Wasn't too keen on the full price for what I had seen in the Demo and some images so waited for it on offer and it was clearly worth what I paid for it but... the game seams to be lacking polish.. you get a fairly common problem of the subtitles not always lining up with the vocal lines, with one weird case that sounds like they left in earlier (or just not quite ready) lines for a couple of bits. That's not a huge issue. Some of the story seams a bit lacking in places and it does big jumps in logic (like at one point, it seamed to say I was in nick's house which.. How the hell Vincent knew that or anything I have no clue... Since (unless you need a tiny bit of hinting) Nick doesn't really do too much in the game, it was a bit weird... There are also a number of bugs which can be almost game ending.. the B&B mini game which is quite a major part of the game has a few HUGE bugs in it, like if a bookash is on a 'move two' hex but can't move 2, it just hangs and won't let any thing be done to carry on the game. Kinda need to either forfeit the match or reload (though I must admit, I didn't try the 'auto win' option). This problem of not being able to make a move it wants to (lack of error checker/handler) happens way more then you would expect.. and it's very annoying cause there are a few cases where this either happens alot by design, or CAN happen alot if you try to do a move without 100% thinking about possibly errors. There are also problems with Hotspots either not triggering at all or the buttons just closing because you didn't click 'just right' but these are more annoying then game ending.. However with the B&B bug.. this can lead to the 'Fix the Radio station' being impossible as if you fail a B&B match, it won't let you rematch.. so you can't get a perfect 'Good boy' route, which is pretty annoying.
The Fantastic Kitty Rue is a short Visual novel like game which is quite a fun sweet little game. For gameplay, there isn't too much as it's a mixture of a short location where you find and combine items to progress to the next page, with short rhythm keyboard sequences which are mostly dancing, or singing but work fairly well, and even if you do fairly badly, this aren't a huge thing for you to progress as it's more of a story. I personally found, probably due to the use of the unreal engine, I had to knock down a number of settings due to some lag, which might be a mixture of my machine (which I don't normally get some problems with but is a couple of years old now) and the game not appearing to have great optimising. I also found a number of parts of the story, due to it being quite short, could be expanded greatly. Things were set up in ways but never quite gone into, but again this is fairly fine for a short game for a cheap price. There isn't really much in the way of video content in that any cutscene is mostly done with partly animated shots but that doesn't go too badly with the style of the game. I did not pay full price but got it on offer and …. for me, the offer price is better. the £10 is maybe okay but I would have preferred it being twice the length for that but that's might be a personal bias on my part. Anything under £5 mark is fine. I did get the feeling it was a setup for something more but then if a sequel was the same size, there isn't really the space to go into such details. However, since most of the game play is kinda the same, a sequel wouldn't really add much without some new elements which might distract, but a slightly less linear story approach might work. All in all, for a cheap family friendly light story game, it's fine and I would recommend it. While the people are very human-iced in design, they are quite cute and well done.
This is a pretty nice little game, though the 'little' bit is one of the fawls. Its fairly short and feels like more could have been added. while [Minor Spoiler] you 'save' some ghosts, even with notes you can find and gather, you don't quite get to really know them and there are plents of ghosts you don't seam able to help at all and little reason or infomation is given on them (For example, [Again, Minor Spolier] the Wife of Darby SEAMS to want you to help her solve the myster of her husbands murder, but while she helps you get some items, you can never give her that closer so she ends up stuck wanting to know the answers you already know but cannot impart). The Graphic style is a little rought in places but works fairly well for it's style. The game play 'twist' of sending out your spirit to interact with ghosts and parts of the house is interesting but could be developed a bit more. Audio isn't bad but spase, puzzles aren't bad but fairly simple and seam more aimed at a younger audience, despite some parts of the game aimed for a slightly older but nothing graphic or that adult. overall, it's a good solid game for a cheap price (i got it on Discount for about £1, but wouldn't really go for the full price mark or what's there, If expanded with more details, getting to know the ghosts of the past more and even a bit more about what lead to alot of them being stuck as ghosts there, it could be a far betteer game and worth more, but as it is, it's a nice small budget game.
This is a fairly standard Point and Click Mystery game where you move your character around, gather clue and interview people to help solve the Murder of Walter Jones via a series of steps. It's not amazingly long and some areas of the map do the standard 'flesh out the map' without too much point, but nothing hughly bad or out of the norm. The Game style seamed to scream more 1999-2005 style with the pre-rendered backgrounds and 3D modelled characters, but came out around 2007 so while not 'state of the art', does the job pretty well and no real complants about the graphical style.. However, there are the odd times when you probebly will MISS an item to pick up because it doesn't stand out so a bit of mouse hovering is useful at times to make sure you get everything. The Story isn't too bad and gives some interesting characters, though a fair bit of it seams a bit underdeveloped (I was left with a number of questions unanswered, which is find though a couple of them seamed to be of SOME importantance to the case but oh well, not a HUGE thing). While English is my first language, I did find some of the written Lore material a bit hard to fully read with the fancy fonts, but these are filler more then needed to complete or enjoy the game. Very much a standard but still good short mystery PnC for the early 2000s (despite it's 2007 date). Brought it when on ofter for 59p, and i would say it's clearly find for up to £2 mark but I'm not sure i would say to buy it if it was much higher then that.
Well. I'm not going to say this is a BAD game,.. But: First of, While the graphics look pretty good and stylised in the screenshots, when it comes to movement and the game itself.. they fall a bit flat.. Backgrounds using a mixture of flited photo and rendered aren't too bad and give a nice style in many places, but these doesn't quite sit well with the pre-rendered 3D which suffer from poor animation and some silted poses, They try to go for a cell shaded cartoon style to match bits like the backgrounds but often (the Shop is a prime example) the characters look like they are from a completely different world.. This isn't a killer, but it can be a little off-putting. Second: The Inventory system is a bit of a nightmare but some of that might be my issue, when you try to click and drag an object, it often just clicks on the object. There is also a thing where if you try some combinations, it'll tell you that it's not gonna work, yet other times it just doesn't let you do it.. Making it seam a little half arsed. Third: Story.. well.. It's pretty short, underdeveloped and simple. You got a little intro which ends up pretty much telling you MOST of what the 'mystery' in the game is, with hints about other stuff that isn't developed in any real detail.' Very few of the characters have any real motivation or are that likeable. If you have played the old Broken Sword, you will see a lot of the story threads from that, yet that game is over twice the size of this one and does seam far more developed. The 'PR' of release of a detective story and odd people with the scar, doesn't really relate to much that happens in the game. I have nothing against short fun adventure stories, but it does come to the 'price for quality' and.. as of writing this: full price is about £7, which isn't worth it. You can pick up many another adventure which gives more for that. At sale price of £2, it's fair enough. If this game got no attention when it first came out, its easy to see why.
This isn't a bad game, so don't let my rating fool you.. It's a good game.. Following on from The Inner World, the Last wind monk starts 3 years later... well.. kinda.. It takes place 3 years after an event shortly after the first game which.. you never learn about.. The first game ended with everything being happy really. This one starts with Robert having crashed in the wood and turned himself to stone. and then 3 years pass. In this time, A guy raises to power saying that Conroy was really right and the Flute noses in fact are trying to take over the world. Laura is thrown in prison and everyone wonders where Robert is.. well.. you haven't missed any scenes in the first.. like one ending with him being turned to stone.. you just need to accept that.. it happened offscreen despite it being a major bit of background. This keeps the style of the first but.. isn't as good and strongly build, with some fairly odd plot holes thrown in (and it feels much smaller.. hard to say if it is, but it really feels it. The titular 'last wind monk' is how the now freed Robert is sent to find. Well.. okay.. At the end of the first game, there were two wind monks left.. one kinda mad in the woods (where Robert meets him) and one who has quit and is in town. It seems they must have died or something.. You find out that although the wind monks were just kinda randomly picked people, new wind monks are born into the role.. okay.. Oh and remember how your parents were dead cause they were turned to stone and then they were broken over the.. erm.. 10 years? well, it turns out it may be possible to turn even damaged statues back and that is what is going to happen with Conroy if you don't stop the new villain... but nope.. your parents are totally gone. No real comments on them.. of the new characters.. only one I liked, and that was the lesbian Flute nose painter.. Returning characters were given no more development beyond the first game. Most new ones are completely forgettable.
Okay, bit spoilers up ahead so be warned. As many others have stated, BG&E was a widely released game that just didn't sell for some reason. most theories for the reason don't apply to a lot of cases so it's a little unknown. It has fairly solid game play but it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Most of the game is Action-Adventure, with a half-nod to stealth, but it doesn't go far enough into the stealth side to really be worth much. Sure, you have to spend some time sneaking into buildings to get some photos, but these are mostly linear with multiple forced combat situations which downplay the stealth side. The world has a slight open-world to it, but it's heavily limited and the almost complete lack of side missions limit any real reason for exploring. There are a few races (either 'official' or against 'looters', and there is the side mission to photograph all the animals you can find, but that's it. Other then that, it's a pretty linear world going from mission to mission. No major problem but it could have been much more.. Now, what minor BUT (the above was more comments then against). The story... you are a photographer (claiming partly to be a reporter but you just take photos). your world is under attack from an alien enemy while another alien force protects the planet, but there protection seems little odd (or so we are told.. in fact, they appear to turn up at the END of an attack, so it doesn't look like they do much). We then find out about the Rebels. They know the two alien sides are working together and want you to take some photos to convince the population. Oh the planet ruler who is pretty much on your side anyway. Well.. They appear to know too much about what is really going on ahead of time and with the game title, you get the feeling you are going to find out something big.. like maybe it isn't as clear cut as good vs evil.. but that doesn't happen. Oh and you are really an ancient super being of some kind.. revealed right at the end.
I'll say I don't have this copy, but the original PC release. That said, lets go over this.. It is meant to be part of the 'Call of Cthulhu' series based heavily on the works of H.P. Lovecraft.. long-time fan of his work, I can pretty much say that.. if you removed a couple of names, then there is nothing Lovecraft about this. the Call of Cthulhu Series was always a mess which was based on someone having heard a copy of lines and that was it, but this is really BAD. So, first thing, Ignore anything that says it's got any relation to Lovecraft.. and it's a pet peeve I know but can people that want to cash in on his work remember, Cthulhu was the Prophet of the Great Old Ones. HE wasn't one of them. And if you are going to quote his work, get the quote both right and in context, else it's just meaningless. Voice Acting is pretty bad, Drawn graphics are good. CGI graphics are... not BAD but the animations and movements are very bad. A lot of the Script doesn't make much sense and can be pretty much contradicting itself. I must give it points for gameplay in that there isn't anything SERIOUSLY wrong with it, but it's a case that pretty much the only things you can interact with or look at, at things you need. And often they are small and bland so they are hard to see.. just wave your mouse over the screen and you'll probably find more stuff, not great for adventure games. Some have said this game has a promising start but then goes down hill.. I'm not sure in what way.. The intro can kinda be figured out as to its relationship with the game, but it's not a great fit. You start on a sub, Monster appears, Action right of the batt which does show that this game isn't one about depth or detail. mostly slowly walking around with no regard to 3 dimensional space. By the end of the game, well.. I was thinking 'Didn't Harlan Ellison write a better version of this?' and well, if Ellison wrote a version, he did right a better version of anything.
I picked up this game as a 'freebie' here and while I don't think I would have paid the full price for it, I probably would be worth it. If you like to rush through your games with the only real enjoyment being that you completed it as fast as you can, you will not only fail to fully enjoy most games, but will most likely hate this game. Story wise, it is told fully through visual with only a few grunts or the odd word 'Hey' being uttered. If you look up most information on this game, it'll totally spoil what is a fun adventure. Washed up on a strange island after a storm, you wonder around to find bonus unlockables as well as to figure out what to do. It's not very hard to figure out and this game is a fun all-age one that can be enjoyed by the young and old. Gameplay is also fairly simple with a fair amount of prompting to help guide you along without too much "why won't it let me do this" feel. The main issue I had was with it's saving system, which just uses the old checkpoint system. So you need to watch for a little saving symbol to know it's saved up to that point, which can be annoying if you get interrupted during play. Graphics are beautifully done with a great cartoony feel and together with the animation movement, you get clear emotion and story told through the game without the need for dialogue, even in somewhat inhuman and static creatures. despite the rating, this game is very cinematic with no real combat or violence, which there are moments of fear and panic but nothing that really goes against the semi-gentle feel giving by the look, sounds and music of this game. I would have no problem recommending this game to people that aren't just in games for pure action, or grand story quests.
