Not a bad game, a bit short, mostly in the final act which has ... very little content. Some of the advertising fluff is a bit misleading cause there are a number of animations which aren't hand drawn frame by frame but still good and fair enough, though there is a slight style problem when you look at some characters next to each other. A couple of the mini games and quite fun and you can play them a number of times. Story wise, it's HEAVILY based on Greek mythology with pretty much every character based on a famous and well known Greek myth, though not all the characters are direct transplants from these. Speaking of Storywise.. there is.. a very weird and slightly annoying... mm.. maybe plot hole.. I'm not sure if it's in the Original German, but I would assume so as the English flows well and all, so it appears well done. This is Death commenting on how stupid it is for Death to have a child.. while talking about HIS father and how various things like being death is kinda pasted down in his family... so.. that is a big 'uh?' technically if you go into myth, Thanatos didn't really have a father but had a mother, Nyx. Also Keres wasn't sister, but a group who did the same kinda job as death but was the personification of violent death (and technically Thanatos was the brother of the Moirai) but this isn't meant to be, or atleast doesn't appear to be a direct Greek mythological story. just highly inspired by but having death moan about how stupid it is to have a child while he himself IS a child of death is just jarring story wise. Puzzles are pretty straight forward but there is a hint/solution system if you find them too hard somehow. apart from the length, I think the price is a bit high for a KS game which is the size it is, and it feels alot like 'we are giving you PART of a story cause we want to make a series' which is always a bit of a bugger, but if on discount, a good pick up and pretty much a must bye for £10 if you are into fun point and click games
I really tried to like this. I thought, Okay, try the demo first but.. I could barely make it through the demo. I know this is a small project team but as very small time game creator myself who has far less money then this guy appears to have, I know some of the hardships but this is.. fails for me quit a bit. The art is very basic but fair enough. It uses 3D models for the characters which, yep, this was done in the 90s (Discworld Noir, Resident Evil) and done well.. this way doesn't do it well and the 3D models don't really move with the perspective of the backgrounds and they just appear to stand out a mile and that's not taking into account the background lighting being different to the models. They also have a nasty feeling of just generic off-the shelve models in the way they some of the different ones don't appear to quite match the same style a each other. The voice acting is pretty bland and almost sounds like text-to-speech so I get the feeling either they didn't have good direction or they just aren't that great, which can be forgiving if it wasn't for the overly done and not fantastic dialogue which is trying to be 'smart and funny' all the time while failing. The intro has the main character, Scott, saying the game is mean for teens and to be educational.. then the character goes around making poor decisions and.... well.. being pretty cruel to animals in the shelter he volunteer's at (3 cats, one food bowl, only dry, which also has mice eating from the storeroom which is a bit of a problem there too). The creator also tries to have the character speak to the audience quite a bit too, often to 'try' to explain faults with this being a small time game but it comes off very condescending for a game which has a £15 price tag (I know this is the free demo but still). There are also a few 'random' puzzles which.. kinda take me back to the worse ones of the 80s and 90s. Like you need to flush the toilet, to cause the water level in the bowl to rise to find your bus ticket which you already said you don't have.. not that you have mis-placed it, but that you DON'T have one (unless I greatly misread how that was done). there are also points in the dialogue where.. okay, normally (unless you turn on it) the next line of dialogue will play after the first has finished.. fine.. but then sometimes, you will get "..." which means you NEED to click to progress.. even if you have it set to not need that.. it's a pain. Honestly? I think if this whole game was free, and used as one of his first projects in learning to make a game, it might be acceptable but being that the games creation if funded by a kickstarter, then it's £15 for each copy on top of that, It should be much more and much better then it is. I tried to like this but.. the game does what it can to make sure you can't like it.
What can I say about Hob's Barrow.. It's not a bad standard P&C adventure game but it's pretty bland. They appear to go for a horror feel but don't really have much there. There is some attempt to build up some great horror but it's very understated and most of it doesn't go anywhere. The Last act... sigh.. I kinda felt it would have been better if it wasn't the last act but the one before last, because there is soo much that appears missing. some stuff which appears like it might be an important clue (like the disappearing A.T. Stone, Main character's Mothers re-action to events 25 years ago) aren't explored at all, some things appear to happen which for some reason, no-one else appears to notice (spoiler: not noticing a blood exploded body a few yards steps) why some people were so reluctant to talk about some subjects when you later find out they had no reason and it didn't do anything.. We also have the issue of a kinda dumb player character. Pretty sure even causal players would put two and two together LONG before the main character does (you see a rich dressed guy bossing some labourers around on private land, and you don't think he is in some way related to the then unseen lord of the manor? mm.. we also have stuff seemingly completed overnight which doesn't make sense and some more set up of characters which are hinted to be something important but have no pay off at all. Puzzles are mostly fine though mostly simple fetch quests, acting is good though... being English from a sub-urban area.. I have to say they come off as someone's attempted to get the stereotypical feel of an area more then being correct with some odd pronouncing of words and weird word choices, though most of it is standard though a bit bland. If this game is on discount, it's fine. But while some aren't completely blank stereotypes, there isn't too much over that and way too much of the story is just left unexplained. I'm really not a person who wants every little thing wrapped up in a nice little package but when you spend some time setting up and hinting at stuff, I would expect that to fit into the story somehow and.. often it doesn't. There is also a problem in the basic narrative of being hand held through the whole game and the over top narration of the main character from the future trying to give foreshadow and building a sense that something is gonna happen.. but it kinda doesn't and the amount of narration just highlights this. Graphics are fine but suffer from 'trying to be retro but with modern graphic abilities' so it's a mixed bag in places with scaling issues which would be noticeable from people who either lived through the old days, or have experience with graphic abilities. All in all, a pretty good game if cheap (Ideally, around £5 mark, but up to around £10 is probably fine) but you will be left with the feeling that an act has been removed or set up for a sequel which seams unlikely.
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.
