My biggest concern about this is that it feels more like a graphic novel, rather than a puzzle or an adventure game: at the moment you just click/slide on the highlighted point to complete the task at hand, and that's it. You can't explore, examine or collect anything if you are not prompted by the game. The second concern are the controls: as other have pointed out, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, expecially if yours turned out not round. Third, is the graphic compartment, expecially the choice of implementing a fully 3D environment insteaad of pre-rendered background: not only this subtract a lot of resources from the development of the game, but it also put an unecessary strain on the players machine. It is also to notice the complete lack of options, besides the choice of "high", "medium" or "low" quality. Then we have the animations: they are rigid and stiff when they should be smooth and they are flexible when they shouldn't: the objects handling by the characters is at the level of the first Syberia, while in the scene of the piano you could see parts of the automatons flexing and deforming. The last point I have about graphics is that you have handwritten notes in your diary, but the words don't follow the lines on the pages: either use flat pages, or apply the correct deformation to the text, easily fixed. Last, but not least, the quality of the story is lacking, even in the 20 minutes of this demo. Two points over all: why the investigator notes are in Kate's diary and then she doesn't kinow about what it is written in them? The second problem, why do you introduce NotNazis and NotHebrews if you have then to waste time to explain that they are indeed Nazis and Hebrews in anything but the name?
First playthrough lasted 2 hours, lost a crew member and still managed to leave the planet; if I were to replay it (and I won't) I doubt it would last more than an hour, knowing how I am supposed to play, now. The only part mildly interesting were the AI and the glitches, but they were never actually explored, they were just... there. The game mechanics are extremely simple: you put a guy to gather wood, one to gather food until you have 40, then everyone else on tech trash. You don't need to upgrade your wood and food storage beyond 40, and there is no need to repair or upgrade the weather station, or repairing the heathers near the entrances of your base. If the guys come back with about half health or less, you send them resting. Then you just wait until you have enough tech trash to repair the rocket. As it is, this game could fit with the flash games of the good days of old (Kongregate, Newgrounds, Armorgames and such), at most a couple of bucks on the app store. Definitely not worth 10€.
The game is a little more than an interactive graphic novel, but it is done very well, with wonderfull graphic and music; the concept of the time trivel is intriguing and the puzzle well implemented. Its major selling point are the consequences of all your choices: every action you take, even the smaller ones, will have ripercussion in the future. This point is this game's merit and ruin: in the first 4 and half chapter you will ponder every decision, every single action, since everything will have unexpected consequences, even in later chapters. However, the higher it rises, the harder it falls, when the ending brings everything to a ruin. - mild spoilers ahead- My major gripe with the ending is not from the point of view of the story (over which rivers of words has been written, and thousands of flame wars has been fought) but on the game mechanics itself: while during all the game the focal point was "every action and decision has major consequences", the last five minutes of the game destroy all of that, and the conclusion is "all your choices are meaningless and have absolutely zero consequences (besides the very last one, but even on that one the jury is still out)". -SPOILER- Basically, in the end you have to decide whether to undo every single decision you have made up until then, or to let everything getting destroyed, rendering all of your choices a moot point. Basically, you could just play the last 5 minutes of the game and the results would be the same.
The first thing about this game is that it is really short, it took me less than three hours, and most of them were slowly walking back and forth. The "puzzle" are quite straightforward, with the exception on how to the invisibility spell actually work, given that you can't use it on yourself. The conclusion was also a bit disappointing to me, probably because the game was initially supposed to have two sequels. The magic mechanic is nice, and so are the art and the music; I'd say, go for it if it is on sale.
Good grief, what kind of sick people work at Daedalic? I thought that Deponia was disturbing, with the abuse of mentally ill and whatnot, but this thing goes to eleven! Suffice to say, by the end of the first chapter your "innocent" girl has snuffed eight children (and a clown) by squishing, squashing, tree falling, poisoning, hanging, blowing to smithereens and the evergreen "honey and ants". But, hey! They are all covered with pink paint, so it's all right! As usual for Daedalic's game, all the good work they put into the graphic and the audio compartment is ruined by a poor plot and a relly twisted "sense of humor", if you can call it that.
