Absolutes Must-Play für jeden Fan von P&C. Die Storyline fesselt, uind zumindest ich habe auch gegen Ende von Kap.4 noch nicht wirklich durchschaut wie die Story auflöst. Grafik ist solide und paast einfach. Bisher keine Pixeljagd im sierra-Stil (...zum Glück), die Rätsel sind logisch und lösbar. Nicht wirklich schierig bisher, aber auch nicht zu meh. Score passt. Keinerlei technische Schwierigkeiten hier, keine Crashs oder so.
Während die anderen Teile durchaus den Vergleich mit klassischen Twilight Zone Episoden halten können fällt From the Woods dagegen storytechnisch scharf ab. Was anfänglich als Sequel zu "The Nanny" beginnt wird schnell fallengelassen zu einer stereotypischen Gay Romance wo der wahre Horror in den ausgelutschten Stereotypen der Charaktere besteht. Das betrifft alle Charaktere, bis hin zum alten Hausmeister. Daraus folgt auch die vorhersehbare Handlung, die weder unerwartete Wendungen noch Überraschungen enthält. Schade, das hätte Potential gehabt, aber es wurde nicht realisiert. Die beiden Sterne gibts für die saubere technische Umsetzung und den stimmigen Soundtrack.
Das Spiel funktioniert ohne weiteres für sich selbst, entweder als gradlinig spielbarer taktischer Shooter (Deckung( Sichtlinie/ Distanz usw.) oder als Ich-probiere jetzt-was-ungewöhliches . Macht beides Spass :) Ich hatte einen Bug (MapMove ging nicht) über die gesamte Spieldauer, Neustart der Kampagne behebt das. Wem das Sorge macht (oder wer verschiedene Sachen ausprobieren will) kann einfach den Spielstand im Verzeichnis sichern und dann einfach zurückschreiben.
Imagine if someone has heard about sherlock Holmes, but never read anything of A.C. Doyle. Then, imagine fiurther, if said someone never got as far as getting a grip on logic, or investigation. Now, if this individual were to design a game, it might look like this. Contra Only 3 Investigations for the whole game, those are ...mediocre at best. A cartload of puzzles, ranging from laughable simple to mind-bending obscure. If you are happen to be color-blind, tough luck. Biggest challenge is mostly to figure out what to do, and how. Lore-braking in a way that borders on hilarious. No spoilers here, just wait for the end. Objects tend to appear in previous searched locations only after something else triggered. Bad, bad design. First radio transmission 1883 by Tesla (sort of), 1904 Marconi. Radar the same, Hülsmeyer 1904. I don't mind tweaking dates a bit, but that was a bit too much. Just wait for it. Of course, Watson would ignore floating corpses. Just, you know, wait for it. Pro No crashes for the whole gameplay. Graphics and sound are decent, for their time even really good. Got this in a sale for the price of a glas of soda. Okay for this, but not more.
Like Alien, H.P.L., Event Horizon ? Then this is for you. Stop reading, buy it. In Chapter 2 now, Puzzles so far were relatively easy, no twisted logic so far, which is good. Fantastic score, But these are just the technicalities. What really does it for me, the game manages to transport the feeling of fear of the things that go bump in the night, of the gradual realisation that H.P.L. was with "We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." was right on the mark... and you are about to find out what that means.
And this is meant as a compliment ;) Absolutely solid RPG Old-School. No Hand-.Holding, no tutorials that just bore to death, no pc (!!!), but very solid story telling and gameplay. At the moment i have not tried any other language then the native german, and i hope the translations do it justice. But the german language track is one of the few game speech tracks that absolutely nails it, and not some lame-ass excuse for real talk. Love it :) In case you never played Gothic 1 or 2- this feels like it. In the best way possible imo. I can't understand what in some reviews is pinted out as eye-strain when combat starts. I got nothing of that, whith all grahipc options maxed out. One single point of critique- Jax now looks a bit like a Waschlappen. Then again, might be what is to expect after years of loafing ;)
Unfortunately, after a nice start the vn drops to a heavy-handed ecoterrorist-friendly glamour story. It might be what is at this moment en vogue, but i suggest for everybody who doesn't dream about pissing on a harvester to skip this.
