Okay this game is not for everyone. It will either speak to you or it won't. It isn't Halo or Elder Scrolls or even Kings Quest, but if you lose yourself in this game and fully immersive yourself in it then the game has high rewards. For anyone nostgilc for youth or young themselves and willing to listen to the beautifully written dialogue this game is a masterpiece. The gameplay is a blend of some many games. It's a platformer, it's an adventure game, it's an early 90s Dungeon Crawler, Its a shooting gallery, its Guitar Hero, all mixed into interactive comic book. While it may not seem like this game has loads of player agency to offer at first there are boatloads of mini-side quests to unlock if you commit yourself to exploring every corner of the town. The town itself lends to the beautiful surreal nature of the experience. A middle America mining town with a dark past and a darker secret, and its use of both garbage and classical musics just drawers the player deeper than one could ever imagine. The attention to detail such as the ability to disturb acorns, constantly be collecting by passing rodents or scatter leaves as you walk pulls the player into a world that feels so tacticle and familiar despite its in your face anthromoprhic trappings. I could write an endless essay on how awesome this game is, but its better to just experience it. It's worth every penny. As long as you have an open mind about gaming, and don't expect a fast paced horror experience, this game will be one of the best games you ever play. For me, it definitley has a spot on my top 20 of all time. It's just that good.
This developer always delivers a great love letter to games of 90s SIERRA. That being said it is a very short letter. Probably shorter than the 1st Quest For Glory. Aside from length, the game had many fun puzzles, and a setting that felt genuine to the Genre, but despite the typical "small open world feel" (Similar to QFG 1 or KQ1) the puzzle felt very linear. There was very few needs for exploration. I always had an idea of the singular puzzle I was working on. As where most games of this type has about 4-5 puzzles you can solve at any given times. This game I felt the puzzles were stacked. Where you had to complete one to complete the next one and so on. Worse than that, some times progress involves discovering trigger events which require you to walk the entire map every time you solve a new puzzle and hope that some shenanigans are going on with the other characters that you stumble upon. On the plus, the devleoper did include a "skip walking" right click feature that is quite the blessing. However, what this game does it does well. It delivers a great look back into the heart of 90s adventure games. It even has an amusing soudtrack that is very reminscent of the Rankin Bass medival Fantasy movies of my childhood. Very cool.
When you attempt to homage Quest for Glory, you are targeting a critical audience. While I love QFI's setting, music, and people it falls short of even standing on its own merit mostly because of a lazy, ill-conceived, horrible combat system. First, the good. QFI incorporates many classic QFG troupes: a working day-night cycle, an Inn with daily meals, harvesting monster parts to gain $dough$ from the local alchemist. Even, the isolation in a valley idea, which made QFGs 1,4 wonderful settings, is done with magically immersive grace, and at times likes these the developers have transcended QFG with their own experience, but they undermine these moments with poorly designed ones. The economy is broken by an archery game that is addicting fun, but so easy to win it become sickening. There is no limit to the amount of $ your opponent is willing to lose. After maybe a twenty minute session I could buy the town. The combat itself is a boring mess, the type of non-tatical garbage that makes people hate turned based. You have three types of attacks one being the strongest and there doesn't seem any reason to not spam it. Also, The block option with success AWARDS health. While the mechanic might make organic sense in the Tug-O-war of the current bout, the health carries over, which means every time I was at death's door I just track down a garden variety zombie and spammed block until I was at full health. Very Gamey and unrealistic. Not the mention monsters just stand around when you enter a screen like one of this game's whore working a corner, providing no magnitude to encounters. I'm not sure if this was a lack of budget or talent, but everything about combat drags the experience down. Again, there is a much to enjoy here: magical art and music with funny people make it worth playing, but head scratching-ly awful combat sours everything. I would recommend you wait for a sale and pick it up at the reduced price tag, as I did for $5, does not deserve $20.
This game earns all three stars for its use of atmosphere, style, and just all around novel ideas. However, "Werewolves," loses its charms once combat begins. Frustrating, even, isn't the word. While the planning, Tower defense, section of the game is rewarding if you see the hordes of enemies bottle necked into a trap, the game loses steam when you have to stand your grand and swing your axe. Instead of using a simple, Mark/unmarked, system alla Dark Souls, Werewolves just has you swinging wildly and over swinging your target at every turn. Maybe, they thought this was the proper balance because your hero is a drunk logger and not a life-trained assassin, but it really makes the game an awful button masher instead of a game that could have really shined on both sides of its gameplay. While Melee is awful, ranged weapon aren't that much better, as they limit you to strangely generous but all over the place hit boxes that force you to almost learn a faultly logic of leading the target beyond what should work. What's really disappointing is that I want to LOVE this game, because of its originality, but the design feels like the combat was half-assed or purposely handicapped to heighten the importance of the "Day Time Tower Defense." Either way, its a bad job. Overall, this game needs to played just for its original take on the tower defense genre. I purchased it on sale, but I don't think in its current state its worth over $10, currently $15 as of this writing, but when this game goes on sale its worth a play. I Just the hope if the developers consider a sequel they fix the combat system as it could have been an awesome game and original experience.
This series has really taken a downfall since its debut chapter in 1998. The Longest Journey was probably one of the most moving adventure games of all times, but its sequel Dreamfall just tried to pander to a console audience with a terrible tacked on combat system and spoon feed situational puzzles. Dreamfall Chapter continues in this vein of just following the leader with an unoriginal rehash of Tell Tale Games Interactive movie style that made the Walking Dead successful. What WORKS for the Walking Dead Fails for a series that supposed to be about wonder and discover in a fantastic world. This lack of player agency really limits the experience and robs what made TLJ special in 1998. While it does boast some beautiful visuals and sound, the game is more of interact movie and should be avoided by True Adventure fans that were brought up on games like Gabriel Knight, Quest For Glory, or Day of the Tentacle. The depth of discovery is way too vapid and shallow to compare to these title and its own debut title. Very disappointing through out most of its gameplay.
