How this game is considered an "Adventure" is unknown. It's a Walking Simulator through-and-through. I've only played (on another platform) for a short while, but I've seen enough to know I won't enjoy it any further. Beware of vague spoilers ahead for the opening section of the game (the only section I have played so far) First off, this game commits a cornerstone "Adventure" game crime: What I like to call "Conditional Acquisition." Essentially, that means you can only interact with an item if you have triggered a prerequisite action. For instance, in the opening part of the game, I noticed an obvious graphic asset that didn't "fit in" with the surrounding assets; it was *painfully obvious* that this item was significant, but no matter what I did, I could not do anything with it. Shortly afterwards, I found a note that illustrated the aforementioned asset and what its purpose was and only then was I able to interact with it. Very frustrating. The only purpose of this mechanic is to force the player to perform specific actions to advance the game, thusly removing the entire "Explore" aspect of a game and turn it into a 1-2-3-4 procession of specific actions. Secondly, something that parallels my previous aggravation, the game expects you to discover and interact with the objects in the environment in a linear, specific order. I was wandering around and found this strange wooden plank with etchings and whatnot and the narrative voice-over was all like, "Oh, it looks like I found another one of those wooden planks with carvings" and I was all like, "What? What do you mean another one?" Because this was the first one I had found and the programmers assumed I would have found a different one first. This game is set up to do everything in a very specific A-B-C order and you, as a player, are not allowed to deviate from that in any way, which turns this game from an "Adventure" into a "Walking Simulator." If that's your thing, have fun. Me? Not interested.
The game opens with a simple and fun tutorial to teach you the absolute basics of what you need to do to win. But once that is over, the difficulty and challenge is ramped up exponentially and the fun factor is ripped out and replaced with tedious micromanagement. Running through a level "with both guns blazing" is hands-down the absolute worst strategy you could use--every move, every attack, and every cast of magic must be carefully and painstakingly pre-planned lest the entire remainder of the level becomes hopelessly lost. You are seriously outmatched in every level and manipulating the timing of your level-ups to replenish HP/MP is the ONLY way to survive through to the final boss of each level; there is no other strategy. I've periodically re-installed this game every now and again and every time I remember why I stopped playing it. It's a one-trick-pony game and just doesn't have enough entertainment value to keep me interested.
It seems like a developer played Portal and said, "Hey, I'd like to make a game like Portal, but not actually be Portal. Maybe I'll use red and green magnets instead of orange and blue portals." And then this game was created. The only thing this game did for me was make me want to go play Portal. Go play Portal instead. It's a MUCH better and funner game. This game comes off as a cheap knock-off of an already great game. It reminds me of those cheap "Construction ChangeBot" toys you find at Big Lots that are essentially Devastator from Transformers but are made out of incredibly cheap plastic and cost $2.50 for the entire set. It's like wanting to buy a Ferrari but settling on a Pontiac Fiero. It's like wanting a nice Starbucks mocha latte espresso but just going to your local Marathon station and getting a coffee out of the vending machine instead. You get the idea. Go play Portal.
