I've edited this review because the game devs never released another episode of this game despite assuring me when I contacted them that the second episode was nearly ready for release so much for 10 episodes, there are a few new games being released with more episodes promised but I'll be waiting until they are all available before I buy. A good start to the series but the game is very short I played through in about 6 hours and just when I thought I was getting somewhere and the game was opening up to other areas it finished! If the other 9 episodes are as short as this one then playing this game will become very irritating and expensive, of course you don't have to buy the game but it feels like loot boxes when you have to pay to progress further in the game, I'm assuming that not all the future parts to the game have been produced yet so lets hope the developers don't give up before the game is completed and hopefully, the full game will be released as one game and I shall probably wait for that rather than buy all future single episodes. I don't know why the game suggests Intel i7 and 32 GB RAM my system runs 16GB RAM and i5 7600K on windows 7 and it ran fine, the biggest issues I have with the game are the auto save which is typically very annoying and the cursor is small and doesn't change very much when there is something to interact with.
I've spent a few hours trying to get this game to run and tried the various fixes suggested on youtube etc, but I can only get to the intro after that the screen is blank there are numerous problems with this game (just do a search) including the Steam version and despite the many patches that come with it I can't get it to run, my PC is above minimum spec i5, GTX 1070 16GB RAM. If you buy this game then try it to see if it will run for you and don't leave it too late return the game if it doesn't run as I did!
You will love this game if you enjoy blindly running around in a woods finding dead end after dead end and dying and dying and dying again it's the game for you but I hated it. To make this game even more frustrating it won't support a controller even though it should in the control settings but plug a controller in and the camera just spins wildly and you can't stop it I tried 2 wired and 2 blue-tooth pads but they all spun the camera this is a common problem just look online and some people even have this issue with just KB and mouse, totally unacceptable especially considering you only need 3 buttons to play the game. Thankfully I bought it cheap so I enjoyed deleting it from my HDD for ever!
Lake Ridden is a great looking game when it's daytime but unfortunately that's not often and most of the time is spent in a dark and misty environment yes it's atmospheric and still nicely detailed but I felt it wasn't always neccessary there are lights to turn on and you have your own lantern but strangly you can't use it outside when it's dark? The storyline has some depth but it's not entirely clear what has happened in the past but that's nothing new for a game, obviously there are lots of places and things to search maybe too many as often there is nothing to find, there are some good interesting and visually rewarding puzzles but one type of puzzle I felt was over used but refer to the spoiler alert at the end for more info, the voice acting is quite good and the music suitably atmospheric but a little too quiet even at full volume. My biggest issue with the game is there is no manual save only autosave points which sometimes trigger when you accomplish something but at othertimes don't so if you don't have the time to keep playing (as I often don't) until you get another autosave you lose your progress and this brings me to the other issue of not having a map or a compass to help you find your way around so it can be a bit repetitive and tedius trying to find where you were previously especially as the outside lights I turned on for a guide were often turned off when I returned there later, it may have been a certain charachter messing with me, whatever it's annoying. There is an error in the game I won't say spoiler alert because I don't think it is but at one point in the game your objective is to go to the old well and says it's in the courtyard but it's actually inside the building opposite the old school entrance, I spent way too much time looking for it! I like to play simple P&C games on a big screen TV using a pad but this game does not support pads but works ok using Xpadder and a PS4 or Xbox pad. SPOILER ALERT. There are two types of puzzle boxes in the game one that you turn the handle to get a sequence of buttons to press these you need to open to get items to continue the game but they are easy, the other similar boxes just have buttons to press in a certain sequence to open there are quite a few of these and it can get quite tedius trying to open them all but you don't need to open any of them, there is nothing essential needed in them to finish the game.
I was very disappointed with this game, I love p&c adventure games and I generally have almost infinite patience when it comes playing them, the harder the better, but I found Resonance very frustrating, it's not the difficulty, it's the shear tedium of menus, when you open a menu to ask a question, they auto close and you have open them again, question after question, soooo slow! It's very easy to get stuck in the game and all it takes is one missed question (that provides a vital clue) which you didn't save and ask one of the four characters you end up controlling and the game grinds to a halt and then it's back to the tedium of menus again! There also some plain stupid things in the game, for instance, you can left click on a folder and be told something like, 'I can't pick that up' for whatever reason, but if you right click on the folder you can view the contents, WTF! I'm not going to rant on, suffice to say I can't be bothered to finish the game as I found nothing pleasurable about it.
Whilst the game is quite an interesting concept it is way too buggy (despite all the patches) and never should have been released like this this, I would never recommend it to anyone, the main issue I have is that even though I have completed some areas and the lights are lit up on the board with the four areas on, when I returned to one of these areas the light has gone out and none of the puzzles have been solved and I have to do them all again, WTF! Due to so many issues with this game, like the well known problem with the lift to the offices with the barometer in, I have now completely lost all faith in the game, I mean what's the fucking point in trying to solve the puzzles if you can't be sure that the game is working correctly and that you are not just wasting your time because you might have got it right but because the game is broke it won't work. Example: One of the lights in the art room in the school needs a UV bulb put in it but it wouldn't allow me to do it, I eventually quit the game in frustration and when I tried again later it worked, WTF was that about, I wasted an hour fucking around with that crap, I can't be bothered to list the other issues I've had with this game but needless to say I'm sick of it and can't be bothered wasting my time trying to finish it! A BUGGY LOAD OF BOLLOCKS!
I've been playing all the TR games for years on xp-w7-w8 32bit and 64 bit using the original discs , some dedicated TR fans have been making installers and patches to do this. checkout the Tech support page on 'tombraiderchronicles.com' ;>)
Can someone confirm that the full in-game soundtrack is in the non-deluxe edition game? I've not used GOG for very long and it is a bit confusing when it say's that two sample tracks are included, this gives the impression that the full soundtrack might not be included? Assuming that that the full in-game soundtrack is included with the non-deluxe edition, it still seems odd that if you buy the deluxe edition the extras cost £6.20 on top of the non-deluxe £12.49 version but to buy the upgrade separately it costs £9.29, that's 50% of the deluxe game price and £3.00 extra for buying it separately, frankly, that stinks real bad!
