Right. Let me begin by saying that I enjoyed this game and I'm going to keep this short and sweet. The main critique seems to be centered around the fact that the environments are repetitive. Yet you don't hear that being said about Ultima Underworld, a game that arguably has somewhat monotone levels differentiated only by their inhabitants and the presence of either water or lava :D Anyway, there's a minority like me that sees the game's environment as a strength, creating a strong identity centering around the metal-clad corridors and horrific cybernetically enchanced humans. It's bleak and depressing and it's your job to figure out how to get out of this nightmare with Sally's help (an executive belonging to the board of directors that started this mess). You'll die a lot, you'll experiment with different weapons and will eventually find your stride and preferred play-style I think one of the more interesting parts is the limb cutting mechanism. By aiming at an enemy's limbs and cutting them out, you gain components for arms, legs, head and torso, which can be used to build new armor or upgrade existing ones. Some parts of enemies are armored so you can also do more damage by aiming for unarmored parts. You'll also find some components out in the wild that will let you upgrade your weapons beyond what is reasonably possible. There's also a mechanic where if you beat the bosses in a certain way, you get a better version of their signature weapon, which I thought was really cool! Don't sweat if you don't get it though, the effect is somewhat minor so no need to pull out your hair like I did when I accidentally killed the 2nd boss too early :D You probably know what souls-like means so I won't go too much into detail. Re-spawning enemies after resting, challenging difficulty (maybe less if you're a souls veteran) and weird characters and depressing atmosphere. If that's your jam, I'd say give it a go! Especially if you've been looking for a Sci-Fi souls
Very different from typical Sierra games of this era. For example, there aren't any typical dead ends in this game (forget to pick up an item at the beginning of the game and you are unable to finish it 70% of the way). You can even finish the game without ever achieving the main goal or solving any puzzles! This is because time keeps advancing constantly and you can only do so much when you're still green. It does make the game feel a bit "rushed" and unchallenging though. But let's back up a little. You're Laura Bow, a 20-something journalist come to see what the hubbub is in this weird mansion. Turns out the owner is dying and leaving his earthly belongings to his family to enjoy after he dies. Terrible murder after another starts happening and it's up to you to stay alive long enough to figure out what's going on. You interrogate people, observe daily events and peoples' relationships and solve puzzles to (hopefully) find the murderer and survive. As mentioned before, I think it's amazing for a game this old to have a living world in a sense that the characters do their own daily routines and things and have personalities and relationships. To follow the plot you have to witness key conversations and events and do some snooping and light puzzle solving. The clock keeps ticking, and every day is divided into segments where all key events happen within a certain segment, so you have to be quick and smart to stay alive and ultimately, find out who the killer is! Your interaction with the game world is done by text parser the same way as in the first Quest For Glory game (EGA version): LOOK WINDOW, TAKE LETTER, TALK BUTLER and so on. Be careful though, being caught snooping is never pleasant, and some actions can even have fatal consequences! You live and learn, and your first playthrough will probably leave a lot of mysteries unsolved. Keep replaying, and the threads will slowly unravel and you'll learn more about the guests that share the mansion with you.
Legend of Kyrandia games hold a special place for me, since they were one of the first games I ever bought with my own money, with the first one being an exception I got as a gift. This one has a 'smart cursor' where the action that will be taken upon clicking things is automatically chosen. Clicking an apple picks it up, clicking on people makes you talk to them etc. The graphics were nice and the dialogue was well written for their first real adventure game, but the puzzles are sometimes frustrating and the game just seems to lack the level of polish they had in the second and third Kyrandia games (not to mention compared to Sierra and Lucasarts games of that era). I think people who aren't playing this for nostalgias sake will only give this game three stars, if you're already a fan of the series or just love adventure games then you will surely enjoy this one
