If you liked "The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav" you will probably also like "Memoria". The game looks even better than its predecessor, especially the sections with princess Sadja's story which have a strong eastern theme. The animations are smoother and the effects are better. I liked the story. There were some unexpected twists towards the end. For me personally, the story of princess Sadja was the one that I found more interesting. While I also liked that Geron and Nuri's story got its closure, their story felt like it wasn't the main focus of the game and it was just kind of there. I liked that there were some returning characters from the previous game. One of the new characters that I did not like was Bryda. Without going into spoilers, I felt that she did not have enough character development for her story arc to finish the way that it did. The puzzles are better and more diverse. There are some new spells, with very interesting mechanics, that you have to use in order to solve some of the puzzles. Overall, it's a very good sequel which improves upon many aspects of the previous game. I definitely recommend it, again, especially if you can get it on sale.
This game was my introduction into the world of "The Dark Eye", but given the fact that I love fantasy worlds, I was instantly drawn to the premise of the game. Visually, the game is very appealing, each different frame is handcrafted and full of detail. I admit some of the animations are rather stiff, but nothing too dramatic. The story was interesting. Like it was stated in some of the previous reviews, the game starts more lightheartedly and it turns darker towards the second half of the game. I found it a little hard to sympathize with the protagonist - Geron. Based on his life experiences, I can understand why he has the attitude of being alone against the whole world, but even after managing to overcome numerous difficult situations, he was still all about doom and gloom. I did not feel that there was much character development regarding him. On the other hand, his companion, Nuri was the absolute opposite. With her charming and somewhat naive approach to each situation I found her to be absolutely adorable. Gameplaywise the game was fun. I enjoyed the puzzles. I can tell you from personal experience that if you play with the help functions turned off, there is a decent amount of pixel hunting that you will have to do and sometimes your progress will entirely depend on finding the next vital interaction point. But I found the puzzles to be logical, maybe with a few exceptions that required out of the box thinking, but with some trial and error here and there, that can be overcome. The voice-acting and the soundtrack were decent, no complaints there. I found the ending to be a bit abrupt, but the story continues in "Memoria". Overall, it was a solid point-and-click adventure game and I definitely recommend it, especially if you can get it on sale.
Like it says in the title when you combine Dracula 4 and 5 they make one decent adventure game, but one that falls a little short in more ways than just the length of the game(s). The visuals are nice, however the character animations and lip-syncing are pretty bad. The characters look very stiff and inanimate. The story wasn't very interesting and after Dracula 4 ended in a cliffhanger, the ending of the fifth part kinda goes nowhere and it does not feel rewarding at all. There are some interesting puzzles, however most of the puzzles are more on the easier side and if you are a veteran of the genre I do not think they will provide a sufficient challenge. I wouldn't say that there are any horror elements in the game desipte having "horror" listed in the genre field, I remember while playing the original Dracula I had a constant sense of foreboding. This game is certainly lacking when it comes to atmosphere. The health mechanic feels kind of redundant and in my opinion brings nothing to the game. Like I said the game is rather short, still there are trophies in-game so there is some replay value, I guess. Overall if you can get it on sale you can play through it for a weekend of relative fun.
I was a little hesitant of buying this game because of all the negative feedback that I have read, but given that the game reminded me very strongly of the previous installment - "Crimes and Punishments" (which in my humble opinion is the best Sherlock Holmes game) I decided to give it a fair try. The core mechanics are all still there, you can still build character portraits, gather clues and make deductions which lead to solving a case, but unfortunately this is where the positive suff ends. Overall for a point-and-click adventure game I felt that there were too few puzzles and most of them weren't even that hard. There were some very strange sections which tried to blend elements of other genres into the mix, but I would not say that the result was good. Some of these sections included stealth, trailing a suspect, finding cover while being shot at and a segment with a very strong "Tomb Raider" vibes to it. I am not sure that these elements are needed in a point-and-click adventure game. Also very frequently the game turns in an absolute Q.T.E. fest. Graphically I liked the visuals. The world looks beautiful, although you practically explore rather small maps. There is some "free roam" around your apartment and in some other locations but with the exception of a few trivial mini games there is not much to see or do. I found the cases in "Crimes and Punishments" to be much more memorable. Here the story is a continuation of the story in "the Testament of Sherlock Holmes". For a full playtrough I think that you will need around 12-13 hours, and this version does not have achievements (neither in-game nor in GoG Galaxy) unlike the previous installment so I really do not see much replay value. Still if you are a fan of the previous game I would recommend giving it a try but don't keep your expectations high. Also I advise you to wait for a sale, because the full prize is not worth it, given the length of the game and its quality.
After the mess that was Beyond Divinity I was a little reserved about this game, but after a couple of hours of playing, the game quickly managed to prove me wrong. Talking about the main game and its expansion I can say that I really found them to be a very enjoyable RPG experince. The gameplay was fun, I liked that there are no class restricitons in regards to the skill system so you can experiment a lot and see what works for you. There are a lot of hidden things and secrets and you can really feel that the game rewards exploration. I found most of the quests to be pretty interesting. There was again this witty humor that I liked in Divine Divinity. The voice-acting was pretty good as well, complimented by a decent soundtrack. It took me about 60 hours of gameplay to finish the main game and an additional 22-23 hours for the expansion and I did explore as thoroughly as I could. I enjoyed the plot for the most part, I also liked that there were some returning characters from the first game. Also there were a lot of references to the previous games (mostly Divine Divinity) and a lot of references to pop culture and real life people/events. The ending of the expansion was a little underwhelming and it left me wanting for more but I do not think that detracts from an overall excellent experience. The combat was fun although I did find it a bit strange that you cannot see ground enemies while in dragon form. Still the ability to transform into a dragon gives a certain verticality to the world and opens new ways of exploration. The dragon combat reminded me of the dragon combat in Drakan: the Order of the Flame - a game that is very dear to my heart and one, that I hope I will someday see on GOG. The "Mindreading" mechanic was very interesting and original. It hels you find new quest solutions, learn some useful information or just to have a good laugh. Overall I would give a solid 4.5 stars to the game and I definitely recommend it to fans of the RPG genre.
I bought the game because I wanted to see Sokal's early work, before the excellent Syberia series. The game itself is rather short, it took me around six hours to play through it. The puzzels mainly consist of pixel hunting which can get a bit tedios at times. Most of the time you need to find a certain item and put it somewhere even if not always makes sense to do so. There is almost no character interaction in the game. I did enjoy the story and the visuals, which keeping in mind that the game is more than twenty years old, look pretty decent even today. The ending was a bit disappointing. I will not go into spoilers but the ending cinematic reminded me of something straight out of a Half Life game. I will recomment the game only to fans of Syberia and of Benoit Sokal who are interested to see some of the earlier concepts of his work, some of which made their way into Syberia. However I will recommend buying the game only when it is on sale, because given the lenght of it, it doesn't justify paying the full price. Overall it isn't a bad game, but it falls a little short on some fronts that normally should be the strong points of a point and click adventure game. Nevertheless it made me appreciate how much an improvement over this game is Syberia given the fact that they were released only a couple of years apart from one another, and if you still haven't played it I urge you to do so, you will not be disappointed.
I bought and played Divine Divnity (DD) and Beyond Divinity (BD) together so I will be making some comparisons. I found DD to be an excellent five-star game. I had my share of fun with it so I was curious to see how will BD improve upon a very successful first game... The idea of controlling two characters may seem innovative, but for me it was more of a nuisance than an improvement. Controllig both at the same time feels very clunky and unintuitive. The voice-acting is atrocious, it sounds very amateurish, on many ocasions different characters will pronounce a name differently and first time I have heard it pronounced palAdins... The sountrack is very limited, only a few boring tracks. DD had a very good soundtrack, the track at the Elven Village comes to mind immediately. There is almost no variations of the envinroments, and you can not backtrack after you complete an act, it is not an open world game like the first one. The "BattleFields" is one of the worst new additions - a boring timesink with repeteable levels where you are doing quest, that you do not care about, for npcs that you do not care about. The story is very weak, I found the novella in the digital extras to be much more interesting than the plot of the entire game. The skills system is much worse, archers and melee fighters basicaly only have passive bonuses and no skills to cast. The game is also very buggy. Some bugs include enemies spawned outside the terrain so to be unreachable, loot stuck in walls and one very annoying bug if you have an archer, sometimes his arrows will vanish midflight with no apparent reason thus not hitting anything. Game crashes frequenlty and some times would not start at all. Again no such problems with the first one. I pushed through the game hoping that it will somehow get better, or that I will find some redeeming qualities. I did not. I honestly can't recomment that game, especially if you liked DD. You are better off playing some Diablo or Dungeon Siege.
I am not much of a fan of the sci-fi genre, but I admit I found the blend between fantasy and sci-fi pretty interesting. I will start with the positives first. The story and the lore were good, with several unexpected twists along the way. The open world is massive, PB's biggest one yet and it feels very well done, with different variety of enemies in the different environments, similar to Gothic 3. In terms of exploration there is a lot to see and find, helped by the ability to use a jetpack which also gives the option of vertical exploration. Most of the quests are interesting with at least a couple of ways to complete them. You can definitely feel Gothic vibes in some of the quests and also in some of the factions' motivations (An orderly camp, a religious camp and a lawless camp that values profit above all else, sounds familiar?). The combat can be pretty clunky until you get used to it or acquire certain skills. Ranged combat is far superior to melee combat. You can clearly feel the progression in the game, in the beginning you practically can't kill almost anything and near the mid to end-game you become an absolute wrecking ball, killing most enemies with a couple of shots. I did not encounter any game-breaking bugs, but the game definitely lacks polish when it comes to quest triggers, dialogue, AI, etc. Visually the world is beautiful. (I edited the config file to remove fog, without it I think the game looks better and it runs smoother). However the character models look pretty dated and lack variety. I did not like that PB has added respawn to the game, unlike previous games, but that is a personal preference. I also did not like that in the end sequence you don't really have a choice to make, it all depends on your "cold rating", so keep that in mind. Overall the game is certainly no as good as Gothic 1 or 2 or even Risen 1, but it can be fun. I give it 3.5 stars. For a 2017 game, it is a little pricy, on a sale the game is an absolute steal.
