In many ways, this game is exactly what I'd hoped it would be. The pip-boy interface feels realistic and almost tactile, creating a powerful atmosphere and enabling immersion. The random elements to each mission allow for theoretically infinite variation, and the character customization / gear system is deep enough to feed that RPG itch. Despite these accomplishments, however, I can't recommend this game. There is only one play mode, a four-mission campaign, and no way to customize the experience by, for example, selecting a mission type. Hacking is near-useless on most missions, and not well designed anyway. The ships are fairly generic, consisting of various rectangles randomly jammed together and stuffed full of identical corpses, computers, and the odd lootable schematic. The real kiss of death, however, is that this is a game that never seems to play fair. I understand that it's meant to be hard, but some missions are plain impossible. Maybe you'll be told to kill all enemies, but the randomly generated enemies will be unbelievably strong. Maybe you'll need to find a ships log, but it will happen to be at the end of several damaged corridors which will critically damage your 'Nauts. Even the most simple acts of combat tend to feel unfair, since it can be impossible to tell if your 'Nauts are even firing at the enemies or just standing around as they get mauled to death. Perhaps I'm just bad at this game, so take my words with a grain of salt. But when I bought this game, I was fully aware of the difficulties of roguelikes and I came expecting a challenge. What I got was more frustration than challenge; I've only once gotten to the second mission of a campaign, and then only by blind luck. The atmosphere in this game may be excellent, but try to find a video of some gameplay and determine if it looks manageable for you. If not, you won't have much fun.
Chains of Satinav is an old-fashioned tale of adventure through a land of sword and sourcery, heroism and legend. In fact, I found myself vaguely reminded of Legend Entertainment games (Shannara, Death Gate). You'll travel strange lands, see remarkable sights, and ultimately use your wits to save the land from destruction. It's quite an adventure. The scenery is rich in visual detail, all quite stunningly rendered. The locales are inventive (to an extent) and varied. The challenges you face are often elaborate, but almost never frustrating. Moon logic puzzles are kept to a bare minimum. The characters are apparently somewhat polarizing, but in my opinion they are sympathetic and reasonably well sketched. The voice acting isn't perfect, but it's certainly good enough, and often matches the mood of a moment very well. I recommend this (and Memoria, the sequel) quite highly to any fan of adventure games. It's really quite beautifully crafted, and worthy of your time and money.
First: This is an unfair review, since I didn't finish the game. My one star rating is representative only of the experience I had, and I don't pretend that it is a holistic assessment of the game's value. That said, I know there are others like me out there: adventure game lovers who can't resist a game like this, but who ultimately can't countenance it's butchered English translation. I'm a long-time apologist for Daedalic. I've enjoyed many of their games, and I ordinarily feel that their mistranslations are harmless. At their best, they add character to the material, and at their worst they can be simply overlooked. Not so here. The first chapter contains some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard, anywhere. It is nonsensical, trite, boring, and grammatically criminal. It is delivered poorly, by actors who can't find whatever rhythms or emotional notes it is meant to contain. If this sounds like it could be a deal-breaker for you, I encourage you to find a "let's play" of the first few minutes of the game. Assess for yourself whether or not you can stomach this linguistic catastrophe. I could not, and that is why I'm posting this warning. This could be a great game, with a fascinating story, but I'll never know; for me it's unplayable. Try to assess the dialogue for yourself before you buy, so you don't waste your money as I did.
