As a fan of classic Larry (games 1-7), I was wary about another installment without Al Lowe. This one is like an awkwardly worded love letter: the affection for Larry is there, but everything feels a bit off. In this soft reboot, the Larry from LSL1 has been thrust three decades into the future. The incredibly clever logistics of this are hinted at, but never fully explained; and the "fish out of water" premise works fine but could be played up more. I admire the attempt to create a classic Larry experience with modern sensibilities, but the balance is never quite right—the humor tends to be more blunt than witty, and the social commentary often lacks a necessary finesse. I suspect this is partly a localization issue, given how some of the dialogue is phrased. It doesn't help that the written text frequently differs from the spoken dialogue, sometimes drastically. Nonetheless, the writing is passable if not always polished, and the voice cast does a good job. I'm glad to hear Jan Rabson reprising his role as Larry, too. The art style is cohesive, though too focused on grimy details for my taste. The characters are fun and diverse, with fluid animations. It took a while for me to warm up to Larry's new design; for one thing, some of his facial expressions straddle the line between "lovable loser" and "creep." I beat the game without a walkthrough, but I wouldn't say the puzzles are all intuitive. They're less about logical solutions and more about matching objects based on the keywords in their descriptions. Yes, the liquid softener SHOULD soften that rock-hard gum in your pocket, but the gum is described as needing a strong jaw to chew it, so the two items can't combine. The interface has some niceties but could use some fine-tuning; for instance, you need to exit to the main menu just to save your game. The epilogue is decent but ends as abruptly as this review. NOTE: The game contains profanity, nudity, sexual content, drug references, and gross/crass humor.
Battlestar Galactica + Mass Effect + Master of Orion + Gundam + uh... harem anime? The Sunrider story (not counting the alternate-universe spinoff Sunrider Academy) spans four chapters: First Arrival, Mask of Arcadius, Liberation Day, and [RE]Turn. This game (Beta 7.2) contains the first two chapters. The next two chapters are sold separately in Sunrider: Liberation Day - Captain's Edition, which imports your save game (only your story choices; not your combat upgrades) and makes some changes to the aesthetics, interface, and game mechanics. Sunrider is a visual novel with turn-based strategic space combat. As the captain of a lone battleship in the midst of a brewing war, you'll gather a motley crew of female mecha pilots, fight intense battles against space pirates and intergalactic conquerors, upgrade your units, and make dozens of decisions that influence the story in some way. Combat involves strategically moving units around on a grid, prioritizing targets, and selecting the right weapons and special abilities for the situation at hand. Battles are exhaustingly tough (even the most casual difficulty requires some strategy) but usually very satisfying. The interface is notably buggy and clunky, but tolerable once you get the hang of it. The opening credits suggest the game is a dating sim full of fanservice and action. While there's some romance, it's more or less on rails, and the thrilling heroics are mixed with surprisingly dark moments highlighting the horrors of war. The story is engaging, but the tone keeps shifting—the game can't decide whether it wants sexy shenanigans and nude shower scenes, or children getting murdered and people losing limbs. The archetypal characters have a lot of personality, thanks to the writing, art, and voice acting. The dynamic soundtrack is a highlight. 3D graphics are serviceable. The ending is awkward—more like "wait for the next update" than "go play the next game." It's a mixed bag, but certainly worth a look.
I wanted to love this game. It's got detailed graphics, fluid animations, refreshingly different puzzles and fantasy elements, a serious tone with an understated sense of humor, lots of flavor text to increase the immersion, and an engaging story with a great plot twist. It also has serious flaws with the challenge design. The game makes it sound like you should explore the world as much as possible before storming the evil sorcerer's tower. However, each location has puzzles you can't solve until you reach the end of the tower. This creates a strange progression where the early game consists largely of exploring new areas, collecting items, and gathering clues; and the late game is nonstop puzzle solving. This is a problem because so many vital clues are only provided once, and often missed forever if you choose the wrong dialogue options. The clues are usually so far removed from the relevant puzzles that you absolutely need to take notes about EVERYTHING to stand a chance at beating this without a walkthrough. It's frustrating to hit a wall and not know if you permanently missed a clue or just need to return later. Clearer objectives would help tremendously. As for the items, over half a dozen are useless aside from giving you points. Many puzzles solve themselves as soon as you get an item you didn't know you were looking for, and the rest tend to test your clue-gathering skills more than your creativity. Frustratingly, the game overlooks several clever applications for your items. Other qualms include uneven voice acting, music that doesn't always fit the atmosphere, mild interface issues, and an abrupt ending. Still, this is worth a try if you know what to expect. Note that there is copy protection; see "answers.txt" in the game folder. You can die, but you don't lose progress and can't dead-end the game, and you get a survival hint on Novice difficulty. For sensitive players, deaths are bloodless and include being stabbed, eaten, and quickly melted.
This is less of an adventure game and more of an evidence-gathering simulator. The story takes place over the course of 8 in-game hours, and the clock only advances when certain pre-scripted events are triggered. As time goes on, new clues and items appear, people and objects change locations, new areas become accessible, and people get murdered. Your goal is to stay alive and learn as much as humanly possible about these people and this place. Unfortunately, the people are one-dimensional stereotypes who barely want to speak with you. They'll respond concisely if you ASK or TELL them (this is a text parser, mind you) about different things, but you can't really influence them. You're an observer until the end. The gameplay is characterized by aimlessly wandering in search of the next plot point, pestering people for information, looking for secret passageways, spying on people, and thoroughly examining anything new or different when revisiting old locations. A handful of traditional "use item on object" puzzles help break up the repetition, but the puzzles tend to solve themselves the moment you discover there's even a puzzle in the first place. There are several ways to die, though all of them are completely avoidable if you're being at all attentive and careful. Otherwise, you're guaranteed to win eventually, whether you're playing as a super sleuth or a lazy slacker. The ending is impacted by how much information you've gathered; after the final cutscene, you get a useful (though terribly belated) checklist of what information actually matters, plus some hints for the next playthrough. I can recommend the game for its creepy atmosphere and unique concept, but the story and gameplay execution could've been so much better. I want more of the "interactive play" promised by the manual. The interface has a few problematic kinks, too. Sensitive players should be advised that there's a fair amount of blood (the title screen is the worst) and mild nudity.
I'm not that interested in Robin Hood or medieval England, but I do appreciate a polished adventure game with a well-told story and a subtle sense of humor. A lot of research and care went into making the experience feel authentic, from the music and graphics to the plot and dialogue. Not only is the atmosphere immersive, but the player is actively involved in shaping the direction of the story. Puzzles frequently have multiple solutions (some more favorable than others), and there are several optional actions that add depth to the narrative. Your choices determine how the ending plays out, and even dying is treated as part of the story—Robin's men gather around the campfire to lament whatever terrible or comically incompetent fate has befallen their leader. Because the narrative and gameplay are so intertwined, the puzzles end up being very intuitive and the challenges quite varied. Persuasion, tactical planning, stealth, exploration, sharpshooting, memorization, mastering a secret code, solving riddles, and dodging rocks are all part of a day's work. Although it is possible to create unwinnable scenarios that dead-end the adventure, the game usually gives ample opportunity to correct mistakes and go back for things you missed. Moreover, there's a difficulty slider for the few arcade sequences, a fast travel option to minimize unnecessary backtracking, and some obvious cues when you've made a bad decision. My only complaint is that entirely too much time is spent wandering through the forest, which is a massive mess of similar-looking screens, in search of the next plot point. If you've visited every fast travel location and still can't figure out what to do, it probably means there's an event waiting to be triggered on some screen you'll only stumble on by accident. Otherwise, this is a really solid game that's just plain fun. It's worth noting that the game contains frequent (depending on how you play) bloodless violence and a small amount of mild nudity.
