I played through the entirety of this game in 2-3 hours at most. The story was nothing groundbreaking, but it was intriguing enough to keep me interested throughout. The music is nice and atmospheric. The art style is... interesting... As an artist myself, the WILDLY inconsistent pixel size did bother me a fair bit, but I don't think it will be a problem for the average Joe. So, if it's so average, why give it 5 stars? Because it really is a labor of love, and it shows in every aspect of the game in some form or another. It's a game that doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't pretend it's more than it is, and I respect that. My favorite part is that every last bit of text in the game is written in rhymes - I can't imagine this was an easy thing to do. It adds so much character to the game, that it's a shame we don't see this feature more often in videogames. If you're a fan of point-and-click adventure games, consider giving this one a try. It's pretty cheap price-wise for the lovely little game that you're getting.
I had to cut parts of this review to fit GoG's review length. Read the full review here: https://pastebin.com/WuCDR3YX First off I have to say, that is a really creative idea for a game. The UI has a neat feel to it, albeit a little clumsy. You will have to be pretty precise clicking on stuff, because most windows move when you're in combat and misclicking can bring another window into focus and obscure the battle screen, leading to death. Another problem with the UI is how cluttered it can get. Ontop of that, there are some annoying monsters that close random windows when they attack, which can add to the annoyance. Contrary to what I expected, the combat is not turn-based. Instead both you and your enemy have "cast bars" and every move has a certain cast time. You can either choose to attack, block, cast a spell or run, all which have cast times, modified by spell levels and attack speed. You can also use items in combat, but that is incredibly clumsy, because you must have the bag opened, right-click on the item, then left-click on use, which wouldn't be so bad if the combat screen didn't get in the way all the time. The stats are pretty self-explainatory with well-written ingame descriptions for the most part. You can also choose your class, and even unlock other classes as you progress through the game, and even find books that teach you skills you can't otherwise learn or upgrade. Even so, the gameplay quickly becomes repetetive with the same randomly-generated quests, monsters and encounters. A neat thing is that each time you die you get gems that you can use to purchase stuff to help you in your next runs and keep one item of your fallen character as a choosable starting gift, so you feel like you're making progress even if you don't get to the end. Overall it's a neat little roguelike. I'd give it 3.5/5, but I'm gonna round it to 4/5 for its daring game design and nice ideas, although there is definately room for improvement.
I honestly prefer this game to Dark Descent. It is darker, more creepy and scary with deeper story and is really, really fucked up. Sure, you don't have sanity meter or lantern oil as mechanics, but I only saw those as restrictions in Dark Descent. You shouldn't look at monsters or your sanity will drop and then you have to waste oil to restore it. None of those restrictions here. It's kinda lame that they removed all kinds of item pickups here (no laudanum, your health regenerates about 10 seconds after taking damage...). I see it as good that you actually have to carry the items you need to progress by picking them up, not by sticking them in your inventory. Where others see these as "stripped features", I see them as more immersion and less restriction. [SPOILERS AHEAD] The game itself is just as scary as Dark Descent, if not more. The story is more mysterious and non-linear, your character develops through it as he remembers more about who he was and what he has done. I thought this game ended when Mandus activated the machine and that it had the same linear story as Dark Descent, but that was only half of the game. What gave me the most impression about this game is that it is in a darker and more twisted setting. Prepare to see extremely fucked up scenes throughout the game. It is really what I expect from a horror game and they did it well. The enemies were terrifying, even though most of them were recycled from Dark Descent. You have the usual pig, a kind of brute pig that one-shots you, a water monster that you don't really fight in the water, and the most terrifying - the Tesla, which fades in and out of existence, teleports around and is totally awesome. If you thought this game was less terrifying than Dark Descent, think again. Maybe there are not that many jumpscares, but the chases and definitely scarier. It is really not right to compare it to Dark Descent though, since it is not even a sequel. All you who expect a sequel go complain about Justine.
Escape goat has been announced for october 2013, and ever since it was announced i was waiting for it, checking on it regulary. Having played and enjoyed the first one, i was really looking forward to getting this one, which, from the screenshots, appearantly has better graphics and entirely new style (the first one had pixelated style, while this one looks more fantasy-like). So i stopped tracking the progress around mid-january, but would you look at that, it is finally released! Things always come around when you're not looking for them. Anyway, i still can't say anything about the gameplay right now, since i haven't played it yet, but for now i will give it a 5/5 for the sake of the awesomeness of the first game. I will write back ;)
