As a fan of the original, this "remaster" currently has too many unaddressed issues for me to consider spending my time with it. As it stands, it displays many regressions that I believe tarnish the memory of the original: * The developer refuses to aspect-correct the gameplay to 4:3 presentation [1], instead wrongly touting a flawed "nearest-neighbour" solution (when at 1080p) as superior--to paraphrase: outputting at 16:10 means "square & crispy" pixels. [2] This is patently false due to the reality of his implementation. [3] * The spritework does not meet the detail of the original game. The original has simulated directional lighting that is conveyed through consistent highlighting on actor sprites no matter their facing. Instead, the remake merely flips left-facing sprites, [4] rather than displaying separately drawn right-facing sprites. To the developer's credit, he recently admitted this oversight. * The new "darkness" implementation arbitrarily ignores the visual cues (object highlighting) of the original, [5] instead effectively decreasing contrast and brightness of the gameplay area. * Minor nitpick (as it can be disabled): The music is not accurate to period PC hardware, but seems reminiscent of console music (e.g. NES). * Minor nitpick: There is no option to switch to "classic" graphics. This is relevant as the new artwork makes substantial stylistic changes to the original art (beyond recolorising the original art). If the first three issues were resolved, then I'd probably recommend this as a worthy followup to the original game. [1] https://www.gog.com/forum/crystal_caves_hd/crystal_caves_hd_fixes_and_changes_from_the_original_game/post7 [2] https://steamcommunity.com/app/1330890/discussions/0/4307086417517152646/ [3] https://steamcommunity.com/app/1330890/discussions/0/5262978521344969816/ [4] https://steamcommunity.com/app/1330890/discussions/0/5262978521342895215/ [5] https://steamcommunity.com/app/1330890/discussions/0/5262978521353328982/
