This game was so freaking cute!!
Please fix the issue with the DLC completely missing after the November 13th patch :')
I don't know what I was expecting going into this game, but I was absolutely blown away. In those final moments, I could really feel the protagonist's heartbreak.
People really love hating on this game. But I'm one of the few people who actually like it. I love it even, so much so that I've bought it three times so far on different digital stores. Everyone talks about how the ending went off the rails.... but stories going absolutely nuts is just a staple of the point and click adventure genre at this point. I don't know why anyone is surprised. Another piece of criticism I see often is that the game becomes much more linear and story focused after the first act. And it's like... Okay. I play most games for their stories and I'd much rather have a bigger focus on the plot rather than some weird forced gameplay mechanics that do nothing but annoy everyone. Besides, it's also very possible that the devs had creative problems or other issues throughout development. It happens all the time in the gaming industry. Either way, I love this game to bits and I'm happy I've been able to play through it 3 times so far.
I just beat the game moments ago (I achieved Ending B) and I can safely say that I have mixed feelings about it all. I had a lot of fun for the most part, the art style and the music are just phenomenal and I'll be listening to some of the themes on repeat. But... well, it took me 3 hours of attempts to be able to beat the final boss. I'm very anxious and shaky after all this. So that brings me to my point about the difficulty being really consistent for most of the main story, except for two exceptions: Tres Angustias and the final boss. They feel so much more difficult and annoying than the rest of the game. Which I really don't understand. Having proper difficulty modifying accessibility options would've helped majorly, but those just don't exist and the devs never bothered to add them in updates. (Here's hoping Blasphemous 2 will do better in that regard) Oh and the area of Jondo was just pretty boring in terms of art and atmosphere.
I'm someone who unironically loves walking simulator type games and well, if anything, A Machine for Pigs had me on edge and it had me feeling anxious. And that's how you know it was doing its job as a horror game. The atmosphere generally was very good, the soundtrack was pretty fitting and the story was SUPER dark. (Heck, the ending even made me a little emotional) Yeah, the gameplay might not be as involved as it was in The Dark Descent, but I'd rather a game tell a good story than force annoying gimmicky gameplay on players. Before playing A Machine for Pigs, I played SOMA and that game proved this same thing. People tend to agree that playing that game is a much better experience on the "Safe" difficulty.
I just finished the game and the only thing I can say.. OH MY GOD. The ending is something I would describe as completely insane,but in a good way. The atmosphere and music of the game are really really good and if you like atmospheric narrative heavy games,I can highly recommend NORCO.
A game I can play at any time and still have a great time.
I'll start this off by saying that I did have an enjoyable time with the game for the most part. I liked that each scenario wasn't too long and the characters and their stories were pretty interesting. The voice acting also holds up surprisingly well. Minus AM's voice. I know this game is from 1995,but first of all,the music kinda ruined the mood of the game so I turned it off completely. (Thank goodness for the option) Second,the endgame is very frustrating. Or rather,the requirements to get the best ending are what make things frustrating. You need to do each scenario *perfectly* in order to have the items necessary and maybe I was just unlucky,but I followed several walkthroughs to a T,I even replayed the whole game up until endgame,but I was still missing Gorrister's item. It was frustrating. So I had to settle for a "neutral" ending instead. Come on,this was 4-5 years after Monkey Island 1 and 2,why did this game have to include such nonsense mechanics?
I'm not too familiar with the Cthulhu mythos,but I do think it's pretty interesting and this game piqued my interest as well. I wasn't disappointed! It's short but sweet.
