Only played the first few scenarios, but had to restart twice because of game-breaking hard locks. -the settings reset every time you start the game -the very high settings turns everything to very low -the game is default capped at 30 fps with v-sync -Icons become unclickable 6 times, and I had to restart the last checkpoint. This is excluding the two times my entire scenario progress was erased. -You can't even find out what the effect of traumas are in between scenarios (where the whole point is that you're supposed to let investigators rest so they can recover from traumas - making it a guessing game). This is not a detective game. It's basically a resource management game, with turnbased combat and a few rpg elements that serve more as an annoyance than anything else. You try to balance your sanity with your hp, and if your santity reaches 0 your investigator gets a trauma. If you interact with environment poorly (like, try to open a box the wrong way) or take too long in combat the mythos gauge advances. The mythos mechanic is varies from gamebreaking to unimportant - "you move slightly slower in this specific fight" vs. "you lose every sanity check in this scenario". I played it through, but should have just restarted. The story is slightly engaging, but is standard lovecraft fare. They tout the "choose your protagonist" bit but it doesn't matter at all. The investigators barely interact with eachother, and they never comment on character specific things. It makes them feel like a It's a linear narrative, with no choices to make. It has snappy pacing, though. In its current state, it's more of a 2-star game, but there's potential here. It moves briskly, has a bit of fun humour and when the combat works, it can be engaging. It just needs a whole lot more polish and bug fixes.
Toonstruck is a game that I cannot claim I have any nostalgia for. In fact, I only played it recently. Now, I only point this out since I can see that most reviews are by long-time fans of this game, and might be affected by those rose-tinted glasses we all hold so dear. So let me offer a different yet familliar perspective: Toonstruck is a really good game. Toonstruck is the story about Drew Blanc, overworked animator extraordinaire and creator of the Fluffy-Fluffy Bun-Bun Show, and how he dreams himself away to a world of toons where he is tasked to stop Count Nefarious from turning all the creatures of the land into malevolent villains. Drew is joined by the first toon he ever created, Fluxx Wildly, as his sole travel companion on the journey, and boy oh boy is it a journey woth undertaking. From meeting Shamrock Cheeses to scamming themselves into a Bowling Alley, the game is filled to the brim with interesting characters and locales. The comedy that ensues is very rapid-fire and you barely have time to catch your breath from one great joke before another one induces more wheezing laughter. In the time between these jokes they might fire off one or two jokes that sound slightly lackluster, but the pacing is so quick that it makes up for the few missteps. The whole game is rendered in a toon aesthetic, with special fully drawn animation for certain events, and Drew being full-motion video. It looks great, taking most of its inspiration from Looney Toons and its ilk, rather than the more fantastical Disney animation from the time. For better or worse, the parable to cartoons is also applied to the logic. Need stars to power a machine? Hit a character with a hammer and grab them from over their head. Need to torture a character? Tickle them with a feather. I had no issue with this, but others may have, as other people I recommended this game to. Regardless, it's truly something special and if you have more then a passing interest in cartoons then this is for you.
