Did you grow up with everything the 80's had to offer? Do you love those movies, this music, these looks? You will get it all in this game and much more. I think this is one of the best games available that tries to bring you some good old nostalgic feeling of the 80's back. At least for me it succeeded. But this game has much more to offer than this. There are many things to collect, a nice story with many dialogues (you can also talk to NPCs and listen to what they say, sometimes you might even get another nice reference of which the game offers plenty), nice fights and mini games. It also has some platform and puzzle elements in it and especially those platforming sections aren't always easy. So yes, it is challenging as well. A game being challenging is not necessarily a bad thing so why only 4 stars when the game is so much fun? Simple: while the checkpoints and savepoints (although you only have three slots which is a bit of a downside) are more than enough until very late in the game they are nearly absent as soon as you reach chapter 7 near the end of the game. So if you fail you will have to do all those sections you already managed again and again. Unfortunately the devs also decided to put savepoints BEFORE cutscenes whenever a big battle is following. So if you fail you will also have to skip through these scenes. Before the final battle (which is pretty hard until you will finally figure out HOW to do this) there is a smaller one and guess where they put the savepoint ... right before the cutscene that is before this smaller battle. So failing the final battle means: skipping the cutscene (dialogue after dialogue), fighting the smaller battle and then probably dying a few seconds later because you are still about to figure out how to beat this. This is just annoying and frustrating. I really hope that the devs will add some savepoints in a future update so I could give the 5 stars this game deserves. Get it anyway - it's just too good to miss.
Oh, how I loved "To the Moon". Yes, it did not have that much actual gameplay in it but the story was so touching and the narrative so good that it really impressed me. So I was excited when Freebirdgames announced a real sequel to this game (Bird Story was supposed to be a sort of interlude so I was not surprised that it did not feel the same). And then they delayed the game again and again and I was wondering what would take them so long? I mean, it's just a simple Pixelart visual novel, right? Wrong. Today I finally finished the game and this is just so much more than what the screenshots might make you think. The story imo is even better and much deeper as it already was in "To the Moon" but also it has so many twists and turns and a big mystery that your head will spin. Freebirdgames also implemented some interesting gameplay features later in the game to make this much more interesting. I won't tell anything about the story other than that you will see some of the characters from "To the Moon" again because I would highly suggest to make this experience without knowing anyithing. But I can say this: if you like emotional, touching storys with good characters, appreciate games that make you think even after you have already finished them (like any good movie should be in my opinion), like a really good soundtrack and if you don't mind that this game as well as its prequel does not really contain actual puzzles (but believe me - this game does not need them) you will HAVE to buy this. The game is not very long (I really took my time and finished it in abot 6 hours) but these good memorys WILL last. Buy it. No, don't even wait for a sale - just buy it. You won't regret it!
I just finished the game and even with some breaks and thinking it took me around 2 hours. So many people will say it's not worth it but I really recommend it despite the short playtime because I never experienced something like this before. The game is complete art and it forces the player to think in a totally different way. Simply move some tiles is not solving this at all. When I solved the first puzzle I thought it would be easy but it wasn't since the game reinvents itself again and again Behind all of this puzzle solving there also is a story that is told in an extraordinary way as well. I will put it simple: there is no game like this available at the moment so if you do care about something unique and like puzzles that are forcing you to think - but not in the usual way ... you should buy this.
First I have to confess that I am adoring Syberia 1 and 2 and so when this one finally came to GOG without Denuvo or any kind of DRM it took me seconds to buy it. I payed $15 for it then and imo that is the amount of money the game is worth max. Syberia 3 is not really a different story, it is a continuation so people who did not play the first ones might get confused now and then. The OST is amazing and the artwork is nice. But why did they try to do a point and click adventure designed for a controller? Meanwhile they patched in better mouse support but it still is far from being perfect. The technical aspect even with the newest GOG release at the moment (11/15/2017) still is sub par. During my 20 hour playthrough of the game and the short DLC I experienced a vanishing mouse pointer, long loading times, bad lip syncing, cut off or paused voice over, stuttering in area changes and two crashes - playing with system specs which are recommended. The puzzles are mostly on the easy side. Most of the game you are not trying to figure out which item you could use but you are trying to figure out where you would find this item. So a lot of the game is searching for items and trying to find out which area you did miss. There are no inventory combining puzzles wihich makes this a lot easier. Sometimes you will have to talk to someone or do something before you will even be shown a certain hotspot and the hotspots are all marked with a white circle (so that you know where to point your controller to) - that is just bad design. In addition to normal puzzles you also have some kind of logic puzzles - but unfortunately in several cases not many hints how to solve these. But once again I could enjoy the world of Syberia and in the end I have to say it was worth the money to be able to continue the journey. I would not recommend paying full price even if you are a fan like me but for $15 it's all right. I hope they wil continue patching since it is not a bad game at core.
I just finished my second playthrough of this game and I am still amazed. I am amazed how this game was actually able to give me the feeling like I was part in one of those teen mystery movies of the 80s. The dialogues are great, the characters fleshed out, the story has surprising, funny, dramatic and sad moments in it. This game simply is an experience for everybody who likes ghost storys, mysterys or teen drama. This is an absolutely amazing piece of entertainment and I won't tell any more because part of the fun is experiencing the story without knowing much about it. Unfortunately though the game also has some fundamental flaws: 1) There is absolutely no possibility to rebind keys. You will however be able to control characters using keys from one of those sets W,A,S,D, Space(Action), Shift(Radio), Ctrl(Map) Arrowkeys, Enter(Action), Rightmouse(Radio), Middlemouse(Map) 2) There are in general no puzzles in the game - it's more of a choice based interactive story in which some choices do matter more than others. Gameplay is comparable to the newer Telltale Games but without the QTE sequences. 3) You only have a limited time to chose what you want to say. Unfortunately the timer is already running while the other characters are still talking to you so it happens quite often that you have to interrupt the other characters (and the great voice overs). Quick reading is essential so that the timer has not run out before you decided. This game is 80% dialogue so this is a big minus! I have no problem with a bit time pressure but you should not be forced to answer before the question is even asked. 4) English only - and not everything subtitled. No other languages than English are supported and some things (radio stations) are still missing subtitles. If you don't mind the flaws and are interested in this kind of game I still highly recommend it.
Just to make it clear: this is the same bad port as we know it and yes it has several issues. To prevent some of the to occur GOG has capped the game to run at 30FPS only. This might help with stability issiues but these are not occuring for everybody and there are several people who could run this game without any problems with more than 30FPS. I own the steam version and the game ran fine for me with 70fps and more. But since it needed Steam I bought the game here again not knowing that it has been capped to 30FPS (it's not even mentioned on the store page). Asking in forum I was told by Fables22 that they would not even give us the optional possibility to remove the cap but I should contact support they would show me a way to remove the cap. Unfortunately they did not. They told me how to remove the used Nvidia inspector profile which did not help at all. I have included some screenshots as proof here: https://www.gog.com/forum/saints_row_series/saints_row_2_locked_at_30_fps/post40 So basically for me there is no joy in the GOG version at all and I'd rather play my Steam version. No recommendation at all until GOG has made this cap at least optional!
I was so "I saw Lynch movies and interpreted them - I can do this" when I started playing the game. In fact having to find out what every scene means is part of the fun. Because of the missing dialogues every little scene is becoming a little puzzle. What is shown? Who am I? Why am I here? What does it mean? To make things a bit more difficult the devs added a lot of smash cuts so that sometimes you will be desoriented a moment. Not knowing where or even WHEN you are or IF you are in reality or a dream or a vision. If you want to know what gameplay the game actually offers I'd say THIS is it. Find out the meaning, the time, the who, where and why. It's like a puzzle told scene by scene. I managed to understand the beginning quite well but in the end I was puzzled and did not get everything. However I was so intrigued to understand all the connections that I definitely will play it again. I don't know if I would do this if the game was about 10-20 hours but I don't mind replaying a story of 2 hours (it's really not longer). With a playtime of roughly 2 hours it is as if you are rewatching a movie you just did not get the first time. But to make this clear: this is not a choice based game in which your choices are influencing the story. The only "choice" you have in the game ist to pick up some special items or leave them be - but thoose items don't change anything! If you want to experience a choice based game like The Walking Dead or Game Of Thrones - skip this one. Really! 100% of the game is shown directly through the eyes of a character. Making you really feel as if you ARE the character which raises immersion a lot. It feels as if you are IN a movie and it is upt to you when you want to progress the scene. True: mostly "progessing the scene" ist just "clicking on a special spot" but until you do so you could often walk around, look around - as if you are in a freezed frame of a movie (even though there still sometimes is animation it it - so It does not feel dead).
I played all of the newer choice based Telltale Games. Their strength being mostly the story and not the gameplay because basically the gameplay consists of making dialogue choices. I also never played the original Borderlands (or either of the sequels) so I did not know anything about the franchise the game is based on. I have to say that imo this is by far the best choice based Telltale Game (therefore I am excluding real adventure games like Sam & Max) of all - including The Walking Dead. This one has it all: humour, action, emotions and an epic story. Not two (of five) episodes are alike but they are fitting perfectly. It also has several unexpected twists, great characters, good music/soundtrack, fitting animations AND it even offers more gameplay than the other Telltale Games. It has great QTEs and even some choices that will affect the look of the game in some parts. The game also is not that short. To finish all 5 episodes you'll need about 11 hours in total. To make it clear: like with the other choice based Telltale games you still are able to simply watch the story most of the time but this feels like a bit more and the story is just epic. So why only 4 stars? Because of the missing languages here on GOG. The game was updated on Steam months ago to support subtitles for additional languages. This did not happen here on GOG. When I asked Telltale games directly they simply said that they don't have plans to update the game at all. So take this missing star as a reflection of Telltale not treating GOG customers like they do treat Steam customers and as a reflection of GOG not demanding what is offered on Steam as well. If I had to rate only the game it would get the full 5 stars. Just buy it and if English is not you native tongue don't forget to write Telltale and demand additional languages here on GOG. Maybe if they receive several requests they might change their mind.
When I bought this game I knew nothing about it so at first I thought this might be a cute little indie adventure with some nice puzzles and a child hero in some fantasy word. I was so wrong. The devs managed to tell a story of a child in a with the view of a child but at the same time they mix the story (as well as the locations) with pretty much hardcore grown up and gory stuff. This mix is quite crazy and scary and at sometime you as the player are feeling the same way the main character is feeling: you don't know anymore what is real and what is not. Never before was I torn this much between "oh, what a cute little game" and "oh, my god is this sick and brutal". The only game with this kind of atmosphere I could think of remotely would be Sanitarium. But Sanitarium only delivers the "crazy" part and not the "cute child" part. The mix in this game is what makes it that extraordinary regarding the narrative part of the game. I won't tell anything about the story at all because everything would be a spoiler. But be warned: the game icludes crazy, brutal and gory scenes as much as psychothrill. The story itself might confuse pretty much and to tell the truth I am not sure I have understood everything. But the fun about storys which don't explain everything is that they stick in your head far after you have finished the game and they give you a reason to replay the game at another time. The game is so full of metaphors that there is a good chance you might have missed one. The gameplay itself also for me was a near perfect experience. The inventory never contains too much stuff and all the puzzles are perfectly logical. I did not use a walkthrough once but still had some challenging moments an played about 10 hours. There are some mini games in the game too but in case you don't like them you can as well simply skip them. The artstyle is fitting the game and the sound effects are supporting the atmosphere perfectly.
After playing Epiphany (and all of its predecessors before) I had to tell me this again and again. It's only a game and the characters are not real. The reason I had to do this was because the writing in the series is so spot on that it's easy to forget this fact. I really started feeling with the characters and loving the dialogues as much as I loved the story which was getting bigger and bigger. In the end everything fit together and I doubt that there was ever a better adventure series - at least I haven't played one better than this. The gameplay is a bit different from usual adventures. You don't have to combine that much items but you still will have to think logical to solve some of the puzzles. Most of the time you will have to combine and search for clues like a real detective. The puzzles are never unlocical and it's possible to solve them without a walkthrough (even though I used one a few times because I was too curious how the story will go on). The VO imo is absoluteley gorgeous - same goes for the soundtrack and the graphics (still low res but it was meant to be this way). This is the end of the Blackwell series and what an end this is. You think you know how this could end? Think again! But then again the end is absoluteley fitting to this series. But I have to admit I really cried a lot over this because at this moment I almost have forgotten that it's just a game and this is the greatest compliment a game can get. Buy this and buy all the predecessors as well if you are into adventure games and well written and likeable characters. Don't let the low res graphics distract you - these games (and especially this one) are pure gold. Thank you Dave Gilbert for this amazing ride and goodbye Joey and Rosa!
