The final entry in the Blackwell series is considered by most to be its very best entry. While it is great, my favorite is Deception, the most hated entry. I know: I'm weird. Anyway, even though this is the conclusion, it still manages to keep things fresh by throwing in some interesting new theories about the spirit world. The story has some twists and turns, but the writers are smart enough to exercise moderation, rather than fall into today's all-too-common pitfall of throwing in dozens of mindless twists for cheap shock value to "keep things interesting". This game remembers that good writing thrives on its own merit; some things will go exactly as you've expected, and some will catch you by surprise, but it all winds down to a very emotional conclusion that ties up more plot threads than you'd likely expect. It's certainly a lot darker than its predecessors, and that gives the characters a completely different tone, and they make the shift very well. If you've enjoyed the others, then you'll probably enjoy this one, as well.
This is a really solid Point-and-Click Adventure that sets up a really good story, but doesn't go much of anywhere with it. The graphics and voice acting are spectacular, particularly with the main character. The puzzles are mostly logical, once you get used to combining clues in the notebook, and only once did I get stuck. I instantly liked Rosa; she's witty, sassy, and a bit sloppy without being a total trainwreck. She's a bit of a reluctant heroine, but by the end of the game, she starts to come into her own. Joey, the other main character, is a bit of an ass, but by the end, he started to grow on me. The story is about a woman who helps the dead come to grips with their own death and move on. It doesn't dare to guess what's on the other side, but I think it's better that it leaves that open to interpretation. The ghosts that you meet are interesting, and so are the live people, and it all winds around a mystery that's far greater than the pieces in front of you. It's like that first episode of a non-episodic TV show that hooks you, but can't become all that great, because it's too busy setting up the characters and the basic premise of the story. It does that well enough, though, and got me excited for the next game; I knew that something even better was on its way, and I was not disappointed, but that's another set of reviews altogether.
Don't let the 10-year-old protagonist fool you, this game is extremely dark, just like her demented little face suggests. Blood, guts, and everything else everywhere, but not just for shock value; there is a very interesting narrative lying just beneath it all. It uses jump scares, but the reason you jump is because the tension and psychological horror keep you on edge almost all of the time. When things are happy and whimsical for a while... BAM! High-octane nightmare fuel. Even the artstyle likes to lull you into a false sense of security before drop-kicking your brain into psycho land. Beyond all of that, though, the game has a pretty good message about how mental illness is viewed by society, and attempts to view it from the other side of the fence with a sympathetic - if a bit twisted - protagonist. The game gets downright heartbreaking toward the end, and you leave that stigma behind to see a tortured little girl who just needs some love and affection. The story is fairly ambiguous, but I think the reason for this is that when you suffer from mental illness, you don't always know what was real or not, especially back in 1944, when the "treatments" were far more horrifying than anything the patients would actually see in their delusions. The puzzles are generally pretty easy - almost too obvious in some instances - but every now and again, you'll figure out the puzzle, but not be able to actually solve it, because of some dumb, counter-intuitive way in which you have to do what you already know you have to do. I've definitely seen worse. This is maybe not the kind of game that everyone can handle, but if you have a strong stomach for this sort of thing, I cannot recommend it enough.
This Point-and-Click Adventure is lauded as a masterpiece by most, and while I am no stranger to the genre, I found it to be about average. It has its fair share of moon logic puzzles, but that's true of most of the genre; I can handle that, especially for a game of this era. What it does better than some in this department is keeps things relatively contained to a small area, so while you're running around, smacking one thing against another, it limits your possibilities, and thereby your frustration. Pixel-hunting is a bit of a problem, too, making it a bit difficult not to get shot to death on the very first screen, but again, a walkthrough will solve this easily. The story gets off to a great start, with plenty of intrigue as you figure out how this city works and why they want you so badly. From there, it attempts to satirize the present by exaggerating it in a dystopian future. I see where they were going with everything, but I think there were a lot more misses than hits. It's not that the messages weren't clear, they just seemed to be handled a bit ham-handedly in a lot of situations. The characters were mostly just decent, but your robotic companion, Joey is usually good for a laugh; of all of the characters, I think I cared about him the most, even though he's just a machine and easily rebuilt, so long as Foster keeps his personality matrix. The music is actually pretty good; worth checking out, if nothing else. The visuals are a bit on the grainy side, but what I really liked was just the way that things were put together. The middle tier of the city in particular is constructed in such an interesting way that I found myself wishing for an opportunity to spend more time there. All in all, it's not a bad game by any means, and definitely worth checking out if you like the genre, but I didn't find it to be quite the masterpiece that I'd been told.
Who would've thought we'd see ATB in a PC game, but here it is! Consoles don't typically get a lot of cyberpunk games, so anyone more familiar with your Final Fantasies, but curious about the theme will find a great entry point here. There is a slight element of movement in battles, but nothing that's usually all that important. Outside of battle, you're in third-person perspective using WASD to move and mouselook to look around, using the cursor to interact with things. It's incredibly janky, but not completely busted. There are minigames, which are pretty hit-or-miss; the ones related to characters' specific skills are usually pretty fun, but the others are usually a bit clunky. The elemental system is very confusing - I never did figure out how the hosts work - but magic is typically unnecessary. The writing is where this game shines like a supernova. Cyberpunk usually takes jabs at technology and economics, but this game satirizes just about everything from dogmatic science, commercialized religion, and deadlocked bureaucracy to comic books, yuppie subculture, and McDonald's, and much of it comes at you like a left hook to the temple. If you want to know what US culture was like in the '90s, this game is about 2 cows and a special guest appearance by Green Jelly (kids, ask your parents) away from being 1995: The Video Game. Most of the playable characters are great, too; my favorite is Rho Bowman by a mile. The 3D models in this game are that special kind of low-poly awful that you'd find at the bottom of the N64's burning scrap heap, but the environments typically look great; the titular planet is almost a perfect cyberpunk city. Battle effects are usually unique, colorful, and flashy. The music is mostly of the atmospheric variety, which is pleasant enough, but don't expect any of the battle tunes to really get your blood pumping. Overall, a great, unique little experience that'll keep you entertained almost completely throughout!
This Adventure plays a bit like Shadowgate, for those familiar, but without the countless silly deaths. In fact, I played it without consulting a walkthrough, and the only time I really screwed things up was because I was doing something that I absolutely knew was wrong; I deserved it. The game has relatively few puzzles, opting to use conversation as the way to progress through your adventure. Normally, I'd hate this, because I don't like Visual Novels, but there's a fair amount of exploration, and the characters are just incredibly-written. I loved almost every single character in the game; the worst thing I felt toward any of them is a vague sense of distrust, and that character wound up being the main villain, so to speak. Not only are the characters lovable, but the humor is top-notch; some of it references other works, and some of it is wholly original, but I got quite a few good laughs from this. My only real critique of the story is that it seems a bit lopsided. It was great running into lots of queer characters, but when there are only a small handful of straight characters, it comes off as a bit pandering, and I say this as a queer woman. It's a very minor nagging issue for me, but I can see how some might be a bit turned off by it. The visuals are supposed to be reminiscent of an old PC-98 title, and they certainly deliver; despite technically being a cyberpunk game, the world is bright and colorful, and is a pleasure to experience. The music is great, too; it reminds me of the best that the SEGA Genesis has to offer. That might also be reminiscent of a PC-98 game; I've seen them, but don't have enough experience with the system to say how they'd typically sound. I'm a big fan of the Adventure genre, and this is easily one of the best games I've ever played within it, maybe second only to Yume Nikki.
