This review is from the perspective of someone who played the original, too many times, and loved it. The remake is in many ways a dream come true. It allows much more freedom of exploration, adds new locations or expands the original ones -- and shuffles some around a bit. Some changes feel a bit more chaotic than others. I also get the feeling that design choices were made for accessibility in puzzle solving (and in spotting that something is a puzzle), but those took a bit away from the puzzle integration in the game's world which was masterfully done in the original. The game is still the original at its heart. It's not a lesser experience. Well, excluding the replacement of FMV actors with 3d models with animations that are a bit off, eyes that look a bit dead and glitched clothing physics. But it's also not much more. A Riven veteran will probably be familiar with the premise and at any time will be aware of what is needed to be done despite any changes. They will be able to finish the game relatively quickly. Unfortunately, the puzzles this time around won't feel as smart or original as they did back in 1997. Music is still excellent. It seems that they used the original tracks and added a few new ones. And that's ok in my book. Sound ambiance is very well done in general. And we also now get subtitles and multiple localizations! The visuals are awesome. The art direction is very close to the original and there's still much attention to detail. As of yet (day one release version), there are a few bugs with being stuck on level geometry, or floating at impossible space. The color subtitles also work in one location but not on another, leaving me guessing at some point. And the journals are unfortunately still as unreadable as they were in the original. The zoom function might have helped, but there's only two modes for it - either too zoomed in (with no camera panning option) or zoomed out -- and it only works in single pages not journals anyway.
It's a good idea for a puzzle game. Puzzles that unfold the stories of some very disturbed (or are they?) characters. Most puzzles are logical, but quite a few require platforming back and forth in the same areas which can get tiring. There's some witty commentary, but if you want to get all the character endings it won't be as funny by the second time, let alone the third and so on. It's worse if you are a completionist and you want to do everything. Some parts are repeated per playthrough with little to no variation and are unskippable. A few of the puzzle solutions are very similar. The music is quite good. The character stories are overly simplistic and mostly work due to the dark humor and the fact that it's a fantasy game. The narator is doing a great job, and actually all voice acting is really good. I wish the multiple playthroughs would skip the same segments, offer a chance to get something different for those or at least offer some significant shortcut. For me it's a 3.3 game, but it gets extra points for good execution, no bugs, not particularly hard platforming, and quite a few easter eggs.
The Repentance DLC is as of yet still not up to date with the main version of the game (Steam) -- which was last updated more than 9 months ago. This DRM-free version also expectedly does not feature the "Daily Runs", but since there are achievements and unlockables tied to daily runs it's unknown (and assumed impossible) whether you can achieve 100% in the game; the developer never responded in the forums or clarified the situation elsewhere as far as I know. Otherwise, this is Isaac with yet more content and mechanics updates (not always for the best, but you can adjust and avoid items or never touch certain game modes (Greedier) once you unlock what you need from them). So 2.5 stars, rounded upwards. It's very unfortunate when a game release on GOG feels like an afterthought and customers are treated as second-rate.
Nice visuals, music, interesting enemies and boss fights for the early parts anyway. It's a metroidvania at it's core, infused with Demon Souls gameplay elements. I loved the aesthetic, I hated the repetitiveness and grinding that the game seemed to require of me in the early stages, while in the later ones, the grinding goes completely away (and becomes pointless to accumulate "wealth") and at least the travelling is made easier. The storytelling felt broken. There's lots of lore, and the wiki provides much detail on that, but I didn't get a lot of it. It's not that I didn't interact with characters and other info sources, it's that the text on the lore is... not how normal people talk. Worst part by far is the controls. I played with a keyboard, reached about 103% of the game, after lots of frustrating parts which demand precision platforming and combos of moves during boss fights, that the game does not really support you to pull through. I'm not a master at platformer games, but I am decent enough. The controls felt too fluid, not registering moves I was trying to trigger. That includes jump directional attacks, wall jumps, spell casting, the works (tested with three different keyboards in case it was a hardware issue). Maybe with a controller it would play better? It felt like the game wanted fluidity with animations in expense of the controls feeling snappy and right. This does not matter much most of the time, because you can retry. It's frustrating, when you know what you need to do, you do it, but the game says no. Then there is a bonus near end-game area, which for some reason is required to go through for the special "good?" ending, which is way too much platforming and death traps and feels disconnected with the rest of the game. It's like a challenge that goes on for too long and the difficulty is ramped up beyond any logic, balance or consideration of player base. I went through two thirds of that area and decided that's it for me forever.
A decent, well above average fan effort. A sequel to the series, with a story of its own, yet overloaded with references to the old titles. It has good ideas, even design-wise. Some odd choices, though. The story unfolds via FMV, short ghost visits or Stauf talking. You advance by solving puzzles. One puzzle per room and the reward for solving it can be underwhelming. The game starts in a better, more thought out way than it progresses. There are leaps of logic for motives & actions. But that's how storytelling was in the previous titles, too. You are meant to play as both protagonists to experience the full story. Pros: + (mostly) free 3d exploration + Quite good soundtrack. Revisits the classic tracks, bur has its own theme + Accessibility options! + Map fast travel (may skip optional scenes) + Intuitive map system + Stable, good programming. No crashes, freezes, deadends Middle: * Mostly designed for fans of the original games. Assumes you've played The 7th Guest * Acting leaves something to be desired * Some animations are not that interesting, or feel rehashed * Some revisited puzzles feel rehashed too * Follows the formula of the old titles. Rooms locked with no explanation. Sometimes not apparent what unlocked next * Endings could be more fleshed out. * Collectibles can be frustrating, but completely optional. * No open house mode after finishing the game. * Minor glitches in FMV. * Minor errors & sync issues with subtitles. Cons: - No option to skip cutscenes, animations, dialogue you already watched. - Limited save game slots (10) - Save system seems to store in-registry rather than external files. No cloud saves support. I got my saves wiped once and had to replay. - There is a maze. You have to brute force it (there's no clue in-game for its map). - Tad's path explicitly locks you out of unlocked rooms towards the end. - Some of the lighting for rooms and cutscenes is not good. Some issues with shadows (wrong or missing shadows)
Into the Breach was so fun to play. Really cute visuals, solid mechanics, and just about perfect board size for the missions. It plays like small puzzles you need to solve for each mission to get a perfect score and it can be played as a leisure game with the morning coffee or the evening wine. Great soundtrack, loved the art, good design for the achievements and an addictive "unlock" system to keep you hooked for a while. The game is perfect for me but, if pressed, I'd say that I would like to see some additional material about the characters stories, in-game or in a pdf companion booklet. And I hope it gets an additional content patch too in the future, like FTL did with the "FTL Advanced" update.
Blade Runner is one gem of a point and click adventure game. It has so much ambition in its design and mechanics that are at work in the background that affect each character's AI and the course of the story, so that random factors as well as the player's actions (or inactions) and choices will determine the course of the story and the ending you'll get. There's love and soul in the core design of this game. There are even complex mechanics that come into play only once or twice just for the player to get a different result in a NPC's attitude if they select a different approach for behaving towards them. Soundtrack is excellent and fitting for the Blade Runner verse, so close to the Vangelis' original. Visuals are also quite dynamic and life-like, you can rarely tell if at all that there's a video loop going on for the scenery. Pro tip: The shooting range is way slower in the Easy mode. Also to get points, shoot enemies only after they have rotated to reveal if they're holding a weapon. Try not to get shot, not to allow enemies to flee, and of course not to shoot any innocents. There's no specific high score because some targets are randomized or "special" in some way but the highest score in a range run could be higher than 80, or even higher than 90.
I truly love Loom. But not this version. This version is supposedly an upgrade over the original EGA one, but it removes content, character close-ups, the dialogues and cutscenes are shortened and everything feels dry. Musical cues are also missing! Most of the new animations for the characters are either unnecessary or really terrible. The accompanying audio drama is also not offered in this listing. Loom is a short game and it really needs its original mythos and atmosphere. Ultimately I am not a fan of what they've done to the game with this Talkie version and I wish the EGA version was offered here as well. Of course I'll be update the review if / when we get the original version.
