An interesting game with interesting ideas, and interesting writing that swings wildly between very good and completely awful. Despite making a better show of choice and consequence than most other games that claim to be choice-driven, it's much more limiting than it first appears. It also has moments where you can't make what seems like very obvious choices, but since most choice-driven games fall victim to this, I don't know if it's fair to judge it for that. Many of the graphics seem to be stock assets, which is a little disappointing. It's very slow, in annoying and unnecessary ways. Basic navigation feels 50% slower than it should be, and some sections are tedious on purpose. I think the developers wanted to make the player experience the same boring workday drudgery that the protagonist does, but it's just too much. It hurts immersion instead of helping it; the player is likely to become fed up and stop caring. But despite its flaws, I found hard to put down. It would have received a higher score if not for two unforgivable points: 1. A horrible "intentionally boring" section that leaves the player in the dark as to what's expected of them. Without knowing ahead of time, you'll just keep going until you get pissed off, so let me save you the trouble: despite the game tricking you into thinking there's an end to the boxes, the section is actually endless. It doesn't stop even after the counter stops at 99 of the damn things. Just do 10 and stop. 2. The ending undermines the entire game, and is terribly written too. I'd elaborate but I'm out of characters, so I'll just say it takes a steaming dump on everything that came before it. In closing, it's a rough but oddly compelling game that's difficult to enjoy but also difficult to put down - except for the fact that it sometimes shoots itself in the foot for no reason whatsoever. If it's on sale it might be worth trying, but exercise caution - you're very likely to encounter something that infuriates you.
Apparently my review was deleted. I don't remember what I wrote five years ago, but according to the fragment retained by my activity feed, it's a decent enough game marred by spotty writing, shallow characters and a ridiculous, unsatisfying ending. It doesn't reach the heights it aims for, instead crashing and burning just when it seemed like it was getting good. The fragment cuts off at "The Samaritan Paradox..." The Samaritan Paradox what? Sadly, thanks to whatever obscure forces conspired to delete my review we'll never know what profound insight I had to offer. But I bet it was something special. Thank you, past me. I'm sorry I couldn't do you the justice of replicating your review in its entirety, but I can at least tell people how much you thought the ending sucked.
An incredibly lazy port which changes the controls to a (extremely janky) WASD+Mouse configuration, but still lists the old controls in the menu. Thankfully you can launch the old version and just use the original keyboard controls, but if you want to use the "updated" port don't expect even the tiniest bit of effort for your money. I do appreciate the ability to play the original version on modern computers but I can't overlook the utter lack of care that went into the version that runs by default.
I haven't played it enough to say definitively that it's a terrible port, but the screen scrolls far too quickly and turning the scroll speed down doesn't make a difference... until you cross the magic threshold, when it suddenly stops going too fast and instead slows to an unplayable crawl. There is no middle ground.
I don't usually allow myself to be beaten, but this game defeated me in the only way it could - by wasting my time so much that I gave up the attempt. I'm probably playing it wrong. But "gitting gud" no longer feels like a worthwhile pursuit. Each attempt takes hours, and is inevitably ruined by some minor mistake. Maybe I missed a tiny gap in my wall (you can't rotate the camera, so good luck trying to see behind things). Or my rangers couldn't access a gate because of an invisible shrub, and pathed directly into an enemy horde. Or I lost my houses in a hard-won battle and found the game's demented resource chain made it impossible to recover. Let me explain that last one: Buildings require workers, which require houses. If your houses are destroyed, you must repair them first; the game won't let you repair anything else without workers. But you can't repair the houses if they're not powered - and you can't repair the grid because you have no workers. In fact you have -100 workers(!) because they're all being used by inactive buildings. The main culprit is the research buildings. Together they require 75 workers, and you don't get these workers back if they're inoperative. If you destroy them (because you need those workers!) all of your research is gone, even after you reconstruct them. With the next horde arriving in minutes, you might as well just restart - and spend another couple of hours slowly getting to that point again, since you can't save manually or speed up the game. You can't move those (huge) research buildings, either, despite how important (and picky) building placement is. The game demands efficiency, but forever dangles efficiency just out of your reach. There are many smaller issues which all conspire to frustrate, and add tedium. They Are Billions is addictive. It's engaging and challenging and sounds great on paper. But it works against you in all the wrong ways, and throwing yourself at it endlessly just isn't fun.
The presentation of Dust: An Elysian Tale is (mostly) excellent, but I simply did not find it fun to play. What initially seems like a promising combat system quickly reveals itself as shallow and unsatisfying (and awkward without a gamepad). It's visually impressive, especially the dust storm manoeuvre, but devoid of both impact and variety. There are a number of odd mechanical choices which I will not go into here but it seemed to me that there was a new and disappointing discovery around every corner. Platforming is very imprecise. The visual design makes it hard to tell where the solid parts are, and I encountered several platforms that just did not work properly: one with a section that could not be jumped on from below; another that could not be reached with any other method than jumping and performing a single slash at the apex. The story seems decent. The characters are nothing amazing, but they are well designed and become engaging thanks to the game's charming presentation. Conversations seem too frequent and just a little too long since they bring the game to a halt, and there are too many game-related in-jokes for my tastes. Admittedly I didn't play more than a couple of hours. There are too many small yet noticeable flaws and they eventually overwhelmed my patience. If you do buy Dust, bear in mind that playing on "tough" difficulty will render you - at least to my knowledge - unable to heal without the use of items that are far too expensive for the benefit they provide. You will also be prohibited from leaving an area until you've dealt with all the enemies near an exit, so you won't be making any tactical retreats, even if you're completely out of healing and haven't saved since before the last boss fight. Dust is impressive, since it was apparently made by one person, and even moreso for the creative visual flair which is sadly lacking in many titles. I truly applaud the developer's effort. It's just not (in my opinion) particularly good.
This is a fairly enjoyable adventure game, but very short and very linear. The visuals are lovely, but most locations feel as though they have the bare minimum of interactivity and flavour. The voice acting is very good. Some of the puzzles and mechanics are clever and gratifying, but are underused in such a short game. Other solutions defy common sense or feel slow and clunky to implement. Some trial-and-error gameplay leads to repeat conversations and sometimes even reloads and lengthy scene-skipping. Such a thing is expected from games, but is still unwelcome, slow, and clunky, especially when you're forced to mash the escape key through game over monologues and opening splash screens. This could have been easily avoided. The story and characters are compelling but ultimately the game feels unsatisfying. It does have an excellent Jewish flavour and a compelling protagonist but I question whether it is worth full price.
