This was the game that killed off the series until Kickstarter revived it and for good reason: Revolution forget everything that made for a great Broken Sword game. Instead of an atmospheric Parisian setting, you get a dirty rainy New York lacking any kind of atmosphere. Locations feel barren and sterile and really don't encourage exploration. But, worst of all, this game was heavily focused on console controls. When a 10 year older game has much better controls, you should know you're doing something wrong. But no ... they went for a mix of mouse and keyboard which not only feels extremely clumsy, it often leads to confusion. Some interactions have a special mouse cursor showing you there's an action to perform but stuff like climbing a ladder don't - you have to walk into the ladder using key presses! Or how about the dodgy "pulling of boxes" which they can't seem to shake off even after tons of criticism in Broken Sword 3! On top of that, it feels rushed, half-baked and half finished. You can't even skip dialogue! Revolution learned a hard lesson here: don't cater to a console audience if your game doesn't appeal to its crowd in the first place!
I bought this on a RPG-hunger spree without really doing my homework. I expected it to be a kind of turn based strategy game like Original Sin but I was surprised to find it's actually a combination of the old D&D RPGs like Eye of the Beholder and map-based enemies similar to Heroes of Might & Magic. The game is situated on the "map" - a world to explore, find loot, etc. but unlike games like Baldur's Gate, enemies do not walk about but are represented by static images (HoM&M) who you can decide to fight or avoid. There's also random encounters (think Final Fantasy) where you can fight or flee as well. When it comes to combat, you're represented with enemies in the front or back. Front enemies you can attack with melee weapons, back enemies you can reach using ranged weapons and magic. Your own party has the same system - the vulnerable members you put in the back, the well armored ones you put in the front. It may be old-school but it works very well and since you can move your members during combat, it's delightfully tactical. The game heavily relies on a food system which diminishes - if you rest a lot, your food supplies drop even faster. Finding food or buying from a vendor lets you head out for longer periods of time. I'm never a big fan of such time-limiting elements since it only offers a nuisance. Yes, it means you have to ration food, limit how often you rest but the game is hard enough with a fully rested party to make food perhaps a bit too much trouble. Another weak point is the dialogue/story. The voices are not horrible, they just detract more than add to the game. The dialogue itself is pretty limited and shallow. There aren't even many side quests and only a few people to talk to. Consider this side of the game "bare-bones". It's similar to Diablo II's approach, in a way. All in all, the combat is definitely the high point of the game. Exploring is enjoyable as well and even though the story is rather weak, the game is still loads of fun.
I love immersive games. Dear Esther was an almost spiritual experience for me and I was hoping VoEC would be similar. However, where DE was all about piecing together the puzzle by just wandering through the beautiful landscape, VoEC is about investigating, finding items of interest and reading notes. Just like DE, VoEC has some of the best graphics I've ever seen in any game and sets a really strong mood which is a good start. Sadly enough, the gameplay is flawed and relies heavily on its looks. As beautiful as the music and the graphics are, the game basically revolves around you running around and finding things you can interact with. "Looking" at these will cause a bunch of words to pop up helping you out - for places where items are missing, it tells you what item needs to go there, for example. A rather strange thing considering the game tells you at the start that it won't hold your hand. And yes, puzzles really are that shallow with the game spelling out what you need to find. I enjoyed some of the animated cut scenes for their artistic beauty but I can't help but feel that the dev tries to dazzle to hide the weaknesses in other areas of the game. Heck, you end up exploring pitch dark mines and other places which leaves you begging for a map, a compass or a flashlight. Finding a pick axe in a pitch black mine is just one example of why they feel painfully absent. So you spend ages running around, wondering if you missed anything, backtracking, combing through every cranny, "just in case". Not fun. The pace and focus of the game feels muddled as well. There's huge areas of the game where nothing can be found and then areas crammed full of stuff. It feels like some of the areas you run through are empty because the dev wanted to let you soak up the atmosphere but it doesn't work because you keep looking around in case you missed something. Bottom line? Great but flawed experience with poor pacing. I loved the idea but the execution ... next time better?
A slight precursor to Duke Nukem, this game deserves its place in history for being a stepping platform to bigger games eventually leading to 3D Realms. The game itself, however, isn't that great - it's hard, not always fair and it's easy to get stuck. Graphically it resembles Commander Keen which was released a few months earlier but that's no bad thing. Sadly enough the controls and action are sub par compared to Commander Keen - it's not a bad game, just quite average.
This is game will keep you on your toes at all times - you end up in a world filled with killer robots and your aim is to survive. Sneaking around, you have to loot homes and collect gear and food while avoiding the lethal robots that venture around. The atmosphere is spot on, the voices of the robots chilling and more than once you'll jump up as you're being spotted. It doesn't have the most advanced graphics (think 2004-2005) but then again this is an indie game. There are some problems though: the game is very hard and because the game is procedurally created, it might create a situation where you don't stand a chance. I had to restart three times before it gave me a world where I could actually find some food before I died of hunger. There's also not a whole lot going on - besides surviving and trying to escape the island, there's nothing really to do. While other games such as Don't Starve give you plenty of crafting abilities, SYABH gives you nothing of the sort. In short, fun for a few days but don't expect it to last very long.
This game oozes atmosphere - the sound of kids cheering, chanting, coughing combined with the tick tick tick of your roller coaster, the merry-go-round's dingy tunes - it all adds up to create a very warm and inviting game. The goal is to create a successful theme park but even when you're not building and waiting for money to roll in, the game is a joy to behold. Little cleaners brushing away garbage, entertainers giving little umbrella's as it starts to rain, technicians putting up scaffolding when a ride breaks down. It's very visual and cute and while the game isn't as deep as Roller Coaster Tycoon, it has spades more soul. It's cartoony and cute and even though it's not a die-hard strategy game, it's perfect for beginners - great to give to your kids or to play if you like to get away from long lists of numbers for a while. The end result is 2 thumbs up - way up!
