This is, hands down, one of the best RPGs I ever played (and I played most of them since Fallout 1 and BG 1 times). The storytelling, game mechanics, music and even the pixel graphics - all a perfect mix for me. The story and slow unearthing of Bygones history was very satisfactory and the game took all my free time until the ending. The length is just about right (not too long to loose interest) and you have second faction to play for in case it's too short for you. The combat mechanics are very well designed and work surprisingly well with the isometric pixel graphics. Character progression is well balanced - weak initally and without the overload of items, I was always cheering when I found a new weapon or when I finally discovered a new armor. Overall if you are RPG fan, this is 100% recommendation from me. Amazing homage to multi-faction Gothic series. Already looking for Drova 2 (I hope there is one).
Beautiful point-and-click pixelart adventure game, with great story, captivating voice acting and lovely music. I can't believe all of this was created by only one person! Hat off to Christoph Schultz. Game took me couple hours to finish and the puzzles are very simple and quite logical (got stuck only once or twice). There are always some characters (or narrator) hinting what should be your next step. Also there is lot of hidden references to old popular games in the genre (the pirate on a chandelier!). Addresing some other comments: Kraken Fodder minigame has some luck factor in it, but some thinking is required as well and I didn't have any problem with it (lost my first game when I was just learning it, but afterwards noone could beat me). Dialogs can be skipped with mouse button, movement and overall user input feedback speed is quite good. Overall one of the better point-and-click adventures released in recent years. Highly recommend if you are fan of the genre.
Samaritan Paradox is quite nice retro point & click adventure game with an interesting story. The graphics and play style of the game is very similar to Blackwell series (or other AGS-written games) and as well as Blackwell games it is trying to present a more mature story. And even though it's falling behind Blackwell series in many aspects, it is quite a good game and will provide fun for some 10 hours or so. The game contains quite a lot of puzzles which were quite good quality and difficulty level was ok (not too hard and not too easy). I was actully getting stuck more on issues resulting from poor game resolution. Due to pixelated graphics and it's quality I've easily missed certain items or paths to new locations and this got me stuck few times. It would be nice if there was an option to display all interaction spots. As written above the story is trying to be mature and presenting a darker and partly-political story but for my taste the authors are trying to fit in too many parallel storylines and twists. The results is then a bit chaotic and feels like too many questions remain unanswered by the end (that may be a good thing, but here I mean it in a negative way). What I liked though is that you are basically playing 2 stories in one and how the authors implemented the transition between them. The sound, voices and music is average or below average (some voice casting is very dull and sound levels behave bit strangely), but it didn't affect the overall experience that much (I liked the voice of main heroine). Overall I'd score a 3.5 to 4 stars for this one. If you liked Blackwell series, you should try this game.
