In short, a superb retro adventure game with huge replay value. Your choices matter and due to the time limit not all places may be explored in one play through. I was very surprised when I realised how much my choices matter and how they impact the game. While there seem to be no "wrong" choices there's at least certain consequences to them making the game feel a lot more alive then many other games in the genre. The pixel art is superb. Just my kind of style. Sound effects are retro but not annoying. There's a lot of dialog in the game ... none of which has voice over. All conversations have to be read. At least different people's dialog are in different colours making it a bit easier to follow. The humour is refined and much more mature then in some other pixel games. Puzzles aren't super hard and feel logical. The UX is good. I think given that this is a pixel game it's pretty much perfectly executed. I find it a bit annoying that inventory items have to be dragged all the way to the intended point of use instead of a click & hold mechanism being implemented. But that's just nitpicking. Another lovely surprise is the combat engine. It's quite simplistic but as you progress along the journey you might get to enjoy some weapons upgrades making it a good place to try new strategies. But mostly i appreciate this game mechanic as it breaks up any last feeling of being on rails. And that's what hooked me so very much to this game. A cool story line with many options to choose, a sense of urgency and the occasional shakeup to keep things interesting. This is a great game I highly recommend for fans of the point & click and pixel art genres. If pixel art isn't yours, maybe give it a try anyway as this one is among the best I've seen and it's well implemented with some more modern effects, etc. From my vantage point however I can only congratulate the developers of this game. I consider it an all time favourite and enjoy every time I launch the game.
First, I'd love to give it five stars. The game is a gem for puzzle adventure lovers. The worlds are beautiful and creative. Full of strange machinery and tasks to figure out. You are the only one around. A female voice is sometimes talking to you out of nowhere giving you a bit of a background. I enjoyed exploring each world and getting them started. The puzzles are on the easier side of things. After you figured out what to do in one world it's not that hard to do similar things in the other ones. The adjunct is the one and only thing you really use in this game. It does everything making the puzzles even easier and predictable. This is a bit of a downer as I was hoping for more variety. The story itself is good but doesn't really build characters like we've seen in other cyan games. The various notes and books are either mostly useless or just not very revealing. Only towards the finale things clear up a little more. But overall I'm missing this deepening of all the various characters and happenings of the past throughout the game. The release version suffered a few bugs most of which are widely documented on various forums. However the game is overall working well and bugs can be worked around through using the "safe place" option in the settings menu or simply reloading the game. No blocking issues for me and these issues don't go into my overall score. So 4/5 for a very nice adventure that's a bit too easy / repetitive for my taste. Yet it sucked me in like only Cyan games can. I only wish I didn't finish it so quickly.
The "new" Boron are stunning. Beautiful animations, great textures, etc. Not the biggest fan of some of the Boron's voices but that is subjective. The new ships and stations are pretty cool. Didn't have time to check them all but they certainly add another angle to the way you can play the game. Some of those Boron weapons are pretty unique. The story is pretty egosofty but overall one of the better executed story lines. I didn't run into any bugs or other issues related to stories. I may find it a bit too easy to unlock access to the Boron. It's also not perfectly clear where to kick off the story in the first place. Only by checking the messages tab or checking the web you will get hints of where to go. The new sectors are nothing that special. The music is nice but overall not much happening there. I was hoping for something a little more spectacular. But I don't really see the appeal to do much with these sectors in a well established game. Maybe I missed something but that makes the add-on a little underwhelming. At least Boson Ta finally gets the fresh Bofu he requested back when Foundations came out. The new game version is working find and seems to handle large stations a little better. Ships avoid newly added hazardous areas well but I'm not sure if they are now smart enough to avoid others (e.g. the Void) too. Solid 4 star rating if not 5. Great job and I hope that this is not the end of the road for X4 just yet.
Let's get the obvious out of the way. This game is older and it shows. It's not a graphical masterpiece, it has some adventure annoyances like finding the right paths, etc. So technically it's not what you'd expect from a more recent game. But remember what GOG stands for ;) To me adventures are about the story, atmosphere, characters, dialog and most of all how much it transports me into this alternative world. The Moment of Silence really does it for me at the last part but doesn't fall short in the other segments either. The hero of the story travels the world and I quite enjoy many of the scenes you can explore. Dialog isn't always super rich but they can be quite entertaining. If you speak German but usually prefer English versions, don't. The German narration of Peter is a treat to the ears ;) For an adventure it's quite simple. You won't spend ages trying to solve highly complex puzzles. It can be tricky to find the right spots or the right combinations of inventory items vs. other objects but overall it's not going to give you sleepless nights. The Moment of Silence reminds me more of an interactive movie. One with a decent story that happens to strike a cord with me. It's not for everyone and certainly not a technical masterpiece. But whenever I play this game I lose myself in it for a while and that's what really makes a great adventure for me. Hence a 5 star rating here.
Really wanted to like this game. But I just can't. It's full of little annoyances. Minigames that make little to no sense. Interactive Computer Screens expecting some magic words. And then I often have no clue what to do after some cut scene. It just isn't all too clear. The sound settings are a bit strange too. Background music ist constantly overpowering voices even so I turned it down to it's minimum, just shy of off. For me at least the subtitles are a must. Interaction with objects requires multiple clicks. If you miss, do it again. After a while it becomes very cumbersome. The inventory also has a mind of it's own. As far as the story goes it's not gripping me at all. Playing this game doesn't fill me with excitement. I played on for a while to see where it's going but eventually gave up. I'm really into these kinds of games and I bought this one because House of Tales made one of my all time favorite adventure tames. But 15 Days doesn't live up to it at all.
The journeyman series is by far one of my favorite adventure series. It's a great mix of sci fi and history. The story is gripping, engaging and builds neatly on top of the other two parts. None of the time zones are "real" but they are all based on legends and myths. The developers did a great job creating these places and I really enjoyed the feeling of all of these places. Thanks to holographic technology you can disguise yourself as a native and interact with the world. There's quite a bit of dialog which is a welcome change compared to the other two parts. Arthur, the AI is part of the game too. This time however there's an option on how talkative he is. So if you don't like Arthurs comments you can disable him. If you get stuck, he can be very useful however. I personally am a big fan of Arthur as he adds quite a bit of humor to the game. Jumping between time zones is much easier now as you always go to where you left off. So no more need to retrace your steps over and over again. Another improvement is that you can't die anymore. While the other two parts quickly "ended" if you took a wrong turn this game doesn't let you make any leathal mistakes. There's also score or points system. Just enjoy the story. The game ran rock solid for me. Not a single crash or other issues. Still, make sure to save the game frequently. There is no auto save and losing progress can be very annoying. As this game really managed to take me back into my own past I'm more then happy to give it 5 stars and highly recommend it to fans of the franchise as well as adventure fans. If you're a bored game developer looking for inspiration. Here it is. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to see more parts ;)
I loved the original Journeyman series and GOG did a great job making the game work on modern systems. There have been some crashes. Make sure to save the game frequently. There is no auto save. Aside from that however it works very well. The story behind the game is a gripping mixtur of sci-fi and history. Travel back in time to find evidence proving the innocence of your future self. Two of these times are in our own past and I look forward to visiting the ruins of château gaillard, one of the time zones you visit in the game, in the real world soon. The third time zone is in a fictional future where you find Arthur, the funny and helpful AI. I strongly suggest you get to Arthur first thing after checking out your start location. I for one really like his comments and the help button really gets you unstuck every now and then. One of the game's blessings is that you can travel between time zones as you please. You actually have to in order to make progress. Sadly every time you make a time jump you'll reset your position. So try to cut down on jumps in order to avoid frustration. Read the information attached to your inventory items. It contains valuable clues on how to use some items. Especially towards the end some quick actions are required and you'll have to know which items may safe your life. Unlike other adventures and part three of the series there is little to no interaction with people in the time zone. So no dialog. That does add a bit of a sterile feel to it. Yet there are some vital bits of information you need to keep in mind when learning about people in your ... erm "present". Just know who you're working with. It may be important later on ;) Despite a few shortcomings most of which are just based on the age of the game it's very enjoyable. I'm happy to rate it with 5 stars and highly recommend it to anyone enjoying older adventure games.
It's pretty and I'm a fan of such games. But it doesn't really get to me. There's something missing. I feel a bit like being a lab rat in the labyrinth that's rewarded for each unlocked secret. Sure, that's what other games of that genre do, but a game like Obduction feels somehow different. These games really got to me while Quern, as much as I want to like it leaves me mostly cold. Another big downer is the music. At first it's alright but after a while it gets very annoying. It's generally the same thing playing over and over again. Turned the volume down but a game like this needs the right kind of nun intrusive background music. A small bug relates to joysticks. I have two controllers connected via USB at all times. Usually they don't interfere with games that don't need them. Quern however picks them up and constantly spins. It's a known problem on the Steam forums. For me it means crawling under the table unplugging cables in order to spend some time on Quern. The devs clearly put a lot of great work into this game and I hate to rate it with just 3 stars. A great adventure for me is one that doesn't let go, sucks me into this world the developers created and constantly occupies my mind. Quern just fails to do this for me.
