tl;dr: passable point-and-click adventure game, a little over 10 hours including the epilogue chapter. The logic of some puzzles is definitely a bit of a stretch, but it's to be expected in the genre. I almost gave the game 2 stars because of the groanworthy puns on names of celebrities and popular products or services. More detailed opinion: I appreciate the sleazier-than-life aesthetic, with suggestive shapes, litter and gooey substances everywhere. The art-style may be rather simplistic but at least it's striking and consistent with the mood. The writing in the game was more miss than hit for me, to the point where I actually considered giving the game a 2-star rating. It put me in mind of the weaker aspects of the "social commentary" type of humour/parody in GTA4 and 5. The writing is even more blunt and overreliant on bad puns, in this game's case mostly on names of celebrities and popular products or services (Freddy Quicksilver, PiPhone, Instacrap, Timber, Unter, etc.)
tl;dr: initially intriguing, quickly turns into a boring slog. Detailed grievances: Three stars is a little charitable considering how sick I was of this game by the end, but it feels wrong to give less than that for a work (game/novel/film/album) that is technically competent, bears clear marks of effort and, especially relevant to games, works reliably. I approached the game with certain expectations, having the game recommended by several people and "content creators" as exceptional artistically and narratively. I enjoyed some of their earlier recommendations (including The Stanley Parable and What Remains of Edith Finch). Some terms kept being brought up in regards to this game, such as magical realism, Americana and the theme of entropy, but I didn't consider any of it to be warning flags. What I found certainly had a clear and consistent art-style and was initially intriguing, but any enthusiasm was gradually worn down through sheer relentless boredom. The glacial pacing, combined with the permanent night aesthetic of all but the final episode, meant I had to take frequent breaks to stave off literal sleep (granted, I mostly played the game late in the evening, but I never nod off playing anything else) and stall for weeks in between some of the later episodes just to force myself to finish the game. I found it particularly annoying how much of the narrative/writing is dedicated to disjointed stories of people and places that the game vomits at you at the slightest provocation or behind which the game hides story progress. Act IV was particularly painful in that respect, nearly all of this the longest of episodes being frankly pointless in terms of the overt main plot. It seemed to be little more than a gallery of quirky or melancholy anecdotes and vignettes. It made me question whether my misery with the game was my own fault. Am I to blame for being a dilettante who let games and modern life erode his patience and attention span?
As I indicated in the review's title, it was my first time playing any version of Blood. I've tried some other 2.5D shooters (Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, The Original Strife, Redneck Rampage, Wolfenstein 3D) but never got very far in them. This one is the first I actually finished. I'm glad to report the game still holds up fun-wise. It's likely I have some of the modern conveniences and improvements of this remaster to thank for that. The fun wasn't spotless, though, hence three stars (which is lower than my usual ratings). What I didn't like about the game: 1) The arsenal could do with slightly more variety, since three weapon slots are taken up by varieties of dynamite (fuse-based, proximity-triggered and manually detonated). 2) Gargoyles struggle with navigating towards the player, often just thrashing right under a high ceiling, out of shot. You have to run around the room to get them to come down for a fight. 3) Hit detection when shooting at enemies well below you (and, to some extent, small ones, such as spiders or rats) is dodgy at best (more so for differences in elevation rather than size). 4) One of the expansions has to first be loaded via the options menu, almost leading me to miss the expansion entirely. It also has to be re-enabled every time you launch the game before you load an expansion save. This is something that could - if not should - have been a part of the remaster's improvements: both more prominent presence of the Cryptic Passage episode and automatic loading of it contents when loading a CP save.
tl;dr: I found the game rather enjoyable, despite being aware of its shortcomings. I would've probably given the game five stars if it wasn't for one absolutely infuriating bit that was partly a mechanical choice on the devs' part. There is a brief prologue and four proper cases to investigate, they took me a little under 13 hours to complete - but that's including my problems discussed in the final paragraph of the review. More details: As other reviewers pointed out, the game is not particularly complex or demanding, nor very impressive in any aspect. Yet, I found it charming and accessible enough to make me charitable and forgiving of its shortcomings (in both technical aspects and unremarkable writing). One design choice frustrated me to no end, however. Like in Aviary Attorney, it is possible to make a mistake in the investigation and botch the case as a result. While in Aviary Attorney the mistake would likely have to do with limited time management, in Lamlight City you can render a witness/contact uncooperative, cutting yourself off of the chance to follow up on whatever information they could provide you. Usually it's about pushing certain subjects or admitting that you're an investigator to a character who isn't fond of authority figures of busybodies. While I prefer games that let you fail at interpreting and acting on information rather than failing to collect information in the first place, I didn't have a problem with the concept ...until case 3. I'll try to keep things vague to minimize potential spoilers. In case 3, you can lock yourself out of the final crucial threads of the investigation ...within a minute or two of starting the case. You do that by engaging in that adventure game staple of going through every dialogue option, and with a character that's not a party in the case, at that. You won't know until a couple of hours later, when, hopelessly lost and having exhausted all interactions, you'll finally check a walkthrough and despair.
tl;dr: It's a charming experience, rather memorable for its slightly off feel to the world and its logic. It could end up being very short (2-5 hours would be my best guess), so consider if that price-to-length ratio is okay with you. More details: The game is *very* short. Once you know the solutions to puzzles, it could be easily finished under two hours. You won't do that on your first playthrough (not one without heavy reliance on a walkthrough, anyway), because the game runs on dream logic - by which I don't mean moon logic (seemingly random solutions found e.g. in some of Sierra and LucasArts classics). Most solutions to the puzzles will seem obvious in hindsight, with perhaps a couple exceptions. The one that I had to look up so as not to waste time trying everything on everything else was how to carve a stamp to forge a signature; if there was some hint for how to accomplish that in dialogue or item descriptions, then I must've missed it completely.
It's a fairly entertaining shooter, but the usual caveat with classics that the games tend to age poorly (and not just in the graphics department) still applies in this case. The controls and gunplay are not quite streamlined, the game also relies too heavily on its dodgy stealth system in a number of mandatory stealth missions. The game's artstyle helped XIII feel a little less dated than it might have otherwise. I had some technical difficulties to overcome, mainly with absurdly low framerate (fixed by a fan patch). The plot could do without a cliffhanger ending, too. The star voiceactor - David Duchovny as the protagonist - is rather underutilized.
Like many other games, it's neither particularly bad or exceptionally good. I must admit it was the combined power of Jane Jensen's name and my enjoyment of Phoenix's other game, Cognition, that brought me in with unsustainably high expectations. I came out of it disappointed - but not feeling ripped-off. The game is, for the most part, competently made and engaging, but rather on the easy side and fairly short, for me a little under 10 hours for a blind playthrough. Whether that's good value for money and challenge enough, I'll let you be the judge of that. I certainly liked the sci-fi premise of the story, but I'd rather not spoil it here. The final multi-stage "puzzle", a labyrinth, was too linear to be challenging or satisfying. On the technical side, I had to reload a save once or twice when a character got stuck after an animation. Additionally, back when the game came out, I couldn't get it to run on my old PC (crashes without an error message on WinXP I was desperately holding on to for the sake of oldies) and didn't find any solutions online. Even though the game lists WinXP as a supported system, it might not work on that OS. It's unlikely you even have a WinXP machine to play on anyway, but I still count those past problems against the game.
First a quick tip for those struggling to get the game running: try dgvoodoo. It helped in this case and it's my go-to cure-all for running oldies on Win10, helped me e.g. enable frame buffer effects in KotOR1 or brighten the unplayable darkness in Vampire the Masquarade: Redemption. As for my review: There's little gameplay advantage to this over SWAT 4 and plenty of downsides, including poor default controls and insufficient light from your gun-mounted torch. Your team's AI can also be a problem, similarly to SWAT 4 - except to an even greater extent, which leads to occassional team wipes (or near wipes) in one doorway. Your squad members also tend to stand openly in the door when throwing grenades, instead of taking cover behind the doorframe, which often leads to them getting shot. What I prefer in this game over its sequel is that SWAT 3 doesn't believe so much in sanctity of life. While a death of a hostage is still a game over condition, you don't have to give the criminals/terrorists any chance to repent before shooting them. They also don't run around so much, so you can more reliably consider areas secured once you've gone through them. If you're hungry for some SWAT action, you might enjoy your time with the game, but bear in mind its age. If you're used to streamlined UIs and slick graphics of modern games, this one might not be for you.
The game is short, about two hours for a blind playthrough with the happiest ending. It's one of Wadjet Eye's numerous AGS games, but rather poor in comparison to most of their catalogue. It's based around collecting information instead of inventory puzzles, which I appreciated. I also applaud them basing the game around Jewish culture (though I can't speak to its accuracy) - if nothing else it spared me from another pseudo-noir setting. Plot-wise, they seem to have been trying for a more profound story, but ended up with a somewhat absurd detective game that puts on airs. I was particularly bothered by my inability to notify the police once I had uncovered clear evidence of the villain's guilt. I also struggled to notice any pattern to the final confrontation on the balcony, turning it into a trial-and-error affair.
Aften the first set of levels, the game moves to Colombia, where you'll have to endure rather alert and accurate opponents constantly obstructed by foliage that isn't a problem for them. Add to that highly effective and sometimes poorly telegraphed enemy grenades and scripts that often will just outright kill you for not playing along. If you make it through Colombia and the subsequent brief level with forced dodgy stealth, you're in for a few hours of a decent FPS - but only decent, not brilliant. To be honest, however, promises the game gets better after a couple hours of utter misery isn't a good recommendation. Especially since what follows even at its best is never as fun as the previous game. There are loads of great or even brilliant games on here and elsewhere that you can do much better with your time and money.
