It has the look and feel of a classic point and click game. The story is almost deep but not very complex ultimately. It doesn't really leave you thinking. It takes twists and turns to keep your interest with bizzare events and unexplained supernatural woo but ultimately it never really becomes very deep or complex... The story almost dares to have a happy ending and an actual conclusion, unless you watch past the credits like most horror movies. It has the classic cheesy "I'll be back!" ending... Kathy is mostly likeble but she has a sort of teenage angst. I guess it's sort of a coming of age story. I liked the humor of this game. I got an achievement for trying to zap Goober twice. You can also get an achievement if you try burning bibles...( wouldn't in real life, but it's funny that it's an achievement and a rare one...) But honestly at times I felt starved for a little bit of humor, so I'd try things like zapping grandma with a tazor for a good laugh... (Not an achievement...) The "nemesis" of the game is off putting, creepy, the story is all together off putting and kind of creepy... So, little moments of humor really made the game more enjoyable for me. The puzzles weren't always designed as well as they could be. There wasn't always enough hints, direction what you were supposed to do. An intelligent, creative person could be exploring multiple different solutions to a problem with no real guidance at times...where as I only got stuck once ( on little sleep and food and lots of stress irl...) The MATHS BOOK puzzle at the beginning could have been a little bit more clear. How are you supposed to know for certain that it's referring to the first numbers of a sequence? It takes some experimentation to solve one or two puzzles in this game, such as the safe combo puzzle... Those two puzzles may have you wondering if you're on the right track at all or wasting your time... You probably wont need a walkthrough though. Over all it's a dcent game.
Of course the game is fairly old now. So, you can't expect the most realistic looking product. However, the map design in this game is quite impressive. I really enjoyed going to different locations that were brilliantly designed. For an older game, the map design was ahead of it' s time. I think it uses GTKRADIANT.... I've played other GTKRadiant games, Jedi Knight Academy, Outcast and Wolfenstein... This game was better designed than I think all of them. Which made it seem to age better. Whoever designed these maps (levels) props to you, very creative/ brilliant use of radiant for the time... It's rather short but it's pacing is pretty much nonstop. You do have very brief sequences where you get to sit in on briefings but... I wanted more exploration time but it's an older game and so I accept that it didn't have lots of extra content or exploration. (It tells a story and is limited to the size it can be...) You get to explore the ship but many doors are locked and there are no real holodeck programs to enjoy. I had to take breaks because of the pacing... but that meant I could enjoy it over a weeks time. The characters on your team can walk kind of slow, it's aggetitating to sometimes wait for them... Surprisingly you start to care about your team over time. There isn't alot of character development but it's an older game and probably couldn't be that scale when it first came out. The story is decent and it's a real pleasure to play a game voiced by the cast if you're a voyager fan. The character models aren't the greatest but once again this is an old title. Towards the end I was able to look past that and just enjoy the story... The combat is fun, the game is an enjoyable pass time, it's fun to shoot things. Because it's moddable and has a a community , it is more replayable, in theory you could play forever but sadly I can't find a lot of costum content for it. If you like playing older but special shooters I'd recommend.
Visually the game is always working in layers, there's always something going on in layers. The backgrounds use lighting effects/ atmospheric effects like smoke. There is visual movement in every scene that allows the eye to move around, giving everything more depth. There are effects in every scene that make use of the foreground and background. There are in game cutscenes that seamlessly transition into gameplay. The voxel art leaves out details but from a distance the eye is still fairly convinced by the visuals of the game. Your eye sort of fills in the detail and forgives the fuzziness of the models. You sort of filter out and ignore the lack of detail, because all together it just really seems to work visually and you realize that for 1997 this game looks pretty damn amazing...the cutscenes and 2D artwork of the characters are enough to help your brain fill in some details, such as the faces. Some of the details while playing seem unimportant and are easy to ignore the lack of, and if you don't stare, somehow your brain can become convinced that things look a lot more realistic than they actually do. I think part of its charm is being able to use your own imagination to go along with it. Character models don't clash with the pre-rendered backgrounds. The backgrounds are realistic pre-rendered graphics, they are well structured, modeled, and I think that one thing the voxel character models managed, was to make a convincingly structured human form that meshed well with the highly structured backgrounds. To add to this, the visual effects also appear to interact with the character models, ex lighting, fog, etc... It captures the feel of the movie yet creates a unique emotive gaming experience of its own. It follows a similar story to the film but it is also multipath. There's no real right way to play. On top of the ingenious visual style, great audio and voice acting. The voice acting helps make up for the lack of emotion conveyed visually.
How can anyone say that a game from 1989, in the pioneer years of a genre that nearly went exitent 20 years ago is dated? Sure, it's not a action/ adventure game of today but it is in essence a adventure game. In fact, it's a grand-dady of what every adventure game is/ would become. (Point and Click) It uses the ScummVm engine, used for several years after it's initial release. It uses the traditional Lucas Arts actions, plus a few... You can't help but appreciate how ambitious it was for it's time and how much effort went into it to follow the actual storyline of the film, while remaining true to itself as an adventure game... The graphics for the time were state of the art for pixel art and what computers were CAPABLE of running. The backgrounds were state of the art. People don't seem to appreciate that artists had to work in a certain style back then and were limited by the capabilities of hardware. It's not like now where you could literally animate anything in 4K... Artists had to use their imaginations and so did players who started these games. This title is comaprable to any title from its time. The art work should be held to the same standards. You don't compare apples to oranges, this is an art form. At the time I discovered this I was wondering where the Temple of Doom and Raider games were. It very closely follows the original film for a adventure game that was created in 1989... It was a thrill to experience the story line in another format than film. It was exciting to play through it, at the time we didn't have 1000 lego games that did this or Xbox PS3 Pirates games, Harry Potter games, etc... Of course video game titles that were based on movies existed, but none followed the story so closely while remaining, fun or truthful to what they were...most sucked...Some parts are tedious but in no way harm the over all experience. Puzzles never unreasonable for those who play the genre. This classic is still loads of fun and worthy of reconition
I seen a few snooty reviews about this game, crying about plot holes and such... (What are you people really expecting?) Where as the game is worth a purchase, it's not exactly Lucas Arts. I enjoyed the series but had a few issues with it here and there. The first game on GOG crashed so many times it was unplayable on GOG and it left me very upset. I understand it's a smaller gaming company and I didn't want to rule out the series. I still gave it a A for effort even though I was very upset how difficult it was for me to play the first game. (My review unfortunately was less than stellar for the first game because of my inability to even play it...) The sequels were funny, enjoyable but you could always tell the budget behind these games. They are still enjoyable and manage to be charming as quaint and simple as they can be at times. What makes me rate the finale so high is that this series has some really powerful messages that it manages to suprise you with, get across...It unapologetically kills off a child and talks about mental illness...(Difficult subjects, if not done correctly can be offensive ...) The ending of Covergence, "Some people do everything they can to sabotage" their own happiness. This was so deep, profound for me. The series seems to say something about life. It's inspiring in some strange if not un-intentional sense. In one way I see it as a allergoy for mental illness. As someone who has PTSD from a crappy childhood, this series was almost therueptic for me at times... (Which I didn't expect) I could relate to the protagonist who felt tortured but was still a good person. The finale, is heart felt, the best of the series in terms of animation, story length... The ending seems to try to say something "bigger" again, hits you with something unexpected... "It's not about me, it's about everyone"... or even Joey's final moments manage to suprirse you with, " Life is worth living...." The series ended up being quite enjoyable
The TLJ with protagonist April Ryan, the game that put Ragnar Tørnquist on the map. It is known to many adventure gamers as one of the greatest adventure games ever made. Most the time when you play nearly any franchise or watch any movies series, and you get into it, you expect some continuity from episode to episode or film to film... This franchise takes a big dump on April Ryan and leaves April fans with mostly heart break... Hopefully you weren't that attached to the previous protagonist, her struggles, her story and were expecting any sort of solid continuity from TLJ to Dreamfall/ Dreamfall Chapters... because the sequel feels almost more like a spin off with it's own sequel... (It is not April Ryan's story) Instead the creator decided to make the story more than about April Ryan, made her a secondary character and decides to waste and end her story with a rather dull death scene that motivates and inspires "the new protagonist" that is randomly forced onto you at the beginning of the dreamfall spin off... You play as April Ryan in Dreamfall , but the depression she suffered from in the first game has completely eaten her away, the heroism and life has been sucked right out of her...then she dies on screen... and comes back in Dreamfall Chapters as a depressed/ emo ghost.... For fans who really enjoyed TLJ and formed some sort of connection to April Ryan, there is very little for you in both sequels expect massive disappointment... Chapters does very little to give you closure... The story continues to branch off and stray further and further from April Ryan. So, if you were a fan of the first game, loved the story, felt something real for the protagonist, found her relatable and wanted to see how her story panned out avoid the two spin offs like a plague. There was only one TLJ game and it's really all you need. If you don't mind seeing that character ripped to shreds and just want to see more of the world, then try the two spin offs out..
This literally crashes every time I load it, sometimes multiple times in a row. I think it happens when you skip dialogue mostly... but that's a feature of the game and it shouldn't cause crashes... ( I was skipping dialogues to catch back up to where I was because I experienced a dead end) I'm playing Legacy and yes I've experienced a dead end. I will outline specifically when and how this occurs. Feel free to experience the deadend for yourself. This is extremely off putting. "Rosa's Article and a Visit with Nishanti Upon arriving at Rosa's apartment just click on her computer and select the option 'write article'. Rosa will then sit down and put the article together, scanning the photo and sending it all off to her boss. However, when Rosa tries to go to bed after that, her head will really pound. Rosa will say that she needs fresh air and go to the apartment door. Head out into the hall and knock on Nishanti's door. There are a few conversation topics you must explore fully before you can proceed any further. Exhaust all dialogue options relating to the park, the dog run, and dogs. Nishanti will make a reference to sensing things. This is the point in the conversation that will unlock events so you can proceed with the game. Make sure to also Offer to feed dog, but don't actually do it. You'll need the Dog Biscuit for later." If you exhaust conversations with the neighbor before you get a headache and "need fresh air" it will in fact result in a DEAD END and you won't be able to progress your game... I will attempt to finish this game, the music, story, voice acting other wise seems to be on point. However, I could only recommend this game with extreme caution. I'm only a few minutes in and have already experienced game breaking bugs which is extremely discouraging to continue. I like Wadjet Eye Games but this particular title seems to be a mess. I'm shocked others haven't had problems.
The interface was annoying for me. Your character is on the screen but is mostly stationary. It's not a traditional point and click game. It has no tutorial and the character gives you subtle hints that you have to put together what you're doing. You just click on the screen until you find things. Some may find it enjoyable to play this but for me, it's just awkward, frustrating and bizzare. There isn't a whole lot of actual interaction in my opinion and it's easy to walk away from early on because it's really not that engaging and compelling. It even feels restrictive in the sense that the character doesn't move when you click. At the very start the character veyr annoyingly bounces on a chair with springs until you find what you're supposed to click on screen. I guess it's because I don't play too many hidden obj games? I play adventure games for me this game is just annoying and not captivating. It has no real story... I don't experience any joy or magic playing this, as I did with other "child-ish" games like Putt Putt goes to the Zoo or Night of the Rabbit... I guess it's just not for me but maybe it is worth another try someday... But I much rather play games with gripping stories, more interactions, dialogues, conversations, humor, and where characters actually move on the screen when you point.
Has a firefly, Cowboy bebop vibe. It's set in the future, there are still places left in the world that feel relatively untouched by technology. There are tribes on Earth that have no outside contact whatsoever. Amish counties and areas that are relatively "backwards"... There's a sort of complimentary duality in these kind of stories..Which is how far we've come evolving away from our primitive roots as hunter and gathers, and then our seemingly inescapable nature itself. For instance Star Trek, is all about human progress, evolution but it also always goes back to our very nature, the struggle to be more than we are no matter how far we progress technologically or socially. This is a complimentary duality. We never really escape the question of what it means to be human, and how far beyond human do we ever truly come? In none of these franchies does technology really surpass our humanity, even in the face of technological singularity. It always goes back to our humanity, serenity really focuses on that. Getting rid of imperfection is boring story telling and may very well be against nature. Franchises like blade runner makes us wonder what it means to be human reminding us of our imperfection, pollution, violence, over population. in none of these franchises does technology solve all these problems. In this game, you are in a town that feels some what secluded. This strikes up the same balance as those other franchises. You play a city cop that has technological argumentation but is very human in character design. You are in a town where seemingly murder is uncommon. This makes the atmosphere seem very real. You get to react your own way, building your personality as you go as well as effecting the story path your character will take. This makes for a even more human experience, giving the player a chance to react their own way. The puzzles are well designed and you won't need a walk through. It's smart and has great atmosphere. She has great hair...
I would avoid the first, but the second is playable. I am 32 years old. I played this on it's original CD. Some of these kids reviewing this game are horribly misinformed. It's primitive but it is not a "bad game"... It DOES hold up given what it is... The game was from a time before most of these kids reviewing it were born. This game was from a time were FMV was an art form, and a very common / accepted way to play video games... They don't make FMV games anymore... You should be reasonable going into this game. You can't compare it to something it never was. If you're buying this expecting it to be anything other than a FMV game then that's your problem, not a fault of the game... The game itself has fun cinematics, that are sometimes funny (Mostly unintentionally like most FMV games). It's a bit cheesy but it's also a lot of fun. The cinematics still hold up reasonably well but of course you aren't going to get HD, 4K quality cinematics...more like a buffering youtube video. XD It's sometimes difficult to see where you're going in the flight sections of the game, but never so much that it's unplayable. This game came out before the Phantom Menace was even released. It was the closet thing to a new star wars movie that any could experience at the time. The game has numerous difficulty settings and on Beginner I managed to beat it again in just a few hours.You might need to change your mouse speed, mine is set a little lower in windows. Some sequences will take more than one play through. It just takes practice/ patience to beat this game. I had a blast replaying it in just one sitting. I can assure people that they can't beat this, then they just suck at this form of gameplay. It can be challenging, and some parts can take a few tries but it's not impossible. It's basically a rail game, sort of a arcade type of thing... It's still fun to play for its story, visuals but of course it's an archaic piece of video game history.
