From start to finish it's a pretty short game. Some of the puzzles are fun and others are a bit tedious (with some relying on hidden elements that would 100% make sense if you knew they existed but instead are left wandering for ten minutes trying to figure out). The writing is fun. The UI can be touchy and movement is *slow* even if you've got the run key pressed down. Sometimes interactive spots don't show up unless you back your character up and approach an area at a different angle. In some areas it feels more like an interactive novel than a video game. I'm glad I got it on sale. I don't hate it. I don't think I'd pay full price for it though.
I've put roughly 160 hours into this game. I have to put it down for now because I am becoming immensely frustrated. As some of the other reviews mention, there are timed quests. Some seem to fire off before the actual deadline of the quest (there is an in-game calendar) and when they do fail there is a cascading effect that will end up absolutely punishing you. It takes time for your party to travel across the map and before you set out for a journey to complete a mission you have to calculate how long it is going to take you to go there, do the thing, and get back. The map is expansive and travel can be slow-going depending on things like encumbrance, terrain, and random encounters. I've lost hours of gameplay because I didn't do something I apparently needed to do and didn't find out about it until much later in the game. I've had to start over twice, and I've had to backtrack so many times I've lost count. There is so much to manage in this game. It's possible to turn off the management and let AI handle it - but if you need to do that in order to prevent so much frustration then what is the point of having it in the game at all? It's unfortunate - I'm taken completely out of the game and left debating whether I want to play the game and subject myself to inevitable irritation or just do something else entirely. Implementation-wise: If you use Linux you will be better served running the Windows version of the game which has been patched to fix some issues. Sometimes during a turn-based battle the game gets confused and you have to toggle the turn-based mode off to get it unstuck. Occasionally cleric abilities affect creatures they aren't supposed to. The fixed camera angle makes it so it's easy for enemies to be hidden behind scenery. Pathing can be weird. A lot of things are not documented - I've had to rely on the Internet for the information. I'd recommend it if it were on sale maybe (I bought it on sale) but I wouldn't pay full-price.
I own this game via Steam so I'm not familiar with any intricacies of the GOG version (so my review is based on the game itself). I adore this game. From the moment I watched the trailer I was intrigued by the proposed mechanics. The level of customization makes it feel like you could play this a thousand times with a different story each time. It's sad because the characters have a finite lifespan but I think that serves to add gravitas to whatever mythos you create for your heroes. I would definitely recommend this game on the merit of its storytelling capabilities alone; however, the battle mechanics are fun and interesting too. Weapons can be customized and there is a lot of mixing and matching. This game is a delight. Congratulations to the Worldwalker clan for creating such a wonderful game.
The game is very quirky. The mouse supposedly only works in-game (I've never gotten it to work). You'll get a DirectX error if you try to set certain resolutions. If you have a controller attached the input can bug out. My external keyboard is only detected sometimes. If the game crashes it leaves GOG galaxy in an unusable state and you have to restart the application. Maybe this was a different experience 10-15 years ago but unless you have an old machine to run this on I would pass on it. I got it on sale for ~$1. I wouldn't pay $10 for it.
I bought this bundle on a whim because I am a huge fan of old point-and-click adventures. I read other reviews saying the story was good and saw the bundle on sale so I figured I'd buy it. I've gotten through the first two games so far and I can't say I'm compelled to play anymore. I thought the notebook mechanic was neat and quirky even though you have to figure the game mechanics out yourself. Combining the clues either changes them into something else more useful or it tells you there's no correlation. Sometimes these make no sense and sometimes you have to go to several different locations before you find the required clue. It's only because I played wacky point-and-clicks with zany moon logic (a la Freddy Pharkas) that I managed to figure some things out. At one point I was stuck for ten minutes until I finally relented and looked up a walkthrough. It turns out the thing I needed to do was the thing I was *trying* to do (I had inferred the answer, just didn't know what the game wanted me to do. Turns out I had to click two completely unrelated pieces of information in my notebook to get a clue I could use to progress in the game. In the first game you need to exhaust *all* of the conversation options so you don't miss anything. I ran into a technical problem with the Linux port. If you alt-tab-switch out of the game you're unlikely to be able to switch back into the game. Sometimes if you click an item in the inventory you cannot right-click or if you try to left-click you just get the spinning clock. It was during a pretty intense part at the end of the second game so it was very frustrating. I figured it could be a technical issue so I reloaded my save game. Sure enough, I could use my inventory item just fine. I've noticed similar issues with other Wadjet Eye Games on Linux (like Primordia). I wanted to give this game a better review. Maybe it would've worked better on Windows.
