I repeatedly encounter a VERY serious bug in this game. The game is divided into Chapters. During each Chapter there are automatic checkpoints. You're supposed to be able to exit anytime and resume at the last checkpoint. Sounds good, but there is a major bug. Every time I exit after a checkpoint and try to resume at that checkpoint, the checkpoint loads, but Szymon is stuck in place. I can look around, and I can see Szymon's legs moving and hear the sound of his footsteps. But he is frozen in place. The only way I can play is by restarting the Chapter at the beginning. For some reason, the developers in their eternal wisdom and superior intelligence, only use a single checkpoint that is overwritten every time....Idiots!! As far as story, graphics, voice acting, and audio, the game is pretty good. Gameplay is a little light, even for a walking simulator. All you can do is walk around, read notes, use the radio to talk to Eve, replay the memory tubes. Finally as most reviewers mention, walking is painfully slow. And running just barely increases how fast you move. Running in this game is slower than walking in other games. Graphics - 4.5 stars Voice Acting - 4 stars Story - 3.5 stars Sound - 3 stars Gameplay C - 2 stars I'm not asking for a refund because I don't want GOG to loose out on their cut of the sale. GOG shouldn't pay because the developers suck. If GOG goes away, then we'll be stuck with only Steam, Origin, Ubisoft, etc. Have to all do what we can to ensure GOG stays around as an alternative. My advice is look for another game on GOG. Don't take a chance with this game. You may be lucky and not encounter this bug. But then again, why risk it. Spend your money at GOG on a game that isn't buggy.
This is one of the best games I have played in my life. It takes a great set of characters, tells a great story, has fun gameplay, excellent voice acting, well-done music, and enough choices that matter to give the game good replay value. I'm puzzled by the bad and mediocre ratings for this game. It looks, feels and plays like a graphic novel. It tells an original story while still remaining true to the Batman history and universe. Batman is hands down my favorite character, so I know quite a bit about about him. Also the camera work in the game is exceptional. Although technically this is a game and not a movie, the only word I can come up to describe how well this game does gameplay and cutscenes is AAA cinematography. Another thing that amazed me is how realistically emotion was captured in the eyes and faces of the characters. Most PC games do a mediocre job at best, even many AAA titles from big studios. The voice acting is some of the best, if not the best, of any game I've played. I've been playing games since the late 1990's. I've played RPG's, FPS, Survival Horror, Adventure and Puzzle. Over the years I've acquired a game library of over 300 games. So I've heard a lot of voice acting both good and not so good. Complementing the excellent voice acting is very well-done body language. The realistic emotion combined with top notch voice acting, believable body language, and Hollywood-style cinematography just knocked it out of the park for me. The sections where you did "detective" work were interesting and enjoyable while not being frustrating. The quicktime events (QTE) were perfect. They required a decent amount of timing and skill without being too hard or punishing. In short, get this game!!! Yes, the graphics are not the best and not very realistic, but that's the point. This is supposed to feel like you're in a graphic novel where your actions have consequences. And this game knocks it out of the park!!
Honestly I think this is one of those games that's rated so high because people are rating it based on nostalgia. Perhaps in 1997 this game was state-of-the-art and there was like nothing like it. But in 2021, it hasn't aged well at all. If you want to play old school RPG's from the 80's and 90's, then I recommend the Ultima and Wizardry series instead of Betrayal at Kronder (or BoK). Both of these series have better gameplay. The only area where BoK is better is the story. I get that older games aren't as polished as more recent games, but it shouldn't be a chore to play the game. And that's exactly my experience with BoK: a boring chore. Initially as I read the game manual and the summary of the Riftwar saga, I was excited. Yes in the 80's and 90's you had to read the manuals or you would be lost in a game. So I fired up the game with great expectations, and after about 6 hours of gameplay I stopped playing. Boring is the best word for my experience. The entire time was spent wandering the map trying to reach the first city. During that time there were combat encounters, but the combat was repetitive and painfully boring. Visiting inns was boring. Discovering villages and knocking on doors was tedious and boring. The dialog and learning the historical background by talking to NPC's was the best part. Many reviewers praised BoK for its depth of gameplay, but after 6 hours of gameplay it was not apparent to me. Perhaps the depth they're talking about develops much later in the game. But in my opinion if I put in 6 hours and a game hasn't at least got some traction to keep my interest, then it's a pretty bad game. This game is dirt cheap, so it's not a big risk trying the game out. But I'd recommend not letting the glowing reviews of nostalgic fans mislead you.
If you loved Planescape: Torment, then I think you will also like Tides of Numenera very much. I'll start with the shortcomings which prevented a 5-star rating. The combat is atrocious!! If you're looking for a turn-based RPG with great combat, this is NOT your game. I find myself building characters who rely on non-combat skills such as charisma, deception, diplomacy, etc. just so I can avoid the combat. The audio could be better. Needs more spoken dialog. Also the ambient audio was mediocre. It wasn't bad, but it was more appropriate for a game from the early 2000's, not 2017. Now the good. In a nutshell, your decisions during character build combined with the phenomenal amount of branching dialogs with consequences give the game staggering replay value. Your Tidal Affinity (which is determined by your dialog choices and actions) has a dramatic effect on your character's legacy (i.e. what you achieved and are remembered for). I've played through using Blue, Gold, Indigo and Red affinities, and my characters' legacies were significantly different each time and my legacy was exactly what I would expect of that type of person in the real world. Excellent story. The themes covered in the story are timeless and part of the human experience. This is one of the traits that made Planescape: Torment so special, and Tides of Numenera follows this tradition. Many interesting and unique companions, NPC's, factions, and locations. Just mixing up your companions during replays produces distinctly different game experiences. Yes, I know this mechanic has been around for years, but not all games execute it well. Tides of Numenera is excellent in this area. Conversations and decisions made in one area of the game sometimes impact other areas of the game including what dialog options you have and how NPC's and companions react to you. A must-have game if you enjoy a thoughtful, complex, but combat-lite RPG with massive replay value.
Playing game on "Team Path". It was a pretty fun game. Taking into account it's a really old game so it has many of the bad elements of adventures games from the nineties. But it was still enjoyable until I hit a dead end. It was in Algiers after getting the Sunstone from Mr. Trottier. Went to Algiers and showed Omar the Sunstone. Instead of giving me camels and going to the next stage of the game Omar just keeps saying he can't "afford" the Sunstone. So the game is stuck in Algiers and I can't progress.
The original Observer game is a must-have game for sci-fi, narrative game fans. Highly recommended!! 4.5 star game. The Redux version is a big step up in improved graphics, gameplay and additional game content. But... The Redux version as of November 23, 2020 has some annoying and somewhat persistent performance issues. Specifically micro stutters and significant frame rate drops. Fortunately I've seen the developers responding on various forums, so they are aware and working on the issues. So given enough time I'm sure they'll fix the problems. But I would suggest being patient and wait until you see evidence on forums and other sources that the performance issues have been fixed. I had previously purchased the original Observer, so I was able to buy the Redux version for only $6.99. But I would recommend full price for either version. Buy original version for an older PC and Redux version for a newer PC. As a comparison my PC specs are: Intel i5-8400, nVidia GTX 1660 Super 6GB, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Home Edition. On Original version I got consistent 60FPS at 1920x1200 max video settings (measured using MSI Afterburner). Occasional micro stutters. On Redux version I averaged FPS of 45-50 with best FPS of 60 with regular FPS drops down to 30-35 FPS. Frequent micro stutters. Dropping resolution down to 1680x1050 did not eliminate micro stutters or the drastic frame rate drops. It was better than at 1920x1200, but it was still pretty bad. I had to go all the way down to a horrible 1280x800 resolution to get reasonably consistent frame rates, but even then micro stutters were fairly common. Once the developers work out the kinks on micro stutters and frame rate drops, the new Redux version is a definite improvement on a really great game.
Still Life is one of the best adventure games from the early 2000's. If you enjoyed Siberia 1 and 2, The Longest Journey or Riven, then you'll probably like Still Life. In my opinion, Still Life should be on the list of "Best 100 Adventure Games of All Time" right beside Syberia. It's best described as Syberia for a mature audience. By that I mean the core elements that made Syberia one of the best adventure games of all time are present in Still Life. Syberia is suitable for nearly everyone including older children, while Still Life definitely is not. This is due to Still Life's mature content which includes strong (but realistic) adult language, nudity, bloody crime scenes and violence in some of the cut scenes. Definitely nothing over the top, but certainly not appropriate for children. The Mature ESRB rating is justified. But this is a GREAT adventure game for adults and teens. The Good: - Excellent and memorable story - Memorable protagonist and supporting characters - Great graphics (for the time) - Exceptionally well-done cut scenes (again, for the time) - Top-notch voice acting - Very good audio and music - Good logical puzzles with a few exceptions - Save Anywhere with Unlimited Save slots The Not So Good: - Sometimes it's not clear where you should go or what you should do next - Backtracking - A few difficult puzzles that will require a walkthrough (especially the lockpicking puzzle) - Some easy to miss hot spots (i.e. pixel hunting) But to be fair these criticisms were a common trait of all adventure games from the 2000's. So don't let this minor blemishes stop you from playing this excellent, classic game.
The Great - Story. Like all Ragnar Tørnquist games, the overwhelming thing you remember about this game is the characters and their story. - Voice acting. The actors sound like they're "living" the game, not just "reading" it from a script - Interaction between Alice and Edward is the lion's share of the gameplay, and it's all excellent - Alice. Usually sidekicks in a game are totally annoying, but the full experience of this game would not be possible without Alice. Thank heavens she's likeable and her voice acting is exceptionally good. - Sound, ambience & atmosphere are AAA+ - Graphics & visuals are also AAA+ - Modest hardware requirements. Played on Windows 10, 8GB RAM, Intel i5-8400, GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. The Good - Mystery of what happened at Graavik - Hints of Edward's underlying mental health issues (I assume these will be developed in future games) - Hints of Edward's troubled childhood (apparently the root cause of his mental health issues) - Simple, straightforward controls. Keyboard/mouse and controller both supported equally well. - Plenty of options to tweak graphics settings The Bad - Price. This game is way too short to justify a price tag of $19.99. It took me under 5 hours to finish, and I tried to explore every nook and cranny of every building and location. This game is worth $14.99 max. - Edward is not a sympathetic character. He came across as selfish, self-absorbed and generally rude and ill-mannered. Perhaps that was the intent of Mr. Tørnquist. - Too many invisible walls or barriers in the environments. Much of the charm of this game is the fact it makes you "feel" like you're in a beautiful, deserted fjord, which is not an insignificant achievement. And I wanted to more freely explore to fjord and it surroundings than this game allowed. - Vague ending. No real clarity at all given on what really happened at Graavik. Some people seem to like this ambiguity. Personally I didn't. But it's still a game worth playing.
