Unique and interesting game. Worth your while if you are interested in story-based games, especially where your decisions and responses affect the outcome. This does allow some replay value if you replay to the end. However, I did not play through a second time. Completed in about 6 hours, which is about right for this game. Completionists may find longer gameplay to get some of the achievements. Gameplay mechanics, the few that exist, are very simple and easy. Although the tutorial indicates moving the mouse left/right to change radio frequency, I was pleased to find that your mouse wheel also works and was easier. For me, navigating the map area was a bit of a challenge and I think the map could have been more detailed to indicate the paths to take to move from one area to another. Often, I wasn’t sure if I was going the right way. Based on other reviews, I was expecting large amounts of the game to just be walking, but I found that while you do walk around quite a bit there is often dialogue or interactions with the environment (i.e. trying radio frequencies) to keep it interesting. I found the main story interesting, but the interactions between the characters (teenagers) less so. The dialogue is strongly geared toward teens and just wasn’t appealing to me (50-year-old gamer). I think the game could have been much better with adult characters and more mature topics/dialogue. It seems to me they used stereotypical teenage “issues” to build the interactions. However, these interactions didn’t make sense when combined with the main story line. I would expect the characters to be freaking out and scared, not discussing dating, divorce, or other topics, so that aspect fell flat for me.
My real rating is 3.5 stars (7/10). This is one of the first story-driven, “walking simulator” type games I’ve played. I originally wrote off this game based on early reviews but decided to give it a chance when it was included on top 10 games of 2017 on Talking Games podcast. I was glad I played it. Some early game events were great and exciting, as well as events toward the end had me walking around anxiously. Those were great and well done. However, it lagged a bit in the middle/majority of the game where most of the walking simulation takes place. I thought the 2 story lines conflicted trying to be the main story and neither really stood out or impressed me at their conclusion. I wish they would have gone with mainly one story or the other. Gameplay seemed to be linear, as I didn’t feel like my decisions or radio responses really mattered in the end. I wish they would have. At first, I was happy with the “walking simulation” aspect of the game, as the world is interesting and well made. However, I spent a lot of time exploring all the nooks and crannies of where I was allowed to go and was disappointed I was rarely rewarded for the effort, and nothing that affected gameplay. I was also disappointed with all the objects you could pick up and examine, but never do anything with. I was expecting more “gameplay” mechanics. The interface, controls, and graphics are great. I like that the in-game map can toggle your location on/off if you want, as well as subtitles. Music could be improved to enhance the mood. Ran great on W7 and cloud saves was a bonus. Not much replay value though.
I liked it and given what I know now, I would repurchase at sale price. I agree with (almost) every review I read, either praise or pan. At its core, it’s a puzzle game, and in some cases, can be difficult and frustrating. Some describe this game (somewhat accurately) as one you might find on a tablet ap store. However, I think it is successful taking a “tablet-style” puzzle game and integrating and expanding it into something much more substantial and interesting. Positives: Visually stunning. Simple interface. Difficulty for me was about spot-on (your mileage may vary), and transitioned well from easy to hard. Many optional puzzles that are not required to complete the “core game”. Many different variations of the puzzles, separated in unique map areas, so not being affluent at 1 or 2 types won’t hinder you too much as walkthroughs can get you past difficult puzzles here and there. Things I didn’t like: -Lack of story. There is a limited “game ending”, but with no story it doesn’t end anything. Some say certain aspects of the game (won’t describe to remain spoiler free) did give them some type of enlightenment, but not for me -Soundtrack is non-existent. No mood portrayed throughout the game and all areas felt the same -Open world is fine, but I like slight pushes toward the area to visit next with puzzles I was ready for -Exploration wasn’t very rewarding. -AHA! moments too short-lived. Solving a puzzle just activates an adjacent puzzle or opens a door with a puzzle just inside -Some puzzle areas had too many of the same type of puzzle. Spoiler free hints: -Have pens/paper handy -Play in windowed mode and have a doc that you can paste screenshots into. A 2nd monitor helps. Screenshots of failed puzzles are just as valuable as correct solutions. Also, having a screenshot of the environment makes some puzzles much easier to solve. -For a recommended order of what areas to visit, use the IGN Wiki. The map there is useful and basically spoiler-free.
Decent game that was fun to play for a while, but did suffer from some playability issues that were annoying as the game went on. More time in dev solving some issues would have gone a long way to make this a pretty good game. Pro’s Good job recreating the realism of bomber missions. As much or little game immersion as you want. Graphically, the game is pretty good. Decent flight simulator in the fighters, not as much in the bomber. Satisfying to take over the bombardier position, peer through clouds to find targets, make alignment corrections, and execute a good bombing run. It’s fun to take over gunner positions, although difficult to shoot anything down (hint – try ½ time compression). It’s exhilarating to chase the German planes in your fighter escort and fly right through the bomber formation, hoping not to run into anything. Con’s Focus on realism, but often to a fault. Too involved to perform simple tasks. Crew is supposed to evolve and improve if you “take command” of their tasks. Found this wasn’t the case. At the end of the campaign the nav was just as inept as he was on mission #1. Crew changes so often you don’t have a cohesive crew to improve. On-screen message time is accelerated when you have time acceleration on, which you do a lot. No time to click on messages to switch gunner positions, or read messages/alerts as they just blink on screen. Joystick mapping caused multiple game crashes for me. Needs an autosave features so you don’t have to redo the take-off and flight to the German coast if you get shot down or game crash. Take-off process is too long. Flying the B-17 isn’t fun. No visibility inside, so you end up flying via the chase plane view. Gets repetitive with not enough variety. Towards the end, I wanted to finish the remaining missions quickly, so I sabotaged the German fighters so they couldn't shoot down (or kamikaze) my bomber. You can’t shoot down your own German buddies (I tried),but you can make the pilots eject!
decent sequel to 25th Ann. Improves in some respects, but takes a step back in others. If you're a fan of the original series and single player adventure games, it is a must play because of the cast voice-overs. Playability was stable for me on W7 64 One main improvements is the option at the start of the game (can’t change later) to have standard, easy, or no ship-to-ship fights. I selected “easy”, it wasn’t very challenging, but after the final battle in 25th Ann I didn’t want to take any chances. Puzzles are longer, more involved, and generally harder than in 25th Ann (but also does lead to some cons, see below). It involves more of the Enterprise crew as it’s not always Kirk/Spock/McCoy. This adds variety and fun for ST fans, especially the Episode with Scotty. Great dialogue/banter between characters, so keep talking to all chars (and yourself) However, it does have gameplay issues. Few of the puzzles aren’t intuitive, leading to clue book, or walkthroughs. Too many puzzles where a specific char must complete an action, and sometimes it tells you, but sometimes it doesn’t so you think you are on the wrong track. There are many subtle ways to lose score points that are not evident when you are playing (get no feedback), so you don’t know if you selected the best response or action. If you are a perfectionist to get a perfect score, you may have issues. There are no dead ends in the puzzles that prevent you from finishing an episode, so that is good; you just might not get a great score. Some puzzles rely on info from the ship computer, which is a bit clunky to use. The game is a bit unpolished, discrepancies in the voice-overs, or a different character voiced the line than who you clicked on. One thing that bugged me is most of the time the entire screen/background is clickable so you end up clicking on all objects thinking it could be important just to hear the tricorder sound effect and Spock say “Nothing of interest, Captain”
