After completing the game it is very hard to rate this game in an objective manner. The setting is really unusual, new and interesting. The whole story unfolds in an extremely fast manner and you are thrown directly into the iranian revolution without long introduction or getting any background information. But this really serves the purpose since the main character also did not know exactly what is going on after returning from germany. While advancing in the game you have to make a lot of decisions without sufficient knowledge about the involved persons or situations. This might become stressfull in some situations but never felt to be out of place. In the end there was no clear good or evil and some of your decisions influenced the destiny of the people around you. The gameplay on the other hand is very basic. You have a few quicktime events and many conversations with up to four options to choose. Also in this conversations you often have a time limit so you must decide quickly. Finally, you have to take pictures at most locations but this feature is highly restricted to certain point of views. This unlocks also some background information about iranian culture and the revolution. You can compare the gameplay to Telltale's "The Walking Dead". If you like these games, then you will probaly be fine with 1979 Revolution:Black Friday. However, if you want a high interactive and open world you should look elsewhere. The major critic point is the length of the game. I have finished the game in about 2.5h and proceeded very slow. Everybody has to decide for themselve whether this is worth the price or not. To conclude, if you are interested in the setting and want to play an interactive movie with some tough decisions you could give it a try. If you look for a classical point and click adventure with puzzles then this is definitely not you game. From my perspective the setting and the story is interesting enough and I did not regret the purchase.
If you like FTL but think that it is too combat orientated you should have a look at this. As in FTL you fly through a galaxy, being chased by an enemy fleet. Nevertheless, instead of fighting, the most important part is keeping an eye on the resources. Your civilians need food and oxygen, your ship needs fuel. If you ran out of resources you will loose the game quickly if you don't reach a planet in time. To get resources you must mine planets. This is done automatic by a probe (but return less resources) or by a little minigame, which gets a bit repetitive. By sending away teams to planets you can upgrade your ship, which is essential because new modules are often more efficient. These missions, despite being only text windows with little interactions, are quite nice. As in FTL, you get a situation and have different options to proceed. Making a wrong decisions and your crew gets hurt or even killed. To keep you citizens happy you can build a little city out of 6 slots. This is the least interesting part of the game and feels unfinished. If you stay in a sector too long or got detected by an enemy patrol you must fight. The combat is very static and “semi-turn based” since you have to wait until the weapons reload. In general you have 3 colours for weapons and shields. Same shield colour neutralise the shot. I enjoyed it quite much. It is different from other space games were the biggest gun wins the battle. However, I think it's not for everyone. The “outside-view” graphic is really nice. There are still minor bugs in the game but I hope they will fix them soon. On the downside, the game gets repetitive after some time. I didn't managed to reach the end sector yet, but especially the first sectors always feel the same at (re)starts. But it is the same as in FTL. It really shines in these moments when you run out of resources and must decide whether it's better take the risk entering a enemy-patrolled system or trying to reach another system (too?) far away...
