The visuals are quite nice, that's true, but otherwise nothing to write home about. The story is actually shorter than the sales pitch itself, is told in a quite boring way, and ends abruptly... Let's finish it here, otherwise the review would be more fun than the actual game. PS Releasing a game without functioning "Quit" option was hilarious, unfortunately they fixed this promptly.
As I see many people are thrown off this game because the protagonist is silent - well, I did wonder why it is so but then thought - meh, the devs are just saving a few bucks, no matter. It's a minor spoiler that the silence is actually a part of the story but it looks a letdown at first anyway. Then at one point an NPC suggested that I grabbed a wrong companion - so I went back to the starting screen to exchange companions like I did a few times before but was surprised as there were no way back to the subway - oops, a bug, I thought... No, not a bug, devs just didn't bother to prepare me for this. But despite there are a few things that look like a bug - the game itself is quite good. It is not very solid and storytelling is not that smooth, the puzzles are not very hard, and your choices are not of immediate consequence to the plot, true. Still somehow it made me finish it in one sitting (mind you, it's not short, it took me around 6 hours), plus as there are different ways to solve the chapters depending on which companions you take with you - I'm sure I'll return to replay it with different choices some day. Also maybe I can find a better ending than the ones I saw - both were, well, a letdown if not disappointment. To sum up, the game COULD be better but it is GOOD anyway. If you enjoyed Blackwell series - it's more or less an expanded universe so be sure to try it out. PS I expected some kind of achievements system to see how fully I have explored the game but there is no such thing here. Why? Maybe I just missed it somehow?..
Short as all the recent indie adventures, highly pixelated graphics, simple puzzles and many puns, and a known bug to add some taste of old times. Not much depth to the heroes and little to no backstory, but I hope the guys are just warming up to drop a really hot indie paranormal-themed adventure.
This game combines a good captivating story with lots of witty dialogue and humorous (mostly gaming) references with very flawed execution. Short version: 3/5 for impelementation, 5/5 for storytelling - giving 4 stars overall. Don't expect it to be smooth ride but after the first boss things just keep getting better and better - well, at least if you liked The Bard's Tale (2004) you'll get the same laugh here. It has technical quirks (had to disable GLSL in my Wine settings to make it work), awful game menu, annoying sound and no way to change the mixer settings, disappointing world map, irritating controls, poor balance, cursed camera, linear level design with damn invisible walls everywhere, no voice-over and lots and lots of text to read - indie product to the bone. I almost gave it up at the first boss - there were not much to feed on before facing him so it took me, like, fifty tries. I constantly got dizzy on the world map. I suddenly levelled to the max with around one third of a game in front of me so encounters on the world map became quite a nuisance (no loot to mention and wasted time). But the story told was so exciting that I just had to adjust to the indie-game hell and just keep playing it till the very end. However I don't imagine I'd want to replay the game - it's linear and, well, not much chance to miss a sidequest as the game world is rather small. PS After completing the game a funny thought came to me: game quirkiness also adds to its charm - at least when the developers fix the things it would be more of a letdown.
The game is a decent entry in the series but compared to the first one is noticeably less inventive. There are still loads of references to other games, witty dialogue, interesting story, and good humour. A fat "but" is - it's all stretched too thin. Having many locations is good but it means a lot of pointless travel to find a missed clue, and more importantly - less depth. Many items mean you have to carry loads of seamingly useless stuff and often resort to trying random combinations in your inventory. Many playable characters... Well, same thing here, though Wilbur becomes the main character the other ones are too shallow, and only one or two puzzles need more than one character to solve them. Many puzzles unfortunately mean that most of them need trial and error to solve - you just have to travel over a location to find out that NPCs get a new line of dialog after you try something, and suddenly there is another way to combine things after your previous attempt failed. I grew tired of this process twice or thrice and resorted to looking up a walkthrough rather then mechanically check locations and NPC for new options. Also you'll need to walk to a precise point on screen to get a view of a few items you need - sometimes they are covered by other objects or placed outside the visible area. Making large and diverse world also means less testing - at one point you find Critter in two places at the same time, nothing game-breaking but disappointing a bit. Also Linux version contain a few obvious bugs - e.g., it won't let you to pick up a secondary clue (not hangs completely, you can still exit and reload but you lose some progress if you are not prepared, and one achievement cannot be unlocked because of this bug). Personally I didn't much like the ending - it points to a possible sequel but I see it a dead-end rather than intended cliffhanger. Still the game is very decent and well-made, a good buy - and a must for those who like the series.
Game's story is a decent and mostly interesting one, gameplay is pretty standard and linear. Puzzles are rather simple (did not use the hint system at all) but usually logical (with a few exceptions when guesswork is the best approach, and a few places when you cannot take an object in plain sight until you find out you need it much later and have to walk back to get it). There are also a few timed ones which I personally hate. But the game is far too long for its budget - there are many places not worth drawing at all (walking the dungeons, for example, is rather boring and looks incomplete - the characters remain stationary so you just pixel-hunt for an exit), and most animations looks VERY strange - it seems that most of the guys have extreme scoliosis and limp, and let's not mention facial expressions. To sum up, if 25% of content was cut from the game and around 40% was cut from the price - it would be perfect balance. If it is a first episode in series I truly hope the developers make enough money to improve their animation skills.
Fond of small Flash-based quests? This one is just for you. Simple and funny, an evening well spent.
