is your best friend. Because this game has an infuriating habit of placing endless, seemingly unstoppable cutscenes right between your last save and a very difficult section. Backspace let's you skip them. Apart from that, some confusion on what you need to do next and a lot of running around searching, a really nice horrific Lovecraft experience.
I didn't expect much and was pleasantly surprised. The story and side missions are okay and provide occasional chuckles, the main character is a classic 80s action hero (voice of Bruce Willis in the german version) with a hard shell and golden heart, the voices and dialogues are really neat, ammunition lies around behind rocks und in corners (like it did in the old days) which makes exploration vital and fun. Combat feels like a puzzle-ballet, worked for me but might not be for everyone. The camera is a bit erratic. All in all, I had a lot of fun.
While it at first seems rather pointless to move such a big vessel around, burning lots of energy to gain a few meters, I sort of grew attached to it after a while, got used to it's rhythms and was a little sad to watch it go at the end. So ... success for this game. :)
... in fact so much so, that you consume the torch in your hand while resting. Also, your "Goodberry" spell will not trigger while travelling if you do not remember to put your weapons away after an encounter, to have a hand free for casting. And once you're on the move, there is no possibility to change handheld items ... The last time I encountered this level of micromanaging stupidity must have been 30 years ago. Apart from that: familiar DnD 5e rules, nice tactical fights, not much of a story, no roleplay.
... except walking, very slowly. The atmosphere is empty-hotel-good. It gets a bit scary at times, but nothing too bad. The story is okay, but nothing great. In the end it does'nt even make too much sense, and it's absolutely linear and gets shoved in your face without you participating much. There is almost no feeling of exploration. Which is a killer for this type of game. It goes like this: You listen to them talking on the phone, then you head to that one place which drives the story fowards but get lost in the corridors on the way, find other, probably story-relevant things that you cannot yet interact with, find a lot of things you can pick up and look at, which you do, because the game told you to keep close watch, but you soon find out that absolutely nothing is to be found out about all these packs of cigarettes lying around ... and after arriving at the right spot, you listen again. Very disappointing.
The game is dated, no doubt about that. But good stories do not age, and as long as you can ignore the graphics and focus on listening to the superb speakers, you will have a real good time in not so cosy part of Aventuria.
