This is the best game of 2021 and probably one of my all-time favourites. It's a good roguelike deck builder in its own right with an incredible vibe, but unlike Slay the Spire and friends, this game isn't just about doing runs and increasing difficulty. It has a story going on in the background. As you play, things will happen, which will take the game in a direction you can't imagine. Try to go in unspoiled. The other reviews here are pretty spoilery. Just know that some people didn't like the direction the game takes. I think it was up and down but I was so hooked just imagining what the next twist could be. HOWEVER. GOG customers got screwed here. Firstly, there is no cloud saving with GOG Galaxy, which you might or might not care about. Secondly, they have actually released a free DLC which makes an endless roguelike mode, but as of writing, it is exclusive to Steam. (It's been in "beta" for over two months, and will apparently be released on all stores eventually.) In the meantime, Steam users are having a blast with regular content patches and everyone on Reddit is discussing the ongoing evolution of this game, while GOG (and Epic) customers sit on the sidelines waiting for it to be "finished". Yes it is free content that we were never promised in the first place. But I don't appreciate having major content withheld for months because of which store I bought the game from. 5 stars for the base game, -2 stars for Steam-exclusive DLC. I will update my review if and when the DLC comes to GOG.
ITB has quickly become one of my favourite things to do if I have a few spare minutes, or an hour. It's been (rightly) described as an "infinite chess puzzle generator", with each turn creating an interesting situation for you to think through. Due to the asymmetric nature of the game, the enemies have the strength in numbers, but you have the ability to perfectly plan where your attacks and theirs will land. There's nothing more satisfying than being faced with a seemingly unwinnable (or drastically dire) situation, and after 10 minutes of deep consideration, executing a perfect plan that leaves your mechs and buildings unscathed. (Most turns will take just a minute, but players keen to squeeze the most out of each turn will find an occasional long pause for thought.) The upgrade system is not as interesting as FTL, since all the mech squads are already outfitted with their "main" combo weapons, and any new weapons you find are likely to have no synergy with the squad. So generally over the course of a game, you will just be pumping up your stats, and executing the same strategies throughout. I didn't find this an issue, since there is so much variety in the missions, and there are 10 squads to play through (so you'll have at least 10 totally unique runs through the game). The best thing is, it starts up super quick and you can save mid-battle, so if you only have a few free minutes, you can load it up, take one or two turns, then quit.
This is a point-and-click adventure, so maybe won't be your cup of tea if you didn't enjoy Monkey Island and the like. But it means this game is all about the story. I was skeptical at first, but having played through it, I consider this to be a fitting follow-up to the films. (Note that Bob Gale, the writer/ producer of the films was a consultant on the game.) It is deeply respectful of the characters and locations, but is not afraid to add major new characters, reveal heaps of new details about existing characters, and of course make major changes to the timeline. (Remember 1985A? By the end of this game I think we're up to 1985F or something close!) Set primarily in the 1930s, the game introduces us to a young Emmit Brown, in his 20s, struggling between a career in science and a career in law. We also get to meet Artie McFly, Marty's grandfather, which means we can now trace the McFly line all the way back to Seamus. (One nice thing about this story, being set a bit earlier than the 50s, is that it actually makes the third movie a bit more relevant.) But we also spend a lot of time with old Doc Brown, who is voiced by Christopher Lloyd and doesn't sound a bit different from the films. There is even a cameo by Michael J. Fox (who was unable to voice Marty, but his replacement is excellent). There are of course heaps of references throughout to various events from the movie, and little gags that dedicated fans will enjoy. The puzzles are pretty easy and generally involve inventory manipulation, which is fine with me -- this game is all about the story, not the challenge. The only real downside is Telltale's usual low production values -- reusing models for generic characters, a handful of glitches and a few typos. :-) But nothing serious. Overall, this game is amazing, and is required reading for any fan of Back to the Future.
Activision nailed the perfect Zork game. Destined to be the last true Zork game, it's very different in tone to the previous ones. They always had a quirky sense of humour, but this is the only one that's truly a comedy. While it certainly has parody elements, I would call it a comedy, not a parody. If you've played Zork Nemesis, this is nothing like that. If you haven't played a Zork game before, don't worry -- it works well as a stand-alone game. Zork Grand Inquisitor is also a very well-designed adventure game. The story is well thought-out and well told, and in my opinion, the game gets better as it goes along. Unlike many (most?) adventure games, the ending doesn't disappoint -- it keeps it up right until the last moment. Gameplay is pretty standard first-person adventuring: solve puzzles, unlock new places, find items, and use them in the right places. No getting stuck, but there are quite a few ways to die (which usually results in a humorous text screen explaining your death -- it is highly worthwhile to try and die as many ways as you can!) The real trick with this game is spells. Early in the game, you are given a spellbook, and you spend the rest of the game collecting fifteen magic spells. Once you have a spell, you can use it as many times as you like, and a lot of the puzzles are about using the right spells in the right places. The spells are often hilarious: spells include "create a bridge over a body of water," "untie knots," "make caster more attractive to other creatures," and "turn purple things invisible." They also produce some hilarious results: in one scene, you encounter a six-armed invisible bridge guard, and if you try to cast "turn purple things invisible" on him, he proclaims, "how do you think I got this way in the first place?" Gameplay gets really interesting later on, when you have the opportunity to play as three different characters for a short part of the game. The characters are also fun. The game has lots of characters, some played by actors, some computer generated. The Grand Inquisitor (Erick Avari) and Antharia Jack (Dirk Benedict) play up the humour. There's also your constant companion, the Dungeon Master (a spirit trapped in a magic lamp), played by Michael McKean of Spinal Tap fame. You carry him around the whole game, and he constantly gives you hints and makes jokes. This makes the game feel less lonely, but it can get annoying having him constantly try to crack jokes which are often not very funny. That's the one weak part of the game. Other classic characters include a quarter-witted brogmoid who eats rocks, a mythical goatfish, a bickering torch, and a walking castle. A brilliant comedy adventure game that is genuinely funny (mostly), and extremely well-designed, this is absolutely the best game in the series.
Having never played King's Quest before I found it on GOG, I must say that even twenty-seven years on, these games are quite enjoyable -- BUT entirely unforgiving. I don't understand how anybody beat them without a walkthrough. You constantly need to save because you die every minute, but you can also very easily realise that you've made the game impossible and just saved over your last "good" save. The most enjoyable way to experience it is to get a walkthrough. Try to work out puzzles on your own, make your own maps, etc, but always consult the walkthrough to make sure you did the right thing and haven't made the game impossible. Once you get used to punishment, the game is a great retro experience. The story is fairly childish; based mostly on fairy tales, but there's something cool about it that makes you want to keep going. The first two games feature Sir Graham's adventures to become king and find a queen. The third game is completely separate; it starts in a far-away land with the player controlling a slave boy, Gwydion, but ends up connecting back to the main story. The third game was therefore less interesting to begin with, but after playing through it was the most exciting. I am looking forward to continuing with the remaining five games, also available on GOG.
I bought this on GOG not really having heard about it, so I definitely have a modern perspective on this game. I thought the game was so cheesy at first, especially having seen the intro, but it looked fun so I kept going. The more I played, the more interested I became, and the more seriously I took the game. By the end, I was really looking forward to seeing what happened, both to the characters in the "flashback" scenes as well as the modern-day hero. The game is divided into seven days, in which the player character, Adrienne, explores her new haunted mansion and the nearby village. We soon learn about the previous owner of the mansion, a magician named Carno, mostly through newspaper articles and flashback scenes. It pulls out all the horror cliches, but it is still fun to explore and discover the history of the place. There are some truly horrifying flashback scenes and also two sex scenes, so the game is certainly not for minors. The puzzles are fairly basic, mostly consisting of finding the right items to use in the right places. The game has an annoying habit of having one event trigger an unrelated event (e.g., talking to a person in town causes someone at home to move to another room) -- it means you spend a lot of time just trying out everything to cause the game to progress. But the story and the sense of exploration are what you get out of this game, not the puzzles. The graphics have not aged well. The game looks pretty bad, and it sounds even worse. It seems to have been recorded in a small room as all the dialogue echoes even when it's outdoors. But these are just aesthetic things that you get used to. Lastly, the final chapter is amazing and completely different to the rest of the game; sadly it is very buggy and I can only recommend that you SAVE and BACK UP YOUR SAVED GAME as the game can deliberately delete your saved games, then bug up and become impossible to finish. I really enjoyed playing this game, despite its many flaws. It's a pity that I didn't play it back in the day, when it would have been technologically much more impressive (but then I would have been far too young).
