First things first ... overall the main game was a better experience for me, as the story was more elaborated, but I had a lot of fun with this game too The setting this time is one big tower, no outside areals. One good aspect is that you don't notice the small budget that easily. Not having too much freedom tightens the action, you follow your path no matter what, the progression is completely linear, except in a few civilian areas. Exploring is good for the much wanted XP for abilities. I recommend filling up the bottom bar of your abilities first, as it gives you a nice 30% boost in the end. The auto saves are still a weak point. You might lose quite some progress when you turn off the game. Check the load page to see when the last one was created. The game is not bug free. In an earlier version at some point I was not able to pick up new weapons. Two random bugs in the current version are critical: a) in two cases, an enemy was "inactive", could not be attacked or killed b) a door was unlocked as a I progressed, but instead of walking through it, I went back to grab a healthpack first. When I returned, it was locked again and could not be opened. In both cases I had to restart from the checkpoint.
I had never heared of this game before, when it camt to GOG I just bought it because it was a point & click adventure and looked nice enough. And it's very well done. Animations are perfectly smooth, the controls are good. The pictures don't show how well the visuals are done. You have parallax movement of different layers, when the camera zooms in, objects in the foreground get moved at a different speed. There's a lot of love for details in thhis game. The puzzles are rather easy, most of the time there is not much doubt on what to do next. There are a few combination lock, pathfinder and number puzzles, but none of them will drain your brain capacities. The story is not all too out-of-the-box, pretty much what you would expect, but it's well written. I really love the characters on the Alien planet, especially the one with the crashed ship. The antagonist characters sadly don't hold up to these in comparison however, especially visually, they are all too abstract, but that's just first world complainng. The game has some nice references to 90s pop culture, but doesn't rely on it, just a small hommage now and then. go get it
... but intense I finished the game the other day and it was quite alright. It's not the best p&c adventure I have played this year, but it's a solid one. The riddles are never unfair, you get plenty of hints on how to get through a certain situation. Most riddles are limited to one or two locations, only a few require you to run around and grab stuff. It's less of a "combine A with B and see what happens" game, instead most of the story progress comes from talking to people or finding clues. There are a few number puzzles, which are not all too difficult to solve. But you actually need to read the hints in the game, like dates or what part of a code uses what as references, Kathy won't tell you that. She only confirms that you did the right thing, but she hardly ever says what you are missing. I withed it was a bit longer though. Or maybe it just does not feel as long as similar games, BECAUSE it was so straight forward to solve. The two games - especially this second one - give the feeling that we are talking about a series here, but it's really just two games and even the two cases are connected. More of this please, also with storylines not related to what was going on in the first game. The OST is ok. Nothing out of the ordinary, but solid.
... but intense I finished the game the other day and it was quite alright. It's not the best p&c adventure I have played this year, but it's a solid one. The riddles are never unfair, you get plenty of hints on how to get through a certain situation. Most riddles are limited to one or two locations, only a few require you to run around and grab stuff. It's less of a "combine A with B and see what happens" game, instead most of the story progress comes from talking to people or finding clues. There are a few number puzzles, which are not all too difficult to solve. But you actually need to read the hints in the game, like dates or what part of a code uses what as references, Kathy won't tell you that. She only confirms that you did the right thing, but she hardly ever says what you are missing. I withed it was a bit longer though. Or maybe it just does not feel as long as similar games, BECAUSE it was so straight forward to solve. The two games - especially this second one - give the feeling that we are talking about a series here, but it's really just two games and even the two cases are connected. More of this please, also with storylines not related to what was going on in the first game.
...after all you are a time traveller and know how history is supposed to go. The archive is never wrong. Wadjedeye made a successful transition from low res pixelart to high res. The story is good, controls solid, the puzzles never too unfair. Everything can be found out with trying a few things. The engine has a few technical difficulties, I managed to have dialog choices that triggered after a short cut scene displayed over the games main menu. But usually you should not have any problems. The idea of a tutorial, the PFG and how that pistol worked was ok, storywise it made little sense. Fia had been on the job for over 10 years, and in that time never had any experience how they worked? Nah, doesn't mix. But that's just minor points, from a player perspective it was ok. What I did miss in the storytelling, was that no one ever questioned why Imani kept ending up in dangerous situations. Sure there was that imminent thread, but what caused her to be there in the first place? In an earlier history version she wasn't, also the paintings were in different locations throughout history. It would have made more sense trying to find out what caused the change and maybe also add a little story arc why Fia ended up with that family over the years over and over again. And somehow I expected a time traveller being responsible for the hits in the 2000s, the hitmen were told who would be where and when. Maybe a sequel is incoming? If it keeps up with the quality of this game ... more of it please! ps: Noz better make sure that the museum is put under protection.
