It's a nice-enough looking adventure game despite its age, and some dynamic sequences actually look and play pretty cool. Dynamedion's music is dependable as always, if unspectacular, and the adventure narrative is... well, by the numbers, but perfectly passable. But whatever else this game might have going for it, it could never surmount being headed by the most uncharismatic protagonist I can recall in looks, personality, dialogue and voice acting in both the original German and English. Add to that the simplicity of most of its puzzles, the wonky controls and the poorly translated dialogue, and it just doesn't make for a good game. Also, it didn't make me chuckle a single time (for all its self-effacing and trite jabs at German lack of sense of humor) and the only smile to be had was when I recognized Captain Rottingham's voice (of Monkey Island fame). It's just not good enough to make you laugh for the right reasons, and not even bad enough for the wrong ones. And that's a no-no for an ostensibly comedy adventure game.
Played the main game way back in 2010 and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Figured an expansion would bring a new gloss and shine to an enjoyable experience, but boy was I wrong. The main game is a pretty solid experience now after all the patching and fine-tuning, but this expansion does nothing but shove a bevy of clipping, sound glitches, mistranslated items, silent cutscenes and buggy quests into it. It also doesn't help that the GOG version of Two Worlds hasn't been updated to its HD edition, as in other platforms. Call of the Tenebrae just isn't a good expansion. Empty expanses of scenery, linear dungeons stocked with the same critters, anachronistic and excessively referential humor, and a healthy helping of "more of the same" that just isn't enough. Besides, enjoyable as the main game is, the plot never was its forte, so even knowing how the characters' story progresses isn't much of an incentive. I was honestly ready to like this, but left very much disappointed.
It's a definite step up from its predecessor, but feels much more limited and streamlined than the first two iterations of the series. And, for all its vaunted return to 2.5D, it does feel like a visual step down, with graphical elements like water effects (the ones you control in puzzles, at least) suffering from a noticeable downgrade. That being said, Trine 4 is a most entertaining game, gorgeous to look at, a delight to listen to and always fun to play. The story won't win it any awards, but it bears the series' hallmark fairy tale-like charm and keeps things moving at a brisk pace from checkpoint to checkpoint, all towards a satisfying ending that leaves you waiting but not desperately wanting for a fifth chapter.
Like an unclaimed junk heap, it has its rough edges and smells a bit in some parts. But, underneath it all, you find an unpolished diamond of a game. It will make you laugh with its special brand of German humor, scratch your head with some reeeeeeal lateral thinking puzzle-solving, and curse like a sailor at the crappy visual cues for some puzzles, which will probably make you consult a walkthrough. Another satisfying chapter in the Deponia series. Looking forward to playing the third iteration.
Deponia had a weird start. The nicely done and colorful art is eye-catching, but the cheap animation and occasional visual glitches gave it an almost amateurish veneer. The character seemed unlikeable to the point of being obnoxious, and the poor (or at times inexistent) visual cues made some puzzles harder than they had to be, to the point of unfairness on occasion. But then, as you play along, you can't help but be sucked into this quirky, whimsical world. German humor is a breed of its own, may not be to everyone's tastes due to its bluntness, and it almost certainly does not carry across in English, as it often depends on linguistic intricacies. But I'll be damned if this game didn't make me laugh quite often. Frequently at the most inopportune or unexpected moments. I will say one thing, though, which is more of a peeve than anything else: If every other sentence, bon mot or interjection is in English, why don't the developers simply make a game in English and do without the cost of German voice acting? The music is very appropriate to the setting, eclectic and eccentric, and the story told therein is relatable and sincere in its aspirations, and prevents the main character of Rufus from sinking into the gratuitous obnoxiousness he seemed destined to. Looking forward to seeing how he develops further in the next installments. Also, some reviews here are borderline maliciously misleading. This story does have an end: It just so happens to be one that screams *sequel!*
...but it certainly points to a glaring amount of flaws that simply cannot be overlooked, such as the cutscenes. God, those look abominable. Absolutely amateurish, as are the shortcuts used via narration whenever the developers opted (or couldn't afford to) have any, where you get overacted narration that just screams "low budget!" at the top of its lungs. The English voice acting ranges from barely acceptable to awkward, and the puzzles start out nicely, with an internal logic that actually makes sense and you easily get the hang of, but towards the end occasionally veer into borderline unfairness that can only be solved via brute force. And too many of the characters you interact with just aren't interesting, and I couldn't bring myself to care hearing their life stories. Also, the injection of a sense of drama, when the player is supposed to believe a character died, fails spectacularly, as does the main character's "oh, well, I'll just carry on, then" attitude. Those are pretty egregious faults, and one simply cannot bring himself to overlook them, no matter how much one loves P&C adventures and is willing to acknowledge the developers' passion. And Runaway was clearly made by passionate people who love a genre that was dying when this game first came out. Even with its limitations, it has charm, some nice and unexpected touches in detail, and you can't help but be drawn into the nonsensical world of the adventure it displays. Runaway just didn't earn an average score from me, but it did earn enough goodwill with the effort and got me curious to see how the developers fared in the subsequent iterations, as it has all the makings of a good P&C game.
I first played this one over fifteen years ago, and decided to fire it up again to finish the rest of the campaigns. This is one of those rare timeless games that remain as addictive today as they did when first released. Easy to learn, tough to master, as stated by a reviewer above, it sucks you into its dark fantasy world and just refuses to let go. The art direction is right there at the top of the RTS genre, with graphics that don't feel dated in the least, the soundtrack has a mixture of moody ambient tracks mixed with pulse pounding battle music, and the sound design is excellent, doing a lasting job of giving each individual unit its own personality. By 'lasting', I mean that some voice effects stuck to me to this day, believe it or not. Each individual campaign has an interesting story, and some can be quite difficult, but never unfairly so and always satisfying in the end. Shame that the expansions (included in this GOG version) are so grind-y, serve just as an excuse for you to actually use your higher-level units and have absolutely zero strategy behind them. But that in no way detracts from the overall score. Disciples 2 is a gem of a game, gorgeous to look at and constantly giving you an excuse to press that "End Turn" button *just* one more time.
Critter Chronicles looks good, plays well, and is quite funny in places. But it feels weirdly tacked on between the first and second chapters of the series, and more than a bit uninspired in at least two chapters. Things really pick up in the fourth chapter in the tower of wizardry, with well thought-out and original puzzles and an actually magical setting, as opposed to the drab sci-fi-lite hybrid you have to go through to get there. Much like in BOUT, there is the annoyance of having to wait for the characters to figuratively hide in a corner when you switch them (it's much more convenient to double-click an exit and then click the other character's portrait), and idle animations are always played to completion, even when you've told the character to perform an action. Other than that, nothing to report on the technical side, which is good, considering the game-breaking bugs in the other two chapters of this series. You'll get some 8 leisurely played hours out of this, and probably enjoy the ride along the expressive and charismatic characters, but it't one one to get at full price, definitely.
