I played the Earth 2150 games back in the day, and absolutely loved the 3D graphics, overlooked the cringe-worthy cut-scenes, and spent way too long playing multiplayer with friends. Seeing the sequel on GOG, I decided to take a punt. It's not like the originals. The 3D graphics is fancier -- that's the best part. The controls are poor and confusing. The missions are tedious. There are too many scripted sections that you trigger by entering an area, etc. I got bored very quickly and gave up. Unless you're a die-hard RTS fan, look elsewhere.
There's no denying that DotT is a classic game. This conversion honours the original well. The updated graphics are pleasant, and in-keeping with the original style. (Unlike other conversions *cough* Monkey Island *cough* :) And there's where it fails. This isn't as bad as the Sierra "look both ways before you cross" situation, in that you can't die, but it's not Broken Sword level of puzzle design. The original really wasn't that great. The puzzles often don't make sense -- or, if they do, something prevents you because of some arbitrary constraint. Then there's the humour. Yeah. It really misses the mark. I got bored about 2/3 through, and ended up using a walkthrough just to have the satisfaction of seeing the ending. I appreciate that my view goes against the grain. I just can't see this standing up to modern point and click adventures. Ignore it unless you want a dose of nostalgia.
There's certainly a lot of promise in the start of the game. Then you start to play... The puzzles are often confusing. They're not difficult, in the sense that you have to think hard about them, but they are frustrating in that they don't relate to anything in the story or levels. It's like those mobile games where you have to solve a sliding grid puzzle to open a door. Why would a door have that on it? The most frustrating part of all, though, are the controls. There were puzzles where I *knew* what the solution was, but I couldn't get the controls to co-operate. The camera controls seem to be designed to troll the user. Objects are often off screen. The cog icon (to indicate an interactive object) appears in the wrong place. Selecting one of the three sub objects (take, examine, zoom in) randomly fails. There are plenty of little bugs. Text layers on books doing z-fighting with the paper. Clicking fails to be recognised. Save game restores you to a random previous point. The last puzzle (a *massive* minesweeper) took the biscuit. Some of the grid cells became unclickable. Solution? Restart the game from that point. The "big reveal" is neither big nor any kind of revelation. There is no mind-bending paradox. Look elsewhere for good puzzle games.
The world is going to end because of climate change. Travellers from the future are here to convince the protagonist to continue his research into algae-based energy technology. Except not really. I loved the cartoon comic style of presenting story interludes. The feeling of the puzzles is much closer to an "escape room" game. You finish one puzzle (or couple of them) in a scene, and then you move to the next scene. There's little tying things together. Puzzles are unrelated to the story, have bizarre solutions. The story is, at times, terrible. The twist is predictable. The voice acting is toneless and void of emotion. There's a good game in there, trying to get out. That all said, I mostly enjoyed playing it, and it's still worth considering when it's on sale.
This is a solid, classic-style point and click adventure game. A sensible plot, some good characters, and almost all the puzzles are logical. It was long enough to keep me entertained without getting bored. The points at which you discover lost chapters of a book are fun -- you get to play a different character in a different world. The ending is very odd -- disturbing, in fact. I wasn't really sure what to make of it. Some of the voice acting was lacking emotion. Some of the art style was inconsistent. I suppose that's the polish that makes the difference between good and great. Recommended.
I vividly remember playing Flashback back in the 1990s -- the excitement of postal orders, installing from floppy disks, the tracker music, the amazing animation. Fortunately, this conversion retains the original game. There's no "upgraded" graphics to annoy you. No "director's cut" of extra level segments. The original is there, warts and all. The game is quite short. As an adult, it's definitely more linear and straightforward than I remember. The conversion is adequate. The faux-CRT filters are, as others point out, completely optional. The bloom filter has a nasty tendency to turn itself back on. The biggest let-downs are the music and the controls. The music appears to be some MIDI files, probably from the Genesis version (?), rather than the amazing Amiga tracker files. The controls are not configurable -- annoying, since I'm too used to WASD these days. Of course, they could've done a Linux build too, given it uses Unity (AFAICT). All in all, it's definitely worth buying, especially when it hits sale.
Leaving the spaceship and walking on the alien planet -- with the open sky, the strange animals, and atmospheric music -- still gives me chills to this day. Sure, the story-telling is very linear, the 3D environments aren't up to modern standards (though they haven't aged as badly as other games), and there is a fair amount of scripting... but this is a classic. The use of lighting, enemies that react to your attacks (rather than just running at you), and huge open spaces - these were what set it apart in its day. Ignore the expansion pack - Return to Na Pali - since this is just the rejected levels from the original development with some terrible voice acting.
A proper modern classic take on the point and click genre. Only negative was the mildly disappointing ending. Totally recommended.
As other reviews point out, this is much more than a Myst-style game. There's a semblance of a plot. There are plenty of puzzles, ranging from inventory (finding objects from other parts of the map) to logic. This is what Obduction or The Witness could have been. You slowly unlock areas of the map - a nice touch - limiting what would otherwise be futile exploration. Around half way through, you end up in another zone. Occasionally, I felt lost because I missed / forgot a detail from a place quite far away in the map. This meant I resorted to a walkthrough for one or two pieces. One or two puzzles were frustrating, mainly because you have to set something up in one place, walk over to another, and check the result. That didn't detract, however, from a very enjoyable time playing the game. Definitely recommended.
![Event[0]](https://images.gog-statics.com/d4896b846c2d4ce873108363f48b2cd1496dc5abf27e35dbcd16e1d0d4e746f2.jpg)
Event[0] is an exploration / adventure game. There are a few puzzles, none of which is difficult, save for the issue of having to second-guess the designers. I played through to the last puzzle, only to find the final note (with a randomly generated code) had floated off into a wall - dodgy physics, anyone? I couldn't be bothered to replay to watch the ending scenes. The graphics engine does struggle a fair bit - may be a problem with a lack of optimisation? Received this free with another game on promotion. I wouldn't have paid for it otherwise.
