This is a modern game in the form of a classic RTS. There's no ultra configurability (like in Earth 2150 or Warzone 2100), no real plot, no story-telling, no tactical "precision strike" missions, or whatever. But what you /do/ get is buckets of fun blowing things up. There is the occasional annoyance - the units require quite a bit of micromanagement, there's no real warning that units or buildings are under attack, and the isometric perspective hides some smaller units. Playing through on the 'easy' mode will mean you can win by flooding the enemy with lots of units. Do that on 'hard' mode, and you'll lose - it takes a little more strategy (but not too much). Definitely worth getting, especially on sale.
I both love and hate The Witness in equal measure. The design, artwork, environment, and "feel" are all excellent - truly a masterpiece. The way it teaches the puzzles, without having to resort to words, is well thought through, even if the puzzles do end up getting somewhat repetitive and tiresome. But the pretentiousness... I can't begin to describe how I hate the game for it. The cage ending and the video ending treat the player with equal contempt. If you want to push a mystical (pseudo-Buddhist) view - sure, go ahead, but don't mix that with a game concept like this. I don't regret the first 50-75% of the time I spent playing the game. I was in awe of the concept. I regret having worked out the "point" of the game, because that spoiled it for me. For another game with a similarly immersive feel, but with some plot, go for Quern.
Another great Wadjet Eye game. The switch between real-life and the "Trance" gives an interesting element, and another way of solving puzzles. Only one or two of the puzzles were tricky - mostly because they relied on timing and/or spotting something obscure object to click on.
I'm a big fan of Agatha Christie's work - in particular, Poirot. I'm also a big fan of point-and-click adventure games. However, this one, despite plenty of ingredients that ought to make it work, fails to deliver. The 3D animation looks stylish at first glance. After a moment, though, and you'll see the wooden character animations, some really shoddy textures, and some very odd rendering glitches. It also seems highly unoptimized - on a fast PC, it's really struggling to keep up the frame-rate. The story is lifted from the novel of the same name; if you've read it, you'll know the twist already. Sadly, this twist is so obviously rammed in your face as you play this game that it loses any of the Christie 'magic'. The game itself is mostly composed of shifting from one scene to another, trying to solve puzzles that are wholly unrelated to the plot. For example, there are puzzle boxes that require a number of steps to unlock. Annoyingly, it's never really clear whether you have all the inventory items to complete a puzzle. The funniest bit, by far, is the voice acting. Those of us who grew up with David Suchet's portrayal are in for a nasty shock - the Belgian accent is lumpy, inconsistent, and almost mocking. It's the other characters, especially Hastings, who are the funniest: it's almost as if the actors were trying to impersonate a robot, but badly. Towards two-thirds through, my enjoyment dropped to about zero, and only finished it for a sense of closure. On sale, this game might give a couple of hours of entertainment.; at full price, avoid.
Positive: Interesting premise; innovative features, such as like four separate characters, the "memory" feature. Negative: Becomes tedious very quickly. With so many items of inventory, four characters, two groups of memories per character, it can be very difficult to guess what the designers had in mind as the solution to each puzzle. Plus, some of the puzzles have very little logic behind them - why does one door in the hospital have cell phone reception? How was I meant to guess that? Many of the other Wadjet Eye games are excellent; go for Blackwell or Gemini Rue instead.
I remember this game coming out, but never got a chance to play until recently. Unlike a number of classic point and click games of this era, The Dig is very much of its time - the entire game seems to be a showcase for the technology. Game-play takes a definite backseat to the "atmospheric". I ended up getting out the walkthrough to avoid endless journeys from one side of the map to the other. Only recommended for those who wish to engage in nostalgia.
