I enjoyed this one; it continued the style and story of the first game. It definitely had trickier puzzles than the first. The art was great again but understandably bleak due to the Siberian setting. I agree the "back home" subplot was ultimately pointless compared to the first game but the last act of the game was still a whimsical tear jerker.
I was pretty impressed with this game having never played any of the point and click games during the genres dying days of the early 2000s. Its Art Nouveau/clockpunk style is an interesting contrast to Grim Fandango's Art Deco/noir style. There's also just something about the pre-rendered backgrounds that still holds up in the way it was able to frame perspective, as opposed to today's live 3D rendering and moving camera that just seems too busy sometimes. The story for the most part is a kind of "cozy mystery" with bits of humor which is a nice change of pace. Characters and their development are pretty sparse but I thought the dialogue and voice acting was good for an independent release at the time. The puzzles are fairly simplistic and unfortunately if you get stuck at a certain point it's because you haven't explored all areas or found an item/talked to someone again rather than any puzzle being difficult. This was however a problem with the genre in general especially with the pre-rendered backgrounds.
As a fan of the MacVenture games I was really impressed with this. Updated puzzles, added lore, graphics, and voice acting but it still feels like Shadowgate. On top of that it comes with tutorials/tips and different levels of difficult which makes it more accessible to new gamers. Again, the game is short and linear with a decent amount of "lateral thinking" puzzles, but that was part of the original game experience too which is way I say it's a great example of a remaster. I'm just surprised this flew under the radar for me and I didn't know about it until it was on sale during Halloween. I really hope the creators do Deja Vu and Uninvited.
Gotta say I was pleasantly surprised by the game. I hadn't read the books or played any of the games but finally gave this a shot when it came free with Gwent on here. I'm not sure how much the Enhanced Edition added to the original but the game is impressive considering it came out of a small studio adapting a fantasy series that wasn't even translated to English until 2007. The game definitely has a Bioware feel with the engine but I find with a few mods everything holds up and the voice acting quality is good as well. Things like the chapter based story/maps and fighting mechanics may seem a little quaint but in the time of fetch quests and huge empty open worlds the simplified inventory system is a breath of fresh air. The potion crafting has just enough complexity to stay interesting and you can set the difficulty levels to make potions more or less essential. The game probably got overshadowed due to games like Oblivion, Mass Effect, Bioshock, and Dragon Age coming out in the same three year span but that doesn't make it any less impressive.
