SyabH is a fantastic game, as long as you accept the fact that you are not supposed to run around shooting everything in sight. It is a game rewarding a slow, thoughtful approach to problems,(hopefully not followed by a panicked run to the next forest whilst hounds close in and you are getting shot at by viciously posh robots.) You CAN lower the difficulty by selecting "better" equipment at the start, and depending on what kind of resources you find the game might range from insane to walk in a dark and frightening park, but it is never going to be really easy The graphics are stylised but work very well to convey the atmosphere of an idealized british landscape. The soundscape fits the mood perfectly too. The robots are both funny in their behaviour and scary in their relentlessness and the general mood of the game is akin to being in an episode of The Avengers (Emma Peel/John Steed, NOT Thor/Loki) or Twillight Zone (nothing to do with sparkly vampires:P The main point of criticism I can offer is that you can not enter buildings, but, to be honest, it doesn't detract from the great gameplay. (disclaimer : I bought it while it was in beta, and not here)
I had not heard about this game before GOG put it on sale, so I went in more or less expectation free. Consortium is a real treat, often reminding me of playing Deus Ex (the original with the very low polygon count. Also available on GOG) when it first came out : there is an actually interesting storyline through which you are propelled without ever really feeling "on rails" (something I felt and hated in Deus Ex -- Human Revolution). The cut scenes are unobstrusive and well voiced. The characters are actually interesting, not least thanks to one of the best dialogue tree/system I've ever encountered in a video game (the time limit for your answer/choice combined with a "stay silent" option is pure genius). The game also comes with tons of extra "superfluous" information which definitely help fleshing out the world (And makes you wish the developer will be able to do all three parts and some spin-off afterward). The bad is that the engine can be a bit rough around the edges : as others have noted, the combat is not particularly good. Additionally I ran into a couple of minor bugs (dialogues being triggered a bit late, NPCs blocking doorways and forcing you to wait until they decide to move) and the graphics range from adequate to weirdly bad (some shadows were completely unfiltered and blocky, others were smooth?!) Those problems are so minor, when one takes into account how good the game's mechanics are, that they aren't even worth removing a star from the rating.
