It's not without its flaws, but overall I thought this was a great game. Very similar to The Last Express, though it doesn't quite reach the same level of quality. Main strength is the detailed and historically accurate recreation of the Titanic; even if the game itself doesn't grab you, you'll still have fun exploring the ship. Also, even if this game doesn't look nearly as pretty 30 years later, I unironically enjoyed the story to this a lot more than the James Cameron film. You play as a British spy attempting to recover stolen art, thwart a German plot and prevent the world wars. There are also side-stories and optional tasks that add depth to the game. The characters are an interesting cross section of the different social strata of the time period, and there is quite a bit of historical and political trivia thrown in as well. Topless Kate Winslet notwithstanding, this game has far more going for it than the movie imo. As I said, though, it also has its flaws. The character animation is ugly even by the standards of the time period, though I suspect this was a necessary (and wise) sacrifice to allow more disk space for the huge environment. It also has a few of the standard problems that emulated older games often have: clippy audio, periodic crashes, etc. As far as gameplay goes, it's... a 90s adventure game, that's all I can say. Frustrating, illogical puzzles, unclear tasks, the obligatory "maze" area, fight sequences that are more of a struggle against the weird janky controls than against the character you're fighting... it's all here. However, balanced against all that is a complex, branching adventure narrative that offers considerable replay value. Though you may end up beating the game on your first try, you'll need multiple playthroughs to see everything. All in all, this game is well executed. Highly recommend for anyone who likes historical drama, adventure games, spy thrillers, or who is interested in the Titanic mystique.
This is a cool idea that unfortunately could have been better executed. Combat is awkward, as others have also complained. Ammo is scarce and there is no way to replenish health besides hunting around for first aid kits. Adventure players who don't like combat will be frustrated by the endless monster fights. However, people who play a lot of action games will likely also complain that the fights are monotonous and not challenging enough. Worst of both worlds. This game also suffers from very lazy asset overuse. There are only like five basic floorplans that are used for all interior areas, including major locations, containing the same props. Exploring the same building over and over, with only minor variations in the placement of broken furniture and rotting octopus carcasses, gets old fast. Considering that gameplay is mostly running around the city exploring, this is a huge minus. Ditto for characters: every NPC and side character is built from the same basic set of like five face and hairstyle options, and after awhile they all blend together. As others have noted, there is also some banal social commentary that was needlessly shoehorned into the story. The Innsmouthers, which Lovecraft fans will recognize as the sinister hybrid sea creatures from The Shadow Over Innsmouth, in this game are depicted as a downtrodden race of fish-faced people, who are just unfortunate victims of social prejudice. Like many games of its sort, this game allows players to make choices throughout the story: save this character, let that character die, etc. However, whenever the subject of the Innsmouthers comes up, there are no options other than to sanctimoniously defend them. The game allows plenty of other morally dubious choices, such as murdering an old lady or poisoning the town's food supply, but I guess being racist against make-believe fish people is where Frogwares draws the line. However, in spite of all this, the game is decent and worth at least a full playthrough.
Most people playing this are either older people playing for nostalgia, or younger FPS fans interested in its historical value. These are both perfectly good reasons to play this game, but I have a slightly different perspective. When I was a kid in the 90s, I mostly played games like The 7th Guest and Day of the Tentacle. I didn't like action or shooter games at all, mostly because I was (am) absolutely terrible at them. Whenever my friends and I played Bond on the 64, I was usually (always) the guy who died within 2 min, spinning around in a circle trying to figure out where the shots were coming from. However, as an adult, I've expanded my horizons a bit, and I've found that a lot of the games I skipped over when I was 12 are actually really great. My advantage here is that I'm basically coming into this game as a 40 year old noob, so I can actually enjoy this game at about the same level as a brand-new player would have circa 1992 (it also means I can only play when no one is watching me). A seasoned FPS player might find this game frustrating or dull due to its repetitive environments, low selection of guns and enemies, and overall low challenge compared to what they're used to. A nostalgic player might find it dated and less entertaining than he remembers. However, if you try to come at it with fresh eyes and play it the way someone would have played it back when games like this just didn't exist, you'll find that there's actually still a lot of genuine entertainment value here. This game was highly creative and revolutionary when it came out, both in terms of technology and design, and there's a lot to enjoy. I recommend reading the book Masters of Doom by David Kushner concurrently while playing through this. I also recommend keeping a set of level maps handy, as it's easy to get lost.
Overall I liked this. I found it a bit dull at the start, but ultimately I'm glad I gave it a chance and played to the end. It does, however, have some problems that make it difficult to give it a high rating. I'll join the chorus in saying that the lack of interaction and heavy focus on dialogue makes gameplay a bit tedious. I'll also note that the game bears a very striking resemblance to Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. And by resemblance I mean it comes very close to crossing the line between homage and ripoff. The visual style, several of the locations, the moody protagonist in the long coat, some of the story themes; anyone who has ever played GK1 will find it impossible not to notice the similarities. Another problem this game has, that has been mentioned in other reviews but not really addressed in detail, is its rather tedious commentary on modern social issues. I don't enjoy it when my entertainment tries to preach to me, and I particularly don't enjoy it when it does so in an asinine manner that is inconsistent with the story and world. The problem is that this game has a very obviously Victorian setting, yet all of the "good" characters inexplicably have very modern, cosmopolitan worldviews, and spend a fair portion of the game tut-tutting at other characters who don't share the same level of enlightenment. The Bill character is particularly annoying about this. What this game does have going for it is a very richly detailed and well-thought-out setting. The developer clearly put a lot of thought into this alternate history timeline, as well as the city of New Bretagne; in fact the backdrop of the city and the events going on in the background tend to be more interesting than the game's actual story. The musical score is also quite impressive. Overall, this game doesn't quite stand on its own, but the world is complex enough to be reused as a setting for future games, which could hopefully overcome some of the shortcomings of this one.
All three of these games are excellent, though it's a bit unfortunate that Sierra chose to experiment with a different engine for each game. The classic 2D point and click system used in the first game is still the best imo, particularly in contrast to the late-90s 3D engine used in this game, which sadly has not aged well (and probably didn't look all that great even in its own era). However, the FMV style (complete with FMV-tier acting) of the second game was wisely left behind, so at least we once again have Tim Curry as the voice of Gabriel. As with all of the GK games, the story is deeply engaging and well written; unfortunately, the cartoonish 3D character design makes the storytelling a bit unconvincing, particularly during moments that are meant to be emotionally resonant or frightening. Wouldn't mind seeing this one get a remake with a modern engine at some point. The puzzles are a little hit or miss. Several are quite clever; in particular the puzzles that involve interpreting hermetic symbology and riddles were well done. However, there are quite a few moments in the game where you're left wondering what exactly you're supposed to be doing, and you will find yourself wandering around a lot. Some puzzles are just outright silly or involve hard-to-find objects, or hotspots that you need to position the camera correctly to see. There is also a chess-related puzzle towards the end that is quite frustrating (what is it with 90s adventure games and chess puzzles anyway?) Unless your pride won't allow it, I'd recommend playing this one with a walkthrough handy. These issues aside, this is a great game that is well worth the extremely reasonable purchase price. I did encounter some bugs running it on Windows 10; the game will encounter an exception and quit at random points during certain cutscenes. Hopefully a patch will be forthcoming.
If you're looking for a decent Myst-like game to spend a weekend on, this will probably hold your attention for about that length of time. The story was interesting but a little hard to follow. The game's biggest flaws were its rather illogical puzzles and its lack of visually exciting environments. The visuals I can forgive somewhat as it's an indie game made by a small team, but it does reuse art assets to a point that exploration is tedious rather than fun, which in an exploration-based game is not good. The environment is also a little underutilized. Many locations are not necessary to visit, and others you come back to over and over. The bad puzzles are a serious drawback. Many areas can only be accessed by solving mechanical locks that are just puzzles for the sake of puzzles. Puzzle boxes scattered around are similar, though most are not essential to completing the game and just contain extra story fragments. Most of the essential puzzles though tend to be illogical, with solutions based on weird interpretations of the problem that often make no sense even after you've solved them. For instance there is a puzzle where you need to find symbols scattered around a room and input them as a code, but the order you need to put them in is not apparent and can only be found through trial and error. Another requires you to move a toy ship to different locations on a board according to directions you discover, but again there is no obvious order in which the directions are supposed to go. Usually the rules or objective of a puzzle are not made apparent and figuring out what result you're supposed to achieve is as much a puzzle as the puzzle itself. Maybe some people consider this an extra layer of challenge but I find it to be bad puzzle design.
Graphics have been nicely updated and are a significant improvement over the original realMyst I remember playing c. 2001 or so). I also like this version better than the iOS version, which got rid of the weather and time of day changes for some reason (possibly hardware related), so it's nice to see those restored. However, the graphics are still well below the quality of what today's average gamer would expect from a commercial title (yes this is taking into account the fact that this game is 5 years old as of the time of this review), and in terms of textures and photorealism are well below even the quality of the Myst sequels (the last of which was produced around 2007). Obviously realtime 3D is going to be a bit of a drop in render quality from prerendered stills, but modern hardware can handle a substantially greater load than this game gives it, and the problems here are more with the actual assets than the final rendered output. Myst island still has that hokey painted-on grass texture. Foliage and plants still look cartoonish and unrealistic. Shadows look blocky and weird. The water and sky effects look quite nice, but overall this game is sitting at about the graphical quality you'd expect to see in an indie title created in Unity by a talented amateur. It's always fun to rexperience Myst no matter how old and familiar it gets, and I usually buy every version that comes out. However, I think the developer's failure to reimagine these worlds using the full extent of what modern technology is capable of represents a "real missed" (ba dum tss) opportunity. In terms of gameplay, I have no real complaints. I'd like to suggest maybe adding a key to toggle between the free movement and classic navigation modes without having to open the preferences panel every time, as I like to switch back and forth.
