Syberia 1 & 2 were just beautiful. Everything about them was such a joy to behold. This one... craps all over thir legacy. The story is 'wtf', the animations are very poor and lack-lustre, NPC's constantly walk into walls and stop moving, Kate's pathfinding can be utterfly dreadful, and not to mention the controls!! There is no possible way this was QA tested and the tester said 'Yep, it's perfect, no notes'. You are constantly fighting the camera. Actions are slow, dialogue is UNSKIPPABLE and repeats itself a lot, and although it has a long playtime (about 10hr at 40% complete as of this review- only fell asleep once) it is padded BIG TIME with slow, monotonous, repetitive dialogue, super slow animations, huge screens with nothing to look at and, for some strange reason, the background music reminds me of Xena! I do love Xena, but in this setting it doesn't make any sense. Dialogue choices are misleading and make no difference- I didn't expect them to change anything, but when I choose an angry response, I don't expect what Kate actually says to be whiny and annoying. Voice acting rarely matches the characters which really annoys me. I got this for cheap, just to finish the trilogy, but it has pretty much nothing to do with 1 & 2. I feel like Sokal just wanted to send a message, and after playing the Prologue for The World Before, that's probably right.
King's Quest will not work without some computer gymnastics. According to forums I've read, GOG have the code and ability to support KQ8 but refuse. It crashes instantly on start-up and as this isn't the 90's- if it doesn't work on launch, it is unacceptable. Refunded
The art is really quite badly done- the sprites that are 'pixel art' are very basic, and the rest looks more like animated jpegs- it's super jarring. Also, the artist obviously does not understand perspective at all. It tries really hard to be funny but misses the mark almost all of the time, relying heavily on 'member-berries of 80's references. It is not voiced which makes the 'humour' fall even flatter. It is very streamlined, there is no challange to be found here. It was something to do, I guess. There are far better offerings out there, 'The Will of Arthur Flabbington' comes to mind- it just does everything better.
... even though I loved the art style, the voice acting (most of the time) the atmosphere and Vincent's personality, the bad game design, lack of direction and incredibly lack-luster storytelling just killed it for me. It took me way too long to figure out how to pan the scene when I was zoomed in so I didn't have to squint at my computer screen (controls are not clearly defined in most scenes and you cannot check the Settings either)- although I did mostly enjoy those parts once I figured out the controls. They are not hard, some are better than others. You don't need hints. Relax... Reviews keep saying Nick offers hints? He does what now? Everytime I clicked on him, Vincent would just move to his spot and say nothing. But you really shouldn't need hints for this game anyway. There aren't 'mini GAMES', there is 'mini GAME' which, is not only misleading, but so incredibly infuriating I skipped every game with a ball of yarn and there were no penalties for doing so, so there is absolutely no point in bothering to play 'bug soccer'- it is just there to fluff out the game. This game clocks in at about the 4-5 hour mark. Choices ultimately don't matter- do what you think is the most fun. For me, that was stealing everyone's stuff, but the only choice that matters is Stay or Go, then the game ends so it doesn't matter at all anyway. I have no interest in playing this game again as I played how I wanted to the first time and nothing bad happened. So crime does pay, I guess. At least the $2.50 I spent on it
But it is not a game. It is like one of those interactive movies on Netfliix. And it's only an hour long. I get that they are counting on replay value, but I was really expecting more bang for my buck for the first run. Especially for the asking price.
First off, the story is... kind of intersting, I supose, not very original if you are a fan of horror games/movies- this will not shock you or offer anything new to the genre but it will kill an afternon without requiring too much brain power. The gameplay is VERY simple. There was one actual 'pussle' in the entire series and that came at the end, and even then it was very basic. The pixel-art should have been more like Resonance or like other similar games- being so simple, you couldn't make out the scenes so any uncomfortableness the devs wanted you to feel fell flat, and just got boring and unimaginative. Sometimes the music is nice.
I'd forgotten how truly awful this game was. Is. Will be. It dragged on and on, it completely invalidates all of your wonderful adventures in the previous games. For me, this game not only invalidates the games and the journey, but also my efforts, my time and yes, even a little piece of my soul. If you enjoyed the first 3 games- even if the ending pissed you off- avoid this game. It will make you truly furious
In response to other reviewers... The dialogues are fun to listen to, clicking speeds them along. The puzzles are simple and make perfect sense if you think about them for a minute. There are 3 or 4 mandatory mini-games (card game) I won them all first time. But I must've been cheating, right? Very straight-forward and save your game before attempting them, easy. Just use your brain. I found this little gem to be an utter delight at every turn. the characters were fun, the VA was excellent and the art... my god, the art.. by ONE guy! A fantastic way to spend 6ish hours
Sure, the combat is clunky. Ok, the run animation is kinda funky. The main VA is... well, shocking (everyone else isn't too bad) But where this game absolutely makes it for me, is in it's wonderful throwbacks to the 90's Sierra games I grew up with. The town is wonderful, with very familiar music which I thoroughly enjoyed, familiar puzzle-solving with no 'obvious' interactables (you have to use your brain, which is refreshing) no stupid in-game hint sytem, just a really delightful romp through the true point'n'click adventure genre. This game gives me the warm and fuzzies and everything just makes me smile
Thought I'd give this one a go. I remember trying to play it back when I was 12, but it was too advanced for me at that time. Bought it again, 16 years later and- possibly spoiled by today's standards- it just didn't match up. The navigation... oh the navigation.. was at times extremely tedious, even for the mid-nineties. Frequently walking into some imaginary obstacle, hence screwing up your timing when you have to quickly hide, or get to a door on time. This is a short game. Finished it in around 8 hours, more or less. It just wasn't nearly as fun to play as the following Tex games, but I convinced myself I needed it to complete the chain. Should've bought Torin's Passage instead, it maybe a shorter game but I'm sure it would be more entertaining!
