tl;dr: Nice little game, annoying control scheme, short duration, get it on a discount. Epistory is a charming artistic endeavor disguised as a typing game. This game will not teach you typing or improve your typing much ... it will however let you enjoy controlling it completely with a keyboard (if you like that sort of thing) and make you feel like you have magic at your fingertips (which is always fun for a typist). The art style is somewhat unique and the world building itself, though reminiscent of bastion, is actually fun to watch. Gameplay is quite simplistic and a bit repetitive, but the devs have tried to vary the fun aspect adding some twists and turns (as much as possible in a typing game). The story is very introverted and introspective, so if you like that sort of thing you will enjoy it, otherwise don't expect much narrative. The audio needs to be balanced before you start (effects are too loud and narration is too low by default). The Arena adds some more playbility and the game can be hacked/customized to add additional vocabulary and content if one is so inclined. The game is easy; it's not hard to get to max points and getting all upgrades way before finishing the game. The game is also quite short but fulfilling for what it is. So what sucks about this game? the default control scheme that the devs chose F,E,J,I which is anything but intuitive. You can also use WASD but your fox will move diagonally which is quite annoying when navigating what is basically a rows/columns world. This was probably the most annoying thing in the game and I ended up using autohotkey to define an alternative movement scheme ijkl which is more logical but keeps your fingers on the home row. Also the devs seem slow to respond and not too interested in fixing things or adding features (both on steam and on their own forums). There are also some minor annoyances. Your fox will get suck quick a lot walking into obstacles in the world and there are several big areas that are basically empty. Might get a bit more life from this game if users start adding custom mods, dictionaries or additional content, but it's a game that you'll finish in a weekend.
Let me start off by saying that this is not really a 'game' per-se .. more like a click through novel with some gameplay elements. The puzzles, adventure aspects and little action bits are not at all challenging and nothing to write home about. If you treat this as a game you will be somewhat disappointed. However if you treat it like an interactive story you will have a wonderful time. The characters are all well executed and memorable, the setting is very interesting and well thought out, the music is exceptionally good, the graphics are serviceable but quite charming, the story has a lot of intrigue, lots of heat and passion and most of all, many themes that are well thought out and quite unique. If you try to get things done as quickly as possible you will finish the game in a few hours and not remember much. If you explore everything with curiosity you will enjoy it a lot more and discover new layers of depth. The experience is somewhat repayable, but since it's story based the first play-through will be enough for most people, especially if you've explored everything in detail. There are some minor forks and choices but they are more about moral choice and about you as a player defining your reaction to the experience. Finally, it has a bit more story presented as an extra once you finish the main game, again nothing really 'happens' but it let's you ponder the game events and the implications of your actions a bit longer.
The game mechanics are initially interesting to learn and experiment with and the world atmosphere sounds interesting. However you soon discover that that's all there is to the game. The music is monotonously the same, the art style starts to get old and boring, the story doesn't almost exist, but worst of all for a puzzle game, most of the puzzles are very very easy. You will finish this game in a day or two at most and you will feel unsatisfied. This could have been a better game if it had twice the number of levels, much harder and more varied puzzles, characters that you actually care about and maybe a story. Worth trying if you get it very cheap or if you like simple puzzles and don't expect much else from the game. Otherwise there are many better puzzle games out there.
A very well made blend of Tower defense and RPG. This game manages to encapsulate everything that is fun about RPG without bogging you down with tiny details. It also is a well designed Tower Defense game with lots of different maps that present a good challenge without getting too repetitive. The story is one of the better aspects of the game. It is well written and fun to follow and has a good sense of humor without getting too silly. The story is tied into the maps and enemies that you face in each map, so it give more depth and proportion to each encounter. The game has good pacing, so you can play it for hours on end, or you can play it in 20 minute chunks. It can get challenging but is never too difficult to make you want to stop playing and it rarely forces you to grin for experience or money, rather the flow is quite natural that you can keep playing on normal and go back to the old maps on a higher difficulty for when you are stronger or want a challenge. Also, on the higher difficulties the tactics that you have to use are sometimes very different from the ones that you used on the lower levels, so it's not just a matter of being stronger. This game is full of small details that show how much attention the game designers gave to the various aspects from the music, to the attention to character details, the ability to customize characters, the humorous dialogs, the back-story of the world and the retro but well executed look and feel. I don't usually like Tower Defense games since they feel like a huge waste of time, but this game never makes you feel that way. You feel that you have walked away with a meaningful experience and that is something rare in games these days. As a plus, the main game programmer is active in the forums and very responsive to requests and suggestions. Finally as a future bonus, the game is modable, so I expect future maps and stories release by users to expand the game experience even further. If you love adventure, RPG, a good story and don't completely hate Tower Defense games, this is a must pickup.
Psychonauts is one of the few few games that get everything almost perfect. The characters you encounter are quite interesting and varried and each has their own style and personality. They add a lot of flavor to the game. One of the most rewarding acitivites is to see how the various characters react to certain events and situations. Upon finishing a level, it is quite fun to talk to every possible character and try every possible ability and item on them. it opens up interesting dialogs and gives a lot of life to the characters and the Psychonauts world as a whole. The levels are immaginative and very thought out. Each has a different focus and the game feels completely different on some of them. Artistically there are very well done giving each a unique look and feel. Most levels tell a mini story or help you discover something of the past and history of a character. In terms of difficulty more levels are not frustrating and are quite fun even when you don't succeed the first time. The only exception might be the last two levels which feel a little out of sync with the rest of the game, being either bland or frustratingly difficult (however with a little patience manageable). It is worthwhile to collect all possible items in a level even if that is not required to finish the game. The extra challenge give satisfaction and gives you a reason to revisit some of the older levels with new abilities. Collecting everything also unlocks the original material and videos that are included. These are absolutely brilliant! The include original sketches and drafts done while designing the game and you can see how much effort and though has gone into every little detail and how faithfully some things have been realized in the game itself. These sketches and videos contain a lot of surprises and are quite fun to explore. The various abilities you add on as the game progresses are add a lot to the game. Some much more useful than others, but all of them offer up new possibilities of playing the game in various ways. It's also interesting to see how an npc or an enemy reacts when you use a new power on them. It gives many new possibilities of experimentation. The voice acting is superb and adds a lot of atmosphere to the characters and the game. All the characters are well done and the voices add a lot to their personality. The conversations are fun and interesting and like everything else help to add a lot of depth to the game. The game is not very long but it's not short either. It feels just right. The only frustration is that the ending leaves you begging for "Psychonauts 2" and you know that's not coming. The game is fun to replay after a few months or years and doesn't feel old even when revisiting. A little advice, spend some time to set up the control scheme for the game when you start. It allows you to play with any combination of gamepad , keyboard and mouse. I found that after taking the time to configure the game to my liking, the control seemed much more natural and fun. You should also not be limited to one control scheme. I found that in some situations it is more appropriate to use just the gamepad while in others I prefer to use the mouse. The game lets you use both at the same time, so it is easy to jump from one to the other as you see fit. All in all Pychonauts is a very fun and rewarding experience and is the perfect example of how games should be designed and played.
Did I mention the terrible controls ? Whatever merit this game has is overshadowed by the needlessly complicated control scheme. This is a game that screams for an interface designer. and it wouldn't have taken a lot of effort to fix the control interface. The game itself is fun, the atmosphere is just right, and the difficulty is quite high (which in this case is a very good thing as the aim of the game is to experiment and think, save and repeat often) You can improve the controls using autohotkey scripts to create hot-keys that work for all characters, or using a programmable gamepad, but there is a limit to how to much you can hack the very unfriendly controls. The graphical interface on the other hand can't be hacked. Again, might be a good game, but my advise is to STAY AWAY! there are much better games out there that do not handicap the player without a good reason like this one does.
