Tender Loving Care isn't really a game as such, more of a short FMV movie with interactive moments in between where you can learn more about the background of the story and characters, mainly by going through their stuff. There are also questions to be answered about the story thus far and your feelings and opnions mainly on sex. These answers are used to build up a psychological profile of your self. Because it was for sale and thus very cheap, I thought I could take the risk and try it. I appreciate something different and I really wanted to like this, but I just didn't. The acting wasn't that bad and the general story was OK at best. As a stand alone short movie it would be a pretty mediocre little thriller. I was going to say "erotic" thriller, since the emphasis of the game clearly lies on erotics within psychology, but to be honoust, except for maybe one or two scenes there's hardly any erotic content and I found the focus more on how sex can be used to influence people than it being a sexy movie. That's not a bad thing by the way and I thought it was an interesting topic to begin with and during the first half I was curious how things would evolve, but in the second half I just lost interest because it's just much repetition of the same. Also the interactive interludes became a bit annoying and overly long. I just skipped certain things to get back to the main story. I read that the plot changes by some choices you make, which I can't confirm nor deny after one play through and I probably won't play the game again to find out. If I could I would give the game 2,5 stars, but having to choose between 2 and 3, I chose the former.
I came across this game by accident and bought and played it purely because of the stunning screenshots. This truly is a work of art. The tone of the game is pretty dark and scary, but because of a lovely, innocent main character there's always a light moment. The story stays compelling and making you want to find out what's around the next corner. The game mechanic of using pills to go to an alternate dimension of the same place in which you are, is very original. And this is crucial to solve the puzzles. I can really recommend this original, imaginative game!
After playing the first game in the Dark Eye series, I immediately played this one. I also reviewed Chains of Satinav and I thought it was an adventure with beautiful artwork, mainly let down by a main character which was dull and for which I didn't really care during the game. In this game Geron returns and I like him more this time. He's a bit more positive and with a strong will to save his love from her entrapment in an animal body. However, you'll be mostly playing as a second character in a time long before Geron's time, but her adventure is closely connected to what happens to Geron. It's nice how both stories are connected and interchanged during the game. The artwork is again very beautiful just like in the first game. However, I found the game far from perfect. The voice acting is ok, but when I played the game, it sometimes sounded like sentences were pasted together causing them to sound a bit unnatural. I also found that the game ran a bit jittery; this was the case with the animation but also with the mouse movement, a problem I didn't experience in the first game. Not a biggie, but still. The puzzles in the game are quite logical, although I found them to be more trial and error than in the first game. I also found that the puzzles are pretty contained, mostly consisting of one or a couple of screens. This makes the game quite easy. It's certainly not like the point-and-click adventures from the nineties in which puzzles spanned large portions of the game world. Lastly, I found the story pretty nice and complex, but sometimes a bit too complex with all the names, twists and turns. Especially when picking up the game after a few days, I'd often forgotten quite a few things, names and connections. Maybe because I didn't find it all very interesting and a bit illogical. This caused me to find the game a bit uninspiring, but that's my personal opinion. So, not a bad adventure game, which maybe doesn't warrant the full prize, but is nice at a discount.
I was drawn to this game because I love adventure games and I thought the screenshots looked very beautiful. Now that I finished it I must admit I had quite a bit of fun, but the game isn't without its faults. As said, visually this game is truly stunning; every screen you'll visit in the game is like a beautiful painting full of details. That was one of the main things that made me come back to the game every time, to see what nice locations I would visit next. The sound in the game is also pretty good. I liked the soundtrack in the main menu and the in-game sounds and voice-acting were not the best I've heard, but still pretty good. As for the gameplay, the options are standard in the point-and-click genre. The game lets you pick up things, which you can use on other things or which you can combine to form new objects. What's nice in this game is that you have two magic abilities: one to break and one to repair objects. These extra abilities are a nice addition to help you solve some puzzles. Most puzzles are contained within one or a couple of screens and they are mostly logical. Some are pretty original as well. You can alter the difficulty of the game by using more or less help like showing which items on a screen can be interacted with. The thing I thought could be better is the story. It's full of content, but as said before, a bit cliché at times and although I always wanted to go on, I did not always really care about what happened. That is also due to the fact that I didn't really like the main character and I couldn't really associate with a bit of a negative, moaning guy. It just didn't feel right. The game would have benefited from a better main character in my opinion. I also found the game to be a bit short. I would have given this game three and a half stars, 3 for full prize or 4 on sale, but since that's not possible I give it 4 stars for the stunning piece of art the game is. Overall not bad but not excellent either.
