The score was a bit of a coin toss for me. Rosewater is a great point and click adventure, no doubt about it. If you are like alternative history settings and wild west themed stories, then picking Rosewater up is well recommended. It has a great story, solid puzzles with alternative methods of solving them, it's lengthy, but not too long and the voice acting and music are very well done. There are some minor blemishes here and there, which made made me juggle in between 4 and 5, but all said and done, those blemishes are just so minor nitpicks, that 5 it is. There's nothing game breaking or unfair puzzles and there's even some rather rare replay value for a point and click game, considering puzzles with multiple solutions. Also, the story is quite well written and the setting is stellar, so those help as well.
If Blade Runner the movie is considered to one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, the same can be said about the Blade Runner the game. In many ways, it is one of the best adventure games ever made, not only capturing the atmosphere of rain-soaked LA but also expanding upon it. Unlike many other games in this genre, Blade Runner also is a title that doesn't suffer on multiple playthroughs, as some elements, mainly who is and is not a replicant, are randomized. It also has several different endings depending on how you fare in the game. Do yourself a favour, and buy this. Even if you aren't a fan of the gene, buy this. And thank me later.
I had my doubts with the GK remake after I had played both Cognition and Moebius and ended up not liking them. Moebius especially, the previous collaboration between Jane Jensen, the creator of Gabriel Knight, and POS was disappointing in every way possible, so my expections were very low. So color me surprised, when I ended up liking GK 20th quite a bit. Not as much as the original, but for its own merits it is very well done remake with a couple of issues, which will most likely not bother anyone not familiar with the series or the original game. Issue one: The voice actors. While mostly competent I couldn't help but to wish that the original records had been available. Such a strong voices like Mark Hamil, Tim Curry, Leah Remini and Efram Zimbalist overshadow the new voices. Issue two: art direction. Again, mostly very competent, but not nearly as bold as the original VGA art with very strong style and use of colors. Some of the high resolution backgrounds look very stunning, but at the same time some are relatively poor. Issue three: simplification and linearity. In the original you could visit many locations when ever you wanted. In the remake you can visit them only after the plot allowes you. For an example Napoleon House and grandmothers house were open right from the bat in the original. Some changes and additions are good, some feel odd. A couple of new puzzles feel a bit out of place, but all in all the remake wasn't the travesty I feared it would be. Special mention from the new cut scenes, which are very well done.
