I bought Quest for Infamy together with several other Quest for Glory inspired games but I left it on my digital shelf for a long while, mostly because I was a bit put off by the pretext of being a villainous character and the way the introduction leads one to think it is a game with an outdated portrayal of female characters. Rest assured though, that the game doesn't really do anything with that - that main character is sort of an anti-hero, but always with his heart in the right place, and confronted with the main villains of the piece, there is never any doubt that you as a player is the good guy. The game is a great fantasy romp, set in a large beautifully hand-drawn area with plenty of different environments to explore, ranging from forests and grasslands, to swamps, beaches and mountains. There is a few classic adventure game puzzles, but mostly the games challenges are solvable by exploring the area and talking to the various NPCs. There is often many different solutions, and often you can role-play your character a bit with your choice of how to approach the challenges. All in all, a good game, well worth your time!
Hero U is a pretty unique experience. It is not exactly an adventure game, not exactly an RPG but something of it's own in-between. Of course, there is obvious similarities to the Quest for Glory series but most in tone of voice - if what you liked from Quest of Glory were the delightful mix of serious and zany fantasy tropes, mixed with pop-culture references and swashbuckling adventure, then there is plenty more of that here. The actual gameplay, though, doesn't feel so much like Quest for Glory. The Hero in this game isn't saving the kingdom, he is going to school and attending class - and this drives the story in a different way. For example the games doesn't end when all the quests has been completed, it ends when the semester ends. And it does end with the end of the semester no matter what the player has accomplished along the way. This shapes the gameplay. Every day Shawn (the protagonist) will have to attend class, take notes from his lessons (yes, there will be a quiz...) and he must train his skills to be able to complete the tests. If you want to, though, there is plenty of adventure to be had along the way, dungeons to explore, interesting conversations to be had and lots of amazing lore and treasure to find. For the most part you just need to do a bit of discovering to find it. As you talk with the many characters and explore the old castle Hero U is set in, the game will slowly open up and you will always have plenty of interesting tasks at hand. It is an experience that is hard to describe, but the game grew on me constantly and at the end of it I felt I had truly accomplished something great. I found the characters in the game much deeper than I had initially expected and the setting and quests to be varied and fun. Big recommendation from here - but maybe only if you have 40 or 50 hours to spare :-)
Kathy Rain is an old school point and click adventure, with okay old school graphics, good sound and music (with some pretty good voice acting in there) and a decent interface. The game offers a good story and throws in a few easy puzzles along the way. The problem with the game is that it doesn't seem very interested in working as a game. The story is a set in advance, all the events you will experience is lined up and so is the order you will go through them. You part is most left to direct Kathy to the next event, after the pervious one has finished. While searching for the next location where something will happen all other locations are "empty" and characters will offer nothing except small nudges for you to go where the story will pickup again. The story is mostly presented through dialogues with the games many characters (who mostly stand around and wait for Kathy to talk to them) and the dialogues offer very little choice. You click one subject after another, until you have clicked them all, and then the game opens up the next dialogue options - possibly in a different location in the game. The story is pretty good though, and most of the time it is very easy to figure out what to do next. This, together with the strong protagonist and a plot based strongly around her and her family, makes the gane feel very movie like. You not so much play a game, as you watch a story unfold.
