I may have gone in expecting the wrong thing, but I still have some beefs with this game. I also have no nostalgia for it, so that's not part of my review. I won't spoil the story, but I will mention the setup for it! -------- When it comes to production, it's not bad. The graphics are nice, you get the pre-rendered FMV characters with pixel art background. (For some reason, some characters are hand drawn?) Aside from gameplay, you get a few interactive comics to read in a hand drawn classic hero comic book style. Storywise, it's a power fantasy as a comic book shop owner, recently divorced, is drawn into the world of his favorite comic book to take the place of the main hero - and to get together with said hero's girl-- his all-time favorite character. Despite his crush on this 'Stiletto' character being well-established from the get-go, he has options to flirt with every single female character you come across, so.... romantic elements are flimsy at best. In my personal opinion, the story overall lacked proper build-up and seemed very random at times (many things are introduced, few seem to matter), as well as sporting pretty large plot holes. The ending did not pay off the journey. When it comes to gameplay... it functions, I didn't experience any bugs, but there are just massive jumps in logic as to how you get certain things to unlock. It's also apparently possible to miss important things, locking yourself out of being able to progress in the game, so keep several saves! Though if need be, the game comes with a hint book that contains a check list of all important items and where to find them. All in all... I can be quite forgiving to games like this for their flaws, because of redeeming qualities like Fully voice acted, Engaging characters/story, Intentional/Unintentional humor, Lovely graphics, Intuitive gameplay... Sadly, Noctropolis does not check ANY of these off for me. ( Also, doesn't affect score but...... this is NOT a horror game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
Let me start off by saying that I usually can find entertainment in these smaller mystery games, even when the story is cheesy or the graphics are awkward or the gameplay strange... I'm forgiving as long as I have a good time! This offered me no such thing. The dialogue was a trainwreck... Often you could refer to something you hadn't even mentioned before, so it was extremely difficult to have the conversations flow or make sense. Tons of unnecessary screens and turns for very little content. It could take you 7 clicks and turning after each one to get to a room, with little to no (interesting) environment to look at on the way. Also tons of empty areas? Like an empty, dusty closet with literally nothing in it that you could walk into, outside the huge fancy library. Nice to have a conversation log, but documents were handled in a strange way. Picking up letters, what you got to read was more like... Mac telling you what he read..? Seems like a roundabout way Alright but repetitive music. I appreciated that there were several ways to solve a few puzzles, but that's about it. Won't comment on the story because I found it difficult to get into it because of the dialogue, anyway. But it is in dire need of some humor.
