I admit that I have been a die-hard point & click adventure fan since the beginnings of the genre in the 80s. I also love good pixel art, exciting stories, cyberpunk and detective mystery. Accordingly, my expectations for Born Punk were very high. Even though the game is not entirely bad, it disappointed me in many respects. The pros & cons from my point of view: + Good voice acting + some enriching ideas within the cyberpunk genre + Design of an interesting setting and world. + Funny moments - not very exciting - little motivating, rather weak story - strong linearity of the story - an unsatisfactory ending - unnecessary, annoying, repetitive puzzles - unbelievable and illogical scenes and decisions - the design of the world is mainly revealed through heavy reading, which is not well integrated into the game flow - the main characters seem very superficial and clichéd - uncomfortable, unfamiliar controls - For the most part, the graphics are nicely drawn, but the high quality pixel art is not carried through and seems sloppy in some scenes. - The character sprites look a bit clunky and are very poorly animated. - The mostly schmaltzy rock music is not coherent for me and doesn't really fit the cyberpunk genre. - The recording quality of the voices varies and is also too quiet in some scenes. All in all, it can't hold a candle to my genre favourites Technobabylon, Whispers of a Machine, Blade Runner or Beneath a Steel Sky. I will certainly not play it a second time. But if there's a "retro point & click - low tide", there's nothing to stop you from trying it out. As we all know, tastes are different... As you can read from the many enthusiastic reviews here. In case of doubt, by buying a game, you also support the genre and the developers, thus enabling further, perhaps better titles.
I love cyberpunk, I love thrilling detective stories, I love point & click adventures, I love pixel retro looks and I love playing such games on the big screen in the living room, together with my partner, who is also an adventure enthusiast. Since Technobabylon we have been waiting for a worthy game from this genre. Virtuaverse, released in the meantime, was unfortunately quite a disappointment (flat story and characters, no voice acting). We were therefore very much looking forward to Chinatown Dedective Agency... We haven't played the game very far and can't say much about the story yet. At least it looks promising. The graphics are nice and the music is good. Unfortunately, a few aspects that are important to us are bitter disappointments: - Voice acting is only present in a few scenes. Most of the time you have to go through silent and hard to read pixel dialogs. - The mouse cursor and many elements on the screen are very small and not adjustable. This makes the game lose a lot of atmosphere and it's not really playable on the living room screen (without voices and with too small fonts) unless you sit directly in front of the screen. Playing it together is therefore not possible/comfortable for us. Too bad.
Positive aspects: - Excellent soundtrack by Ben Prunty, which adds significantly to the game experience (I would describe the style as a fusion of chiptunes, ambient, 80s synthpop, Stanger Things-ish). - Nice story in self-contained, entertaining episodes. - Lots of pop culture references and easter eggs, especially from the spooky and horror genres. - An interesting attempt to break new ground in the point&click genre. Negative aspects: - The game is too static for a classic 3rd person point&click adventure (you can't move the protagonist, there are no real animations and cut scenes). - I actually love pixel art but the retro look of The Dark Side Detecitce is highly exaggerated (very clunky pseudo-low-res). - Even though some side characters appear repeatedly, there is no overarching plot line, or at least it is far too little developed. - The character development of the protagonist(s) is far too shallow. It is difficult to identify with them. - The humour is also shallow, too adolescent, mostly even childish. Maybe a few giggles but many raised eyebrows and futile searches for funny punchlines. - Despite the great music, there is also no real creepy atmosphere. There are a few chances for that, but they are consistently destroyed by the childish humour or the superficial treatment of the subject. The Dark Side Detective is a nice and harmless entertainment for parents who play the game with their children and want to introduce them to p&c-adventures and a pop-cultural retro-feeling from their own childhood. Also for die-hard adventure fans like me, who buy (almost) every adventure game to keep the genre alive, the game offers a nice entertainment for in between but certainly not much more. But even for those who find the game boring, the great soundtrack by Ben Prunty alone makes it a good deal (assuming you like the style).
First things first: it's a beautifully drawn and animated interactive graphic novel. The story is at least interesting and has potential. BUT: The controls and gameplay are just awful. And why on earth is there no voice acting in this game?! (at least as an add-on afterwards). Other independent productions have done that excellently. To be honest, I didn't finish the game because it annoyed me too much for the reasons I mentioned.
Back in the early 90s I was a big fan of the original game. To be honest, I even caught fire for the whole point&click genre (but I was also a Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken fan before that). Today? Well. Certainly a nice game when you play it for the first time. The remake is quite ok. But somehow I didn't really warm up to the game anymore. The humour is somehow too adolescent for me, the pirate genre doesn't excite me anymore and, unlike in 1990, the game is not a technical quantum leap. Other titles from the 90s (and their remakes), such as Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers, Full Throttle, The Dig, Blade Runner or the pixel art adventures by Wadjeteye Games or Grundislav or titles like Thimbleweed Park games can still excite me today. Tastes obviously change over time.
The Pros: The visual presentation ist great (finest pixel art) as well as the music. I also liked the prologue. It seemed very promising. The Cons: The further story and the game design (puzzles, linearity) are somehow half-baked. There is a text-only dialogue system with no voice cast (this should be corrected in the gog game details - description). For me this fact reduces the game experience and the entertainment factor significantly (like for Virtuaverse, The darkside Detective and The Blind Prophet). For hardcore point&click-fans (like myself) it's also good to know, that the game has no classic p&c-interface... A pitty - this game could have been really great...
Lovecraft's Untold Stories Diabolo seems inspired by the games Diabolo, Gauntled and Alone in the Dark. This may sound very promising but unfortunately I found the game rather disappointing. Mainly because the shooter-elements are strongly dominating over role-playing- and adventure-elements and the quality of the puzzles and the story seem neglected. It provides a couple of hours of nice 2d-shooter-entertainment but after that it soon becomes boring and frustrating. The 16-bit-retro-look is neat, the soundtrack is good. That's all there is to be said from my side.
the pros: + beautifully drawn 16-bit-ish pixel-art that catches well the futuristic neon-light-metropolis-ambiance, typical for the genre. + great bit pop retro-soundtrack with with an 8-bit-ish tone. + solid, classic 3rd person point&click experience. + contains all ingredients you would expect in the cyberpunkt genre. + fair price the cons: - no voice-acting. maybe i am spoiled, but for me good voice-acting can really boost a game. - the story feels a little bit too steroypical and slightly dull with not much substance. - the character-development seems rather shallow. - the font for text is too small. in combination with the lack of voice-acting this makes it nearly impossible playing the game together with my partner on the big screen, while sitting on the sofa in the living-room. all in all a solid cyberpunk-game for fans of the genre. but it can't compete with adventure games like technobabylon or blade runner. not by far...
It is the perfect culmination of the series. The first games in the series were nice and lovingly made but still imperfect. The 4th part already looked very professional, but still had some rough edges. This 5th and last part is almost perfect. For me, it is one of the best mystery point-and-click adventures ever, on a par with titles like Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers or Broken Sword. It represents a major milestone in the ecellent portfolio of Wadjet Eye Games. + The story is exciting and thrilling, + The protagonists are likeable and portrayed with a certain depth, + The world set in New York is well, detailed and lovingly depicted, + The puzzles are well balanced, not too difficult but not too easy either. The game also largely manages without silly, annoying, isolated logic and patience games/puzzles, as they are unfortunately used as gap-fillers in many adventure games today. + The background graphics, dialogue faces and character sprites are excellently and atmospherically drawn. This once again shows the top quality in this respect that Ben Chandler contributes to numerous Wadjet Eye games. + The sprites are very well animated, + The voice acting is very well realised and fits perfectly into the game, + The music is atmospheric and not intrusive. There are a few small quibbles that I must point out: - There are hardly any cutscenes that do not take place within the normal game perspective/engine. - There are few spatial perspective changes in the game. Everything takes place in rooms with the same perspective and distance to the sprites. Sometimes larger rooms and distances, different perspectives would have done well. - It would have been nice if there had been a proper city map for orientation. The game is almost perfect from my point of view. I can recommend it to everyone who likes exciting mytery-thrillers and point-and-click-adventures. For a better understanding of the Blackwell series, I recommend playing the previous parts beforehand.
For me, it is not only an excellent point-and-click game, but also, even 7 years after its release, one of the best cyberpunk adventures ever. On par with classics like Blade Runner and Beneath a Steel Sky or newer games like Whispers of a Machine. Techobabylon fits very well into the excellent portfolio of Wadjet Eye Games. + The story is exciting and thrilling, + The protagonists are likeable and portrayed with a certain depth, + The world in which Technobabylon is set is well and credibly depicted, + The puzzles are well balanced, not too difficult but also not too easy. You should be able to do it without a walkthrough. The game also gets by largely without stupid, annoying, isolated logic and patience games/puzzles, as they are unfortunately used as gap-fillers in many adventure games today. + The background graphics, dialogue faces and character sprites are excellently and atmospherically drawn. This once again shows the top quality in this respect that Ben Chandler contributes to numerous Wadjet Eye games. + The sprites are very well animated, + The voice acting is very well implemented and fits perfectly into the game, + The music is atmospheric and absolutely cyberpunk worthy. I do have to make a few small quibbles: - There are hardly any cutscenes that do not take place within the normal game perspective/engine. - There are few spatial perspective changes in the game. Everything takes place in rooms with the same perspective and distance from the sprites. Sometimes larger rooms and distances, different perspectives would have done well. - It would have been nice if there had been a proper city map for orientation. The game is almost perfect from my point of view. I can recommend it to everyone who is interested in cyberpunk, likes suspenseful thrillers, likes point-and-click adventures or wants to try one for the first time, and is open-minded enough for beautiful pixel graphics and a good portion of social diversity.
