A New Beginning: Final Cut

Like many Daedalic Titles, A New Beginning is a point n click adventure game. The game has the usual standards, a hideable UI and item menu in which you can look at and combine your objects or select them for interaction with the world. A button for highlighting objects or interaction spots in the world (This isn’t a hidden object game) but introduces a few concepts such as dissembling a single item for component parts or an item within it. A New Beginning starts at the ending… not an entirely inappropriate place for a time travel game. And that is the premise behind A New Beginning. The final survivors of humankind are about to be wiped out by a solar flare and decide to travel back in time to prevent the environment from ever deteriorating due to global warming, pollution and human disinterest. This of course is where the game gets interesting, the survivors all have different ideas about how to achieve their goals as well as different ideas about how to best accomplish that. Whether it be diplomatically through persuasion or catastrophically through encouraging a disaster. The graphics of A New Beginning are done in a comic book style. Animated panels flash across the screen, voice-acted dialogue is accompanied by speech bubbles to read, and the layout, drawing and animation are all excellently directed. The characters in normal screens all have believable animations that add to their individuality, and the screens themselves are carefully detailed with each new ‘environment’ that you encounter having a unique flavor. A New Beginning is an excellent adventure game. Whilst there are some issues with the menu, the cleverly crafted story, and interesting art direction make this an excellent game to play. At its heart the game is devoted to environmental issues and is simultaneously a chance to showcase the developers beliefs about the environment as well as a chance to make a fun an enjoyable experience.

A really interesting adventure about a real problem. Good puzzles and a decent storyline. Also, finally a long game that took me a few days to beat!

I played some adventure point'n'click games and this is one of best for me. Story about climat changing is interesting and puzzles are pretty logic. They are not about clicking everything everywhere and maybe something will work. Its obvious what add to other item.

deep, suspenseful and gripping characters with great voice acting. i have never played anything like it - it feels very actual and fitting. i had a wonderful time with it and can only recommend it to anyone who like the classic point-and-click adventures with a good storyline and nice puzzles. the music as well as the whole atmosphere is very good. too bad it only runs in 4:3 and has some minor bugs, so prepare yourself for some fiddling. it works fantastic in WINE, so mac users: go for it!

i am a newcomer to the gog world and to daedalic entertainment games in particular. but it's such a long time that i haven't enjoyed any games out there as much as i did the new beginning. i think that all reviewers agree that the backgrounds are astounding and very gently done. in the english version that i played, the dialogues are all done by professional voices and all the feeling in the right places. there were only a couple of slips - but really - they are nothing comparatively. i guess there were more bugs before, but i think they are almost all gone now. the story was very to my liking. even though it sounds unrealistic in some places, or the feats that the heroes do are a bit too "heroic" - come on, it's still a fantasy game and a fiction - but with many many projections to our own world and our own future - even our personal relationships. i even started to tell the story to my psychologist, who exclaimed in wonder that maybe the games nowadays went a long way forward. i really really enjoyed the story part - the way the characters interact and the way their backgrounds are touchingly shown - without much tiring conversation (the longest journey had a lot of such conversations imho and was the reason i didn't like that) - the conversation here is just enough to let you put the pieces together. i really enjoyed how many details of personal relationships we all feel in our own lives are touched upon. also the way the genre of the graphic novel blends with the gameplay (or rather, the video sequences) is quite clever and effective, in my opinion. the puzzles are quite logical - and again, i don't believe we should value puzzles on the scale of how realistic they are - but how clearly you can understand the object, and how logically, as opposed to pure chance, you can deduce the solution. i found most of the puzzles ok, but i sought the help of UHS in a couple of cases. (the space button is totally helpful) and last, but not the least - the twists in the story. there are many and good ones.