The ruins of any village are the silent testament to its final moments. The ruins of Oakmarsh are no different. Their telling silence, the dust blanketing what was once a quiet village near Coventry.
The name of a manor and the family that lived within. A perverted and mad lineage, a clan whose fin...
The ruins of any village are the silent testament to its final moments. The ruins of Oakmarsh are no different. Their telling silence, the dust blanketing what was once a quiet village near Coventry.
The name of a manor and the family that lived within. A perverted and mad lineage, a clan whose final members devoted their life to mysticism and fanatical experiments. I am Abigail. Abigail Blackwood. Recently risen from the grave, I know nothing about the last 40 years of my family’s history... But obviously somebody is keen on seeing me lift the veil on what happened in Oakmarsh - to what led to the downfall of Blackwood Manor. And it seems like I have no choice in the matter…
A 2D world of Victorian mystery.
Over 90 rooms to explore.
Five vast and diverse areas to discover - Blackwood Manor is surrounded by ruins, woods, caves and an abandoned village.
A progressive-rock and ambient-inspired soundtrack.
Use your ability to walk through walls in order to reach secret rooms and areas.
Possess objects like a poltergeist to lift them, use them, combine them, make them float in the air, pile them up… well, you’re a ghost after all, behave like one!
Solve puzzles in more than one way by discovering hidden rooms and special features, such as new ghostly powers.
Delve into Blackwood’s story: 40 years have passed, and many things have changed since Abigail’s death.
Feel free to explore! You can travel through the world of Goetia however you like - and if you get stuck, simply backtrack and explore another area.
I was moderately engaged in this game. I didn't really understand the stories and I couldn't tell the 4 sons apart. Some puzzles didn't interest me and I just followed the walkthrough.
Pros
- Very detailed story
- Journal: I felt a bit lost sometimes and the Journal provides excellent summaries, even for main puzzles. And the Codex conveniently lists all the documents encountered
- Nice graphics
- Vast universe with many rooms
Cons
- If you're motion sick, you may not enjoy the ghost following the mouse cursor all the time
- Hardly any sound. I can understand that a ghost has no voice but demons could have.
- Complicated story (stories?) over several generations
at the beginning it seems like a dark and mysterious adventure, but its atmosphere quickly gets ruined by puzzles that feel like chores and story that feels like filler.
at first i was really interested to learn about the family and its history, but it didn´t take long until books and letters just felt like flavortext that contains the code for the next combination lock.
goetia doesn´t tell a story through its riddles, it has story to have an excuse to let you solve riddles, which would be acceptable, if the riddles where better.
goetia contains a lot of good ideas and potencial, but instead of focusing on a few, they all get neglected as a compromise.
i can still recommend playing the game, to imagine how good it could have been, but only with a walkthrough at hand.
A game for thinkers. It takes place in the begining of World War II, and you play as a girl that emerges from her grave in spirit form. There are puzzles galore and much thinking, but the process of discovery is worth it. If you don't like puzzle games, you won't like this one. But if you do, it isn't a game you will want to miss.
Goetia is a point-and-click graphic adventure game. In addition to the standard solve-the-soup-cans puzzles, the protagonist is a ghost who can possess items and find routes to move them between rooms. When not possessing an item, the protagonist is free to move through all walls that are not barred by a demonic presence, and can teleport to specific rooms at will. There are three "powerups" acquired throughout the game.
Goetia has a dark and creepy atmosphere, but is not a horror game - there are no enemies, and no monsters that jump out and chase you. There is only one "jumpscare" I encountered of the "bird flies past the window" variety. There are six coherent characters the protagonist speaks to, only three of which speak back.
Some of this game's puzzles are... obtuse. On the one hand, there are a few ingenious puzzles such as the sigil puzzle. On the other, two or three puzzles actually have bogus hints that don't logically lead to the solution, In fact, the very last puzzle necessary to complete the game is absolute bollocks.
Also, although the game keeps copies of most hints and lore pieces found, you can't consult them without closing the current puzzle. There is one vital puzzle hint that isn't recorded in the Codex, and that bollocks final puzzle doesn't actually notify when you've found the hints for it in any way.
There is no manual save or load feature, so there is one area in which the game can softlock: the church. If the player drops the item needed to open the hatch into the water before opening the hatch, or takes the completed sigil out of the room it's made in before using it, the game is softlocked and the player must restart the entire game.
Goetia has two endings, but they differ only in a few lines of dialogue and quite frankly are both lame. The big plot twist is also obvious five minutes into the game.
This was my first opportunity to play as an orb and what a brilliant concept. I love the ghost horror genre and this provided a gorgeously spooky experience. The game is mostly a scavenger hunt with some very challenging connections to make in solving puzzles. I appreciated the lack of dialogue because it allows for more thought and imagination while playing.
