Not impressed with 80 days so far...
 

I think this was the first time I've forked out as much for a video game as I have, I didn't know much about it but figured it's an adventure game... Anyway, I am thinking of returning it.

I haven't played it much yet admittedly, but I'm not sure if I can see myself enjoying it if gameplay continues the way it has so far.

Apart from the motion sickness it's been giving me (I haven't experienced that since the first FPS!), my gripes with it are as follows:

- The voice acting, especially the main character, is mostly bad.
- The graphics are not really that great or very detailed... and I'm generally very easy to please when it comes to graphics. I figured a game with the requirements this game has would be a lot better than this.
- It's buggy. It's crashed a number of times, and at one stage where I was in the tombs shutting gates to lock the gates to keep in the thieves I found myself jumping onto a rock... and then all of a sudden I was -outside- the actual play area. I couldn't get back in, but I could travel in areas the player clearly isn't meant to, and I could see through walls and everything.

- The other characters I meet, for the most part, just seem... dead and lifeless.
- I really dislike the way you are restricted in your movements. That is, the -way- in which they restrict you. There's places you can't go, or directions you can't go in on a vehicle, but rather than have some obstacle in the way so you can't go in that direction or some mention from the character, "I better not ride a camel into the Bazaar" you just find yourself running into an invisible wall.
- Gameplay elements so far have consisted mostly of my least favourite types of puzzle: you get to one person, and rather than that progressing things, you have to do some meaningless little quest for them. I find the archaeologist guy I'm looking for, and he sends me off to find these 7 chalices... :Z
- And I'm not enjoying the action-lite gameplay elements that involve me climbing, jumping in order to turn switches, pull levers and so on.

It must sound like I really hate this game, but I'm just not impressed so far and I'm not even sure if I should keep on playing. Like to see what anyone else that has played this game thought...

I am tempted to keep the game anyway just because it's an adventure game, and it's not that I don't like it, but it was a lot of money and I am kind of poor...

I haven't played 80 Days so I can't comment on your frustration.

But how would you return a game that's opened? I'd like to see someone pull that one off.

I'm always hearing about people saying they didn't like a game and that they were going to return it (or already did). I don't understand either how any of them were successful...

Even if/when you could, it's always seemed like the wrong thing to do to me. Returning things has always seemed to me to be something you do if they were faulty or falsely advertised, not just something you do because you made an unwise purchase.

i had the exact same impression of the game and gave up during the second major area (bombay i think??). Very rarely do i not finish a game but my main gripe was the tedious and uninspired gameplay and puzzle design. Coupled with the countless bugs i encountered it just wasn't worth my time. Perhaps things improve later in the game but ive got other games to play for now.

EB might have a different policy in the US, but in Australia one of their main official policies that they advertise is the 'Product Return Policy'. Any product at all is allowed to be returned within 7 days, even if it has been opened and played, as long as it is still in new condition. Customers are even encouraged to return it if they finished it within the seven days.

With the ammount of games that don't have a demo(Dreamfall, goddamnit), the demo is completely inadequate at showing you what the game is like(Fahrenheit, I was robbed), or the stated hours of gameplay and content is slightly exaggerated (The Longest Journey, more than 30 hours, 160 locations, my arse), people don't have to be wise, they have to be psychic. In the end, the physical media is really cheap, the retailers and publishers should have no problem letting people return items, it should be law.

Wow. EB sounds even shadier than they are here. Let me guess, they then turn around and sell these same returned games as new? :frusty:

How is it the retailers problem if you didn't like a game? That's like saying oh I didn't like this music CD, I had only heard the single before, let me return it. Makes no sense at all and I strongly disagree with your entire post.

The physical media is cheap yes, but that's not what the retailer pays. They pay much more than that. I don't think I need to go into why it make no business sense to return opened items.

How do you expect any game developer or game retailer to survive if you let them return a game because they "didn't like it?"

BTW, TLJ actually says more than 50 hours of gameplay on the box. ;)

They sold it, it's their problem.
There was a period when albums were shipping with a lot of filler that was not up to quality.
1. They make a nice margin.
2. They can do a deal with the publisher to not pay full price for returned games.
3. It makes really good sense, the European games retailer "Game" built an evil empire on it. America might be different, it's not better.

I think you should go into why you think it makes no business sense.
Because you are neglecting the fact that around the world it does happen, and they survive.

I'm all in favour of good return policies, personally I think it's in the shop's best interest.

-I exclusively buy games from "Game" specifically because of their 10 day return policy.

-I buy games that I'm unsure about, because I know there's no risk. Instead of worrying "If I buy this and hate it, I'll be stuck with it and have wasted my money" I know if I'm unhappy I can get my money back. Invariably I find I like these games and keep them, thus the shop makes a profit that it wouldn't have, did it not have said return policy.

As for "80 days" I was unimpressed. The voice acting was hideous and the puzzles were bland and uninspired. I played the game to it's conclusion as I was curious to see how the story ended, suffice to say it wasn't very interesting.

My recommendation: get your money back.

That would be the policy that was recently changed to specifically exclude PC games, and which led to me having to spend five minutes persuading the staff to refund me on a game that had scratched discs from their treatment of it :shifty:...

My personal belief is that people should do some reasonable research before they play a game, rather than taking it back and making the retailers lose out thanks to their inability to do so.

I could've told you that the game sucked without you paying any dollar(or whatever the australian currency is) for it. You can tell by just trying out the demo. It had as much life as a walking zombie, and the performance/quality is really poor. I would rather get a 2 D slideshow that runs smoothly, than poorly executed 3D that runs slower than Half Life 2 and doesn't look 1/10000000 as good.

Agreed. I loved Frogware's other titles quite a bit. This was really a disappointment. Some lovely graphics but it was just so... void.

They changed it? What the...! :(
I guess it shows how long it's been since anyone made a game that was worthy of me buying.
Still, I'm very disappointed in them with this sudden change of policy.

In almost every music retailer you have the possibility to listen to the cd (at least here in Norway) before you decide to buy it. You have no such possibility when it comes to games, therefore I don't think thats a reasonable comparisson.. We have a store in Norway called Elkjop (Elbuy) witch give you a regret option (two weeks) on every purchase, and they sell tv's, computers, games, mobiles and electronic equipment like washingmacines etc. They are the biggest and most successful store here. Why? because of the good service and many options..

Anyone know how to use the tutorial guide that comes with the v1.1 patch?