A New Beginning
 

Having played the first few chapters, more or less, this appears to be a real, bonafide, at-long-last Adventure Game!

It's not a pixel-hunt; the puzzles are not tedious busy-work, or pointlessly simpletonian inanities, or dressed-up rehashes of parlor-schlock; the story -- while a little typical -- isn't excruciatingly cliched (I don't ever expect or pretend, as some do, that a truly great story is likely to be found in a game -- so "good" is good enough).

I'm sure there are going to be some bugs and/or frustrating things along the way, but so far so good.

Considering its engine, that is more than likely (I'm looking at you two, The Whispered World & Edna and Harvey: The Breakout). But the games are great, which more than makes up for the shoddy engine.

And I can only judge by the demo so far which I liked enough to want to buy it (if it weren't such a pain getting it).

Yeah, I think I'm around Chapter 4 of this game and I definitely like it. The story is told in an interesting fashion and the puzzles are nicely integrated and feel very old school. Plus I like the level of difficulty in them so far. Enough to where I feel like I figured out something but not so bizarre that I am frustratingly stuck. Adequate voice acting (heard better, but definitely heard worse). A few bugs here and there: some of the lines weren't translated correctly (I looked at one item and it said "Examina" instead of Look at) and one crash.

I'm enjoying the story even though I'm not a big proponent of climate change. It's not OVERLY preachy yet, though a little, but not enough to bother those that might not be a bleeding heart all about the global warming.

I really like the graphical style (though WIDESCREEN NEXT TIME) and the cut scenes are done in a cool way.

Same here regarding the anthropogenic climate change/global warming theories - I'm very skeptical but I didn't feel like the game was being propagandist about it. And I do think there's a problem with pollution and ecological damage by some modern industries.

I mostly like the puzzles in Daedalic's games. Sure it was sometimes quite insane in The Whispered World, but with the exception of one small puzzle near the very end I finished it completely without help. They're not too easy but also not frustratingly difficult. Moderation and balance, that's always a good thing.

At first chapter experienced dub cut ups 3 times and subs didnt follow either not sure if i missed a line or it was overlap?

I think it was a bold but clever move to give the game a comic-book style look. Although it risked trivialising the climate issue like some far-fetched superhero story, it went well with the serious personal side of the game which would have perhaps been too confronting combined with the real world issues involved in the game.

Not too sure about the voice acting yet. Sisyphean...

i'm pretty sure edna wasn't the same engine. and i never experienced any bug in edna btw., not even in my first playthrough without the patch...
and yes, new beginning is/was extremely buggy, according to some german boards (haven't played it yet). but i guess the english version will already include all patches (over 500 MB!).

Well having finished the game, overall I am slightly disappointed. It had the same problems of Whispered World - the characters just weren't very interesting, and it had very average voice acting. The puzzles were mostly fine except too much of manipulating machines, which I don't exactly enjoy doing.

Well, I'm a bit further along and I have found that it is getting more and more disappointing in the character-development, yes. Some real reactionary idiot-speak from characters that oughta know better. Kind of makes it a drag to 'be' them.

But I still think this game so far is much better than "Whispered World"; I couldn't even be bothered to play that game through, it was so boring and silly and (ugh) arbitrary.

So, yeah, "A New Beginning" is, at the point I'm at, maybe starting to falter, but I'm a ways in and still interested.

Well, the game continues to flounder.

The expected "Infuriating Adventure Game Moment" arrived!

Spoiler:

Fay's Room (24) on the research rig... open door to bathroom, only, AGAINST ALL CONVENTION up to that point (chapter 6? are we at?), no indication that one might enter into said bathroom. I knew I needed something metal to put in the pie. I knew why. I knew how. What I didn't know was where because, as I said, ACCORDING TO ALL CONVENTION up to that point you would be given a clear indication, of one kind or the other, that there was a place the there that you could move into!

.

And, though I'm sure it's a little to do with the irritation that that madness caused, the characters and story are continuing to devolve too...

...

Still still... yet yet... it is the best, pure, old-school, point-and-click adventure game I've come across in many years. Not necessarily the best adventure game, but as far as those that have the classic look and feel, it's so much better than any I have seen in years. The complaints above are relatively slight compared to so much of what I've seen.

I got A New Beginning, and can't really work up a desire to play it. I'm stuck at the very beginning, looking for a key to the basement.

My main problem is the gloomy and preachy protagonist though; he just gets on my nerves.

With all its arbitrary puzzles, I found The Whispered World's fantasy setting and hero more immediately appealing than this game.

The voice acting is horrible (english) and the cartoon synching is way off. I couldn't stop laughing when that bird dies and she begins to cry, oh my god! "Save the world! Save the world!!" I've read some comments about propaganda and i'm starting to believe them. I just started but already this game seriously pisses me off, it's like hunchbacks of green peace (why are they in such an akward standing position? Maybe the woman has a major pole up her ass = art doesn't save the world..lmao!).

The puzzles look fun though, i abandoned playing adventure games for story (hopeless).

she just came from the year 2500 where everything is ruined and where you have to be really lucky to meet the animal species and obviously man from that age has a different look on those things... that's why she's overreacting with the bird looking from ours or Bent's perspective and not really the propaganda.

the only part i felt was 'propagandist' was near the end when Bent gives that long speech about people not wanting to find a different source of energy. it's like 'you don't care, you evil beings! stop being lazy!'. that's how it felt like to me. but the rest of the game is pretty on the fence most of the time, i felt.

Actually the bird incident was one of the few times I thought they developed the characters well. They were showing the difference between people from the two eras. Going forward 500 years would be like us going back to talk to people who thought the earth was flat.

Err... ummm... ahhh... wha?

I know about the future thing but i still didn't care:devil:. I dropped the game because i couldn't stomach it anymore, maybe i'll pick it up someday (doubt it).

Hunch backs because Bent just hunches forward and future lady stands like she has something up her butt. It just bothers me :).

I too got a bit annoyed at the melodramatic bird scene as well as some comments in Fay's retelling.
It really did mellow out past that though and by the time I got to the Sea Lab I was having a great deal of fun.
The voices grow on you, much like the Whispered World, and the technical issues were fairly minor overall.
The SF theme feels a little bit tacked on in retrospect, but since it doesn't get in the way much it's fairly easy to see past that.

Great game and probably one of the few i'll be replaying later down the line.

I did the same. I thought it was hilarious! And as subtle as being whacked over the head with a hammer. And it's not just her reaction, but how the game captures the incident of the bird falling from the tree, instantly dead.

I played the first two chapters. Didn't like it. Preachy and boring.