[chrissie]

It's great to see an official review of the game here but not so great that it got such a hammering particularly in reference to it being bug-ridden. I've played through it a couple of times & never experienced any of the problems mentioned which makes me wonder if the reviewer either had a corrupt download or incompatibility issues which caused the glitches.

The game played smoothly & flawlessly for me although it did on occasion minimize (not crash!) throwing me to the desktop. I enjoyed the game & thought the developers didn't too bad a job of tying up an implausable story -for me it flowed through quite logically. No, it's not the best game in the world but I think it has more about it than it's been given credit for!

[Oscar]

If the reviewer's copy was corrupt, then so was mine. I couldn't even progress in the game because of a bug which made a character in the game not recognise a plot development. This was only one of many bugs I experienced.

For an amateur developer, yes, give them credit, but I payed $15 for this and you expect more work to be put into making sure the final product is fully playable. And even if the bugs were fully fixed I would still not give the game a greater than average score.

[chrissie]

Why some players have experienced bugs is a mystery but as one who didn't, I would still agree that the game doesn't deserve more than an average score.

Yes! for $15 more work should have gone into testing it on different systems but for me the biggest let-down of the game was the lack of attention given to the translation!

[PolloDiablo]

I played the unpatched version first, then told Jack that it was nearly unplayable and he arranged for me to download the patched version from a different site. I think that rules out corrupt downloads. But the patched version still had a lot of more or less annoying and even game breaking bugs. As mentioned in the review, I ended up walking backwards on the ceiling (of the antique shop), I ended up stuck inside a ladder and later in something unknown near the common building and all I could do was Ctrl-Alt-Del to end the game. I also had to restart numerous times because people did not show up when I was supposed to talk to them or did not acknowledge I had achieved something and I could not progress. There were many more bugs (not all quite as severe as these examples but they were certainly there).

I'm far from being the only one experiencing bugs. Have a look at this thread where people are asking for help when they think they're stuck in the game, almost all of them turn out to be caused by bugs and the only solution being either loading a saved game from way back or entirely restarting the game.

My system is up to date and more than capable of playing this game, I do not believe it was a compatibility issue. I've also played many 'amateur' adventures before and I do give them credit when deserved, but this game did not convince me at all. (Quote from my review: Even if all the bugs were resolved, however, Dark Secrets still wouldn't be a very good game, as the unconvincing characters, boring and frustrating gameplay, and lacklustre story would make it mediocre at best. )

[chrissie]

Hi PolloDiablo

I read your reply with interest. I completely respect your opinion of the game & do agree with many of the criticisms, but for me the story has a subtle depth that's probably lost for anyone experiencing gameplay difficulties.

But I can't help wondering about the 'bug' issue - apart from your experience, Oscar's & a minor glitch mentioned on another forum I haven't read anything to suggest that any other players have had a problem? (Maybe I've looked in the wrong places!)

I didn't have any problems therefore the game is obviously capable of being played glitch-free so it must be to do with compatibility/settings? I've got a very capable system too but I've recently had a refund for a new game (BF Casual) because I came across a game-stopping glitch that couldn't be resolved that many other players didn't experience.

What I'm trying to say is that not every player is going to come across technical difficulties & the game can run perfectly!

[PolloDiablo]

Lucky you!
Perhaps you did exactly what the developers expected you to do at the moment they expected you to do it and I strayed from the 'path' too much.

[chrissie]

Yes! I had thought about the problems maybe just turning up if you do things in the 'wrong order' which the game should be able to handle! So in theory you could be absolutely right but I'm still not entirely convinced that it's not a system clash which is not good news anyway!




Sorry PolloDiablo, I missed your edit earlier with the link to the thread where people are asking for help. I've read through all of the posts & have to disagree that most players 'stuckness' has been caused by bugs in the game & is more down to overlooking details and/or doing something to trigger an event which is a staple of most adventure games -ie it's not unusual for people to get stuck for other reasons other than bugs. But for sure it's evident that a minority of players players have come across impossible situations because they've encountered a glitch.