Adventure Gamers - Forums

Finished Viewfinder yesterday. In terms of puzzles, it was excellent and probably the best “pure” puzzle game I’ve played since The Witness (which is only a handful, admittedly). The story, not so much - I didn’t much care for it or the characters. Thankfully that didn’t matter because the puzzles carried my interest up until the end. It’s not a super long game but for me it would have overstayed its welcome if it were any longer - the puzzles do enough to introduce an idea, take it to its limits in terms of challenge, then move on to the next idea. So if you’re someone who loves ideas and what 3D engines can do to explore them, I recommend Viewfinder.

Most recently,
Observer (excellent) with Rutger Hauer
and,
Woodspell (short and sweet hand-drawn animation)

I read something similar but, in all honesty, I’m not a Rutger Hauer fanatic and I always think he sounds somewhat monotone. I can understand others disliking it though. For me, it worked fine and I found the game suspenseful and his voice over didn’t detract from my enjoyment.

I thought the stealth scenes were excellent. Weeeeird and excellent. 😁👏 I guess it’s subjective.

Recently completed the first three parts—the only parts currently available—of the Telwynium saga. The Telwynium is a series of pay-what-you-want/free adventure games from Powerhoof Studios featuring beautiful EGA artwork, reminiscent of the very best from back in the day (Quest for Glory, The Colonel’s Bequest, Monkey Island). Fans of this graphical style will be delighted and perhaps even stunned by a few of the grand retro renderings spread throughout the games.
The story is comfortable but imaginative fantasy fare, very much in the vein of Wheel of Time or a lot of other post-Tolkien high-fantasy. But for a few minor typos the script is well written and the various characterizations are distinct.
Despite looking like a text parser game, the interface is a three-icon point and clicker: Look, interact (take, talk, push, open, etc), and walk. All puzzles are inventory based and fairly simple, but there are just enough aha! moments to make players feel clever and like they are actually playing a game rather than experiencing an interactive story book.
Music is good enough that my girlfriend complimented it as she walked by, which is saying a lot since she usually tunes out whatever sounds are emanating from the computer.

Overall, Telwynium is a series worth playing, and even worth paying for. If you do download the games, please leave a tip in order to perhaps motivate the folks at Powerhoof to finish the series. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next!

After finishing Telwynium (what there is of it so far, see post above) I went on to play Sumatra: Fate of Yandi.

This is an interesting game. The setting (an Indonesian jungle) was fresh and the ecological theme was gracefully expressed yet still impactful. Despite being a short game at only 3-4 hours, the designers pulled a couple of clever tricks to help us define and become invested in the small cast of characters—and to really come to dislike the villains!
Although the setting is unique and delivers a strong atmosphere of jungle swampiness, mystery, ever-present danger, and humidity, the background graphics are only so-so. Many screens look almost identical, which might be realistic but is also uninteresting to the player as they walk back and forth to complete small fetch quests and solve mostly simple inventory puzzles. By contrast, there are several short but graphically impressive rotoscope-esque cut-scenes scattered throughout the game, usually to introduce us to a formidable specimen of jungle wildlife.
Although I would point to certain sections of Sumatra as object lessons in layered flowing puzzle design—always finding a piece of the solution to the next puzzle as you are solving a different one, and at the same time noticing a new obstacle that will eventually have to be overcome—the fact is that none of these puzzles are difficult, and so often feel like busy work. Only once or twice did I actually feel like I was ‘solving’ something, and those instances were just generic code breaking puzzles.
Still, despite its obvious imperfections, the narrative is strong enough and the setting and characters are interesting enough that Sumatra: Fate of Yandi is well worth the few dollars and hours it will take any player to see the adventure through to completion. I’m looking forward to trying some other games from Cloak & Dagger.

Next game up: Blade Runner (original version).

Baron_Blubba - 17 December 2023 03:47 PM

Recently completed the first three parts—the only parts currently available—of the Telwynium saga. The Telwynium is a series of pay-what-you-want/free adventure games from Powerhoof Studios featuring beautiful EGA artwork, reminiscent of the very best from back in the day (Quest for Glory, The Colonel’s Bequest, Monkey Island).

A new entry in the Telwynium saga?! More wonderful news! Played the first two parts during the freeware marathon earlier this year and loved them. I have a soft spot for the late text adventures from Sierra and Conquests of Camelot in particular which served as the main inspiration for those games.

Finished Azazel’s Christmas Fable on Sunday