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Demo Discussion and Recommendations
Sounds like maybe you’re going through a bit of a burnout? I have those with just about everything from time to time. Maybe besides great outdoors - I never get tired of that, but games and books and podcasts - happens occasionally. I generally do have at least a few titles I’m excited about, (even if it’s very far down the line like Old Skies). I’m absolutely pumped for Stasis Bone Totem coming out a week from now, for example.
Never tried Gray Matter, but it’s on my list. I did play a demo for Nine Noir Lives, and I thought it was a mediocre adventure, the kind that market seems to be saturated with, like Crowns and Pawns, Willy Morgan etc. - not bad games by any means (and I might buy them on sale and give them a go at some point), but, let’s just say, not terribly exciting either…
I’ll check out what this Lost judgement is. I don’t own PS4, but I’m always curious what other games people are into.
Sounds like maybe you’re going through a bit of a burnout? I have those with just about everything from time to time. Maybe besides great outdoors - I never get tired of that, but games and books and podcasts - happens occasionally. I generally do have at least a few titles I’m excited about, (even if it’s very far down the line like Old Skies). I’m absolutely pumped for Stasis Bone Totem coming out a week from now, for example.
Never tried Gray Matter, but it’s on my list. I did play a demo for Nine Noir Lives, and I thought it was a mediocre adventure, the kind that market seems to be saturated with, like Crowns and Pawns, Willy Morgan etc. - not bad games by any means (and I might buy them on sale and give them a go at some point), but, let’s just say, not terribly exciting either…
I’ll check out what this Lost judgement is. I don’t own PS4, but I’m always curious what other games people are into.
It’s a sequel to judgment which is a detective game/brawler more so on the adventure action side than puzzles but there are puzzles in it that are fun and the story is quite good. Nothing is overly challenging but fun. Here is a trailer for the first game.
Just realized that both - original Judgement and Lost Judgement are both available on PC, with hefty price tags of $40 and $60 respectively… I might just wait for some Sega super-sale for those 
Here are a few demos I’d like to give a shout out to today:
1.The Barker and Mustard Files.
Yet another game where two animals play Holmes and Watson. There are a dime a dozen of them, it seems, nowadays, and yet I quite and enjoyed the wacky humor and silly inventory system and just the overall lightness of this demo. See if you happened to enjoy it as well.
This is exactly what the title suggests but on a hardcore level. The amount of details that matters to solving the case is astounding - everything on the scene means something, and the introductory demo case seems deceptively easy, while pretty difficult to fully understand. Looking forward to break my brain with this eventually…
As always, post if you enjoyed (or didn’t) the demos posted here and add yours to the pile!
2.Scene Investigators
This is exactly what the title suggests but on a hardcore level. The amount of details that matters to solving the case is astounding - everything on the scene means something, and the introductory demo case seems deceptively easy, while pretty difficult to fully understand. Looking forward to break my brain with this eventually…
I like doing hardcore detective work, so I took your advice and played this demo. I was a bit disappointed, it seemed all too easy. 
But then I entered my answers to the 5 questions and got 2 of them wrong! What the… Not so easy after all.
I put this one on my wish list. 
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
Karlok, that’s EXACTLY what happened to me when I played this demo long time ago, way before they had a Steam page.
I have also thought “meh, this wasn’t all that hard”, entered my answers and what do you know… I was off in 2 or 3 of them. I ended up reading quite long speculations on what and where and why just to realize, yet again, how many people out there are more observant than I am
I think this could be a game with a solid detective work. Hopefully. I also believe that they have done every single asset in game from scratch, so it have been in development for quite awhile, but they seem to move towards release slow and steady.
It is also from the developers of Painscreek Killings which I haven’t played yet (but it is high on my list), and I know many people love that game.
Speaking of demos from the Steam Fest. I’m still working my way through a load of them, but the only ones that I have found interesting so far aren’t adventure games, unfortunately.
The only thing that have grabbed my attention and, I suppose, falls under “adventure” (at least to me - the Steam tags read “mystery”, “third person”, “cinematic”, “story rich” - take it as you want it) is this incredibly stylish This Bed We Made game, where you work as a hotel maid in 1950s, and snooping through clients stuff finding some unnerving things…
I feel like demo was on rather short side to see how far will the gameplay take this idea, but the snooping, the story set-up, the great voicework and the overall aesthetics made me want to mention it here.
Karlok, that’s EXACTLY what happened to me when I played this demo long time ago, way before they had a Steam page.
I have also thought “meh, this wasn’t all that hard”, entered my answers and what do you know… I was off in 2 or 3 of them. I ended up reading quite long speculations on what and where and why just to realize, yet again, how many people out there are more observant than I amI think this could be a game with a solid detective work. Hopefully. I also believe that they have done every single asset in game from scratch, so it have been in development for quite awhile, but they seem to move towards release slow and steady.
It is also from the developers of Painscreek Killings which I haven’t played yet (but it is high on my list), and I know many people love that game.
I supported the KS for Scene Investigations but didn’t get far into the demo as there was no save function and I couldn’t commit an unknown amount of time to it. Waiting for the full game which shouldn’t be long now.
As one of those people who love The Painscreek Killings I can say that if you enjoy proper investigative work this is the game for you. No hand-holding, copious note taking to be able to keep track, using your brain throughout - it’s truly great. Some people here haver called it a walking SIM which it very much isn’t. Yes, there’s a lot of walking to do but that’s part of being an investigative journalist. It’s real life (sort of ) and you have to think about what you’re doing and where you need to go. The main, valid, criticism was the loading times for new areas. If you had a fairly low spec PC it could take you out of the environment so to speak. Fortunately for me I didn’t have that problem but people certainly did. I’m hoping that’s been taken into account with Scene Investigations.
Life is what it is.
Karlok, that’s EXACTLY what happened to me when I played this demo
I’ve been reading a few discussions at Steam. You and I are certainly not the only ones who didn’t get all the answers correct. I hope it turns out to be a hard game.
It is also from the developers of Painscreek Killings which I haven’t played yet (but it is high on my list), and I know many people love that game.
Yes, most people love it. I am the exception. It’s quite a long game and I put a lot of hours into it, but in the end I didn’t enjoy it all that much.
I supported the KS for Scene Investigations but didn’t get far into the demo as there was no save function and I couldn’t commit an unknown amount of time to it. Waiting for the full game which shouldn’t be long now.
You don’t need a save function in the demo. You don’t have an inventory, all you do is pick up objects, examine them and put them down again.
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
Yes, most people love it. I am the exception.
Was it the gameplay/mechanic you didn’t like or that the end was disappointing and made you regret time spent?
Yes, most people love it. I am the exception.
Was it the gameplay/mechanic you didn’t like or that the end was disappointing and made you regret time spent?
Casual puzzles, bad writing, far too much backtracking, doing more of the same. Here’s a link to the Painscreek thread, where I posted my criticism. But all the other posters were far more positive. https://adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/10116/
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
even though the game I’m about to talk about is not really a demo it’s a short game that was made for the adventure game Jam. It is about 30 minutes long so I figured it’s better to post here than anywhere else, it’s called The Third Wish. If you type it in on Google you can easily find the game to download for free.
I thought it was going to be a Sci-Fi game and it was for the first half, but the second half turned it into a Horror Story and I personally didn’t enjoy it all that much, plus the puzzles were pretty lack luster especially when stuff just starts appearing out of nowhere after an event triggers. I hate those type of puzzles.
I did really enjoy the art style and the aesthetic, it reminded me of the dig, especially the character’s uniforms. The voice acting was fine but the same actor played all five characters, so that was a little funny in a distracting way. Plus how the story ends doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me. saying all that I didn’t hate my time with the game and don’t regret spending 30 minutes on it. Did any of y’all try the game?
Never even heard of it - I’ll give it a try. How did you find out about it?
Probably have to replay The Dig, now that you mentioned it, sometime too - it’s been YEARS since I’ve played it. As in over 20 years, I believe.
@Karlok - I think, I’ll play it, and only then peak at your criticism - thanks for the link! Just wanted to see if the whole game wasn’t your jam or if you enjoyed it and was let down by the ending.
Casual puzzles, bad writing, far too much backtracking, doing more of the same. Here’s a link to the Painscreek thread, where I posted my criticism. But all the other posters were far more positive. https://adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/10116/
That was interesting
I checked back on the thread via Karlok’s link to find that I was somewhat critical of the game after finishing but now, a few years later, I look back on it decidedly fondly.
All I can say to that is that the good obviously very much outweighed the bad. I wonder how often that happens to people here and games from their past 
Life is what it is.
Never even heard of it - I’ll give it a try. How did you find out about it?
Probably have to replay The Dig, now that you mentioned it, sometime too - it’s been YEARS since I’ve played it. As in over 20 years, I believe.@Karlok - I think, I’ll play it, and only then peak at your criticism - thanks for the link! Just wanted to see if the whole game wasn’t your jam or if you enjoyed it and was let down by the ending.
I belong to several adventure game groups on facebook, and someone suggested it.
Just finished Foolish Mortals demo. I had the sound working perfectly fine this time. A bit of a longer, detailed feedback here, since I know the developers are on these forums, and maybe they’ll read this.
What I liked
- an interesting set-up, the story was trying to go for something different within the “voodoo in the bayou” world (I always loved this setting);
- visuals are very nice, great use of color. The ocean looks a bit too static, considering that other water is animated, but overall - very eye-pleasing. I’d suggest to add a few more hotspots to examine, so all this beauty doesn’t go to waste, and you can bring a bit more background into the story. Right now - screens are on the empty side, as far as what we can look at and learn about.
- soundtrack is shaping up to be very interesting and has a cinematic quality to it. Impressive so far.
What I’m not sure about:
- puzzles. I think I’d need to try more of them to make an overall conclusions, but for now - the plus side is that everything made sense to me logically, the minus side is that I can’t get rid of a feeling that we are jumping through hoops to get rather simple things. When the solution gets too creative for something that should be easy to procure, it inevitably brings the feeling of developers trying to artificially inflate the difficulty of the task. We can walk in the news office and simply swipe scissors and twine , but we have to forge an ID to get a piece of chalk? This kind of thing.
What I didn’t like:
- Murphy’s animations. He walks like he has a wooden board stuck inside him - hands at the sides and small, quick steps - very odd look. Most animations here are lovely, by the way.
- Voice-over for Murphy and Voodoo guy. Murphy has a decent voice tone for his character, but it seems like it lacks personality? Excited to find the treasure? Sarcastic and wise-cracking? Naive and innocent? Shrewd intellectual? Seasoned adventurer ala Indiana Jones? I feel like he doesn’t have anything to him, and he just reading lines off the paper. What’s his background or aspirations? Things like that can give great voice direction. For now, he just comes across as unfitting in this role, and I immediately thought “I will not be playing a full game with this guy as the lead”.
The Voodoo guy is just overdoing it, and not in a dramatic and intense kind of way, but in a “trying too hard and it’s obvious” kind of way. He definitely needs to take it down a notch and keep it mysterious but not this dramatic - it’s a bit cringe-y.
The rest of the cast are very good. I especially liked fisherman and the gravedigger - they did a wonderful job!
Rando QoL note - I’d also consider adding “fast-walking” option on double-click, as sometimes I can be in the middle of your vast, side-scrolling screen with no arrows for immediate exit in sight, so I have to wait until Murphy walks over to one. His general speed is fine, but the ability to speed him up if needed is always a welcome addition.
I hope this helps!
Thank you.
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