Adventure Gamers - Forums

I just played through the excavation of hobbs barrow. What a throwback that is bleak, cold, and cozy all at the same time. Puzzles are on the lite side, but just crossed the line of satisfaction for me. I like a sense of exploring and organically multitasking and this has that feel. I wanted “more” from the end, but it is.. definitely.. an end and i can see where they walked a tricky line with it. Impressive title for sure.

zane - 29 April 2023 11:32 PM

I just played through the excavation of hobbs barrow. What a throwback that is bleak, cold, and cozy all at the same time. Puzzles are on the lite side, but just crossed the line of satisfaction for me. I like a sense of exploring and organically multitasking and this has that feel. I wanted “more” from the end, but it is.. definitely.. an end and i can see where they walked a tricky line with it. Impressive title for sure.

Yeah this is one of those games that while I was playing it, I had wished the puzzles were better and I still do. but the overall experience made up for it. I can see me playing this game again around Halloween this year. I really did enjoy it

^yeah exactly, lite puzzles, strong story/end… I just finished another game that was kind of the opposite: unforeseen incidents. I bumped into this game by complete random, i had no idea it existed. And wow, it reminded me its been a long time since iv played a big adventure. The first 3 chapters are a master class on using puzzles to make the world engaging and immersive. I got sucked in with the first chapter, and they just kept it rolling with multitasking and puzzles that were satisfying to solve. The story was also intriguing. Dialogue and tone were in this quirky place between comedy and as serious as it gets. The game impressed me, and id have to recommend it. Some thoughts on chapter 4 and the end: Like many adventures, last chapters often feel thin. Theyr running out of time and money and the delivery feels rushed.. and this game follows. The opening puzzles of the chapter feel like a straight line where the multitasking tapers off and you’re just going room to room to solve whats in front of you. Despite that the chapter still has some length and it starts to get better as youre infiltrating the cult base… But it doesnt go far and stays sparse, lacking the scope of the other chapters. The plot end is… A trope salad.. and only kind of makes sense. And despite that, its not a terrible end.

Call of Cthulhu 4/10

You know the kind of game you really don’t want to continue playing mid game but you already invested too much time so you kind of have to finish it so the spent time wasn’t in vain? That’s one of those, begins good then a never ending nightmare of boredom and gameplay from hell.

Pro: Audio and Visuals, well made game technically
Contra: Standard story, almost no puzzles (and those that exist suck hard), horrible gameplay (i can deal with a walking simulator but the kind of stuff you are forced to do in the game is literally one of the worst of any game I ever played. There’s few games that make you feel like you are just wasting your time, this is one of those)

Not recommended unless you are a die hard Lovecraft completionist. 4 points for the enjoyable beginning hours and technical aspects.

The gaming-verse is so oversaturated with lovecraft and lovecraft-like titles, i just dont even know what’s what anymore. And its a shame because its a cool setting, that even still has untapped potential, but theres just so many game products of it that all read similarly. I did not finish, but rather enjoyed what i played of the sinking city. I havent even touched the last call game.

Just finished paranormasight: 7 mysteries of honjo. Still processing exactly how i feel about it. The game was impressive the way it handled a very large story with a lot of layers and depth. At the same time it feels like the author got kind of wrapped up/lost in their own story. It did some really cool stuff with puzzles, and im also left with “hey you couldv done a lot more of this” a bit more specifically: i felt robbed of a second “real” night sequence that couldv been packed with curse show downs. There were so few of them and they were mostly towards the beginning of the game. I spent about 70% of the time getting hyped for a night battle that never came. A lost opportunity, in what was still a very clever well thought out game. Id really like to see a directors cut that adds substantial changes to the story flow, but that doesn’t feel likely. But even if it was a directors cut that just added voice acting, i might play it again.

The problem with Lovecraft is that recently most of his work has entered the public domain, as copyright expires in the United States after 95 years for works published before 1978. As a result, many game developers have pounced on his work in recent years, leading to this flood of Lovecraft games, mostly from small Indie game studios.

Unusual Findings 6.5/10
Was fun but was hoping it would be better, the 80s retro setting was promising, was expecting something like Thimbleweed Park but sadly it’s not as good. Story was alright although nothing new (extra-terrestrial 80s stuff), the retro charm works, puzzles also alright, nothing excellent but nothing horrible either, decent retro adventure game.

Karlok - 22 June 2023 10:48 AM

Finished Delete After Reading yesterday. The same devs produced Unmemory, an unusual IF game which combined text, graphics and puzzles in new ways. Different is virtually always good in my book and I enjoyed that one very much. I wish I could say the same about Delete After Reading, but it was disappointing. Most puzzles were still fun, but the childish story bored me to death, all the ccharacters (ghosts!) are silly, I don’t like the graphics and I hate timed puzzles. To be fair, Unmemory also has timed puzzles near the end. But it also has an interesting story, good FMV, more diverse puzzles and a decent length.

That song in-game during the time sequence LOL. I had to turn it off or else…

Recently finished rain code on the switch. Its made by the people who made dangan ronpa and in many ways its a very similar type of game. In both series youve got sequences of exploration and then trial-like debates to accuse the culprit with timed reflex tests. After the first case (chapter 0) i had doubts on whether i would finish this game. The case logic was problematic, and it felt like it tried really hard to adopt the aesthetic and story direction of persona games. Then chapter 1 happens…. It kind of becomes a new game and its very refreshing. Imagine a phoenix wright game with open world city exploring and sidequests. Thats rain code. It leans into great pacing and atmosphere to carry it. Most of the chapters are just all around strong experiences. The bulk of the game was so good, that i forgive the elements towards the end that are somewhat absurd. Its a must play for people who enjoy VNs with adventure interaction.

I recently finished Syberia: The World Before. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The only slightly negative I have to say about it is that the main story, basically an allegory of sorts over political movements and events surrounding WWII, to me felt a bit shoe-horned into the Syberia universe and on a couple of occasions went a bit over the top with the melodrama. But a touching and very much relevant story it is.

On the technical side a massive improvement over Syberia 3, although I still had some issues with the way the camera behaves, it constantly facing Kate instead of her forward when moving around. I would have loved to be able move the camera around freely, especially since it’s a beautiful game to look at.

Great game!

The most recent game I engaged with was Torment: Tides of Numenera; however, I found myself compelled to discontinue due to its overwhelming tedium. While it primarily falls into the adventure game category with a heavy emphasis on dialogue, I encountered a constant reliance on verbal solutions for all challenges, including the infrequent fights (which are best sidestepped due to unsatisfactory turn-based mechanics). The core issue resides in the quality of the writing, which unfortunately lacks inspiration and depth, eventually leading to a desire to hasten through those pages of seemingly inconsequential text. It falls short of capturing the essence found in Planescape.