Adventure Gamers - Forums

Here’s a scene from The Novelist that was received for free from giom (the game, not the scene!)
I’m not sure it’s my favourite scene but I definitely wouldn’t mind my kitchen window overlooking this view!

I’m only about a third (at the most) through the game which has taken me a little while to get the hang of.
A writer has taken his wife & son to a remote place for the summer so that he can get on with writing his next novel during which time he has to balance that with also keeping his family happy.

Playing as a ghost observing events I’ve found the potential of the quite thoughtful story so far to be the strongest aspect of the game but sadly (for me) overshadowed by the formulaic, & at times tedious, game mechanics albeit that the variable outcome of the tale is dependent on them. 
It’s certainly an interesting concept & I will persist to ‘a’ conclusion as I want to see where the story is going based on my choices so far so am very appreciative of having the chance to play the game at this time so thank you giom!       

I also may try it again at a later date to see the variations. The only thing I won’t try is playing in stealth mode where as the ghost you have to stay hidden & jump around the various light fittings to ‘possess’ them in order to do so!

Best of luck - I gave up after the second third of the game. It was just so bleh, like “pixel hunting: the game”. Such a good idea squandered so poorly.

Thanks to wilco for my free copy of Maize which I am very grateful for in spite of my opinion of it.  Totally my fault; I need to be more careful in selecting games for my wishlist in future.

First I’ll get the good out of the way:  It looks pretty; it ends.

It has at least made me reassess the validity of Steam ratings even over a reasonably large sample.

My favourite puzzle tried way too hard to be funny while sending me to the other side of the map and back again to do something that was basically spelt out to me to make absolutely sure it required no mental effort.

I really don’t recommend this game, but can 85% of Steam users really be this wrong?

Anna’s Quest

Kurufinwe - 29 May 2017 03:13 PM

And… I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s fine, I guess? I can’t point at anything I disliked, but the game never really “clicked” for me. There was nothing, whether among the puzzles, the story, the characters…, that made me fall in love with it—or even particularly care. It never managed to elicit a reaction from me (either positive or negative). I guess that’s better than being actively annoyed by it?

Actually, one thing did make me react, and not in a good way: that ending. So Winfriede got screwed her entire life and dies tragically, but we don’t give a damn because Anna is finally going to save her non-entity of a grandfather. Yay!

Like Kurufinwe I won the game In Lady Kestrel’s tournament earlier this year (thank you Lady Kestrel   ), have just finished it & have quoted Kurufinwe’s thoughts (What game have you just finished? – Page 5) as they pretty much sum up mine.
I did enjoy the game overall particularly the puzzles & locations but didn’t find the story or the characters that compelling although some parts of the game play grabbed me more than others!

Yes! Winfriede got screwed her entire life but she wasn’t exactly the nicest kid in the whole world. I appreciated that as a child she wanted to prove her worth in a different way but was willing to ‘cheat’ to do that but at the same time I admired that she was determined not to conform. I did think she was unfairly blamed for Hans death which led to her ‘fate’ & it would have been interesting to have seen how the story progressed if she had been exonerated of that blame.  But she already seemed to have the seeds of malice within her along with the existing jealousy of her sister so…..
I did feel that as ‘polished’ as the game was it failed to get across the subtleties of the story as well as it could have.
Having said that on finishing the game & clicking on ‘Bonus’ in the menu it was apparent that I had more ‘locked’ than actual achievements so it seems there may be a lot more to this game than meets the eye?

Making slow progress through Captain Disaster in: Death Has A Million Stomping Boots as I haven’t had as much time for adventuring as I would like but just wanted to post here about how much I’m enjoying it.

It’s genuinely funny and charming.  The Brummie (and alien!) accents really add character though I’m not sure how that’ll travel outside of the UK/Ireland/the Universe.  I also feel like a few of the sci-fi jokes went over my head and proper Star Wars/Star Trek et al fans will get more out of it.

So far this rather straight-forward-looking puzzle is my favourite.  It had me st[o]mped for quite a while, mainly due to my own stupidity:

A couple of the puzzles are unique twists for me (though I haven’t played enough adventure games) and I’m probably only 1/3 of the way through the game, at a guess.

Disclaimer:  Got it free from the developer.

You’re right, even I’m aware that Star Wars fans are casuals at best.

CaptainD - 03 January 2019 09:43 AM

dumbeur - 22 March 2018 12:03 PM

I also feel like a few of the sci-fi jokes went over my head and proper Star Wars/Star Trek et al fans will get more out of it.

There certainly were a few Star Wars / Trek jokes in there but off the top of my head I also put in jokes or references Blake’s 7, Red Dwarf, Futurama, Dr Who, Serenity / Firefly, and there are probably a whole host I’ve managed to forget since designing it! 

I’m not a great fan of referential humour but I might crack a smile for Blake’s 7