Adventure Gamers - Forums

Henke - 19 September 2018 04:27 PM

Oscar - 19 September 2018 07:18 AM

This is a poor game, I’m sorry to say.

The writing is amateurish, the cases uninteresting. Like the review says all the “alternative paths” do is cut off the gameplay, leaving a dead end without even telling you that you can’t proceed further. It’s just badly designed. And there’s way too much talking. I don’t think I’ve played a talkier game than this, it just doesn’t shut up.

Really? I got a comment when screwing up, something like “Sorry Miles I don’t think we can get any further now”.

Since talking to people and finding clues is how you proceed most of the time I can understand that the whole thing falls apart if you don’t find the cases interesting (I did though).

It’s happened twice to me. Once I was forced to accuse a wrong suspect when I said something apparently bad to my wife (??) and the other I could not proceed at all.

The newest exception is Darkside Detective, in which talking is a pleasure. Coincidentally (or not), is has no speech…

It’s a bit of a paradox. Players tend to be vocal about preferring voice acting and are put off by the lack of it; yet hearing speech rather than reading text is more likely to encourage passive involvement—our brain partially “tunes out” and is less active and engaged. Thus, being fed speech is likelier to make in-game dialogue feel more like a grind. Whereas reading text encourages conscious involvement, but it comes at the cost of isolating those players who are too lazy to read.

For a conversation heavy game like Lamplight City I can imagine how speech can make dialogue feel like a grind; it’s the reason why I’m turned off by the previews despite the fantastic presentation. I assume I can disable the voice acting, but to do so seems criminal. Oh, what to do…

As far as design goes, I think developers have three choices for a conversation heavy game: make it text only (risky), break up the NPC dialogue into snappy segments to maintain flow with the player’s reaction + input, or make it a game that can capture the complete performance of a character/actor (often full 3D with emotive motion capture; LA Noir is a great example).

Otherwise there’s a high chance the in-game dialogue will feel too passive and uninvolving, regardless of quality, due to the way our brains tend to work.

They were both conservatives if you ask me. When you have a place where people are living on the street and others in giant mansions with slaves, why not at least bring in some sort of tax system instead of riling for or against the tech-of-the-day? That’s what I would have voted for.

Found the ending kinda rushed. We only get to actually see the murderer briefly and have a rather short talk with him before he tries to kill you, if you’re playing good cop, and gets shot by Snelling (not sure if that’s his name or not). It felt anti-climatic, specially after all the field work that had to be done to get there. Maybe some cat and mouse game would have been better? Or a scene like the ending of ‘The Shivah’, where you had a lot of choice and a longer scene [spoiler](but then, I didn’t play the other endings [are there others, aside from letting the killer go?]yet)[/spoiler].

I’m upset that we didn’t get to say goodbye to Bill’s voice or discover that Fordham really was schizophrenic (the ending suggested that it was some paranormal shit going on)

I also played A Golden Wake and Shardlight by the same dev and, while I think Lamplight City much more enjoyable than the other two, it still had some of the same problems.

a) Rushed, anti-climatic, ending
b) Blandness

I say blandness in the sense that, although there are some twists and the cases itself are good, the characters feel like cardboard. The only good character was Bill and he was dead from the get go.

Francisco González’s games are always so bittersweet to me: I like them, but feel something is missing.

A question: did you guys send the painter to jail on the spontaneous combustion case?

Dashen - 02 October 2018 02:30 PM

A question: did you guys send the painter to jail on the spontaneous combustion case?

Yes, I sent the painter to jail but there was a 3rd suspect too! The fact is that in each and every case for each suspect there was the motive & the means! For me the game worked & I loved it! Bland? No - not for me in the least bit!
Playing it through for the first time I admit to not experiencing the amazing WOW factor that I had with playing Unavowed for the first time but feel it’s unfair to compare the 2 games.
Where Lamplight City comes into its own, if you’re interested the 1st time around, is in the details on a replay. I can’t believe that any player thinks this game is badly designed & if they do it’s because they’ve missed the concept completely!  Upset someone & they won’t help so perhaps as in real life the wrong person (or no-one) gets blamed!
Yes, there’s a lot of dialogue (& snippets of trivia & gossip here & there) but if you love a good story with some richness of background which approaches relationships, abuse, racialism, social inequality, the fear of new technology affecting jobs, politics etc & an insight into opinions from folks of various ‘social standing’, it’s all there & reflect, in my mind, all of the aspects of life that still crop up in our real modern world. 
No, it’s not a game for everyone but I did find it well structured & so well thought out to the last detail!

chrissie - 26 October 2018 05:27 PM

For me the game worked & I loved it! Bland? No - not for me in the least bit!
Playing it through for the first time I admit to not experiencing the amazing WOW factor that I had with playing Unavowed for the first time but feel it’s unfair to compare the 2 games.
Where Lamplight City comes into its own, if you’re interested the 1st time around, is in the details on a replay. I can’t believe that any player thinks this game is badly designed & if they do it’s because they’ve missed the concept completely!  Upset someone & they won’t help so perhaps as in real life the wrong person (or no-one) gets blamed!
Yes, there’s a lot of dialogue (& snippets of trivia & gossip here & there) but if you love a good story with some richness of background which approaches relationships, abuse, racialism, social inequality, the fear of new technology affecting jobs, politics etc & an insight into opinions from folks of various ‘social standing’, it’s all there & reflect, in my mind, all of the aspects of life that still crop up in our real modern world. 
No, it’s not a game for everyone but I did find it well structured & so well thought out to the last detail!

Not bland but could definitely use some more subtlety and flair in the dialogue writing department.

I appreciated the choice dynamics slightly more by the end. The fact it is possible to make bad decisions affects the way you approach dialogue, which is a good thing.

I still don’t see the point of the steampunk setting. The story could have easily been told in any ordinary 19th century city. It didn’t add anything except window dressing.

Oscar - 27 October 2018 01:55 AM

I still don’t see the point of the steampunk setting. The story could have easily been told in any ordinary 19th century city. It didn’t add anything except window dressing.

I can’t help suspecting that you’re playing the devil’s advocate here Oscar!

Well in the early 19th century the industrial revolution took place which contributed to the social & political climate - the ordinary working classes thought they were all going to lose their jobs & be replaced by machinery - some of them of course rebelled. So, is there any such thing as an ordinary 19th century city & how would that be anyway? 
In Lamplight City this upheaval is set a few years later but reflects, I think, a similar mood which not only manifests itself in the background shenanigans but is also directly relevant to at least 2 of the crimes that take place.
My thought is that if, as a player, you’re not too much interested in the intricacies of a story the game is not for you! If you are interested the game will come alive!   

chrissie - 29 October 2018 04:55 PM

My thought is that if, as a player, you’re not too much interested in the intricacies of a story the game is not for you! If you are interested the game will come alive!   

That sounds like something Stephanie Meyer might say to put her on the same level as Shakespeare.

There is an additional factor in art which determines if it is “for you” which is called quality.

Oscar - 30 October 2018 06:31 PM

That sounds like something Stephanie Meyer might say to put her on the same level as Shakespeare.

I don’t consider my literally skills to be anywhere near to those of Stephanie Meyer let alone Shakespeare. (If only…..!)
My comment wasn’t intended to offend.

chrissie - 31 October 2018 08:47 AM

I don’t consider my literally skills to be anywhere near to those of Stephanie Meyer let alone Shakespeare.

Well, you’ve already got her beat on being able to spell Stephanie

Phlebas - 31 October 2018 09:45 AM

Well, you’ve already got her beat on being able to spell Stephanie