Adventure Gamers - Forums

dumbeur - 03 April 2018 12:50 PM

I’d have to think about why I was initially resistant to the characters.  Certainly, we were all once teenagers, so I can identify there.  It would help me to replay the first episode to refresh my memory but maybe they were a little too earnest for me in the beginning.

I’d guess it was the dialogue.  In the beginning it sounded extremely forced to me, with many lines sounding more like a caricature of how teens talk than things that any real humans would actually say.  Though who knows, I’m in the same age bracket as you guys, so maybe it’s me that’s out of touch with how teenagers really are and they completely nailed it.

But whatever the case, I found it got much better as the series went on, which made it much easier to get into the story.

I just finished “The Wardrobe”.  I wanted something silly and mostly it fit the bill.  The only thing that annoyed was the amount of nonsensical puzzles.  This game demands a walkthrough or you will spend an inordinate amount of time trying everything and not even know what the goal is.

Read the review here (skipping the spoilerish plot part) to get an idea of what your’e in for.

I’ve just finished a re-play of 15 Days which is now available on GOG.

I really liked this game when it 1st came out despite the couple of crashes (which you still get in The GOG version BTW - they happen at the start of 2 cut scenes which if you know where you can just press ESC to skip them to avoid the crash & you don’t miss too much!).

It was a favourite at the time but this time around, as much as I still enjoyed the many positive aspects of the game i.e. graphics, locations, voice-acting & story I realised it was very subpar to what it should have been as I noticed the lack of meaningful gameplay & challenge along with a few continuity aspects.

The review here is harsh but I can see now quite fair, but today in light of many adventures being interactive stories with less gameplay perhaps the game was ahead of its time albeit it is a little flawed with a few plot holes!       

I’ve just finished a replay of Moebius which got such a lot of criticism on release - it really is a very nice pnc game but although it concludes it’s only sort of & does need a sequel which was no doubt intended…...

I just wanted to post this pic - you just can’t see the wonderful moving water effects here on that canal in Venice on this ‘still’ screenshot but some of the graphics in this game were really so good! 

Jabod - 10 April 2018 09:32 AM

What Remains Of Edith Finch.

Just started this and ended it pretty much immediately. Not because I think it’s a bad game/interactive novel/description of your choice or anything (at the moment I have no idea) but because I tend to get frequent interruptions. This happened to me when I had just gotten to the house and had to shut the game down. Couldn’t find a save facility anywhere. Went back to it an hour or so later and found myself back at the start! Ok, not exactly a lot of time lost but, upon investigation, the game only saves when the developers think it’s a good time to do so. How bloody arrogant. Limit save slots if you will (not normally a problem for me as I tend to only use one anyway) but let the player choose to save at their convenience, not yours. I will try again and, at least this time, forewarned so I should get further - depending on interruptions of course.

Edith Finch is a very short and immersive experience, and I guess most people will finish it in one sitting, which is how I think it’s best enjoyed.
Not being able to save and quit at any point is still silly, though.

Finished Stories Untold (a few days back)

I’m not sure if I loved it or just plain liked it. It was a bit of a roller-coaster, to be frank, because the 4 episodes, although part of a whole, feel very different from one another gameplay-wise.
So for me it was:
Episode 1 : “Damn, I had hoped it wouldn’t be a typing game, or at least that it would be a typing game with a twist, but it’s not and I can’t really experiment anything, it’s incredibly short, and I don’t really see the point, and on top of it all it doesn’t support AZERTY keyboard !” 2/5
Episode 2 : “Oh, so it is a typing game with a twist. That’s pretty neat, I guess. Still short though.” 4/5
Episode 3 : “Wow, cool gameplay, great ambiance, I love it.” 5/5
Episode 4 : “Ah, so that’s what it was all about. Not much of a gameplay in this episode… And I don’t care much for the ending. And definitely too short altogether.” 3/5

So yeah. 14/20 and a bit disappointed I guess, but with some terrific moments.

Ninth - 11 April 2018 09:30 AM

Jabod - 10 April 2018 09:32 AM

What Remains Of Edith Finch.

Just started this and ended it pretty much immediately. Not because I think it’s a bad game/interactive novel/description of your choice or anything (at the moment I have no idea) but because I tend to get frequent interruptions. This happened to me when I had just gotten to the house and had to shut the game down. Couldn’t find a save facility anywhere. Went back to it an hour or so later and found myself back at the start! Ok, not exactly a lot of time lost but, upon investigation, the game only saves when the developers think it’s a good time to do so. How bloody arrogant. Limit save slots if you will (not normally a problem for me as I tend to only use one anyway) but let the player choose to save at their convenience, not yours. I will try again and, at least this time, forewarned so I should get further - depending on interruptions of course.

Edith Finch is a very short and immersive experience, and I guess most people will finish it in one sitting, which is how I think it’s best enjoyed.
Not being able to save and quit at any point is still silly, though.

Just to echo Ninths thoughts, I finished it in one sitting of just under 2 hours (and I’m probably a little on the slow side in general).

A fantastic experience from someone who never thought he’d get into Walking Sims and/or games without any real challenge.  It’s just an engrossing story, beautifully presented.  Exceptional.

First post on this forum, seems like a lovely place!

Just finished Duty and Beyond, one of the first ever adventure games I played as a kid. It was surreal playing it on Windows 10, with the tiny resolution. I remember the odd pixel hunt in that game being hard when I was playing on Windows XP and a 720p screen, it’s close to impossible nowadays.

But wow, the puzzles in this game are genuinely so good! Great signposting and I didn’t feel defeated as often as I usually do. Loved the meta humour as well, they lampoon ‘adventure game logic’ quite a lot in all the puzzles. And the story and setting(s) aren’t too shabby either.

So yeah, I highly recommend you all give this a look if you can!

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chrissie - 08 April 2018 03:43 PM

I’ve just finished a replay of Moebius which got such a lot of criticism on release - it really is a very nice pnc game but although it concludes it’s only sort of & does need a sequel which was no doubt intended…...

I just wanted to post this pic - you just can’t see the wonderful moving water effects here on that canal in Venice on this ‘still’ screenshot but some of the graphics in this game were really so good! 

Also recently finished Moebius, and overall I certainly agree that it is underrated. It is true that the 3d is not very good and the characters’ design and animation (especially of Malachi) is poor, but the backgrounds can occasionally be very impressive (like the screenshot you posted, but I can also think of some others).

While the story does in my opinion not reach the heights of previous JJ games, it is certainly intriguing enough and I felt quite well built up - as I expect from a Jane Jensen game.

One particular point of criticism which I see returning often is the maze at the end. I must say, I don’t see what the fuss is about: I have an incredibly bad sense of orientation, and I thought this so-called maze was ridiculously easy. I’d actually say it’s hardly worth calling a maze.

So overall, while I agree that it is certainly a ‘lesser’ Jane Jensen game, I consider it by no means a bad game, and would in the end recommend it.

I finished playing Laoth Nolder not too long ago, and I really liked it.  Like others have said, it’s really impressive that they managed to integrate the same kind of sanity effects as games like Amnesia, SOMA, and Dark Corners of the Earth into a pre-rendered 360 degree first person adventure game.  And the nightmare sequences were pretty good.  I like the mechanic where you have to research information by underlining the importent sentences in letters and journals.  Most of the puzzles weren’t too difficult, with the exception of certain items you need to pick up that are too difficult to see in the dark atmosphere of the game’s graphics.  The only complaint I have is that the game finished too abruptly without explaining much of it’s mystery.

Not to worry, there’s a sequel.  Loath Nolder 2 does a good job capturing all the same visual style of the original even with the change to a full 3D game engine.  Unfortunately it seems so far like this game is more interested in starting its own new mysteries than it is answering any of the questions of the last installment.  Also, I don’t think I’m going to finish this one because of the bugs!  (Not the horrific insects you encounter in the game, the software bugs in the game itself.)  I’ve only been playing for a couple hours and I’ve already had my character fall through the floor of the level and get stuck a few times.  Now after loading my previous save, the game won’t let me read a book I need to get the information required for me to proceed back to where I was.  I honestly don’t know what I should do.  Start from the beginning?  Also, all the walkthoughs online are basically worthless because in the Steam version of the game the developers changed many of the solutions to the puzzles (I remember Quern has at least one puzzle that has been changed since all the walkthroughs were written too).  I might stick to watching someone else play this one.

I have been very interested in the developer’s new game Conarium for a while.  But I’m still waiting in the hope that the PS4 version will eventually be released before I play it.

Did you play on easy (which skips some of the harder puzzles) or hard?  Although the way they advertise it in the menu maybe they intended for people to play through easy first before trying the “but with more puzzles” mode.