Ratings by PadanFain

The story is ok; at the same time it’s both too jumbled-up and too predictable. At times it’s full of deus-ex machina, at other times its totally cliche.
Too many unnecessary details in some places, too little details in places where they’re necessary. The result is uneven pacing and alack of cohesion. At no point do you have enough time to form emotional attachment to any character.
The end boss is terrible, jarring and unimaginative, not to mention terrible.

The world is really pretty, though, and sometimes you do get a sense that there is some deeper meaning there. Sometimes, it touches your heart, especially when coupled with the pretty music that stretches throughout the game.

Such moments are enough to carry the game, but the rest simply stops it from being anything else than “just ok”.

Read the review »

Time Played: 2-5 hours
Difficulty: Very Easy

A big fan of Daedalic I am, and I always expect their games to have a cinematic, story-driven approach. However, this game takes the opposite route - puzzles, puzzles and more puzzles at the expense of good pacing. While puzzles are not a bad thing, there should be a limit. In this game, I never felt like I was progressing enough. Every puzzle I solve brings another puzzle instead of story progression.
The story itself is nothing special. There is no magical redeeming quality, no emotional connection to the characters and the world (since there are waay too many characters to properly flesh them out), and most of the story is told in exposition instead of us being the centre of the tale.
All of this makes for an OK game with some interesting tidbits here and there, but it never rises to the greatness of The Whispered World, Chains of Satinav, A New Begining or Deponia.

Read the review »

Time Played: 10-20 hours
Difficulty: Hard

Well…

A good game. Not excellent. The story drags too much in places and changes tone considerably every hour or so. So-much-so that it isn’t horror. It starts horror, turns into torture-porn, then melodrama, then… something. The final parasite is so over-the-top nonsensical that I can’t really say if it was intentional or not to have him be so out-of-place.

Read the review »

Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Just Right

It may be short, it may be Flash and it may look childlike at first glance, but all of that belies the depth and beauty this game has to offer.
In the one or two hours it takes you to finish the game (depending on how fast you read and how much you spend looking for the various [wonderful] flavour texts) you will meet colourful characters, interesting puzzles and a story that, seemingly simple, has a lot of depth to offer and draws you right in.
All I can say is, if you’re an adventure game fan, jump in. Explore. Laugh. Cry. Go on an adventure.

Read the review »

Time Played: 1-2 hours
Difficulty: Just Right

So, Resonance arrives. Having heard nothing about the game before I saw it on AdventureGamers, I went in without any preformed opinion about the game.

Since the very beginning, something is off. The game starts at the end, and is mostly done in flashback. Which is usually a sign of bad storytelling (not always, but 90% of the time).

The puzzles for the first third of the game are extremely boring. That is mostly felt because of lack of any sort of pacing during that time. It picks up afterwards, but I was seriously considering leaving the game at the “hot-wire door to the lab” puzzle.

The puzzles are NOT helped by the EXTREMELY irritating and unwieldy interface. I order to do anything, one must go through 3-4 sliding screens. And I mean ANYTHING. Whether you want to talk, or access memories, use inventory or change characters. That gets seriously irritating after the first hour, and then you’re forced to constantly change characters, so it gets worse. I feel like the game would be 2 hours shorter if only I didn’t lose so much time with the interface.

The story is, for the most part, a predictable cliche. No surprises and interesting developments, until about two-thirds in the game, when a turnaround happens. And it dead perk me up a bit, so the final stretch of the game was ok to play. But beware, the identical “turnaround” has already been done in a certain PS3 adventure game from two and a half years ago. So no points for originality.

The most interesting part of the story (the secret brotherhood bent on controlling the world) has received the most minimal attention. Unfortunately.

The characters are (mostly) archetypal, so there’s nothing more to be said.

All of this makes for a game that is only somewhat interesting in the second half. And not much.

So please. Borrow it from a friend first, to try it out. My guess is, you won’t be buying it after.

V.

Read the review »

Time Played: 10-20 hours