Ratings by Rennie

To begin, I totally disagree with Antrax’s review of the game, and although he/she agreed about the beauty of the game, to suggest there is no gameplay is to disregard everything that makes Syberia what it is, and why it is so immersive.

For a start, the “every object is just a key with one use” feeling about the games puzzles is actually just because the puzzles make mechanical sense. The challenge is working out how to use the many machines etc, and for me it was a joy to manipulate the controls of these beautiful Steampunk machines.

If the puzzling wasn’t like this, you’d have to be picking up hundreds of objects a la “Secret Files” or “Runaway”, and to be honest I find that frustrating. In this game, there are no ridiculous “Combine hairbrush with pole and jam to make hockey stick” or some rubbish like that, because to me, that is not the “Challenge” I am looking for.

The puzzle difficulty lets you continue the story at a reasonable pace, and i welcomed this. Sure, it might be too easy for some, and I must admit there were a couple of moments in the game when the pace slows down, and you just want to get back on the train again, but on the flipside, there are plenty of astoundingly beautiful and emotional parts of the game which would give any high budget animation or film a run for it’s money.

This game is so immersive, I can honestly say that when it was over, I genuinely felt as though I had been through an intriguing and emotional experience:

And to sum up that for me is why I love this game so much, I have never been emotionally pulled in to a game like this before, and I can only think of “The longest Journey” as a title which conjured up similar emotions.

The most beautifully surreal and emotional gaming world I have had the pleasure to explore

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Time Played: 10-20 hours

I don’t agree with the Review score at all. This to me, is without doubt one of the most entertaining and enjoyable adventure games in YEARS. It’s miles ahead even of the similar Secret Files games. The voice acting for a start is much better, it has genuine warm humour a la Broken Sword, and some of the puzzles (especially in the first 3rd of the game) are outrageously fun and original.

I have been playing adventure games for about 18 years, and this game to me was VERY VERY close to the overall quality and balanced product that was Broken Sword, and for me, only “Syberia” in terms of modern adventures can come close

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Time Played: 10-20 hours

Overclocked has had a lot of mixed reviews, but it is actually one of the adventures I enjoyed the most, and I’ve played a lot. Some people have been complaining that they knew how the story was going to end after only a short way through, and while I can understand, as I had my suspicions, this certainly never spoiled the game for me in any way.

I guess the game is verging more towards interactive movie, but for me, the parts in the game where you play in the flashbacks of the patients, I thoroughly enjoyed these parts as much as I’ve enjoyed any aspect of computer gaming. Sure, the parts just before these flashbacks when you are speaking to and playing back recordings to the patients are flawed and boring, but if you can just get past these bits I think there is a decent, dark atmospheric journey to enjoy.

The graphics are excellent I thought, and just like in Syberia, you can click on a table etc etc and you get a lovely art realism piece of the objects before you. Not much is ever made of this by reviewers and gamers alike, as I don’t often see people comment about it, but for me, it draws you much farther into the adventure if you can actually see what lies before you, rather than seeing a tiny speck on the floor, and you just happen to notice it, click on it, then it’s yours, and the character tells you what it is. This way, there is no pixel-hunting, but then of course, that also means the challenge of finding hotspots is taken away (good or bad depending on if you like that challenge).

For me, the fluid interface, and logical puzzling means that you can get on with interacting with objects, and with progressing the story line, instead of searching helplessly for a tiny object that’s hidden in the background, or having to think completely off-the-wall by trying to combine everything in your inventory of 40 objects (Secret Files I’m looking at you).

To sum up, I haven’t enjoyed a game this much since “Lost Horizon”, or “Broken Sword” or “Syberia”, and it sits up there amoungst my favourites. It’s not perfect, and it’s not hard at all, but I loved it. I haven’t found anything else like it yet, apart from perhaps “The Moment Of Silence”, which I’ve played half of.

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Time Played: 10-20 hours