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Ratings by Overmann.ita

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow


Stars - 45

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on Oct 28, 2022 | edit | delete


A very solid mystery horror adventure game


This is a really polished and well crafted game, doesn’t look indie at all in its writing and design. It’s not just a well made yet cold experience though: even if it is not “funny” or “thrilling”, Hob’s Barrow is a sober experience with a deep research and a consistent representation about rural England, and a story good enough to keep you interested throughout the not-so-short game experience.

The protagonist, Thomasina Bateman, comes to life thanks to excellent voice acting and backstory writing about her family, her past and what motivates her actions. She’s a bit Kate Walker a bit Lara Croft, and impersonating her while she arrives in a small village populated mainly by old chaps that are not exactly welcoming has been engaging (you can choose how to react to certain dialogues even if this will not impact the story).

The remaining roster is made of good characters as well, the old sweet lady, the funny kids, the many men of few words who are a bit mysterious, but each one with a very distinct characterization.

Gameplay is really well balanced: the game starts as a narrative experience with lots of dialogue to introduce the player to the village and its inhabitants, then switches to a more inventory puzzle oriented design, and ends with a Myst like experience in the final chapter.

Even if I’m not a fan of such a “siloed” experience (I like Syberia’s style the most, in which you have a good mix of gameplay for all of your adventure) I must admit every section has been well designed and is never too boring or too hard, despite some rare pacing issues which are unavoidable when you’re writing a serious game with a unique location and try to fill it with puzzles too.

Sure this is not a game for everyone, since the horror is much more cosmic then based on jump scares, it’s not a detective game, a bizarre game full of funny moments or one where you travel the world in search of exotic adventures.

But if Lovecraft is your cup of tea and you’re a fan of folk horror, this will definetely be a hit.


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Time Played: 5-10 hours

Blackwell Legacy, The


Stars - 20

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on Sep 9, 2019 | edit | delete


Quite amateurish


Played in 2019, the game feels almost unplayable. The graphics are so low-res and all backgrounds are pretty simple and lack anything of interest. So, exploration is not really a thing.

The gameplay is amateurish at best, I’ve found only one good puzzle (the one involving the phone), but many times it is unintuitive to the point that you know what to do but don’t know how to do it because of some bad UI experience. Luckily the game is short and easy so it proceeds without many burdens.

Anyway, the story kicks off interestingly but than falls short right after the climax. Once you meet with Joey you start the “real” plot of the episode and it is quite disappointing: shallow, without drama, no twist or surprise, quite silly ending with no payoff…

Can’t really see the hype about this game despite a good background / potential as a series.


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Time Played: 2-5 hours

Lamplight City


Stars - 30

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on Jun 18, 2019 | edit | delete


A good detective game with no puzzles


Lamplight City is a narrative-focused detective story that strives to stand out thanks to its steampunk vibes. The classic tropes of the genres have been used mildly: luddism and fear towards the new steam-based technology melds with noir vibes about a solo detective with ghosts from its past. Despite its good writing, the story is not strong enough to settle the game as a “steampunk noir” classic, but it sure is good enough to entertain the player for a few hours of above average narration.

If you play for the story, this is a good mystery game with well written relationships and some introspection about love, hate, friendship and grief. Great characters and dialogues overall, but still not enough in my opinion to really stand out. The game has a decent worldbuilding, but the single detective cases can be pretty boring at times.

If you play for the art and atmosphere, this is where the game really shines. Detailed scenarios, good animations, excellent lightning, outstanding voice over and background music. Tons of locations to visit, all made with love: the town is a pleasure to explore, and it’s too bad that you’ll visit some locations only once. If you are into steampunk and pixel art, you’ll love the game aesthetics.

If you play for the challenge, I’m sorry to say there isn’t any here. The gameplay only consists of dialogue and exploration, with detective cases that basically solve by themselves. The main design idea of the game is punishing the player with a dead end in case they choose the wrong dialogue option in certain (few, fortunately) circumstances. I found myself cut out of gameplay just for saying “I’m a detective” instead of something else, in a situation where I had no hints about that specific answer being so dangerous. This means you’ll need to save often, but overall it’s not a big deal, just some frustration around the corner.

The game is quite long, I’d say 10-12 hours, and that’s a positive.


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Time Played: 10-20 hours
Difficulty: Easy

Alone With You


Stars - 40

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on Dec 11, 2017 | edit | delete


What a narrative game should be


A surprising game that executes great into the field of “narrative experiences”. Very few and simple puzzles, almost all the value is in the script: you start alone, with an AI that asks you to explore around different sites to gather information about what happened to the crew and to get some objects needed for building a ship that can save your life.

A great amount of locations and characters, with four recurring characters that you will learn to care about. The game starts small, maybe even a little boring, but grows steadily until an epic finale where you will feel deeply touched by what you experienced, seen, heard, read, chosen.

A mediocre technical level (no voice acting, so-and-so music score, pixellated graphics) and some minor narrative letdowns (too many characters, at times the story is hard to follow, very slow start) do not prevent this game to be a little piece of art that may reach for your heart.

Any “introspective sci-fi” enthusiast with the patience to reach the moving ending of the game will not be disappointed.

If you’re looking for challenges, state of the art graphics and a funny experience, though, you’ll find this a boring indie experiment.


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Time Played: 5-10 hours

>observer_


Stars - 20

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on Nov 21, 2017 | edit | delete


A disappointing and shallow experience


I’ve found this game to be overly pretentious, while in the end it revelead itself to be just the latest “abstract walking simulator” with some good ideas here and there.

The dystopic settings so well represented in marketing material are very rare, instead the game is all set inside one single building, with very repetitive locations. All that remains is a long series of epileptic labyrinths that unfortunately felt uninspired as well - i.e. the nightmare sequences.

The story only takes place in the last ten minutes, so it is hard to feel hyped or even interested in what’s going on: the investigation mechanics aren’t of any help, with their clumsy interface that are too often of no use.

No puzzles and a bored voice acting are just the final nails in the coffin.

In the end, I would suggest buying this game only to hardcore fans of abstract, confused, and pretentious “art games” that don’t mind walking (slowly) through abstract horrific labyrinths without feeling any purpose but the “art’s sake”.

There are good components in the game - some elements of the setting, the graphics, the sound FX - but they fail to tie together and compensate for where the game disappointed me.

All in all, quite an empty experience I will soon forget that failed to even entertain me for a few hours, giving me a sense of frustration and boredome instead.


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Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Easy

Kona


Stars - 35

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on May 25, 2017 | edit | delete


Good atmosphere makes this game better than the sum of its parts


I completed the full game: this is definitely a flawed game, but a good one.

You can bet the developers have been a little confused about what to do EXACTLY with their ideas and the game came out as confused as they’ve been.

Still this is an indie game created by young people so I can personally forgive that kind of feeling… Provided the experience as a whole is better than the sum of its parts. And in Kona, I must say it definitely is.

There’s a huge immersion factor in the game given the fact that the devs knew for sure how to convey the “Northern Canadian feeling”. So I wandered in the snow for about 8 hours and enjoyed the atmosphere pretty much. This is all that counts about a game sometimes, just be an immersive original experience.

That said, the lack of general polish is clear. The story starts good but vanishes quickly, transforming itself from a good detective mystery into a supernatural horror with little to say (despite the atmosphere is still quite good). Too many red herrings and, all in all, just a decent narration supported by the environment.

Gameplay-wise, Kona is part survival, part adventure, part walking simulator, and none of its parts is good enough. The survival elements are poor (you collect items and weapons but rarely need them… actually, very few action sequences in the game). Puzzles are just key collection tasks besides the wires riddle.
Exploration is just ok, but still the locations are very similar to each other and after a while it becomes a bit boring - luckily the game is short enough to avoid disaster.

If good atmosphere is all you look for in a game, Kona plays very good thanks to its environments and astounding soundtrack.

If you can’t bear the general lack of polish of indie games, though, this is Just Another Indie Exploration Game.


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Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Easy

Syberia 3


Stars - 40

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on May 19, 2017 | edit | delete


A classy game, despite some lack of polish


While reading about the Scoring System of AdventureGamers, I stopped for a while to think if Syberia 3 is “a solid adventure that lacks enough polish or ambition to recommend without caution” - or if it is instead just a good game where “some aspects might have been executed better”.

I played the game on console, without all the technical problems that PC users had at launch. Still, lack of polish is quite evident in the game, starting from its ridiculous frame rate considered the dated graphics.

Anyway, the game is definitely one that does not lack ambition. It is, quite like all the other adventures designed by Benoit Sokal, a game with a solid narrative background and a great charisma.

The first two episodes of Syberia have always been considered “flawed cult games”, somehow. Syberia 3 is no different: it has all that’s needed to be considered a cult game designed by an excellent author, but it comes with aspects that should have been executed better.

Despite the fact that Sokal does not succeed in making the big step and create a real masterpiece, I still believe Syberia 3 stays true to the series and the genre. It portrays the same decadent poetics of the first adventures, painting characters and environments that sure succeed in keeping a high level of attention and curiosity in the player, maybe touching some emotional strings that too often stay untouched by games today.

It does so by creating totally new executions though, so it also succeeds in being a spiritual successor and not just a more-of-the-same. Syberia 3 is also quite a long game, longer than two previous episodes, and full of content.

I admired how this is truly a 3D classic adventure game: the authors did not try to skip the puzzles, lower the difficulty level or fill the game with hateful mini games or action sequences. The result is something between past and present, that sure will disappoint the fans of hybridation and modern games, but if you love the classic point and click pace, this is something you’ll want to sink your teeth into.

I gave it four stars because I found it to be a solid game, the kind of adventure game we need to hit the market from time to time. Sure, it has some narrative ups and downs and its graphics aren’t at the same level of Uncharted 4 - anyway, how many adventure games in the last 15 years succeeded in portraying a sound story with great 3D graphics? I mean, without adding so much action into the game that they became part of a totally different genre.

All in all, I admit I need a lot of context to give Syberia 3 four stars. But games are not something you can play without a context. And Syberia 3 trapped me in a world that is definetely above average from just about each artistic and narrative aspect. I was captured in the same feelings the first Syberia gave to me some 15 years ago, thanks to the ability of the author to research about Eastern Europe and create believable characters and environments to be placed in a decadent, poetical, steampunk-driven, unique and charismatic low fantasy world.

A disappointing - indeed, terrible - ending, some underdeveloped characters, technical glitches and lack of consistent narrative (some bold themes that deserved a far better payoff) prevent Syberia 3 from being superb. Anyway, it’s still one of the best adventure games I played since the release of Syberia 2, and I played a lot.


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Time Played: 10-20 hours
Difficulty: Just Right

STASIS


Stars - 25

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on Dec 11, 2015 | edit | delete


No fun in here


Highly disappointing game. Some things about Stasis are really good, like the 3D environments and the musical score, that create an astounding atmosphere.

The problem is that, once you take technical parts apart, you end up with a boring game with a terrible story. It’s not a matter of lack of originality, it’s just plain bad: a clichèd B-movie centered on shocking the player with disturbing scenes, while forgetting about plot consistency, balance and characters.
That is, you won’t stick to it for the story.

The puzzles are often illogical and you are just tempted to try everything on everything. You don’t have dialogues or real riddle-like machines, just inventory-based puzzles with few items in a limited number of rooms: difficulty is obtained through unintuitive, illogical combinations, and this is no fun.

The game is full of diaries to read, but they break the rythm, increase the boredom and decrease the fun once again…

I would recommend this game only to fans of horror sci-fi that don’t care about interesting plots, and just like the idea of exploring a beatifully rendered spaceship where bad things happened. The strong and consistent atmosphere is what saves this game from being just a negative experience.


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Time Played: 5-10 hours

Wolf Among Us: Episode Five - Cry Wolf, The


Stars - 20

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on Jul 10, 2014 | edit | delete

Murdered: Soul Suspect


Stars - 45

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on Jul 4, 2014 | edit | delete

Alpha Polaris


Stars - 40

Rating by Overmann.ita posted on Apr 2, 2014 | edit | delete

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