Ratings by Joakim

First off, to notice, I will shortly review the whole game up to act 3. It is all the same game after all. Acts 4 and 5 still to come but I will do my short review now.

This game is exceptional, inovative, creative, it s just crazy, this kind of art you can see only in indie adventure games I guess .

It is more like an interactive story, you wont get stuck with puzzles, there are no actual classical puzzles, you might find your self struggling to find a location in a game world, there are maybe a few real puzzles, simple and short. I like that, I dont like when puzzles slow down the narative, this does not happen in the Zero. But on the other hand, narrative is pretty weird and hard to get, It s one of the core concepts of the game, weirdness, confusion, mystery, but it slowly unfolds and pieces are coming together, but you must be focused a bit to get it.

I cant stress enough how this piece of art is inovative in gameplay and original in atmosphere. It does rely on classical adventure game concepts, but it makes a huge twists, you have a feeling like you are creating the story and experiencing it at the same time.

Allthough this is a great game, or better to say an art installation wrapped into a game, not everyone will find it enjoyable. This is the thing with indie adventure games, some of them are just exceptional, art masterpieces, like this one, but only some people will resonate with their atmosphere, concept, story… Although I have given this game 4.5/5 stars, because it really deserves it, I wont play act 4 and 5 when they come out. Because, this game actually does not make me feel good. That might be the quallity, valuable experiences are often not pleasant, but in the end of experience you feel somehow enriched. Still, on the other hand, people play games to have fun, to feel good for at least most of the time. So in my particular case, this is not a game I will return to or I will remember this game as I remember Longest journey or Grim Fandango. But I am really glad I have played it because I salvaged an oportunity for a real life enriching experience, dont miss it !

Joakim

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Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Very Easy

Armikrog is spiritual sucesor to “The Neverhood” from 1996, a classic visual masterpiece, good old game, cult classic I’d say. So Armikrog is not an expansion for that game, it is completely new game, but the visual style and feelings of these games are the same, it’s claymation !

Now, to the game, Visuals are exceptional, I guess most of the budget was spent on visuals (claymation, stopmotion). Characters are cool, loveable, the villain is cool, kinda really scary, characters are well done in general. Backstory is something special, very good. This is some real art, it is rarely seen, this kind of creativity in both writing and visuals. Soundtrack is great, just great. So, great visuals, great characters, great story and great soundtrack, why did I give it 3 out of 5 stars ?

The thing is I would not give it even 3 stars if I did not have respect for these guys and what they did in the past. With this game they did not leverage the potential they had, normal player will hardly be motivated to go through this game.

Story is not integrated well into the game, it s just weird how they did it, you have this wall at one place and that wall contains a mini literature masterpiece. But it is completely disconnected with the game ! It’s like, oh such a cool story but… now I am back to this weird frustrating gaming experience, I would like to feel that story throughout the game, see it come alive… but story is actually really dead until the end of the game when it is all revealed… bad design, frustrating, you see I did not finish the game, almost did, I thought it would last much more, then went on youtube and saw I was near the end. But because of this disintegration with story it was not really interesting for me, just wandering around…
The game has a good writing behind it and it wants to tell it, but it does not do it in an efficient way.

And even more important than story problems, game mechanics are screwed, you can just feel that lack of smart cursor.

Game design is weird, I guess they went for this compact-simple-weird-cool-integrated-artsy-nonconventional game design, I respect that, kickstarter funding allowed them do that and it’s cool they did try to make something different, but man it did not work… its frustrating… Even main menu has unconvetional design without a visible reason, putting save/load game under options section, leaving out the volume control…
The game is also a bit buggy (newer versions should be less buggy) and… In the end it turned into just wandering from room to room solving puzzles, remembering pictures, taking pictures with phone so you can use them later. You have this puzzle where you must switch rooms like 15 times in a row, click smth in one room see what happens in the other… dooh…

I dont play adventure games because of puzzles, this game might have some good puzzles but I only love puzzles integrated with story, with purpose… I would like to know why I am solving the puzzle, I m not the sudoku type of guy.

Alltogether, this is not a game I would recomend, sadly, because I respect this guys and I respect what they do. The game virtues fell apart because simply game design was not good, did not work out. Though I can feel what they were aiming for, but this did not work out. I hope the guys will learn from this and next time balance the creativity and efficiency.

I advise you to read official adventure gamers review by Becky Waxman, I think it is a good review.

Joakim

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Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Just Right

This is a classical adventure game, nothing much new,
uses old well known mechanics and design, has some minor improvements to mechanics like highlighting all available items on the scene.
More precisely, this is a humorous classical adventure game, like Monkey Island series.

The game graphics are good, if you like cartoonish style you really might like it.
Also, the Deponia universe is creative and interesting.
I tryed this game because of the looks and setting.
The game also has some decent sound engeneering, good voice acting and very cool fitting soundtrack.
Puzzle design is well thought, game is not easy nor hard.

But, I did not finish it, main character is not very loveable, I did not like the characters in general.
Also it was not very funny for a humorous adventure game, something might have been lost in translation from German, I dont know. But actually I think it’s just not my type of humor, tries to be like Monkey Island, but something is missing.
After some time I just did not have the motivation to go through puzzles, to go through all that dialogue which is not particulary interesting or funny…

I did not like the storytelling also, the way story progresses and the speed.
There is a big high in the story at the beginning and then it drops down leaving you without
actual goal, just dissapointment, then you realize “ah that is the goal now”, but for some time I was kinda… confused what to do next after that “bummer” experience.

All in all, props to Daedalic, this game is objectivly well done, I did bash it a bit but mostly because of
my subjective preferences. It is good to see serious developer putting some serious effort into this genre.

If you are looking for something like monkey island, give it a try, just try a demo or something before you buy it.
Game definitely has the looks, but does it have that character, that story, does it give that awesome magical experience that adventure games can have ? For me no, but you must try for your self

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Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Just Right