Great, so they can make a professional remake and make me interested. With all the backlog titles that are looking amazing or at least decent I could choose from, why would inflict this one to my aesthetic sense? I'd rather play a text adventure than something so cringey.

I just gave you a good advice since I already played the game and I know that looks can be deceiving. If the artstyle is not your taste that of course is up to you. I had much fun playing it - regardless of the amateurish looking look - that's all I wanted to say and since there is the opportunity to test the actual gameplay for free I posted the link so everybody can test themselves if the game is enjoyajable or not.

I agree that gameplay is more important than graphics, but I can't just stand looking at this, to the point that I am embarassed for the people who made it. I appreciate the advice, word of mouth between gamers is a great way to get to know new games!

No problem. I can understand it if it literally "hurts" you to even try the game. In that case I probably won't do it either :)

One thing I read about on your "Post Mortem" (thanks to the link made available earlier in this thread), is the fact that you put in an option to toggle off toilet humour. That pleases me no end, because I would have been really ticked off to find toilet humour in a game I bought. Now I only wish all games would provide an option to their players to toggle toilet humour, nudity (as did Rex Nebular), and visceral violence on or off. I would probably buy a lot more games if I had a choice as to which of the unpleasantnesses I get exposed to in-game.

Looks fine: multi language support, mac/linux versions available, OST included, DRM-free.
Instabought :)

That's kind of understandable but don't forget how much work it means to tailor your game in a way that everybody could switch everything off and on that might be offensive at all. Especially in this time when people get offended so easily. The option in Demetrios was implemented after people complained and I am sure it was not an easy implementation. Expecting such a toggle for all things in all games ... imo that's a bit too much to ask.

OK, I don't mean to be mean towards the dev, as he seems like a very nice guy, I read the post mortem for Demetrios and it was a very interesting read, I'm not a game dev, so I won't pretend like I know the hardships of making a video game, and I'm definitely not saying "I could do better" -- I couldn't, even if my life depended on it.

I'm also not one of those people who just goes into release threads to spew negativity just for rudeness' sake; I know nothing about CRPGs or strategy games, so I just... don't go into those threads, because I have nothing pertinent to add to the discussion. Point & click adventures, though... this was my most favoured genre while growing up, and they still hold a very special place in my heart, it's a genre I know and love, so I don't think my opinion is one to be dismissed so quickly.

I tried the demo (thanks, Marko), but, in all fairness, I couldn't recommend this game with a clear conscience to point & click fans. I can see the obvious Broken Sword inspiration, but whereas Broken Sword shines with its humor, Demetrios just... yeah... no. It's just lazy, childish humor, which I guess some people might appreciate, and that's fine, but if you're over 20 I don't think you'll find much witty, clever writing to laugh at. The dev found it odd that most critics complained about the music. Well, A+ for effort, I guess? Effort alone isn't everything, when the end result is so... poor. You don't need to go for "operatic" film-like scores or "retro" chiptune stuff, but this (apparently) lazily-made "poor-man's pop" really doesn't help the game. It's also apparent that the dev decided not to do a "traditional" third person point & click adventure because his animation skills are severely bad, and I understand the decision not to have players endure the appalling character design and lame animations if he had made a "proper" Broken Sword-style game, but the thing is that this ends up hurting the game. It looks more like a lazy mobile cash-grab than a full-fledged adventure game made for PC, as you could easily mistake this for a hidden object game. Not a very good one, at that.

Marko mentioned trying the demo first, to check out the gameplay. On the other hand, I'm going to say: don't bother. It's a point & click adventure, if you played any one of those in your life, the gameplay is basically the same. There's a hint system akin to what A LOT of other point & click adventures have been doing for the past 8 or so years, except this time around you have a hidden object minigame attached to it (yay, fun!). That's the only "gameplay" difference, but other point & click adventure games did a way better in-game hint system, anyway, so I wouldn't bother praising that. So, if you look at the screenshots and the art direction or the writing puts you off, you're better off not getting it. Seriously. No need to get a demo, since you'll just get more of the same writing and aesthetics. If you ever played any Broken Sword game, the gameplay is exactly the same, except you play with... an invisible character all the time, and you get to see him during "conversation cutscenes". And you get to endure some really uninspired music, I guess? (N.B.: you CAN turn the music off, even in the demo, so that's a plus)

Now, I'd like to comment on GOG's curation. I've had games I wanted to buy rejected because of curation. That's just the way it works. I didn't get angry or salty or whatever. There are a lot of downsides to curation, I agree, but, in my opinion, the good vastly outweighs the bad. I'd rather have two or three games I wanted being rejected by GOG, than have the store full of shovelware and... crap. I played Demetrios' demo. If I was part of GOG's curation team, I would have rejected this game, too. You want to play a "lazy Broken Sword"? You have the Runaway trilogy, and HUNDREDS of other games, to scratch that itch, no need to buy this game. I understand that, as fans of whatever, we always tend to find it hard to understand why GOG rejected something we like. I get that. But this game... yeah... sorry, guys, I really do see why GOG would have rejected it in the first place.

Not really trying to crap on the dev's work and dedication, but let's not victimize the guy, either... "don't be rude, it's a one-man passion project". Sure. And that's great. But Iconoclasts is a one-man passion project, too, Owlboy took ten years to make with a VERY small team, Albedo is a one-man project, and so on, and so forth... being a "one-man passion project" shouldn't be a free pass to make a crappy game, when there are so many one-man studio games that absolutely rock.

Having said this, I do wish this dev the best of luck, he does sound like a very nice person, and I hope his game sells... well enough?

Why did I recommend the demo? Because opinions differ, because some people like things others dislike. Telling people not to try a demo because it is a point and click is ridiculous. EVERY point and click is the same in gameplay since in all of those games you combine things to progress the story. Still a demo will give people the opportunity to see if they like the story or the characters or the music. I loved the music you obviously disliked it a lot. So who is wrong and who is right? I can tell you: nobody. We both are right. The EXPERIENCE is what counts not the way a game is working. The sum of the pieces are important and you just cannot say that everybody will see things the same way you did which would be a reason not to download a demo.

I will mark the day on my calendar when people finally realize that there is no thing like a good game or a bad game. There might be a game that is broken or unplayable because of bad design in keybinding or whatnot ... but a functioning game can always be enjoyable to people.

Humor - nothing can be more subjective than humor. Ask any comedian, he will tell you the same. I absolutely hate Adam Sandler and his humor i.e. - still he is pretty successful. When I heard about toilet humor in Demetrios years ago, I was expecting the worst - did not happen. Did I laugh? Afair not really - but I enjoyed what I saw. I never expected a comedy festival just an enjoyable and charismatic story with more or less relateable characters. Which is what I got.

Music - like I said, I really love the soundtrack of Demetrios and I hate soundtracks others are loving. There's only one way to find out if that will be the case for others as well - try the demo. I know it's cheesy and catchy and maybe even simple ... as is the whole idea and the characters. It's what I WANTED. I wanted easy and distracting. Just like in a Bud Spencer movie I just wanted to enjoy myself - and I did.

Animations - Yes, they are more or less absent in the game and in the few scenes you can see them they are really rough. Maybe it was bcause the dev back then was unable to do proper animations or because it was too complicated, time consuming or costly. Don't know. don't care. I actually thought it was a change to get a first person adventure. Yes, it felt a bit like a HOG sometimes because of the static pics but then again those are kind of fun as well sometimes.

Hint System - I already explained WHY I like THIS hint system more than the ususal hint system which "a lot" (not so many if you think about it) of point and click games are using. It's not because it is so much fun to find a few cookies hidden in a scene, it is because you don't get the hint for free, you'll have to work for it and therefore it does not feel like cheating so much.

You don't want to be unfair but you still are. You are comparing this fun project of one person with a big budget production and a classic like Broken Sword. Wow! Of course it will lose in this case. The most unfair thing you did however is to complain about the curation system because they ACCEPTED a game. That's another thing I cannot get into my head. Curation is subjective as well and therefore won't hit everybodys taste in every case. So yes, some won't like Demtrios but some will ... but because YOU disliked it you define it as "shovelware" and complain about GOG. A point and click with puzzles, minigames, achievements, unlockable extras, multi language and such a playtime shovelware? Really? You disliked it, that's your right - but maybe you should look at some shovelware to see what it is.

Btw: This shovelware is rated very positive on Steam - mabye because opinions are subjective?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/451570/Demetrios__The_BIG_Cynical_Adventure/

I'm just focusing on this bit, here, to make some things clear -- and because I wholeheartedly agree with the subjectivity inherent to my personal opinions on the game, the stuff I like and the stuff I dislike and others might feel the complete opposite of me.

First of all, the dev was the first person to draw comparisons to Broken Sword. If you read that post mortem someone linked earlier, you'll get plenty of Broken Sword reference material by the developer himself, right from the beginning of the piece, when he clearly and unmistakably claims he got the urge to do a point & click adventure game after having finished Broken Sword on the PS1 (which I would argue is far from the best way to play Broken Sword but, again, subjective). My comparisons to Broken Sword are not that "unfair", if you think about it, all things considered. Plus, I did focus on other one-man studio projects with modest budgets that ended up being amazing games. That's the comparison we should be drawing, and that's how I ended that paragraph on my previous post: mentioning a couple of small projects that are amazing, great games, even if they were made by extremely small teams over a long period of time.

As for the curation, that wasn't the point I was trying to make, but maybe it's my fault for not expressing myself better. I'm not "mad at GOG" for having accepted this game, all I was trying to say was that curation has good and bad sides to it, and that I've had a couple of games I was interested in not making their way to GOG, but I'd rather have it this way than have the gates open and get thousands of shovelware titles in here. And, yes, I also admitted that if I was part of GOG's curation team, I'd probably have turned down Demetrios, as well. Not saying it IS shovelware (who gets to decide that, anyway? Not me), but, come on, man... one look at those screenshots and the whole thing SCREAMS shovelware.

I'm glad you and others got the game you wanted in here, I really am, don't get me wrong. I just think this is a very weak game, personally.

TL;DR: I agree with your view on subjectivity. The dev was the one drawing comparisons to Broken Sword, I just took it from there. That wasn't the point I was trying to make about curation.

[EDIT] Regarding your statement that "first person perspective made it feel fresh", I don't know where you've been, but there are A LOT of first person point and click adventure games. I mean... Myst has been out since 1993, as has 7th Guest. It's not really something that feels "fresh". It just feels... like what it should feel: the dude didn't want to animate movement and place characters in the scenes, for whatever reason; which is his prerogative, of course, but ultimately that's what it is. He clearly wasn't going for "fresh", since we've had FPP point & clickers for ages, now.

Maybe, but i think the art fits the game and scene, regarding " looking like a free amateurish game.": there are many games twice or even 3 times expensive then this games listprice that look worse.
Peronally i think the game is okay as it is now.

Too many AAA games were released that look like crap in my honest opinion, many socalled AAA games really look like sh it to me.

Anyway a look depends on the gamer, every gamer has his/her own view / opinion about a game, and imho this game fits the art style, and the list price is also okay, and prices went up a while ago for all games, it is true things are getting more expensive , then again usually there is a % off at release so that makes up for price hikes.





yes it was drm free, once installed by the steam client the game runs free from having the client to be running or starting
which proves ocne again steam games can run without steam client, only downisde is you need it to install the games, but the steam client has never been allowed by me to roam free... its not allowed to start at bootup of windows, it is not allowed to run... only runs when i launch it when i want to buy new Steam games after that it is shut down.

I own older Artifex Mundi games twice or even 3 times, the first older games i bought retail long before i knew about Steam ( i read about it in the GOG forums, same goes for Gamersgate, i did know about GOG cause it was in a gameplay magazine ( paper version).

Anyway i always buy Steam games as long as the txt file trick works to run a game without nasty steam client, also told the developers that, if they decide to prevent it, its okay with me, i wont buy their games at release, and maybe noit even at a summer/winter sale ( i hate DRM)

I agree with you on music..... but i always turn it off if the game allows me to, doesnt matter if it sounds like beep beep or a full orchestra, imho i believe music distracts me while playing , many games also have ambient sounds ( usually they can be disabled seperately), i also tend to turn them off)
Voices i usally enable cause i am curious how good they are, some are pretty meh, others are very good.

Gorky 17 is one of the exceptions, the music fits the combat very well , red alert and cnc had some nice oens aswell...

Anyway i replied cause i am mainly a point 'n click gamer aswell, own many classic AAA games point n click, and lots of RTS or TBS, and RPG, like the welknown redalert, kknd, baldurs gates, Fall Out..... etc etc ( only classics ofcourse) i do agree demos work, imho every game should have a playable demo, thats how i started my PC games collection: usually after playing a demo i bought the retail ( if it was available in my country ofcourse)

Thank you. That was the main thing I was hoping to convey - and that's the reason why I think that a demo will never be useless. Just let people decide - they might think the same, they might not.

I have to confess that - while I do know about that post mortem - I never actually read it in whole. Anyways, I think being inspired by something and comparing the product with the game it has been inspired by are still different things.

Thank you for the clarification and no, still no shovelware. I already said it: don't judge a book by its cover :)
That does not mean that it's not unlikely that there is a certain amount of people that just dislikes the kind of art style (again, imo it is fitting to the silly, just have some fun character of the game and the characters).

And that is completely fine this way. I am glad that people have different tastes. Just remember if we only were able to listen to the same music, play the same games or watch the same movies .... boooooring ;)

I did say this? Have to reread what I wrote (sorry, it was late, I was tired ....)
And here I found what you probably meant:

"I actually thought it was a change to get a first person adventure"

Yes, of course there are a lot of first person adventures like Myst and 7th guest but those were always enviromental adventures which work a bit different than the usual point and click. Anyways I never wanted to say "hey, it's fresh and new because it's first person" it just felt a bit different for me because of this when I played it. The reason for the missing animations probably was just that this one dev did not have the time or the money to do them. Of course still screens are easier to do.


It was news to me that it still has to be proven that SOME Steam games can un without the client. The problem is however that you won't know which don't and which will prior buying if they are not on the wiki list.

Then you won't have to worry. In my experience all Artifex Mundi games worked either out of the box or with the txt trick - and I have quite a few of those as well :)
Agreed! :)