Posted February 19, 2009
Let me preface my impressions with the following: This game suffers from a very noticeable unevenness in quality and production values. This is a very real flaw that might be offputting to some. Depending on your ability to stomach this issue this game is either a yummy snack or a rusty can of dogfood. This is nothing that can be described by a score or review, this is really something that depends on your gaming personality.
At times the voice actors and 2D/3D graphics are doing their jobs admirably, everything meshes together really nicely. It's impressive how this game can look at times. At other times you'll stumble over obvious errors in the spoken dialogue/subtitles, shoddy voiceacting and cringeworthy character art, mixed with very unnatural animation. Maybe the devs run out of money? I don't know. One thing's for sure though: one gets the feeling that this was localized from a foreign language on a shoestring budget, leading to some lost depth and introducing some flaws in the process.
If you can see past that issue you'll be treated to a charming game that point & click adventure fans will undoubtedly enjoy. It's probably more to the beginner side of things, since there are only two possible actions besides movement, namely looking at and manipulating things. Plus, your inventory always stays manageable and gets cleared out from time to time. You can probably play through this in one sitting on a weekend if you're a battlehardened pro, but IMHO that doesn't detract from its value. Any longer and the story would have started to fall apart. The way it is, it's a nice. bite-sized adventure, perfectly fine for a relaxing bout of point&click goodness.
After all is said and done I'm pretty happy with both presentatioon and gameplay though. The puzzles are sufficiently obscure, yet somewhat logical, the story is pretty involving, the graphics are OK at worst, and the length of the whole game is just right. It sets out to tell a little roadmovie-like story, and it succeeds well at that. Don't expect anything overly fancy, this is not a genre-redefining blockbuster with a huge budget. This is a slightly flawed, rather simplicistic game with a certain charm that'll keep you coming back if you accept it for what it is.
Again, I certainly don't regret spending my money on this, but YMMV - be aware that this game is far from perfect. This really needs to be stressed. This game is rock stable and gameplay-wise quite competent (if simplicistic in comparison to the heavy hitters), but it suffers from an uneven presentation more than anything else. It's slightly above average due to that inconsistent gameplay experience IMHO.
At times the voice actors and 2D/3D graphics are doing their jobs admirably, everything meshes together really nicely. It's impressive how this game can look at times. At other times you'll stumble over obvious errors in the spoken dialogue/subtitles, shoddy voiceacting and cringeworthy character art, mixed with very unnatural animation. Maybe the devs run out of money? I don't know. One thing's for sure though: one gets the feeling that this was localized from a foreign language on a shoestring budget, leading to some lost depth and introducing some flaws in the process.
If you can see past that issue you'll be treated to a charming game that point & click adventure fans will undoubtedly enjoy. It's probably more to the beginner side of things, since there are only two possible actions besides movement, namely looking at and manipulating things. Plus, your inventory always stays manageable and gets cleared out from time to time. You can probably play through this in one sitting on a weekend if you're a battlehardened pro, but IMHO that doesn't detract from its value. Any longer and the story would have started to fall apart. The way it is, it's a nice. bite-sized adventure, perfectly fine for a relaxing bout of point&click goodness.
After all is said and done I'm pretty happy with both presentatioon and gameplay though. The puzzles are sufficiently obscure, yet somewhat logical, the story is pretty involving, the graphics are OK at worst, and the length of the whole game is just right. It sets out to tell a little roadmovie-like story, and it succeeds well at that. Don't expect anything overly fancy, this is not a genre-redefining blockbuster with a huge budget. This is a slightly flawed, rather simplicistic game with a certain charm that'll keep you coming back if you accept it for what it is.
Again, I certainly don't regret spending my money on this, but YMMV - be aware that this game is far from perfect. This really needs to be stressed. This game is rock stable and gameplay-wise quite competent (if simplicistic in comparison to the heavy hitters), but it suffers from an uneven presentation more than anything else. It's slightly above average due to that inconsistent gameplay experience IMHO.