Anna's Quest

Anna's Quest is an exceptionally well produced point and click adventure. Its puzzles are of the inventory and conversation based puzzle style typical of the mid 90s LucasArts and Sierra games (Like Monkey Island, Kings quest 5-7 etc). It has a passable but not exceptional fairy tale plot which is very much family friendly and will certainly keep any under 12 players thoroughly entertained. Older players might find themselves a little bored unless they play it in short bursts. The game is worth its high price for the playtime and puzzle quality. You are probably looking at around 20 hours playtime, puzzles which are, on the whole, pretty sensible and the whole thing is backed up by good graphics, a decent musical score and voice acting of professional quality. The reasons I have only given this game three stars are the following 1) Long sections of extremely dull scripting 2) A very, very irritating protagonist To elaborate, the converations with the non player characters are largely dull and frequently irrelevant to the plot. There is virtually no humour in the game. Also at times it feels like a huge effort to find anything the irritatingly pious main character is willing to do. This is especially the case when trying to get her to use her 'super-power'. You'd think this would play a big part in the puzzle design. But no, it is underused and poorly used. In short, get this if you want an old school point and click to play for an hour every evening. Any more than that in one go and you are likely to get bored or seriously annoyed by Anna.

[u] Summary: [/u] A point and click adventure game with heart, Anna's Quest does something that I haven't seen the genre do for a while: tug directly on the heartstrings in terms of empathy. While it's gameplay is what you'd want out of the genre and does a great job in really being in that sweet spot of not being too easy, but not being too painfully frustrating, it's the story telling and characters that carry it in a way that hasn't been done in the genre for a while. There's not a lot of humor and the visuals lack compared to some of their prior work in Deponia, but its clear that they wanted to make a heart-warming story more then anything else, and great voice acting and writing makes you want to see what happens next. It's a game that I'll be completing for the story alone, and that's what you need out of a game in this genre. Definitely worth a pick up for narrative focused fans or Point and Click lovers. [b] Gameplay Footage and Video First Impressions: http://youtu.be/CNSkY5ITB7s[/b] [u] Lists: [/u] [b]+:[/b] [list] [*] Perfect balance of gameplay in terms of difficulty. Not too easy, but not with old PnC adventure game logic that makes you want to pull your hair out. [*] The story is superb and in particular, the empathy aspect of the game really shines through. Be prepared to have your heartstrings tugged on. [*] Voice acting is great. In particular, Anna is played perfectly and the characters in question come to life thanks to their voice actors. Not over the top, but just right. [*] Enough red herrings added in terms of gameplay without it being annoying for exploration. [*] Have I mentioned the charm? [*] Pacing is handled rather well. [/list] [b]-:[/b] [list] [*] The visuals seem like a step back from Deponia. [*] Could have added some puzzles/minigames to add a little of variety to gameplay. [/list]

I love adventure and point and click games. I especially love ones that have humor, good characters, and put a fun spin on fairytale or folklore elements. This game delivers on all of those fronts. The puzzles weren't too easy, but they weren't too frustrating either. I used a walkthrough a couple times for hints, but that was only because I had a time constraint and was impatient. The puzzles aren't hard enough that you should need a walkthrough. I enjoyed the characters. Anna's voice grated me a little, but I liked all the other voices, and the art was great. This game would get five stars for me, if it wasn't for the ending. Vague Spoilers I don't have any problem with sad endings, and I was very pleased with the development of their villain character, and I liked getting to explore her motivations, but the game introduces a lot of elements and does a lot of great buildup right to the end, and then it just...ends without tying everything together or answering the questions that I as, the gamer, really wanted to have answered. There were other characters who's motivations were never explained, and backstories that you expected to be given, but weren't ever given. The ending was very unsatisfying for me. It felt like it didn't entirely live up to the promises that it made in the previous chapters, and it really felt like the whole thing was solved by a Deux ex Machina instead of the protagonist. End of Vague Spoilers. I really enjoyed this game until the end, but...the rushed and unsatisfying ending really kind of spoiled the experience for me a little bit. Because of the ending, I can't give my full recommendation.

This game is phenomenal. Very compelling story that can appeal to all ages and is morally complex without being moralizing. The puzzles are very well-designed; they're hard enough to be fun but easy enough that you won't get stuck for more than a few minutes at a time. There are many references to the classics, particularly the King's Quest series, and they are well-done and not smarmy. My only complaint is that the voice acting was really annoying, but I just turned off voices early on and then I was fine.