Impostor Factory

If you have played To the Moon (plus minisodes) and Finding Paradise you should know what kind of game this is, if not (despite what the description says) I would advise to play those two games first: while it is true that the story is independent from those games, they still provide much needed context. Going in with no previous experience will make the story more surprising, but also confusing. If you liked the previous two games, chances are that you'll like this one as well: narratively it does some interesting things, and it keeps pushing what can be done with the RPG Maker aesthetics. That being said, I cannot rate it as high as the other two games for a couple of reasons: - All the games in the series are linear, but IF is very much railroaded: there's very little of those moments of explorations that lead to the discovery of tiny details about the scenes, or the very light puzzles that could be found in earlier titles. I personally want my games to be interactive experiences and for my tastes there's not enough interactivity in IF. - I have minor issues with a couple of weirdly formulated sentences at the end of the game (which is important since this game is basically all about the story). I also found the soundtrack less inspired compared to the previous titles.

Definitely not hardcore tearjerker like previous parts but maybe it's just me as this one seems much more family-concerned. In Kan situation it's kinda understandable and I admire his artistic creation anyway. Don't wanna spoil too much but everyone should know that there's almost no Neil and Eva this time. I really miss their humorous chats and funny argues, this is what gave emotional roller-coaster when mixed with sad dying patients stories. Ricebot is nice and does what it can to make us smile but cmon, this duet is irreplaceable! At least we get some of them in comic book in "Screw-It-Just-Gimme-Everything Bundle" so it's worth getting, especially that it also contains complete sountrack! I hope we can expect next parts of "To the moon" series in the future, door seems to stay open and old formula can be recycled virtually endlessly. Just don't let us gogers wait for DRM-free relase so long next time! 3 weeks were a torture but I remained loyal. :) And for those complaining at "gameplay". Well, it's nothing new that Freebird Games develops more animated novels than real games. This is what we expect from them, not every game must be about shooting or racing. This one is purely plot-driven and I like this style as it lets me read dialogues in my own pace listening to great piano soundtrack in the background. Also take into consideration that even on day-one relase price is insanely low, so it's not a scam or cashgrab. In a price of cinema ticket u get... well kind of movie. It's fair. :) But if you never played Freebird games an can afford just one "ticket" - choose To the moon or Finding Paradise for now.

Yes, this is an experience, a sort of interactive movie and not a game - but even on their own store page Freebird never claimed to be anything but that. So I completely fail to understand the complaint. We all know what we are into when buying a Freebird game, don't we? And if we don't like such experiences we simply won't buy them. Still there is a target group for these kind of games , too and I am a part of it. I cried like crazy at the end of To The Moon and also really enjoyed the specials and Finding Paradise. Bird story is nothing as epic or memorable but still nice imo. When I watched the trailer of Impostor Factory I hoped and expected to see the main characters Eva and Neill from the prvious games again and so I was a little bit disappointed when this was not the case. After a while however I liked the new characters as well. The story starts slow, gets really confusing and after a big WTF moment it leads to a section that feels a bit like To The Moon ... then it gets different again until the big bang that makes everything clear ... well, almost everything. The story again is humorous, emotional, touching and deeply humane. It also asks a lot of philosophical questions so I would say it has something for everybody., even though Neill and Eva are missing and as another reviewer stated, the replacements long cat and ricebot don't stand a chance to replace them. But this is not the reason I give this game only 4 stars. Also the almost absent gameplay is not the reason for this (like I said in the first sentence, I knew what I would get and therefore I wasn't disappointed). It is the bad translation into German. It is playable but it has far too many mistakes for my taste and for a game that is focused on text. According to their discord they will try to fix the German localisation as good as possible so there still is hope but right now I can't give 5 stars with a clean conscience.

As other reviews have said, opting not to have Neil and Eva as the playable characters is a step-down from previous games. It tries to build on the Neil and Eva narrative but because so much time is with other characters it doesn't quite reach the levels fans would hope. That said, for fans it's a must play, and for all others start out with To The Moon and if you become a fan then just play them all, you'll love them.