[h1]A short 20-minute point-'n'-click adventure game with some frustrating & annoying gameplay mechanics that tries hard but doesn't quite get there[/h1]
You play Clint, a detective who's returned to his old home in the English countryside to investigate the apparent suicide of his mother. Your job is to explore the house and find items which may clue you in on what really happened.
[h1]This would have been a much more enjoyable experience if the following were addressed:[/h1]
[b][u]1) Items need better click ranges.[/u][/b] E.g. I wanted to examine a painting on a wall, but clicking on it did nothing. Instead you're supposed to click on the wall tile directly beneath it, and if Clint is not facing the correct direction, nothing will happen either. In other words, you have to click various times, and from various character angles, just to see if an item can be interacted with or not.
[b][u]2) Some areas of the game are way too dark.[/u][/b] I actually spent a few minutes outside the house in the opening part of the game, looking for a way to enter the house, because [i]I couldn't find the door!!![/i] Yes, it was that bad! Turns out the door was a black hole somewhere in the middle of the row of windows. It was completely invisible to me, and my screen brightness is set to normal. Later on in the backyard I also couldn't see the scarecrow, and had to completely rely on the text description to figure out what it was.
I wish developers would understand that GOOD horror games need not be dark in order to be scary, and that when players can't see what they're supposed to (e.g. the door, the scarecrow, etc), it's [i]frustrating and anger-inducing[/i], and not [i]frightening[/i]. The horror comes from the build-up of plot tension and atmospheric cues such as sound, music, etc. Only cheap hacks need to make use of darkness to try to convey fear.
Typically, if I encounter a game too dark whose brightness settings I can't tweak, and that has absolutely [i]no reason[/i] for being that dark, I bin it within the first few minutes - I play games to be entertained, not frustrated.
[b][u]3) You have to physically walk to all corners of a room in order to see if there are any exit points.[/u][/b] When Clint walks into a room, only the immediate area around him is visible - take a look at some of the game's screenshots to see what I mean. So unless you walk down to the bottom of the screen, for instance, you'll not be able to see if any exits are there. This is despite the room already fitting entirely in the screen. I suppose the creator of this game wanted to convey a sense of mystery or fear, but what is the point of doing this? [b][i]The room has lights in it that are all on!!! And we can see that they're on!!! So why can we only see the extreme edges of the room only when we walk there??? It's not as if you're holding a candle walking around in a dark room ffs! It's just dumb. Please don't.[/i][/b] Oh, and if you think making it this way (such that you can only see the exits when you walk there) makes the game scary, you're wrong. It just makes it frustarting and incredibly annoying to play. I could feel my blood pressure rise as I wondered why someone would deliberately make gameplay so eye-rollingly obnoxious.
[b][u]4) Minimal puzzling involved.[/u][/b] The game does it all for you. All you need to do is pick up items while you explore, and if you need to use it on something, the game will automatically apply the item for you. This goes for item combos as well - e.g. if you have Object A and Object B and both need to be combined, you don't have to figure that out because when the situation calls for it, as long as you have both these items in your inventory, Clint will automatically combine and use them accordingly. So all you need really be concerned with, is just picking up everything you can. There was only one "real" puzzle in the game which involved a number, whose solution was far too obvious.
[b][u]5) Story needs much more depth.[/u][/b] You're promised a mystery, but really, there is none. The plot was as straightforward and in-your-face as they go. Within moments of gameplay you already know what you're in for, and that's what you do get.
[b][u]6) Narration needs to be tighter.[/u][/b] When I came back to the store page to write this review, I realised that the "About This Game" section told me more about the introduction to this game than the in-game content did. How can you assume players will read the "About" section before playing the game? Shouldn't whatever details are in the "About" section on the store page [i]also[/i] be in the game's introduction?! Otherwise, if you're going to leave it a mystery, don't put so many details in the "About" section because it makes players question why the game's overview in the store page tells them more about the game than the actual game itself!
[h1]Now, all that being said though, here's what I liked:[/h1]
[b][u]1) Small details in environments change as the story advances.[/u][/b] After you trigger certain events in the plot, when you return to some locations, things have changed slightly. This kept things fresh and dynamic.
[b][u]2) Build-up of plot tension is effective to an extent.[/u][/b] As we learn more, there is a sense that something big is about to happen... although sadly the climax was a huge letdown. If the developer could make the payoff much better (e.g. through the use of plot twists, more dramatic conclusions, etc), the tension sit-out would be worth it.
[b][u]3) Good English... mostly.[/u][/b] There was an error in one of the sentences though. I can't remember which one, but the tense needed to be corrected or a few words added to make it grammatically sound.
[code]Note to developer:
Take a look at some of the award-winning games found at http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/awards/ - which are similar in style to what I think you were going for. Many of them are highly immersive, fun, memorable, offer a good adventure game puzzling experience, and have smooth narrative and flow - all without the use of annoyingly dark environments or locations that are frustrating to navigate, even the horror ones. And remember that darkness or inability to see stuff does NOT equate "horror".[/code]
