Baobabs Mausoleum Ep.1: Ovnifagos Don´t Eat Flamingos

Если в трёх словах, это безумный и весёлый треш. Игрушка точно не для массового пользователя. И не из-за отсутствия русского языка или пиксельной графики. Просто тут столько всего намешано. Вроде начинаешь играть в обычную пиксельную ролевую 2D-игру, а потом бац, и это уже трёхмерная игра, которая насыщена юмором, головоломками, сюрреализмом, безумной атмосферой, ретро-эффектами и множеством отсылок к культуре 80-90-х годов. Чего только стоит один ваш персонаж, агент ФБР Ватрасио Валпургис (вот имечко, да?), по-совместительству баклажан-вампир, который попал в дорожную аварию и оказался в странном городке Фламинго-Крик, с не менее странными обитателями. Как вам зачин?) Что уже говорить про наполнение самой игры. Вас ждёт встреча с безумными жителями, злым духом Вендиго, НЛО, разнообразными монстрами и не менее странными существами. В общем, как я и сказал, игра не для каждого. Но если захотите сыграть, то имейте ввиду, что игра не русифицирована, и что более важно, это первый эпизод, который обрывается и оставляет много вопросов. Так что, чтобы узнать финал безумной истории, нужно приобрести второй и третий эпизоды.

Where do I start... I get the feeling that the creators didn't really know what they wanted this game to be, so they made it a little bit of everything; an adventure game, a puzzle game, an RPG and an FPS. This may just be my personal opinion, but I think the game would have been a lot more powerful if they chose one style and stuck by it, perfecting the mechanics of one style instead of being too ambitious. The graphics are inconsistent as well, not just between each game style but also within the cutscenes. It's confusing when some environments are beautifully detailed with great shading, when others look like they were quickly thrown together and lack depth. The game runs quite smoothly but I couldn't be more frustrated than when I tried to play the first-person part and couldn't beat it just because the controls were not responsive enough. In this case, you would think "then why don't you use a controller to make that part easier?". Oh I tried. From the very beginning I tried playing with an Xbox one controller (bear in mind that the developers claim this has full controller support) and I couldn't even start the game because the controls didn't work at all, and therefore had to resort to using my keyboard. The music is pretty cool but it's (again) incohesive and there doesn't seem to be a general feeling that the music is trying to convey (for example, the main menu song is cheerful with bells and a bright melody, whereas the main theme in the opening cutscene is very dark with almost a horror theme). Usually, music can be used as a tool to strengthen the atmosphere in the game but here it falls short, as the music choices are as confusing as the game. Finally, my opinion is that a great game doesn't necessarily need to have any plot at all, as long as it can immerse you in other ways, like innovative puzzles or clever character development. However this game does try to communicate some kind of plot, but even that seems half done since there's no reason as to why the playable character is a cop and it doesn't have anything to do with the actual gameplay. I think I can sum up my experience of this game in this question: "What were you trying to achieve?". In every aspect (mechanic, graphics, music, plot, etc.) I feel like there was no clear decision made to go in any one direction with the design choices. Instead, we're presented with a big mix, and it seems like the developers were hoping that there will be something in this game for everyone. I think this might be the main flaw, because I can tell that there are some cool creative ideas in there (has anyone else made their main character an eggplant cop? I don't think so). Targeting a very niche part of the market could help give more depth to the game as a whole and might help convince others who didn't initially like e.g. horror/halloween or comedy games. TLDR; The game had a lot of potential but is confusing and doesn't seem to know what it wants to be.

It's a fun game with some nice art and a quirky atmosphere. The gameplay is flawed in many ways. The puzzles are mostly either extremely easy and obvious or obnoxiously punishing – forcing you to restart a whole section or level, just because of some poor collision detection or badly designed gameplay issue. It's fun and short enough to keep you going...just. But it feels like a game that was never tested effectively before being released. There's plenty of bad grammar/typos in the game and bugs too. By the way, if you come up against some 'anticheat' system, the code is 1 6 0 2 1 7. This makes no sense to me at all. The game asks for a code during one of the acts and I had to trawl the web for it, finding it in a walkthrough. I don't understand the purpose of this or many of the other nonsensical elements of this game but I'm sticking with it for now because it's funny and enjoyable in other ways. I got the game in a sale for a small amount of money so I don't mind the quirks and it's good to support indie developers but I would probably not be super happy if I'd paid full price due to the bugs.

Baobabs Mausoleum is an eclectic game, pure craziness that keeps changing its gameplay. The plot is the thing that links the whole thing and it's as weird as it is charming. The world has a "Gravity Falls" vibe that I ended up diggin a lot. If you like the looks of it and its narrative premise go ahead and get it. It's a cool amount of fun for its price.

Quirky and nostalgic. I really enjoyed playing through this short episode. If you liked the Zelda games on Game Boy and you also like Twin Peaks or Six Feet Under, you'll have a good time playing this. It's important to note that this isn't the full game, and it ends without resolving the opening conflict. However, I think it's priced accordingly at $5.99. I received a Steam key to review this game on a website I work for. Normally, I don't leave a Steam review when I publish a review on our website, but this game was unique enough that I hope more people play it.

IMPORTANT: Currently there is a part in the game where a password is needed. The character mentions that maybe it is on a website related to the game. However, it seems that the developer let the domain expire and now if you click on the steam "visit the cite" it will direct you to a very sketchy web page where it is implied you now have a virus. This is documented in the discussion section. I liked the game up until this point but this is a serious problem. So for now I feel obligated to give a thumbs down. Fix this!

This is a fun, retro style RPG... but the reason I can't recommend it is the fact that there are various glitches (can't play the game in windowed mode on Mac because of glitches, requiring a restart) and various things you need to solve the game (a code on the dev's site) are no longer available and must be found on the forum. If you like retro style games and Twin Peaks/David Lynch, this game is supposedly for you. However, note that although the game consists of 10 acts, the acts vary in length from taking 30m+ to taking literally under a minute. What was disappointing was that this game ended up feeling a lot like a demo reel. Some acts have unique mechanics in the context of the game. There's a Zelda type level, a 3D first person type of level, etc., but those were the only two that stood out to me. Various Easter eggs were never implemented and are now red herrings. Some achievement conditions are unclear: e.g. what does "Complete the dungeon in time" even mean? And apparently, the "talk to everyone in the game" achievement is bugged or broken. There's a VHS overlay that's well done, and toggleable, which I appreciate, but, various VHS effects weren't disabled even when VHS mode was turned off: namely, in terms of how text was displayed (in a faux VHS fashion in both VHS and non VHS mode). The text ended up looking really blurry and was hard for me to read. The start of the game definitely felt more put together than the end of the game.

This is a really neat adventure game with a very strange and bizarre story to it and it takes place in a weird and wacky town. It's a short game but the price is also pretty cheap and it is enjoyable for the most part. The puzzles are fairly straight forward and most of them aren't too hard to figure out but there are a couple that are a bit frustrating. Overall though it's not a very hard game. The controls for the most part are decent but in some of the different sections they can be a bit of a pain. I played using the xbox 360 controller and when you have to do platforming I found it was a bit difficult. There was also a section where you have to move through a tight path and I found that I would fall off very easily and die, which brings me to another point, the checkpoints. Somtimes they feel like they are too far back and if you die you will have to repeat that entire section again from the start. This really only becomes a pain in one area though but if you screw up get ready for a bit of frustration. The pixel art / graphics are absolutely gorgeous. There is a '90's style VHS filter you can put on and it's gotta be the best filter of this type I have ever seen. It actually looks like you are watching this on an old VCR with that on. While it is cool, turning it off I found the pixel art to be absolutely gorgeous. The music is also very nice and fits in really well with the game and that intro song is absolutely amazing. AMAZING. The intro to this is so amazing. There are some graphical glitches in the area you get to that's in 3D but they don't take away from the game much. Everything always looks so nice. I would definitely say this game is worth playing. It's short but it's also cheap. There is at least one other episode already out on Steam as well so if you really enjoy this you can keep it going and just so you know, this episode actually ends on a cliffhanger so it makes you want to see what's in that episode 2. I enjoyed this game, it's really bizarre and that's something I like a lot because it's quite unique. Check it out of you like adventure games, pixel art, and weirdness.

I picked up this game because it looked interesting. I've played point and clicks before, and while they're not my favorite game, I generally enjoy them. This game feels like someone who's never played a point and click coded it, then refused to fix any of the faults. I'm not talking about the gameplay, which seems to use the standard moon logic. I'm talking about the actual mechanics. So, with a point and click, generally you have to talk to people a lot, and interact everything with everything. Point and clicks allow quick skipping of dialogue you've heard before, and running to allow your character to move faster. This game has neither. Not only does dialogue just repeat the same 6 lines, it takes about 3-4 seconds to move past each line. Your character only goes at a casual walking pace too, so trying to figure out what the game wants me to do takes even longer. When you're trying to figure out what to do, this quickly becomes frustrating, since the vast majority of the game ends up holding down buttons and waiting for your character to meander across the screen, just so you can see whether or not you figured out the puzzle. Nope? Well, time to meander across the screen again. I don't know what my gameplay length is, but the actual game is about 10% of that; 90% was spent walking or re-reading unskippable dialogue when trying to figure out how to pass the next moon logic test. It's such a simple fix too, and the dev either refuses to acknowledge error, or does not care, so I'll never know if there's an interesting game behind the obsfucation either.

A strange story told through an older classic look and feel. The story focuses on Watracio Walpurgis as he struggles to find a way out of the strange town of Flamingo Creek he has been stranded in after a car crash. It's a peculiar and unpredictable experience with plenty of charm and much to like after the couple hours it takes to finish this first chapter of the story. From the moment the intro to the game starts to play once you start up a new save file, you know this will be an odd and interesting adventure. I can't wait to get my hands on chapter 2 as soon as it releases to see how the story continues! I highly recommend this to anyone looking for an original and different story experience that is more about the story and less about complex gameplay. The puzzles are a means to an end and there are plenty of questions you'll have by the end which will be great story threads to continue going forward.