Chronicle of Innsmouth

Un'avventura che non eccelle in nessun campo, salvo la creazione di una buona atmosfera. Ne viene fuori il giusto mix tra cupezza e umorismo che rende il tutto ancora più straniante. Il binomio punta e clicca vecchia scuola/Lovecraft poi ha sempre il suo fascino ed avrei dato un giudizio positivo se non fosse stato per alcune scelte di design assolutamente scriteriate, che vanno dai frustranti QTE all'ancora peggiore puzzle del faro. Vecchia scuola o meno, il compito di un'avventura grafica è quello di raccontare una buona storia (qui siamo al minimo sindacale) e intrattenere, non portare il giocatore all'esasperazione.

Блин, короче. Это квест, за основу которого взяты произведения Лавкрафта про Ктулху. Люблю эту тему. Сюжет: главный герой едет в Аркхем, но у него это не слишком получается, и его следующей остановкой становится Иннсмут, где он сталкивается со страшным культом Дагона и с организацией, которая ему противостоит. Графически: если играли во вторую часть Monkey Island - я не про переиздание с новой графикой, а именно про оригинал - то вы знаете уровень. Я играла. Ужасного для меня нет ничего. Звуковое сопровождение не выдающееся, но атмосферу подчёркивает. Геймплейно: это квест с лёгким пиксельхантингом. Я встряла в паре мест, но, по факту, в Chronicle of Innsmouth нет ничего, что невозможно было бы пройти (даже побег из гостиницы осилен без снижения уровня сложности). Итог: в целом, неплохой квест, хотя историю можно было бы позавороченней придумать. Однако! Прям бежать и покупать не рекомендую - несмотря на то, что поставила "палец вверх", это не must have. К сожалению, игре не удалось переплюнуть Shadow of the Comet - она поинтереснее будет, хоть и очень старая.

Voice-acting usually okay, sometimes quite bad. Pixel graphics fairly good. Music is bombastic and too much. The puzzles are okay, except for a couple of cheesies. The story is decent. This would be a recommend, except that as pretty much everyone else has said, near the end it devolves into completely aggravating and unnecessary timed events. Even though they're in the last 10 minutes of a several-hour game, I still considered quitting, because I knew what I wanted to do, but had to fight the interface every step of the way to do it, and this led to numerous unfair deaths. These events, in less than 5% of the game, really do push it from a yes to a no. Shame, really.

+Nostalgic feel +Great setting. +One can feel the passion behind the game. +Decent VA. -No keyboard shortcuts. -Could have used a more tight UI. -Mostly bad, uninspired and/or annoying puzzles. -Terrible QT events. -Mazes! -Amateurish (and sometimes laughable) graphics. -Repetitive, annoying music. -Is it horror or humorous?

Do not recommend. I am getting filtered by the QTE segment which I do not feel belongs in this genre. After the [spoiler]nun, the totem pole, the lighthouse sequence, and now the escape from the hotel, [/spoiler] I don't think the developer let his grandma playtest this game. Otherwise, not bad.

Lovecraft is probably one of the most influential authors in video games, if not the most. Countless games draw inspiration from his work, and I have to admit to finding a certain appeal to playing them. Chronicles of Innsmouth is just another entry in that trend. But is it any good? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3601815595 The game starts off well. It has great pixel art and is fully voiced. Music and sound effects are excellent, and the atmosphere slowly grows more unsettling as the game progresses. Plotwise, the game is inspired by the [i]Shadow over Innsmouth[/i] novella from Lovecraft and tells the tale of a very curious and stubborn young man compelled by the unknown and the mysterious. Intrigued by all the stories he heard about the strange city of Innsmouth, he decides to travel there to uncover its mystery. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3601815394 At first, progression is handled with classic retro PnC mechanics. But then, in the second half of the game, the devs seemed to have switched to their Hyde side, as if compelled by Dagon to make their player base suffer. The player is as such subjected to a horrendous series of QTEs and minigames that take countless tries to complete, and will likely drive some away. The game is rather short, so it was probably done to increase the gameplay time. That said, I was able to complete the game, but I probably only managed it thanks to the game's easy mode, even though I didnt find anything particularly easy about it... Anyway, you can give this game a try if you are curious about it and have a high tolerance for needlessly painful QTEs. It's not a bad game. It's just not for everyone. I would personally recommend reading the [i]Shadow over Innsmouth[/i] novella instead. As for me, I will likely skip any other similar games from the devs in the future, for the sake of my sanity...

Классический point&click квест с пиксельхантингом в духе нетленок Sierra и Lucas Arts начала 90-х. Сюжет базируется на "Тени над Иннсмутом" (даже сцена с погоней в отеле воспроизведена детально). Я не любитель квестов, но зато поклонник HPL и ретро, так что изрядную порцию удовольствия получил. Всем таким же неравнодушным — рекомендую.

It was great. Plays like a forgotten LucasArts adventure. Faithful to the book. The developer has added an Easy Mode for the frustrating QTE sequence towards the end and this ensured it didn't get too frustrating.

A quintessential Lovecraft tale told with respect to the source. The first part of the game basically shouts "Monkey Island", giving off a more light-hearted vibe, with the player comically stranded in a provincial town, fumbling through bits and pieces about the main mystery. The second part is the one that really stands out, with a looming dark atmosphere of lovely soundscapes, decent voice acting and a moody pixel setting. Walking through Innsmouth feels like a tense, nightmarish experience, building adequate pacing in my opinion. The puzzles were mostly logical and at times require fast clicking through, which doesn't feel very characteristic of the adventure genre. However, they tie well with the storytelling and after a handful of tries they should be solvable. A con for me would be some lazy pixel art here and there that subtracts from the overall immersion. For example, in the Zadok sequence where you get to see the main character close-up, it looks like it was quickly drawn in MS Draw and lasts for quite a while. Could be for comedic relief -I can't really know- but it feels forced to make up for the lengthy Zadok speech. Other scenes feel sloppily unfinished, like the bus sequence and its poor movement effects, the half-screen of the bar, or the creature encounters in the cave. It feels like the team had some solid inspiration and time for pixel art in most parts of the game, whereas others were left to be quickly and unfairly done. I would love some pixelated depictions of the Devil's Reef, the museum artifacts and paintings and perhaps some insider look into the Esoteric Order of Dagon. That would make the game insanely appealing to me.