Dimhaven - The Lost Source

I have mixed feelings regarding Dimhaven. Overall, the experience was positive, but this game doesn't quite reach the superb level that the studio (Zadbox) demonstrated in Quern. First thing I must say is that the game does give a nice challenge: the puzzles are interesting, entertaining and not too frustrating (obviously, if a puzzle is not frustrating at all, then it's not as rewarding to solve it, haha). For those seeking my opinion, I would recommend buying this if you have enjoyed Myst-like games and Quern, but if you have a choice - try Quern and Myst first. [h1]Consequences of the short-notice release[/h1] [b]TL;DR: The game is nice, but way shorter than Quern and it is easy to notice that this was unplanned.[/b] [h2]Expectations vs. real game[/h2] One thing to notice is that the trailer of the game was [i]really[/i] promising. The idea and vibe were of the Myst-like games we all love. However, even the trailer showed several puzzles that didn't make their way into the released game! E.g. take a look at the clock puzzle at 0:15, photo puzzle and "LEAVE!" message at 0:19 or some sort of corridor at 0:35. Or take the amazing view from the beacon at 0:42. Or horror-like elements at 0:48. The trailer promised a lot of beautiful and neat things that I am fairly certain even worked, but were probably cut at short release window. There's a reason I blame the release timing: the game [i]had numerous bugs[/i] right after publication. One of the funniest: look at the screenshot with a cat. It has a panel in the top: [inventory] [map] [notes] [photos]. Alas, map and notes were never available (I thought I failed to find some kind of journal, but it just ended up blocked until the very end), and a few days later a patch was released that removed these buttons altogether. The reason I write "[i]had bugs[/i]" in italic is because most of these were fixed shortly! Overall, they didn't really affect my experience, but just gave a funny notion sometimes... But it made me think that a few times I was stuck were due to a bug. [h2]Story issues[/h2] [b]HEAVY SPOILER WARNING[/b]: this section may spoil your experience in your playthrough. Skip it if you don't want spoilers. Spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned. The story in Quern was rather deep. In my playthrough, it was that I slowly came to an understanding of the titanic work that was done by (Quern spoiler) [spoiler]the Professor in order to achieve his goal and (presumably) share the realm of Quern with the world[/spoiler]. In Dimhaven, the story was more somewhat... I don't know, erratic? I'll explain what I mean in the next section. There are many areas in the game that seem to be explorable, but at some point you meet a one-way pass point without visiting. E.g., the protagonist comments on several locked doors that they are 'not gonna open without a key', yet you get no key at any point... Obvoiusly, it wasn't meant that way. Right after release, you used to receive a phone call with some spy-themed dialogue, but it turned out this line never got developed. The mere idea was amazing, because later you learn that in the realm of the game, a Secret Government exists, and this was such a promising move... But it ended up abandoned, as many other things. In the final game you only get a wordless call. Regarding the characters, first and foremost: the protagonist character is not introduced, and it is somewhat easy to skip the important story elements about who Zack is if you don't look in the album. The devs should have made a very short intro-game where you meet Zack (maybe in protagonist's childhood), communicate with him, receive some memento from him, or whatever. Other characters look similarly superficial and shallow. The hotel keeper explains nothing he says, and it basicaly soound like some gobbledygook. You can't even check into the hotel - that would have been a fun mechanic, if you ask me! The actions taken by the main friend/antagonist aren't explained either, and his decisions seem erratic and forced. For instance, why would he lie to the protagonist that he never knew Zack? Why does he neither help nor hinder the player? Why does he tell the crucial information in chunks? It never gets explained, even if you read the story carefully. The available answers of the protagonist also seem stretched and improvised, like in a bad play. Kalman Vosh also appears in an unexpected way and looks somewhat irrelevant to the story at first, while afterwards it appears that he was one of the central characters. Oscar Ravenstone is not duly introduced either. The worst part, though, is the ending sequence. When you "enter the sequence", the game unexpectedly... ends? And at the same time dumps the whole background to you which was not given earlier. Zack and Kalman Vosh turn out to be alive, Oscar disappears, while you don't really understand what exactly you have accomplished - instead, you feel as if you're a monkey that pushed some buttons. All in all, the story seems [i]quite[/i] raw and underwhelming. It is not surprising, though, when so many gameplay elements got cut from the release - the story got severely damaged as well and the devs had to adjust somehow. [h1]Puzzles[/h1] [b]Spoilers here are marked[/b]. Most of the puzzles were good, in my opinion. Some of theme were even great! Yet, some of them seem to be made up on the spot and a little bit ugly. Where to start... Well, the beginning of the game was really well-made. The puzzles in the first area seem really well-thought. They are challenging enough, and while there is some space for improvement, this is a really decent work, better than many puzzle games. What I liked the most was the visa puzzle, which was quite complex but satisfactory. The next part ([spoiler]link to the 'town'[/spoiler]) was ridiculously (and even insultingly) easy. In fact, (in my opinion) it is blatantly the worst part of the game. The terrain has invisible walls (which breaks an unspoken rule of good game-making), while the puzzle is as trivial and linear as it gets -- [spoiler]find a lantern and pass through a dark zone[/spoiler], really? Right after the release, this area was laggy as hell, and I had to switch from Ultra to Minimal settings to play further. The game even displayed a warning that I should switch graphics settings if I experience freezing. Luckily, the lags got fixed soon, but alas, the bad puzzle still persists. The [spoiler]hotel+turbine[/spoiler] puzzles are also well-made. The best part was when you had to [spoiler]walk a large circle to get on top of the elevator[/spoiler] - makes you think out of the box. The think that might possibly frustrate you (I think it is not a spoiler) is that you don't get the fifth level of power in this location - just don't try. The [spoiler]Raven's nest[/spoiler] puzzles seem decent, but become overly linear, in my view. The [spoiler]Ravenstone lab safe[/spoiler] puzzle, though, is exhaustive rather than fun (I still don't get how [spoiler]the cupboard drawers correspond to numbers[/spoiler], and I looked hard!). The [spoiler]final[/spoiler] puzzle turned out to be too simple, in my opinion, and should have been done differently. However, it's [spoiler]not as bad as the game unexpectedly ending after this...[/spoiler] [h1]Final verdict[/h1] Well, having all that said, Dimhaven is still a decent game that I enjoyed. I recommend getting it, especially if there's a discount. However, I strongly recommend Quern over Dimhaven. Buy it, especially if you like complex puzzles and do not really care about the story.

[i][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35145066/] My review page.[/url][/i] [i][url=https://www.twitch.tv/nightserg] Follow me on twitch![/url][/i] [h1]The gist of it:[/h1] Sadly, I have super mixed feelings about this game, and it kinda sucks to give it a thumbs down. It's not a bad game, thumbs down doesn't really mean that. It's just hard to recommend it even to hardcore puzzle fans. The problem with the game is how different it feels in almost everything when you arrive in the first area compared to everything else after it. It's like the first part was made by a sane genius and the later parts by an insane madman, and sadly, it's not just puzzles-wise. 👍 [u]The good parts:[/u] +Fantastic atmosphere in the first hours +Great and logical puzzles in the first hours 👎[u]The bad parts:[/u] -Horrible or too simplistic logic later in the game -The main story was super underwhelming [h1]Story[/h1] I don't even know what to say here, it's so short that even one simple description can spoil it. It was below average in terms of engagement. It starts off really well, you notice tiny amounts of story in the level design, and it all feels super mysterious. After you reach mid-game and until the end, the story bits in the level design are entirely gone, and it's all just random nonsense, even the puzzle where you have to figure out who was at the table felt...pointless in the long run, besides the fact that it was idiotic and out of place, but more on that later. Like, ok, my uncle loves video games and met with some people, but why? Where are they? There's no proper connection to the events. Then the game ends with...some sci-fi bs that came out of someone's ass. It was insanely meh. Do not buy this game for its story. Story rating: 6/10 [h1]Gameplay[/h1] I think this game was a massive bait. The demo area was the best place in the game, which is in the first few hours. It had some well-thought-out (despite me failing some obvious things), well-connected, and logical environmental puzzles. Then comes the rest of the game, and its puzzles completely take a massive nosedive in logic and simplicity. Some of them are so easy that you may get stuck wondering if there's something you're missing when, in fact, no, they're just boringly simple, but made to waste your time. Then comes the absolutely insane logic that not even the hint system can help. It could have multiple ways of logic, and you just have to guess which one the developers picked. You may guess it from the get-go, or spend an eternity. To make matters worse, the last puzzle has a symbol matching aspect where you match two displays based on double digits, for example, the oval shape is 6.2 HOWEVER and this is the biggest fail ever, there is absolutely no visual difference between 6.2 and 6.3 or 6.1 or whatever, so you go on a guessing game. Normally, stupid puzzles come with the territory of playing a puzzle game, it's to be expected, however there's very few of them in the game, no side ones, barely any exploration, and none of them are ever fun. Gameplay rating: 6/10 [h1]Audio[/h1] Decent voice acting, decent music, and decent overall sound design. Not much I can say about it here. I was really hoping the music would at least be awesome, since the genre is famous for having really nice chilling songs, but nah. Audio rating: 7/10 [h1]Graphics, performance and tech analysis[/h1] When I played the demo, I was put off by the pixelated textures, and after finishing the game, I still did not like it. It was a bad decision, and the game's atmosphere suffered for it. Level design was fine the first few hours, and then it's just super linear, but in an annoying way. At least it runs super well and has no bugs or issues whatsoever. Graphics, performance, and tech analysis score: 7/10 [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Honestly, this felt like a 10 bucks experience you'd buy from some random indie developer, not from the makers of Quern. You won't miss anything skipping this one, however, if you want to support a dying genre that some of us still love, then do please buy the game. [h1]Final score: 6.5/10[/h1]

GORGEOUS game in graphics, atmosphere and audio. Puzzles are especially fun in the beginning, and the camera mechanics are really unique and fun to use. However, the later game puzzles I found to be less fun and some were too hard for me and seemed to ruin the flow of the game, but maybe that's just my poozeling ineptitude. Overall, great game that reminds me of the good old days. 7/10

Compared to their previous release, Quern, this one just doesn't feel like a high quality puzzle game like that one did. My top guess is that their publisher rushed them to put this out, resulting in half the game being cut, but there are many obvious areas where there seems like there should be more gameplay (including parts that were in the demo that are now just completely missing), but there just... isn't. On top of that, there are some extremely un-intuitive puzzles in places that will probably leave even the most veteran puzzlers eventually looking up a hint or the answer. Overall, as a game I was hotly anticipating, this was sadly a pretty big disappointment.

I really wanted to love this game. Puzzle adventure is my favorite genre and Quern was one of the best modern iterations on the Myst formula. Unfortunately the puzzle design in this game may be one of the most frustrating I have ever experienced. Many of them have clever base ideas but the clues and solutions are seriously lacking in creativity and come down to you staring at a sheet of paper you find somewhere nearby. If you don’t understand the clue you are effectively stuck as the game progresses linearly. I had several instances of fully understanding the puzzle, the clue, what the solution is but the game would not accept my answer because the dev’s logic was too open ended. As in, they assume you will understand some of the leaps that make sense to them but perhaps we’re not tested with a wide enough player base to make sure it doesn’t ONLY make sense to them. And because no puzzles have much feedback when inputting answers (this is fine for difficulty sake) I was often left feeling irritated instead of stumped. In short, I would not recommend this game even to others that like this genre.

It's a short puzzle game with a few interesting puzzles. The artstyle is great. But honestly, it wasn't even half the game Quern was. I didn't feel nearly as much engagement with the puzzles or meta-puzzles compared to all the cool stuff that Quern did. The ending also felt extremely rushed and left several plot threads unresolved.

I like the game except for one thing: it's core mechanic is one-puzzle-at-a-time. If you get stuck on a puzzle, you can't do anything else; you can't explore or attempt any other puzzle until your current challenge is solved/completed. For me, that's just not fun.

Ich wollte erst knapp einen Daumen nach oben geben.. aber sorry, das geht einfach nicht. Diese matschige Pixelgrafik wäre schon vor 10 Jahren glatt durchgefallen. Was soll das? Ich gebe zu: Die Erwartungshaltung war wegen des genialen Vorgängers extrem hoch. Bei Quern passte einfach alles. Grafik, Rätsel, Steuerung, Story - eine glatte 10. Es wurde zwar vereinzelt von Bugs berichtet, die traten bei mir allerdings nicht auf. Ich habe vor allem wegen der super Grafik und der schwierigen, aber immer logisch nachvollziehbaren Rätsel einen entsprechenden Nachfolger erwartet. Aber statt Champions League bekamen wir dann mit Dimhaven eher Kreisklasse. Was für eine Enttäuschung! Der einzige Lichtblick sind die halbwegs passablen Rätsel. Deutlich niedrigeres Niveau als in Quern - aber immerhin logisch. Aber leider reicht das allein heute nicht mehr. Mit einer etwas ansprechenderen Grafik hätte es knapp für einen Daumen nach oben gereicht. Aber so? Sorry, leider von mir keine Empfehlung.

I mean, if you like obscure puzzles, this is for you. I am glad the game is over, honestly. My achievements were bugged which is annoying but not a big deal. Had to look in the community page for the dreamer poem solution cause that was a pain and I still don't get it. The story was fine. I would've liked to turn off bloom for the graphics but that wasn't an option. The running back and forth was a little annoying but understandable. Overall, it wasn't bad. I'd give it a 7/10.

Pros: -A new and unique spiritual successor to Myst where I truly had no idea what I would find. Of course, I'd expect nothing less from the developer of Quern. -Puzzles were mostly integrated in the environment, not just an arbitrary escape room. -Appropriate level of difficulty. Never had to reach for the walkthrough, but was tempted several times. -The silly opening scene on the beach contrasts perfectly with the creepy mansion. Cons: -I wish they had brought back the beautiful realistic visuals from Quern rather than this weird pixellated hybrid. I got used to it eventually. -The ending was abrupt and left some loose ends. I wish there were more clues explaining what's going on and why I'm making the choices I'm making.