Escape First Alchemist: Prologue

I would so far recommend this game as it's interesting and throughout the demo was fun and engaging. Only things I would say to change or that bugged me was, when picking up the book, it didn't move, nor did it show up in my hands, though it's hitbox did, so there was an invisible book on the ground, though that wasn't important and didn't matter, at least not in the demo. Other than that, I would just try to make it easier to read the book, while sitting at the alchemy lab, though that may be on my resolutions end. Solid and worth checking out and following in my opinion I suppose.

Introdução curta, mas doce, ao que poderia ser um grande jogo sobre poções e quebra-cabeças. A estética e a atmosfera deste jogo é o que faz você querer jogar mais e este prólogo atinge seu propósito. Recomendo a todos que experimentem e pessoalmente mal posso esperar pelo lançamento completo.

☀️

(This review is for the Prologue demo specifically.) [quote]TLDR: Cozy escape room puzzle game with minor crafting elements in a pretty fantasy setting. As a demo, it feels like it was long/complete enough to get a feel for what the complete game will be like.[/quote] First, let's rip the bandage off with a couple of nitpicks so we can get them over with: [/list] [*] I did encounter the "invisible book" bug, but it doesn't get in the way of playing/progressing the game (although I wish I had known that at the time, since in this type of game you kind of assume that things you pick up are going to be necessary at some point). Here's the specifics if you want them: [spoiler]There's a book on the back counter that you can pick up, but as soon as it's in your hand it's invisible and you can't interact with it, except to drop it. It's fine, you don't need it for anything and you can just drop it and forget about it. This is not the big, important book with the spell recipes; that one works fine.[/spoiler] [*] The mouse aiming was a bit floaty, and the crosshair/dot is microscopic on a large screen; would be nice to have a larger option. The floatiness would be fine if it weren't for the needle-in-haystack crosshair, to be honest...this isn't Quake and we're not aiming the railgun here. [/list] That said, everything else about the demo, I liked! It's a cool little bite-sized puzzle game with an escape room setting and fantasy theme. Based on the description, I was a little worried that the narration would be irritating, and I don't like complex crafting systems, but I LOVE escape room games so I had to give it a go. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised on both counts; the narrator doesn't constantly pester you (there are voice lines at "story" progression points) and the crafting system is simple (in fact, probably [i]too[/i] simple for those of you who [i]like[/i] crafting). The art is well-drawn and quite pretty, and the movement physics are fine for the type of game it is. Be advised that the tutorial doesn't tell you the controls: it's WASD and the mouse, plus you can hit Ctrl to crouch. The ambient sounds/effects are also good, and while I didn't necessarily vibe with the theme of "the wizard is a condescending jerk", I enjoyed the voice acting from a quality/execution perspective. Besides, you're the guy's apprentice so I'm choosing to believe that he's really just having a little fun rather than being mean-spirited (which would fit with the...extravagant delivery anyway). :) All in all, yeah, it was great; you should play it. I'm definitely moving on to the full game. Attention fellow penguins: The game runs well under whichever version of Proton is current today (2025-01-24), even on a machine without a fancy AMD/Nvidia GPU.

Sound: 8 Graphics: 9 Story: 7 Gameplay: 7 Commands: 7 Fun: 8 Time to load / lag: 9 Bugs / Problems: 9 Final score: 9

Escape First Alchemist: Prologue Positives: + Nicely made + Good design + Cool style + Good graphics + Nice sound + Funny voiceover + The humour + The puzzles + Its free Negatives: - Some bugs and glitches (f.ex. couldnt use the shrink portion) - Framerate issues - Too much blooming - Not much to do or see - Very short (all over in 20 - 30 minutes) A nice little preview of what to come. So if you have a little humour and like escape rooms, look no further. Total Score: 7/10