Hadean Lands

Fun little Interactive Fiction (IF) puzzle game that took a decent amount of time to play through. Some of the puzzles were a little obscure, but that is the nature of puzzle games. The alchemical theme is fresh and fun, there are also a lot of quality of life improvements to remove tedium, such as automatically completing puzzles once they've been solved once, using the best known solution. I enjoyed this despite not being a fan of IF in general.

The short review: Looking down the mountain from the top, every step up the mountain makes perfect logical sense. Looking from the middle every step was teasing out an obscure clue or using a previously introduced concept to make an educated guess at the next step. The game is always winnable, It's simply a measure of your patience versus the game's difficulty. Eventually bashing your head into the wall destroys the wall. Then there is the next wall to destroy. If you can be sustained by the thrill of successfully solving a puzzle to perserve through very difficult puzzles this is an excellent game. If you can't try something easier.

Have you ever played a RPG and when it comes to magic, it's a bit disappointing? You put a cheese and a flower together and suddenly you have a poition. Well this is the game you've been waiting for. You have a full alchemical magic system that you have to learn. You have to find binding phrasees, learn about elemental associations and even smells. Some rituals are found, some you have to invent yourself. First purely text based game I've played since the Infocom/Magnetic Scrolls days and it's spectacular. Darn difficult though, so not for those with low tolerance for frustration.

If you like puzzle-driven Interactive Fiction and a magic system that clearly has internal logic which you learn as you play, you will love this game. There is mystery, you will learn, and you will definitely solve many tough puzzles. One of the greatest UI features is that if you already know how to solve a puzzle and have to repeat it, which will come up, the game remembers the solution you last used and will do all the steps for you if you say what you want to do. A simple example: there is a locked door to the east and you dropped the key in another room. You say "go east". The game navigates you to the room where you dropped the key, picks up the key, navigates you back to your current room, unlocks the door, opens the door, and goes through the door. But only if the game knows your character knows all the steps required. [Hours on record do not reflect complete playthrough when I bought the game directly; purchased on Steam too because the original price was so low and I thought the developer deserved more.]

Easily the best, cleverest, most original adventure game I've ever played. Don't let the text interface scare you off, this game more than justifies dealing with the learning curve.

Challenging and Exciting IF game with a fabulous setting and enticing plot. Alchemy mechanic is A+!!

Save wiped completely outta the blue. What I did read wasn't very engaging, anyhow - perhaps this shares with photopia the curse of pioneering new techniques then being left as the worst example of them. Heard the puzzles are good but a couple hours in I had yet to stumble upon anything more than what amounted to a fetch quest sprinkled with bits of clerical work. Nah.

(As of this writing I have played ca. 8 hours of the DRM-free version of the game and expect to play another 8-16 hours to finish.) This game is hard. Maybe this is the reason why it plays so beautifully as a couch-coop for my husband and me. We explore the game together and it enriches the atmosphere tremendously when you can discuss the puzzles that need to be solved. I want to specifically recommend the map that comes with the game. It has a beautiful scarce symbolism that helps us remember the rooms that we have been to, without giving away too much about rooms we haven't visited yet. So feel free to peruse it to your hearts content. Overall, this game is a fantastic experience, highly recommended.

This game is fantastic! One of the best parts of the game is the fact that you have to experiment with everything to figure out what to do next. It is truly enjoyable, especially for anyone who enjoys reading. Anytime I get confused, I just type random cuss words in, and enjoy seeing the words "command not recognized". Truly enjoyable! 10/10

This is the first text adventure I ever finished. I'd tried several ancient ones, years ago, but they never clicked. It still had two moments that made me angry, three if you count the one that made me most frustrated and was entirely my fault. The wood-lighting puzzles felt under-developed but doing alchemy here was a lot of fun.