Herald: The Interactive Period Drama – Complete Edition

Thoroughly enjoying streaming this to my Youtube channel, and cannot wait to uncover more treachery and deceit as the story progresses into the newly released books!!

Absorbing story!

In a world built to hold you down, where can you make a difference? Herald: The Interactive Period Drama uses its alternate history setting to explore power dynamics and racism to great effect. Read the full review here: https://www.jetsonplaysgames.com/post/herald-the-interactive-period-drama-complete-edition-review

The writing, the characters, and the excellent voice acting are all top-notch. If you like choice-based games, you’ll love this one. The 2D art and animation is gorgeous, but the 3D models are rather low poly and the controls and animations are a bit clunky, but you quickly get used to it. Unfortunately I found the game would have hang-ups and stutters in scenes with a lot of characters. The only fix for this seemed to be turning the graphics to low. My computer should be more than able to handle this game, so there are clearly some problems with optimization. The lack of manual saving can be frustrating when you’re looking to explore different outcomes because you end up having to replay books or even the game from the beginning. Fortunately, it is easy to click through dialogue quickly and the sketches of pivotal moments in the game help remind you of choices you made previously. The endings can be a bit confusing and I was left unsatisfied and wondering what happened to many characters. What happened to Daniel and Elisa, Ian and the navigator (his name escapes me), Undra and Caleb? I think that if little paragraphs were added to the epilogue about where characters ended up, it would help immensely. Definitely an underrated game overall and I’m glad the devs persevered and finished it. Overall: 7/10 - fantastic and enjoyable story and cast of characters that is a bit held back by technical issues and dated 3D graphics.

A solid game with an alternate history story. It's a bit on the short side but the pacing is good. The art is quite neat, the portraits and cutscene drawings being quite well made. The 3D aspect of the game was a bit more meh for me - the assets look nice but it feels a bit like a chore at times to navigate through the maps because of the camera angle and the slow walk speed - nothing however that I would consider detrimental. I recommend this for anyone who wants a short interactive story that is interesting enough albeit not particularly deep or heavy.

Meine Rezension aus April 2017: "Großartig <3 Das Aussehen, die Geschichte, die Präsentation, die Stimmen, alles <3 Oh man, warum hab' ich nur nicht gewartet, bis alle Episoden draußen sind - jetzt muss ich wieder warten :/" Lange Zeit dachte ich, die Entwicklung sei gestoppt und das Spiel tot. Um so mehr habe ich mich gefreut zu sehen, dass jetzt alle Episoden veröffentlicht sind! :-D Und an meiner Rezension von damals hat sich auch nichts geändert, alle 4 Bücher sind wunderbar erzählt und umgesetzt :-D

Even though it's fictional, this game provides an interesting mirror of the actual history and makes you think about your actions within it. The overall look and feel is colourful and hand-crafted which totally soaks me into the experience :)

+ • a mix of hand-drawn 2D illustrations and 3D models, with some of the illustrations even moving during dialogue scenes • different choices and branching story paths make multiple playthroughs worthwhile • plenty of achievements to unlock • explores themes such as colonialism, social class, heritage and power • the song featured in the game is genuinely beautiful. I really enjoyed listening to it - • the game still feels quite rough around the edges, especially when it comes to the 3D controls on the ship. Moving through the ship’s narrow spaces can feel pretty clunky at times, which unfortunately kept interrupting the flow of the game for me. This creates a somewhat strange contrast: the story and illustrated scenes feel lovingly crafted and polished, while actually moving through the 3D environment feels noticeably less refined. [h1] Conclusion [/h1] Unfortunately, I found myself struggling quite a bit with the movement mechanics on the ship. Since I’m genuinely interested in the story, it’s especially frustrating when the controls are the very thing making me hesitate to keep playing. So far, I’d describe it as a game with plenty of charm and an intriguing concept, but one that still feels somewhat rough around the edges when it comes to the actual gameplay. ___________________ + • Mix aus gezeichneten 2D-Illustrationen und 3D-Modellen, die Zeichnungen bewegen sich während der Dialoge teilweise • verschiedene Entscheidungen und Handlungsverläufe sorgen dafür, dass sich mehrere Durchläufe lohnen • viele Erfolge • behandelt Themen rund um Kolonialismus, gesellschaftliche Klassen, Herkunft und Macht • der Song im Spiel ist echt toll, dem habe ich wirklich gerne gelauscht - • das Spiel fühlt sich stellenweise noch ziemlich roh an, gerade bei der 3D-Steuerung auf dem Schiff. Die Bewegung durch die engen Bereiche des Schiffes kann teilweise ziemlich hakelig sein und hat mir leider immer wieder den Spielfluss genommen, dadurch entsteht für mich ein etwas seltsamer Kontrast. Die Geschichte und die gezeichneten Szenen wirken sehr liebevoll ausgearbeitet, während sich die eigentliche Bewegung durch die 3D-Welt deutlich weniger rund anfühlt [h1] Fazit [/h1] Leider habe ich teilweise echt mit der Bewegungsmechanik auf dem Schiff zu kämpfen. Gerade weil mich die Story eigentlich interessiert, ist es schade, wenn ausgerechnet die Steuerung dafür sorgt, dass ich mich etwas überwinden muss, weiterzuspielen. Für mich bisher also ein Spiel mit viel Charme und einer spannenden Idee, das sich spielerisch aber leider noch etwas roh anfühlt.