Karaski: What Goes Up...

[h1][b] High Flyin' Mystery [/b][/h1] This pretty much unknown game deserves your time if you are a fan of well written mysteries. The story is entirely set into an airship in a fictional soviet-like 1920's state with its undeniable charm, quirkiness, and latent fears, cleverly recreated not by top-notch graphics, but by a clever low-fi decor of socialist-realism-like inspiration. It's not as much about the stealth or clue hunting; however it's all about the lovingly crafted atmosphere and some pretty intricate characters, including your very self.

[list][*][b][h1]Morlan's shorts:[/h1][/b][/list] [b]A first-person-perspective-stealth-whodunit[/b] should sum up the gist of this game.. but it wouldn't do it justice. There's a [b]quaint quality[/b] to this game that is hard to describe without having played or watched it. If you have played [b]Stacking[/b] you'd be in the right path of understanding that quality.. It's a different game -but not too unlike- that gives you that feeling of being there, immersed into the story, wanting to find out what happened, what's going on, reveal the culprit, solve the mystery.. The comix-like graphics and overall look, the steampunkish setting, the open end that is derived from the player's own actions, all work towards that goal and the fitting soundtrack that's pleasing to listen wraps up the whole atmosphere and makes it a unique experience. Didn't bump into any bugs/glitches and didn't get stuck in a room or a place that I couldn't get out of, which is an achievement in itself in games like that. There's love poured into this little gem and it shows. It just needs more from the playerbase.. [spoiler]It could do with a lower price, around 7€ perhaps, if I am to make a "complain" about something[/spoiler] [b]Don't waste more time reading lengthy reviews.. time is of the essence![b]

Initial impression: a stylish mystery/adventure game with an intricate dialog system, lots of cool exploration and discovery, and some pretty fun stealth action. The game objectives in Karaski are structured nonlinearly, and different approaches to completing them lead to different endings—so in a way the player actually writes the story... Very cool design approach with a ton of freedom and replayability, I dig it. :) Stealth and social engineering are equally important skill sets in Karaski. The ability to sneak around undetected is key at certain times, other times it may be a good idea to offer someone a bribe or pour them a drink. The branching dialogs are indeed rich and complex, and there are quite a lot of clues, quests, and other details to keep track of... Fortunately the interface and game options are really, really good, so managing all this complexity is pretty much a breeze. What impressed me the most about Karaski was the beauty and quality of its execution. The stylized visuals and music conjure a vibrant game world, and all the small notes, clues, and story threads weave together to form an exotic tapestry of mystery and intrigue. Karaski has a unique style and flavor, and owns it completely—this game definitely has some swagger. If you love a good mystery (and are feeling a bit stealthy) then Karaski may just be your cup of tea! Gameplay: (7.5 / 10) Visuals: (8.5 / 10) Sound: (9 / 10) Interface: (10 / 10) Controls: (9 / 10) [b]Overall: (8.8 / 10) Recommended![/b]

Karaski: What Goes Up... es un interesante ejercicio en el campo de la Player Agency, o paquenosentendamos, la capacidad del jugador de alterar la historia a través del diseño del juego o el gameplay. El “your choices matter”, vamos. Nos embarcamos en un dirigible, el primero en surcar los cielos, con la mala suerte de coincidir con un grupo de malas personas que han decidido sabotearlo bien saboteao. Entre los posibles sospechosos se encuentran un comandante con una pasión desmedida por su país y sólo su país, un doctor [strike]perteneciente a una secta[/strike] muy religioso, una ricachona que se dedica al negocio ferroviario, y al diseñador del dirigible en plan ermitaño. De nosotros depende recorrer toda la nave buscando pistas que nos permitan descubrir los intereses que cada uno de estos personajes tendría para querer que este viaje salga mal. El juego tiene un sistema de sigilo bastante básico. Mientras no estemos en la línea de visión directa de los vigilantes, no nos pillarán. Y si nos pillan, podemos sobornarles con dinero o alcohol. Si no tenemos ninguno de estos, nuestro nivel de sospecha aumentará, por lo que se nos quedarán mirando más fijamente cuando vayamos por las zonas comunes. Algunos personajes también reaccionarán de manera distinta a nosotros si somos unos rebeldes de la vida. Claramente tiene sus inspiraciones en Deus Ex, y el juego ofrece una cantidad de alternativas bastante jugosa (para ser un juego con un alcance tan limitado). Iremos desbloqueando, en el orden que queramos, herramientas que nos permitirán movernos más libremente: conductos de ventilación, puertas cerradas, mecanismos de engranajes… En general el mapeado, si bien es básico, está muy logrado en este aspecto. Da la impresión de que siempre hay una forma de llegar a nuestro objetivo, independientemente del enfoque utilizado. De hecho, hay un logro por pasarse el juego sin utilizar ni una sola de estas herramientas. Otro aspecto importante son los diálogos. Como es lo habitual, conviene tener a todos estos personajes de nuestro lado. Es fácil cerrar por completo toda opción de diálogo con un personaje si no le hacemos la pelota correctamente. Por ejemplo, el comandante del barco se negará a hablarnos en detalle si mencionamos que somos de la mancomunidad de turno. También tenemos la opción de emborrachar a los personajes para que se vayan un poco más de la lengua. Es un juego bastante corto (4 horas si lo jugamos sin ninguna prisa) y con un componente de rejugabilidad bastante mayor de lo esperado. Personalmente recomiendo echarle un ojo. Es una experiencia relajada. Eso sí, de oferta o bundle. El slogan del juego vendría a ser “La historia tiene agujeros. De ti depende llenarlos como te parezca”. Al final, no hay manera correcta o incorrecta de jugar a Karaski. No hay forma de perder, y la historia es la que tú mismo te montes. Puedes recopilar todas las pistas del juego y en el juicio final decir “¡LOL YO ERA EL SABOTEADOR!”, y tirarte con el paracaídas mientras el dirigible se va al carajo. Es una opción. ¿Y no es eso algo maravilloso?

This title was sitting in my backlog for several years, and I never could decide if it should go into Must Play, Maybe Someday, or Maybe Never category. In the end, I finally went and played it, and the game managed to surprise. Great, interesting and promising title, which could and should have been more popular. It has great characters, good pacing, and is just long enough not to become boring As a developer himself admitted, unfortunately, it was a flop. Shame, as it is one of those hidden gems you never expect to find when going through your library

https://youtu.be/vlIJZc7Yq-M Well this game certainly has a style and charm of its own. So basically its a stealth game, in which you have to search for clues as to the sabotuer of an airship. Visual style is simple yet appealing, and the controls are smooth. There are also different approaches to the game depending on what tools you pick for the job and I have heard if you play through twice you can get a different ending. Have not done so to confirm this however. My biggest gripe is the limited conversation choices, which don't really have the effect on the game they could have done. But it's a small gripe in the grand scheme of things. Also the ending is a bit open ended, maybe setting up for a sequal? Still if there was another game in the series, I would buy it based on my experience here - a very well made indie game.

Karasaki: What Goes Up... more like karaSUCKY: this goes DOWN... in history as a bad game. It feels way to clunky for a stealth game, yet it is one. It feels to modern for it to be the steampunk it was meant to be. Pros: I dunno... cannot find any other then it was enjoyable for one minute? CONS: The game. just seriosuly. DEFINETLY NOT WORTH 12USD!

I remember this fondly. Fun little game with several possible ways to play and solve puzzles. Too bad I might be the only one who has ever played it.

Entertaining, short, with a little bit of replayability. I'd like to see the devs make a return to first-person storytelling again.

This game squeaks by as a recommendation from me. It's good, but not great. Game play is primarily a first person narrative. You awake on an airship just after an explosion and you walk and talk to people to figure out the culprit. Sort of. The game's greatest strength is also its biggest weakness because while there is a pretty dynamic story with lots of options to pick from, you are not figuring out the story as much as you are writing it. You can pick anyone you want to be the culprit, even be the culprit yourself, the game might be like "these bits of evidence that you uncovered don't quite match, but hey whatever you want" then there's a bit of outro that tells how your choices affected the world. That's brilliant from a creative standpoint, but rather dull from a gamer standpoint. I want my choices to affect the world I interact with, not the overall world that my character goes on to live in. The game itself is pretty non-consequential. There's also some stealth elements, but they are pretty basic. There's only two areas where you actually have to dodge guards. The rest are just walking clockwise, and flipping a coin to guess if someone might see you when you leave a restricted area. There are also 4 main "powerups" you can unlock as you play. You get to choose these powerups as you go, and they affect how you enter certain rooms, sometimes restricting access to them. It makes the gameplay seem less-linear, but really it only makes your backtracking non-linear. The main areas are still unlocked in the same order. Graphics and sounds are decent. The game switched art styles between the alpha and the release version, so while it looks interesting it's also jaring to look out the window and see crayon clouds floating by. There's lots of public domain music that you've heard in other games, so take that for what you will. There are also, currently (v1.09), a number of small bugs. Nothing game breaking, but a lot of the achievements are not working properly and that is disapointing. If I can summarize with a popular arbitrary rating system, I'd give the game 6/10. Just over the line of a game that might not be worth the price. I do enjoy the developers ideas. I intend to check out their other game, Post Mortem, to see how it aligns with this one, and hopefully their next title is just as promising.