Knee Deep

It should be a great little sleeper, but the developer's abandoned the game with game-breaking bugs intact. Check the discussions before risking a purchase.

Interesting - the concept, the setting, the story. The game's lighting was terrible, so bad in fact I am not sure if it was intentional - most of the game was played in shadow, despite setting "brightness" all the way up. A few minor bugs (like the continue button getting cut off and needing to use the keyboard for a scene) were bothersome. The best part were the strange/belligerent/cynical response options from each of the playable characters. [h1]Additional Details[/h1] [table] [tr] [td]Operating System[/td] [td]Ubuntu Linux 18.04 x64[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]CPU[/td] [td]Ryzen 5 1500x[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]GPU[/td] [td]GTX 1050, nvidia-410.78[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Game Saves[/td] [td]Automatically[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Technical Notes[/td] [td]Unity game engine, no major issues[/td] [/tr] [/table]

Where does one even start with a game where the writing so proudly plays out, both literally and figuratively, in a putrid swamp? I'm not going to post any spoilers here, mostly because spoilers might require some form of logical progression of events that this game so utterly lacks. The dialogue is okay, but the plot is unbelievably bad. Dumpster fire bad. So bad that at one point they they have a character starting an exposition pointing out how nonsensical the central conspiracy is, but rather than doing something clever with it, the writers just leave it hanging there like: "Yeah, we now this sucks but... *crickets*" Now, when I say the plot is bad, I don't mean the fact that you're presented with options that pretend to affect the course of the story but really don't (e.g. choose to save the life of character A and the game pretends you chose to rescue character B like you were supposed to). No, that's the kind of disappointment we're all used to from the genre. What I mean is that the plot leaves me asking a lot of questions. Questions such as: "why did I keep punishing myself after Act 1?" and "how on Earth does this game have 82% positive reviews?!" Questions that, I fear, may never receive an answer. The developers chose to turn the game into a theater stage. This is fine, but has little effect other than creating unnecessarily long cut scenes. More generally, the fact that you can't save the game at all outside of randomly sprinkled autosave points puts you at great risk of having to play through sections again, which is even more boring than the first time around. If, however, you for some reason *do* want to go back and replay a section, well, you're just ♥♥♥♥ out of luck and have to replay the entire Act. And let's not even consider trying to get all the achievements, which would require us to sit for hours to click through the entire game, not once, not twice, but a minimum three FULL playthroughs from start to finish. Silver lining: "Give a strange answer" for every dialogue choice as Romana. TLDR; Do not buy this game.

Low play time thoughts: Surprisingly good in VR. It went from an ok-ish visual novel with no VR to an interesting play, where you get a front seat. VR really does add to this one. It'll probably be the closest thing to a VR visual novel for a minute.

[h1] Genre [/h1] Ein Story Driven Adventure [h1] Story [/h1] Das Spiel ist aufgebaut wie eine Theatervorstellung. In der Kleinstadt "Cypress Knee" in Florida hat sich ein abgetakelter Schauspieler selbst erhangen. Wir spielen 3 verschiedene Protagonisten um den Fall genauer zu Untersuchen. Einmal die junge Bloggerin "Romana "Phaedra" Teague, die nicht gerade auf den Mund gefallen ist. Einen Journalisten mit nicht so guter Vergangenheit namens "Jack Bellet" & einen Detektiv namens "K.C. Gaddis" der eigentlich sein Leben schon selbst beenden wollte, dann aber diesen Fall animmt. Was steckt hinter diesen Mysteriösen Selbstmord? Das müssen unsere 3 Protagonisten herausfinden [h1] Gameplay [/h1] Das Gameplay selbst ist relativ simpel. Es gibt 3 Akte. Man spielt abwechselnd die 3 verschiedenen Protagonisten und sehen die Geschichte aus deren Sicht. Die Charaktere bewegen sich automatisch von Szene zu Szene und reden mit verschiedenen Personen. Wir müssen im Prinzip immer 1 von 3 oder manchmal auch 4 verschiedenen Antwort Möglichkeiten auswählen. Diese Auswahl hat auch Leichte Konsequenzen, wie NPCs im weiteren Spielverlauf auf die Protagonisten reagieren. Es gibt auch ein paar Rätsel zu lösen, diese sind aber sehr einfach & simpel gehalten. Man kann in seinem "Journal" auch jederzeit Informationen zu Personen, Themen & Orte nachlesen die sich nach und nach freischalten. Leider gibt es auch ein paar Bugs, diese sind aber nicht weiter wild oder Gamebreaking. z.B. sind manchmal Personen unsichtbar oder drehen bzw. laufen immer im Kreis herum während sie mit uns reden. In den Minispielen/Rätsel setzt sich manchmal ein Puzzleteil fest und man kann kein anderes mehr Auswählen (raus tappen aus dem Spiel und dann wieder rein gehen hilft aber dabei). Das Voice Acting ist sehr gut gelungen und die Charaktere sind interessant [h1] Achievements [/h1] Es gibt insgesamt 43 Erfolge. Einige sind Story basierend. Die meisten sind Entscheidungsbedingt und man muss das Spiel mindestens 3 mal durchspielen (zumindest fast) um alle Erfolge zu bekommen. Z.B. muss man mit allen 3 Protagonisten immer die Spezielle Antwort Auswählen oder wenn man über ein Thema schreibt muss man auch hier immer im selben Stil schreiben. Es gibt aber auch einen sehr guten Guide in der Community dazu [h1] Pro/Contra [/h1] + Sehr Gute Story + Spannend + Gute & Interessante Charaktere + Man kann viel über die Lore nachlesen + Gutes Voice Acting + Nette kleine Rätsel/Minispiele + Achievements + Sammelkarten + XBox 360 Controller Support - Ein paar kleinere Bugs wie z.B. Unsichtbare Charaktere oder Fehler bei den Minispielen sodass sich Puzzleteile festsetzten (aus dem Spiel rein & raus tappen hilft) [h1] Fazit [/h1] Ein wirklich schönes Hidden Gem im Adventure Genre. Es hat mir sehr gut gefallen und es war mal was anderes durch eine Theatervorstellung eine Murder Mystery aufzuklären, einfach mal eine nette Idee. Auch die kleinen Rätsel/Minispiele haben mir sehr gut gefallen. Den Größten Lob verdienen hier aber die Voice Actor, die machen hier einen wirklich fantastischen Job. Ich kann es jedem Adventure Fan sehr ans Herz legen. Eindeutige Kauf Empfehlung, es lohnt sich sehr 👑 Powered by HoI 4 Deu Curators group in German / English 👑⠀⠀⠀[list][*][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30388691/] Follow Main group [/url][*][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40282064/] Follow Second group [/url][/list]

Had great time with this story. The game itself have some small (at least for me) bugs and cheap animation, but they're not crucial to enjoy gameplay experience. Would recommend to anyone who's into interactive stories reminding them chaotic and cozy atmosphere of Twin Peaks or (even more likely) goofy episodes of X-files. Had to write this review because Knee Deep surely deserves more attention. Sad it wasn't longer.

Knee Deep is an extremely boring on rails, choose the dialogue game. The game has terrible voice acting, boring characters, boring story and subpar graphics. It's as entertaining as watching paint dry. Not Recommended

Delightful and cool way to present a murder mystery story. Reminded me a lot of the old "Choose your own Adventure" books, but with a twist... The game is presented as if you where watching a play in a theater, quickly moving from set to set, where the different parts of the story take place. You control the responses of the 3 main characters, each one arriving at the story because of different reasons and motivations and back stories (which you help build). The character you control goes to different locations at each one talking or discovering something new, as far as interactivity goes, you only select their responses from a list. After a little while you are required to choose between the stuff youve discovered and report/publish the one you consider the best one, and with what tone your report is written. The game feels really unique in the sense that all the conversations and reports have consequences, like if you decide to publish an article bad mouthing the police you might have difficulty accessing a location, or if you insult someones beliefs he wont be as forthcoming with information... but reporting a tamer article wont help you with your boss that wants clicks... Its awesome to feel that almost every response impacts how the game story is presented to me, i close a door, but open a window kinda stuff... seems really well thought off. Voice acting is great, performance was acceptable, music is really good totally fits and helps the environment. The story is interesting and although it starts a bit slow it quickly picks up and putting together the different stories and figuring how it all fits together held my attention for more time than i expected. I havent finished the game, but what ive played has been quite good. Recommended for anyone wanting to experience an original murder mystery story with permanent choices that affect the storyline. Much like a choose your own adventure book.

Does not work with Valve index controllers.

A very interesting, interactive, choice-based game worthy of checking out. The conceit, of setting the story as a stage-play, was very intriguing and well done. Visually, it's fine, the writing is very well done, with interesting characters and interactions. The mystery is solid, although mainly as a mechanism to advance the story. Is it worth the full price? Maybe. It's quite short at just under 5 hours (for me), but an different and engaging experience. Personally, I'd recommend it more at a sale price, but if you are a rich, eccentric mogul, I'd say go for it any time. Definitely a different experience, dripping with creativity.