As much as I love the visuals and the mood in this game, the actual 'investigation' part can be a bit of a slog, it's just reading and looking for clues which is fine, but I feel the game makes it more appealing to brute force it due to various pacing issues. There are often 30 to 60 interactions per room not counting individual dialogue panels, and generally speaking you have to click on all of them just to be sure, and while the narrative is mostly fine, I do think it throws so much information your way, it's difficult to stay alert for all of it and pay attention to everything.
There is an issue with how the game expects me to play it, and how I actually find myself playing it due to practical reasons. You are meant to look at your character journal and pay attention to the clues, but honestly I find that the game has such an information overload, it's just easier to click on every object. The game does not always give good feedback, and it also lacks the quality of life features like eliminating old conversations, adding a lot more repetition as you trying to figure it out. You can finish the game in about 6 hours, although some of the clues are optional. If you want to make it easier on yourself don't skip the cutscenes after the mysteries, they usually have key words that point you in the right direction.
The story and the dialogue are somewhat interesting, if you don't mind actually reading all of it, and it's one of the most text heavy games that I played, so know what you getting into. Our character is navigating her drawings I guess, trying to recreate a murder scene for the investigators, and you also have a journal for each character to track what happened to them. So it's bit like a "clue" collectathon, solve every death scene, mostly by just interacting with every object, there is virtually no gameplay other than looking and reading.
The best part of the game is really just looking at things, like the previous game from the developer it's something else visually, there are many weird rooms, strange coloring, and a nice ambient atmosphere for the mood. It has the creative muscle behind it to ask for that price, although I am not sure how much this game was really tested, I feel like it could have been streamlined a little, with less details if they are not needed (there is a *** ton of reading)
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) the 2D cut-outs mixed with the 3D visuals are pretty great, one of the better games to use that aesthetic, lots of detail in the rooms, and many uncanny visuals
(+) conceptually I think the narrative is interesting, just be mindful that it's a heavy and slow read
(+) I liked the mood and the soundtrack, with the exception of the song during the first investigation, felt kinda random. But nice ambient feel overall
(+) it's a decently large game, many environments and unique rooms to explore
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
- sometimes you would remind the player during 'locked door' dialogue which area needs to be completed, but also you often say to retrace your steps, which makes it unclear sometimes where the last mystery/objective is, so sometimes I would run around like a headless chicken trying to figure out what you mean
- it took me a long time to realize the mystery names were used that way to show the range of the investigation, but the effect itself can be annoying as it also shows when you exit those areas (potentially being misleading)
- I think having a name of the character next to their dialogue box would help a bit
- it would be really nice to have a way to cancel any dialogue because there are so many repeated lines when you explore. Ideally you should acknowledge when player already interacted with something instead of repeating 5 to 20 panels
- the song in the first mystery is the only one that felt out of place
- the garden door does not look like something you can enter
- maybe you should color code any useful information in the journal, honestly I never find myself using it because it's just too much
[b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b]
It's a cool experience visually and if you don't mind some heavy reading I think the world-building is good as well. I don't care too much for the mystery gameplay here, I think there are more intuitive ways to do games like this, honestly it feels like I am clicking on everything a million times just because there is so much to read and pay attention to, maybe more than I asked for. Not sure about that price, I think if it goes on bigger sale, might be worth for the cool vibes alone though.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
