Mainland

As many reviews state, even for a free game it is just far too short. The game is completely linear, there doesn't seem to be any room for error, as in, you can't lose. As far as I could tell, at least. But you can get hopelessly stuck and require a walkthrough. Logical actions seem to be completely ignored by the author. I just wish this was more; the soundtrack really held me in, if anything.

Mainland is like if Victorian explorers met a deadly plague and decided to narrate their misadventures in text form. You spend your time exploring, making choices, and realizing that every decision somehow ends with slightly more existential dread. It’s atmospheric, quirky, and perfect for anyone who enjoys classic text adventures without worrying about hardcore puzzles—because the real puzzle is surviving the 19th century. 9/10, highly recommend bringing tissues… for your eyes and maybe your soul.

I would not recommend this for most gamers. I think it would be better off if it was maybe a visual novel instead of text adventure

Жена сказала, что если на этом обзоре наберётся 10 лайков и 5 наград, то она подарит ящик пива. Мужики, выручайте!

Esse jogo é quase impossível de se jogar sem walkthrough. O jogo não te dá muitas dicas do que escrever, do que fazer... Você tem que adivinhar. Eu ja joguei text games no celular, mas esse Mainland faltou mais clareza na jogabilidade.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate this game around 4-5/10. The play time is relatively short-- I took about three hours to finish it, but if you're decent at putting words together and/or is a fast reader, you may be able to finish it in an hour or two, maybe even less. Good if you're planning on mad-dashing your way through a bunch of games on a slow afternoon. I do have some complaints. To people scrolling through the reviews to see if the game's worth your time, beyond this point there will be spoilers. I will still be hiding them, but there's gonna be a lot of them so you might as well not look. You have been warned. First: the game can be a bit vague at times. A prime example of this is the second "chapter": [spoiler]the one where you explore the island. When you examine the distant island, the MC notes that you can reach the island with a dinghy. This got me thinking, "Oh, well, then I have to take the dinghy on the boat to the island, right?" [b]Wrong[/b]. Whenever I tried to get on the ship, it says, "No time for that, I need to explore the island." I [b][i]am[/i][/b] trying to explore the island, though! You said we could get there in a dinghy and we have to explore the island, so why won't you let me get onto the boat where the dinghy is located?![/spoiler] I walked around lost for a long while before I gave up and pulled up a walk-through. [spoiler]Apparently, by "the island" the game meant the one I'm currently on. The game never specified it, though, and with the dinghy comment and an earlier comment at the footstep bush that said "I need to stay hidden" made it seem like I'm not supposed to be on the island and needed to go to the other one.[/spoiler] This is part of the reason why it took me three hours to get through the game: I spent nearly an hour walking around aimlessly, lost and frustrated. Thankfully, this wasn't as much a problem in the later segments of the game as it was in the earlier segments of the game. Another thing that bugs me is the sheer amount of commands available for the player. Choice is great, but having too many choices bring about its own problems. In the third-to-last "chapter" of the game, [spoiler]the MC finally tries to use the dinghy to get to the island. He can't move the dinghy, though, because there are crates weighing it down. I tried the "take crates" command, because I thought I needed to [i]take[/i] them out of the dinghy, but it turns out no, I needed to [i]move[/i] them out of the dinghy instead.[/spoiler] It's all semantics, but having to fiddle around with commands is frustrating and unnecessarily time-consuming. As for the writing and story, they aren't anything special. It seems to me the developers were trying to portray the slow descent into hopelessness when one is feeling figuratively or, in the case of this game, literally stranded. If the story was meant to invoke an emotional reaction in the player, it failed; for most of the story, I was mostly just annoyed due to the aforementioned vagueness and commands. While the ending and the immediate parts leading up to it did make me feel something, it was mostly discomfort I felt for myself, brought on by the [i]topic[/i] the story was delving into, rather than by its own merit. The overall writing and story neither compelled me to feel anything for nor form a sympathetic bond with the protagonist. [strike]Also, I find it hard to sympathize with [spoiler]a colonizer[/spoiler]. I understand that it's appropriate to the time setting, but if the developers were trying to make as many people as possible emotional, maybe try having an MC who [spoiler]doesn't casually mentions slaves like it's just another day, doesn't make racist remarks towards "the natives", and doesn't have a father who treats the aforementioned natives like they're test subjects[/spoiler]. The insensitivity undercuts the delivery.[/strike] I'd like to redact this part of my review, since my opinions have changed since then. It was within the developer's rights to make a game with such a protagonist. However, this doesn't change the fact that [i]I[/i] think the protagonist is kind of a racist. His racism is detailed in the above struck-out part, but if that's no longer readable, they were casual, offhand remarks. If you can't stomach racism, then it might be best for you to skip this game entirely. Overall, while not horrible, it isn't great either. Personally, it's a meh game leaning towards the lower end.