Nora's AdventurEscape

not gonna bury the lede, currently [b]nora's adventurescape[/b] is [b]nora's adventure bug-scape[/b], a broken piece of ♥♥♥♥. and while it pretends to be the [b]collector's edition[/b], offering all 15 days' worth of content (except stuff you have to skip to continue, see below) and an actual ending, [b]wallpapers and the soundrack are missing[/b]. it starts like every hallmark movie ever. successful lady (ice skater here) moves to small town for a change, to re-invent herself and save a building. everybody's way too nice but also lazy and incompetent (they must be game developers on the side), nora's the only person capable of doing anything. which is mostly playing delivery woman, made all the more tedious with all the slow walking animations from house to house in the cutscenes. and what's with all the hugging? the 'overworld' is like all those mobile games like [b]gardenscapes[/b], surely there's a construction kit of some kind available, but [b]without any mobile shenanigans[/b]. isometric view, the environment looks great, and [b]lots (LOOOOTS!) of dialog[/b]. loquacious doesn't even begin to describe it. [b]nora's adventure yap-scape[/b] would've been a more apt title, but [b]dialog/cutscenes are skippable[/b] without missing anything of import because see above. no text display sound (woo!) and the typewriter effect is fast enough. sentences can also be clicked to appear immediately but with such phenomenal writing most of them are only a few words and appear faster than you can click. [b]gameplay is really varied.[/b] sure, there are objects to find, but it's [b]more 1st-person point & click than hidden object game, without the comfort of object highlights and an active mouse cursor, so it's about 50-50[/b]. many different tasks from fixing to decorating and everything in-between, [b]all presented as some sort of puzzle[/b], and they're replayable (not the dialog). would've been nice to have more than 3 on the screen, so as not to have a 36-page level select, or at least quick jumps to different days. puzzles include finding and using items, memory matching, finding the differences (all in a row, no misclicks, horrible), jigsaw, patterns, match-3, math, lights out, nonogram and pretty much everything under the sun. I passed on a few tedious puzzles and in some cases didn't understand the logic (if there was one) even after looking up the solution, maybe it's just me. [b]3 unexplained difficulty settings[/b] for the game overall, can be changed anytime, and tasks also have a toughness rating, represented by their color. so far so run-of-the-mill, but what drew me in was the [b]supposedly 100+ door-opening puzzles[/b]. didn't count them but pretty sure it's the total number and not all of them involve a door. still the find items, use them, etc. schtick but with a hint of escape roomism. except it's more [b]escape [i]into[/i] the room, also known as breaking and entering, burglary even[/b]. so despite syrupy appearances you're basically committing felony after felony instead of knocking or asking for a key and the items. there's a [b]hint and puzzle skip[/b] button, both have a short cooldown but no lives, energy, daily rewards, etc. there's also a [b]24-page help section and a strategy guide (walkthrough)[/b], plus a bunch of 'extra' levels, i.e. the actual ending of the story, scummily always cut from the non-collector's editions (and from what I've read, this one simply says something to the effect of 'buy the ce if you want to see the rest' after day 12, no fake ending or anything, it just stops). also, in-game representation of [b]achievements, half of which are broken[/b] (task-tracking is a mess). and as mentioned above, no wallpapers or soundtrack in the steam version, unlike on big fish. nice but nothing special mobile/casual graphics, [b]music is beyond repetitive[/b], had to turn it off during day 1. settings are for languages and separate volumes, no player profiles and [b]no windowed mode[/b], alt+enter only produces a non-resizable window, edit the registry if you want a different size. annoyingly, quitting is only possible from the main menu but there's no reason to go back there, with only a new game and continue button besides quit. all in all, it's a [b]mixed bag but the puzzly gameplay is mostly good[/b], even if the skippable fluff isn't. [b]has a demo[/b] with the first day, not really representative of what's on offer later, basically the tutorial (help is bugged there, works in the full game). the store page is messy and redundant and the [b]promised content updates never happened[/b] (it was originally released in 2021), but I don't expect games appearing on big fish to have endless (or any) updates after restoring cut content in so-called collector's editions to present the whole story. still doesn't mean you should lie on the store page. however, [b]most cutscenes on days 13-15 wouldn't play, had to skip them to continue[/b]. some on day 15 had people missing (the ones after fixing the statue's leg), on top of being broken the other way. while I don't care about broken achievements, nor the story in this particular case (reading it all is also several achievements), it's not supposed to happen, especially repeatedly and after they supposedly fixed it back in november 2022 (more than a year after release, great work). I could finish the game but [b]it's not something to recommend in such a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up state[/b]. I was interested in one of the dev's other games but not gonna give them more money after this.

More dialogue than game play, sooooooooo boring.

Instant refund! Too many bugs to collect achievements for this broken ass game.

I am enjoying playing this game, sort of a hidden object/escape room mix with a simple yet enjoyable story line. I have hit a problem where it won't let me finish the game and not sure why, the only thing I can think is I skipped a couple of the tasks but if this is the problem, surely there shouldn't be a skip button if it means you cannot complete the game. I hate to not recommend a game but unless they fix the problem there is not much point buying the game and as far as I can see there is no follow up by the developers to comments on the discussions page so not much chance of getting this fixed. This has now been fixed and the game completed, a nice game if a little slow but will definitely play again.

Eigentlich würde ich eine neutrale Bewertung abgeben, denn das Spiel kann man in zwei Teile aufspalten. Der erste Teil sind die Rätsel, der zweite Teil die Story, Dialoge und Animationen. Die Rätsel sind logisch aufgebaut und bestehen aus einer bunten Mischung von Wimmelbild, Zahlenkombinationen, Rätseln von Zusammenfügen von Objekten und einigen anderen. Zu schwere Rätsel kann man entweder überspringen, sich die Lösungen im Menü anzeigen oder sich mit einer Glühbirne Hinweise geben lassen. Die Schauplätze und Objekte der Rätselräume sind detailliert gezeichnet, allerdings muss man sehr genau klicken, wenn man etwas auswählt. Z. B. gab es in einem Level eine Schublade, bei der man genau auf den kleinen Knauf drücken musste, damit sie geöffnet wird, das kann teilweise schon frustrierend sein. Die Story ist allgemein sehr flach und langatmig. Die Hintergründe der Story, meistens nur Häuser und Vorgärten, sind zwar detailliert, aber die Personen sind dermaßen vereinfacht, dass sie mit den Einblendungen bei den Dialogen nichts mehr gemeinsam haben. Es sieht teilweise gruselig aus, wie sie laufen oder Dinge aufheben. Bei den Dialogen werden Bilder der sprechenden Bewohner gezeigt, die jedoch scheinbar alle nur eine Hand voll Emotionen haben, die auch noch oft überhaupt nicht zu dem gesagten passen. Ich denke, dass man die Geschichte getrost überspringen kann und einfach die Rätsel in aller Ruhe löst. Die Achievments funktionieren nicht, vielleicht wird das ja noch nachgepatched.