Paws of Coal

Приятная рисовка в столь очаровательной инди-игре, да к тому же в детективе. Много вариантов развития событий и только от игрока зависит, чем обернутся его решения. Игра не сложная, но на столь малый объем прохождения читать придется достаточно. Я бы сказала, что это немного визуальная новелла, потому что чтение занимает почти все игровое время, но, знаете, это совсем не плохо.

It breaks my heart to write such a review, as succinct and incomplete as it will inherently be. Upon the game's opening, I was delighted by its writing. Its soft flow amidst a grim din of plague captivated me instantly, and I knew I would be in for a delightful experience. Even better, after a little over an hour of gameplay, Paws of Coal presented me with a moral decision so organic in its conception, I really needed to take time to consider my options and discuss it within the game's world. I made my decision, and... The game crashed. I tried again, and it crashed. Checking the Steam discussions, it appears only a single moral choice is allowed by the game, and any other will cause the game to crash. This illusion of choice, while likely accidental, completely breaks the immersion and should not have been allowed in a final product, even if the choice that does not cause crashing is probably the most common one. As I cannot progress as the game intends without losing significant progress, and the game will not allow me to progress as I intend, I cannot continue, and I cannot give this title a positive review.

EDIT: game does not crash anymore, but path is still extremely buggy. It now somehow sequence breaks and forces you into a path where the strike ends in failure, despite it ending in success earlier from your actions. Still cannot rec, as this path is STILL not working properly. seems like a fun game, however, one of the main lines is game breakingly bugged. If you accept the magistrate's letter of employment, the game will crash. There is no work around. This is a major story decision. It's been reported since at least June, and the dev still has not fixed the issue to this day. I will change this review when the bug is fixed, and I can actually play the game with the decisions I want to make.

okay so Paws of Coal might be janky, but the pros outweigh the cons by more than a ton. here you've got a charming yet mature plot about an outbreak that might put a stop to all the mining rabbits' hops and flops, and we don't want that. while the mystery itself won't take you long, the social distress and elaborate worldbuilding in the background will have you returning for more. there's one correct solution, but different way to get to it. will you betray a just cause for the sake of a speedy solution? will you risk certain information to spit in the face of middle and upper management? and if you do, will it be worth it? maybe there's a way for everyone to win, you'll have to try again and find out. you need all the information you can get, but the when is just as important as the who in Paws of Coal, and maybe you'll want to explore more before talking with the first furry friend you see. fully recommended, full of cheeky prose and stellar writing. for more reviews of games that are cute and cozy, that are creepy and have some crawlies (or both!) consider checking my curator page out: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44079361/

I picked the game up for $1.50 USD. I recommend it for those who like reading and story rich games. It DOES NOT work well on Steam Deck due to the control scheme. I swapped to Windows PC with mouse and keyboard and it was fine. The themes here are about oppression (prejudice, capitalistic/master-servant) and the way groups & individuals react in situations of societal and/or systemic challenge. It's compelling as food for thought or as an opportunity to ask oneself as the player what one think is most important when deciding what to do in response to a current event while considering that single event's larger context. It's not "fun" (as in a happy, energetic, emotionally easy time) and I don't think anyone but thoughtful teens and older would enjoy it. It might be a really interesting game for maturing teens though, if they're interested in social justice issues (or you'd like to begin talking about them in a deeper, more complex way with them). The story feels like a very brief snapshot of a world/society with complicated systemic issues. It's not bad, but I would either expect a visual design that sells that meaning to be thought provoking for our world/the whole story, or I would have expanded the scope of the world to make the visual style's blandness a backdrop for more neutral slice of life elements. Given the game as it stands (length, price), the repass on matching the visuals to the theme of the game seems like the option that makes more sense. The game itself feels like it could use a polish with better indicators for how it controls and dialogue UIs with a little more elegant of a designer's touch. The character art doesn't quite match the art style in the background; maybe the whole thing needs a faint lighting/color palette adjustment to make them really seem like they go together.

Pros -Fantastic world building. Really top notch. - Well written dialog and characters - Great art-style for the characters. Think old school Disney or Don Bluth. - Can be played entirely with the mouse although there is some caveats. - Pleasant music, fits the theme very well but can get repetitive. - Chill and relaxing to play, no difficult puzzles just collect clues and then made a deduction. Cons - I had a bit of struggle moving the character, frequently when clicking for the character to move anywhere they would just stand still. It was like you had to find a very precise sweet spot to click on or it wouldn't register. Stairs were an issue in particular. - Unfortunately if playing exclusively with the mouse you will encounter times where two hotpots overlap. The game offers different keyboard keys for these occasions but maybe the mouse was overlooked. Although possibly middle mouse button can be used. I swear this worked at least once but never again. - No auto-save, There are 3 manual save slots but the game doesn't allow you to name them or even show a timestamp for the save. - I'm not sure the UI was optimal for the main mechanic which is doing the investigation. I think it works OK when there are very few clues but gets very messy at the end. Also had some occasions where the entire UI became unresponsive and I had to exit the game. The UI also features an inventory but this seems mostly useless. There is also a to-do list but sometimes things won't cross off. I had to talk with a particular miner and I definitely exhausted all of the dialog tree but it still left the task on my to-do list. Also leaves tasks on the list if you've made a choice that prevents you from completing the task. - Game ends very abruptly. - Game is very short but arguably reasonably priced I think I think overall its certainly rough around the edges but I think its still worth a look if you want something chill and relaxing.

A well written and surprisingly complex investigation into the possible cause(s) of a mysterious illness in a mining colony of anthropomorphic animals. There's a surprising amount of world building, a demand for genuine deduction and even a socio-political struggle to involve yourself with. I love it! Playtime: about 2 hours.

It's a short and fun game. The world and characters are interesting and distinctive, and the puzzles are fun and relatively easy but satisfying. I really liked the animations, the art style and the writing. I was mostly intrigued by the deduction mechanics and the game delivers. You can still technically stumble upon the conclusion by brute force but number of clues and conclusions makes that not viable. It's a nice compromise between keeping everything in your head and your character automatically solving stuff for you. The politics are a big part of the game and your actions can influence how you solve the main problem and makes you think about the consequences. It's a good fit. On the technical side, it's not polished. I experienced a bug once where I had to restart the game to be able to move. The animations on the main character freeze regularly (mostly after the dialogues). Its often hard to distinguish dialogue choices from each other. The narrator font is (sometimes?) much bigger than character fonts. That being said, I finished the game without being frustrated by these issues, and I experienced no crashes. I look forward to the next installment in the series.

Lovely little game. (Review made for Steam Awards 2023)

This is a clever little puzzle wrapped in a almost lovingly in depth slice of world building. Every hand painted frame and thoughtfully written word is couched in a setting that feels alive, in spite of having only this small glimpse of it. This is a single truffle of delectable detective work. The method of building your "case" is novel. It takes risks, where it can. So, good game, over all, worth the price of admission.