Resonant Dusk

Currently quite buggy, but very playable. Excellently executed fixed multicam that evokes Alone in the Dark and The Last Door, but with no combat and gameplay which seems to mostly comprise of bumbling from one room to another and trying whatever keys or items you a have on whatever doors or people you encounter. The quality of the prose is excellent, with strong period vocabulary and characterisation - the game deftly sketches a household smothered with the sadness born of ruthless ambition and blind selfishness. Unfortunately, the narrative largely lacks pace and immediate stakes - the player will trudge from room to room, reading letters and listening to spectres and... mostly feel like somebody arriving at a party just after it's wound up and the guests are going home. Controls are very solid (only tank controls, but well implemented), though there's currently some jank when returning from menus. Sound effects are functional, but don't really set the scene - this old house could do with some more creaks, wind whistling outside, maybe some drips? The music is effective but unremarkable- but the fixed multicam angles are VERY well handled, with some dramatic, interesting angles, mostly static shots, almost no blindspots, and clear environment navigation. Unfortunately the lighting is a little bland, giving the house a somewhat sterile, dull tone. Resonant Dusk is a fairly short game, which I THINK I was able to almost complete (before hitting some bugs) in just over two hours (I guess we'll have to see for sure if and when the bugs are dealt with). If you like gothic ghost stories (a bit of M.R. James meets Mary Shelley) and are looking for something a little slower-paced than the original Resi's or their clones, this should be right up your street - well worth a try. If you've enjoyed Resonant Dusk and are looking for other fixed multicam games, take a look at the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/fixedcamera]Fixed Camera Appreciation Society[/url]! We've the most complete list of fixed multicam games on Steam and other shopfronts and platforms!

This game is such a nostalgic trip. The mansion is absolutely beautiful. It is not too chopy while also not too detailed. It has the feels of prerender graphics without being prerendered. This is a first time I saw something like this. Some bugs have been fixed really quick! You wonder through the mansion collecting clues as to what happened piece by piece. Thre is no combat or cheap jumpscares, at least as far as I have gotten to. I dont think combat would fit this game although it would be nice to blast some werewolves with a rifle.

It's a fun game to play around Halloween or if you just like horror games. :)

[h1] Update to reflect the patch: [/h1] most of the issues I had with the overall presentation and some closure issues were addressed, enough to remove the negative rating. [b] Original Review: [/b] I thought the game had a cool concept, it's like a puzzle only version of survival-horror, no combat or running into monsters, only the classic fixed-camera aesthetic of the genre. You will be doing easy puzzles and backtracking, as well as using shaped keys in a similar way to RE1, mostly fetch quests and simple note deductions. You can finish a run in about 2.5 hours on a first playthrough, I believe there are a couple of different endings, but so far I just got the bad one that rewarded me with a text wall for completion, and I must say, that was extremely disappointing, not even a little cutscene or an art panel? My biggest problem with the game is that 80% of the puzzles had exactly the same logic, you pretty much just backtracking and doing the key delivery, sometimes with a clue in the notes or a simple number puzzle, not sure if they didn't want more variety, or simply didn't have the means to program something else. The logic is similar to Resident Evil puzzles (they are very simple), and you may even recognize some of them as the classic puzzles from the series. However, Resident Evil puzzles had some mechanical gameplay like pushing statues or having some visual feedback like playing piano, but here nearly every puzzle is a fetch quest with no visual feedback, and you don't get cool animations for solving them. The writing was okay depending on the character or which shadow I was talking to, even though I did not like the text font. You will be exploring the house and helping the shadows move on by showing them relevant objects, and I assume that may affect the ending as I had some extra items. The plot overall was nothing special in my opinion, it kinda reminded me a little of AITD 4, there was enough context for the characters, but not really enough actual depth or intrigue. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) The game faithfully captures the aesthetic of retro Survival-Horror (even though it's not in the same genre). Had a decent use of camera-angles across the rooms, giving different perspective and feel to the locations. The coloring also reminds me of various classic games like RE1 and AITD. (+) Some of the dialogue was interesting, but maybe not all of it, I found it more engaging when characters would ask me questions. (+) The movement was surprisingly smooth for a fixed-camera game, honestly I think more retro inspired games need to feel like that, aside from a few bugs it felt really good. (+) I believe there are multiple endings, I only did one run though. [h1] Feedback: (outdated) [/h1] - Endings, please, anything is better than a text wall. A little cutscene for each ending, maybe playable cutscene or an art panel, not a wall of text. There is nothing more disappointing to me than buying a game, playing it, and getting a wall of text for an ending. - Maybe remove used items from the inventory like those that you show to shadows, that way you don't try to use them again. - For a puzzle game the puzzle variety was very poor, almost every puzzle felt like a different version of a fetch quest or a note clue, no mechanical puzzles or mini-game puzzles or interactive mini-game puzzles. How many backtracking only puzzles are in this game? Like 90%? - Even though you capture the visuals of the genre, I still feel like the variety of the rooms was not that great. I liked what you did with a baby room, I wish the game had more aesthetic areas like that would change the feel of the game. - Not a fan of the text font - I had multiple crashes / random glitches [b] Overall Thoughts: 6/10 (post-patch)[/b] The visuals and some of the writing was decent, but honestly it's not enough, the game felt a bit hollow overall. Do not end your games on text walls, I might as well not even play the game at that point if I know how shallow it will feel when I am done, you need a short cutscene, or at least a playable or interactive scene. If you making a puzzle game, you need to have more puzzle variety, maybe some mechanical puzzles like pushing objects or interactive puzzles in addition to what you have. I also felt like almost the entire house had a very similar feel to the locations, even in RE1 you get some area changes, you need a little variety other than just basic furniture, gardens, balconies, something like that. Cool concept overall, kinda dropped the ball though. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

15 minutes in. The graphics are very nice and its pleasing to look at. I'm not used to the controls and it feels very unintuitive having the WASD controls relative to the character instead of the camera, wish there was a toggle inside some settings to choose how to control the character. Speaking of settings, audio options would be nice too, to adjust the music and sfx volumes independent from each other. Also there's a critical bug which results in the game sometimes crashing when exiting the inventory - mainly from the items tab, not so much the letters tab.

Good!

EDYCJA: Poniżej pierwotna treść recenzji, która jest nieaktualna. Deweloper poprawił intro i zakończenie, nieco zmienił rozstaw pokoi (na plus) i dodał mapę. Używanie ekwipunku jest klarowne. I choć nadal uważam ów grę za przeciętną, to jednak zmiany poprawiły odbiór i zmieniam ocenę na pozytyw. Przygodówka, która estetyką nawiązuje do gier z lat 90. Wcielamy się w Lucasa, który na prośbę przyjaciela odwiedza rezydencję pewnego rodu. Jednak zamiast ludzi zastaje zmory, echa tych, którzy w ów domostwie żyli. Rozmawiając z nimi i eksplorując rezydencję dowiadujemy się o tym kim byli i co takiego się w tym miejscu wydarzyło. Początkowo gra sprawiała pozytywne wrażenie, pomimo tego, że wstęp był tekstowy. Po nim ukazała się oczom fajnie wystylizowana grafika retro w stylu przygodówek i survival horrorów ze stałymi kątami kamery. W tle gra niezła muzyka, która nawet aż bardzo podkreśla niepokój w grze, która w sumie survival horrorem nie jest. Niestety z czasem produkcja pokazuje swoje bolączki. Okazuje się bowiem, że rozgrywka polega przede wszystkim na podnoszeniu notatek i przedmiotów, które możemy użyć na innych rzeczach lub napotkanych zjawach. Nie ma tutaj praktycznie żadnych zagadek – jest jedna z kodem do pudełka, który odgadujemy na podstawie wskazówek w liścikach a druga zagadka jest tekstowa, którą zadaje nam jedna ze zjaw. A tak to biegamy po pokojach wzdłuż i wszerz w poszukiwaniu rzeczy, dzięki którymi będziemy mogli bardziej pokonwersować z duchami lub otworzyć pokój/schowek. Przeważnie w jakimś pokoju coś znajdziemy, co przyda się gdzie indziej. Ale nie wkładamy w to jakiegokolwiek wysiłku poza zapamiętywaniem pokoi, bo tych trochę jest i łatwo się pogubić. Podczas rozmów ze zjawami i po użyciu na nich przedmiotu, który chcieli dostać, pojawiają się niekiedy wybory w dialogach, które podejmiemy – będą one rzutować na zakończenie. A tych jest trzy. Niemniej mając w pamięci dziesiątki otwieranych drzwi i bieganie po pokojach nie kwapiłem się z poznawaniem innych zakończeń. Tym bardziej, że też jest tekstowe. Tak. Nie oglądamy jakiejś scenki, tylko czytamy tekst, co się dzieje. Tu już negatywnie mnie to zaskoczyło i ostatecznie przekonało do nie polecania ów tytułu. Sama historia jest taka sobie. Dla mnie nie była intrygująca, ale czytałem wszelkie teksty (czcionka wg mnie jest ok). Gra ma więcej złych rozwiązań. Na przykład po rozmowie ze zjawą lub odnalezieniu kluczowej notatki, albo znalezieniu pudełka z wymaganym kodem (już nie pamiętam), zyskujemy możliwość przyjrzenia się przedmiotom, które wcześniej obadaliśmy, ale poza komentarzem bohatera nic więcej nie było. A tymczasem okazało się, że muszę latać (kolejny raz) po całej rezydencji, aby znaleźć trzy wskazówki ukryte w różnych rzeczach, na które wcześniej klikałem, ale nic przedtem nie uzyskałem. Niektóre zjawy po pierwszej rozmowie znikają i pojawiają się gdzieś indziej. Też trzeba ich szukać. Część użytych przedmiotów po użyciu znikała, część nie, choć i tak pożytku z nich już nie było. Poza tym trafiałem na błędy, w tym jeden wywalający do pulpitu – sprawdzając, czy jest mapa, kliknąłem M i grę wyrzuciło do pulpitu z błędem. Z tego co pisał twórca, miała być mapa, ale nie zdążyli jej zaimplementować. Ogólnie cała gra sprawia wrażenie niedokończonej. Gdyby dodać wyreżyserowane zakończenie, mapę, dodać zagadki, to byłby to całkiem przyzwoity tytuł. Ale tego nie ma, więc i nie ma dobrej oceny. Zajawki zwiastowały intrygujący tytuł. Niestety, zawiodłem się.