Still Life

I didn't expect this game to be this good and thrilling —wow! I wish I had discovered it and played it years ago. Still Life is a classic point & click game developed by the same people who created Syberia, both games have a similar art style, especially the first two games from Syberia. In this game, you play as an FBI agent, Victoria McPherson, who was called to investigate a serial murder case. When she arrived at the murder scene, it was already the fifth death. The killer seems to target young women, and little does Victoria know that her grandfather was investigating the same series of murders in the past. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3590599421 You'll alternate playing as Victoria in Chicago and her grandfather, who takes you to the past in Prague. You'll try to find evidence for both cases in the past and the future, and connect the dots. I found it very interesting and engaging. The game has seven chapters, and each one you play with a different character. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3590599295 The voice acting is good, the soundtracks are nice, but the puzzles were extremely frustrating. Some of them felt impossible to solve, and the worst part is that you can't skip them or use hints. I found a YouTube video to help me pass the picklock puzzle and the last laser puzzle. The graphics are dated, the game has many cutscenes, but they are all old; however, they are not extremely bad. I enjoyed them all and loved the details of the cities and places. Most of the cutscenes and dialogues between the characters don't give you the option to respond to them, and if you get the list of things to ask, you are going to go through them all. You'll sit and listen to the whole thing, then continue playing. The good part is that each conversation you have with anyone will be logged, and you can read it from your FBI screen. You can also read any information you pick or an evidence report you searched. The archiving system is suitable for tracking characters' encounters and names. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3590599516 Pros: +Interesting story. +Playing with two characters. +Good soundtracks. +Well-done voice over. +Fast traveling map. +unlimited slots for manual save. +Detailed graphics. Cons: - No skipping options for the puzzles. - Frustratingly difficult puzzles. - No automatic save. - Lots of backtracking. - No Steam achievements. I'd be happy if they ever thought about remastering the game. It is worth playing. The ending is an open one; you'll have to play the second game to fill the gaps. I highly recommend it to people who enjoy classic games, especially Point & Click. [quote]𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑐𝘩𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒 [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/32399565/]𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑎'𝑠 𝐶𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒[/url][/quote] [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote]

I’m a bit mixed on this one. As a complete package, Still Life is a very enjoyable adventure game, but its lack of consistently engaging puzzles sometimes makes it feel more like an interactive novel than a traditional point and click. That said, the strength of the story and atmosphere more than make up for it. Like many older adventure titles, it occasionally leans into obtuse or frustrating puzzle design at times approaching the levels of The Longest Journey in how counterintuitive some solutions can be. These moments break the flow, but thankfully they don’t overshadow the game’s biggest strengths. The real highlight is the narrative. Switching between Prague in the 1920s and modern day Chicago, the game offers a unique dual timeline that is both stylish and gripping. The atmosphere is dark, moody, and well realized, with strong visuals and solid voice acting that help sell the noir tone. I was genuinely invested in uncovering the mystery and following the characters right up until the end, which unfortunately stumbles and leaves things unresolved in a way that may frustrate some players. Even with its shortcomings, Still Life stands out as a memorable adventure game with an intriguing premise and haunting presentation. If you value story and atmosphere above all else, it’s absolutely worth playing, even if the puzzles can be hit-or-miss.

Download dgVoodoo and drop the appropriate DLLs into the game's installation folder to avoid issues on newer hardware. Yet another reason why Steam needs a "meh" button. The story, up until the ending, is fine and has you wanting to progress to solve the case, but the puzzles range from annoying, to impossible to solve without a walkthrough. The worst are presented as logic puzzles, but logic only gets you so far and you ultimately need to make some wild guesses to reach the solution. A good puzzle never makes you guess. I'm giving this a negative review because the ending provides zero closure, so the promise of the otherwise intriguing narrative falls flat on its face.

Interesting game, story is alright, flow is pretty well. Unfortunately, this game DOES NOT run on modern hardware. You will have to jump through several hoops to get it running and the experience is not great. I don't know why steam sells games that do not run out of the box. The story is also incomplete and ends in a cliffhanger. The resolution of the plot is in the sequel.

Played this game for the first time when I was 14-15 years old. Made me want to be a detective. Found it again now and I'm 28 with a criminology degree. After all these years I remember every detail of the game. It shaped me. Thank you!

🍰 Runs on windows 10 with no issues. 🍰 Wonderful voice overs. 🍰 Movie like narrative driven story. 🍰 Immersive & believable characters, plot, environment, events. 🍰 Mostly reasonable puzzles & things you have to do at the start of the game. 🍰 Element's of daily life add to the game very well. 🍰 Couldn't mix correctly ingredients in a cooking puzzle even with a guide, still love the puzzle. 🍰 Skip dialog text available with SPACEBAR not with mouse buttons. 💔 You play too many times main char's grandfather (main character from another game). One instance was enough. 💔 During grandfather char game play time, many scenes can only be transitioned by changing 𝓒𝓞𝓝𝓣𝓡𝓞𝓛 from mouse to keyboard, cursor click to another scene is not working or alternatively simply ALT+TAB and then re-select game back. 💔 A few puzzles that are pure pain, not clear how to be solved and they are over complicated, closer to the end, they are there to mostly waste your time. 💔 Too often game just drops you and gives you no clue what to do next, in some instances character insights, closer to the end of the game less talk more confusion. 💔 Had to use external tool to make window mode. 💔 Bug with some scenes entering/leaving, you have to ALT+TAB and return to the game or change mouse to keyboard in OPTIONS and then transition will work. 💔 Too many times used walk-through to simply clarify what games wants from me and what to do. 💔 Many times hotspot is at the atom level scale. Still Life 3 it's about time... this Christmas... Please gift into Christmas sock? No? Meanie... :( I have enjoyed my time with the game but closer to the end too many puzzles to waste my time and almost at every tern no idea what is next and what to do.

I finally crossed this one off the bucket list of games I never finished as a kid. My brother and I used to play this back in the day but never actually finished it. When I saw it on sale on Steam, nostalgia took over and I had to grab it. After a long journey, I’ve finally reached the credits. --- ​+ The Positives ​▪︎ Aged Like Fine Wine: For a game that’s 21 years old, the graphics still look fantastic and hold a great atmosphere. ​▪︎ A Strong Lead: I loved Victoria. She’s a total bada*s who "slayed" from start to finish. I had to side-eye her a few times—like when she missed a perfect shot at the killer or failed to put Mia into witness protection despite the back of the photo of Mia, saying she was next—but she redeemed herself with that final, perfectly timed save. ​▪︎ The FBI Experience: The opening was peak gaming. Using forensic tools and doing actual field work made me feel like a true agent. ​▪︎ Gripping Narrative: The plot was genuinely engaging and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. ​The Negatives ​▪︎ Wasted Potential: It’s disappointing that the forensic/detective work practically disappears after the first scene. Aside from a couple of fingerprinting segments, the gameplay devolves into just walking around and asking pre-set questions. For an FBI agent, she didn't do much "agenting." 😬 ​▪︎ Puzzle Fatigue: The puzzles were a chore 😭 especially the baking sequence and the robot/laser segment. There were too many of them, and they frequently killed the story's momentum. ▪︎ ​Moon Logic & Guidance: The lack of direction was infuriating. Some solutions made zero sense—like using a fire extinguisher to see lasers or finding a nearly invisible knife by a jacuzzi to cut a painting, which by the way, no hints, that Victoria suddenly wanted to look at that particular painting. If you didn’t look at a walk-through guide, you were gonna be hella lost and confused. ​▪︎ The Flashbacks: Playing as Victoria's grandfather was a slog 😴 It was so boring it actually made me take a break from the game. I would have much preferred if Victoria read her grandfather's story but with flashbacks without having to play as him. ​▪︎ A Letdown Ending: The finale was wack-get-e wack 👎 I get that they were setting up a sequel, but the main goal was to unmask the modern killer. Keeping them anonymous felt like a missed opportunity to end the game with a bang and I felt like I wasted my time. --- ​Final Verdict: 4/10 ​I’m torn on this one. It started strong, but the pacing dragged significantly toward the end. While the atmosphere is great, the frustrating mechanics and boring flashbacks held it back. If you are interested in playing this game, just watch someone do a let's play or a essay about it on Youtube instead of wasting your money.

Unfortunately, Still Life has aged very poorly. The lack of basic quality-of-life features makes the experience unnecessarily frustrating. There is "fast" travel but the protagonist moves painfully slowly between locations, turning simple backtracking into a test of patience rather than deduction. Compared to Post Mortem, the game also loses narrative strength. There is no internal narration or meaningful dialogue choices, and many conversations feel awkward, forced, or even in poor taste considering the seriousness of the subject matter. Puzzle design is one of the weakest aspects. Several puzzles are illogical and almost impossible to solve without a walkthrough because their internal logic is unclear. The infamous robot puzzle near the end was the breaking point for me due to sheer frustration. In the end, this game demanded far more patience than it gave back in satisfaction. What may once have felt atmospheric now feels dated and cumbersome. I do not recommend it.

What lies beneath great art direction and an interesting premise is ultimately a meandering story wrought with illogical and annoying puzzles, and drawn out animations that you will watch over and over. Then after all is said and done you are left with an unsatisfying ending that doesn't feel worth the frustration. Technical issues include having to download external programs to cap fps and crashing if you do certain objectives in an order that the developers didn't plan for. Smooth sailing otherwise. The opening cinematic was amazing, I was excited to play after watching it. The dark atmosphere, lovely pre-rendered environments, art and characters aged very well. I rooted for Victoria the entire way, and I enjoyed the personalities of the side characters. Originally, I was going to tentatively recommend it, but after playing the sequel, I felt like I wasted my time. So many plot threads are left unresolved because it's setting up the sequel, which has barely anything to do with the first game. I can't recommend it due to that. Overall, it's a mediocre game, and despite the negatives, I still enjoyed my experience, but I can't see myself revisiting this in the future. There are far better games that reward you for your time.

Its a shame that this game is sandwiched in between a lackluster prequel and a god awful sequel. If u play any game in this series pick this one.