A fun little adventure game, Kate Walker.
(Minor spoilers while critiquing key plot points)
I like adventure game stories, but they always make you wander around figuring out what to do, and they’re notorious for having a simple plot (e.g., “Go to X place.”) where you are constantly blocked by the most basic things in your way. You need to collect items, figure out how to use them (and how to combine them in the most convoluted ones), and then you make one step of progress only to immediately run into the another barrier.
This game plays half like that, and half not like that. This remaster didn’t have anything convoluted (e.g., you don't have to mix items in your inventory) and had a really streamlined experience that I enjoyed (e.g., there’s a story mode that points out the dialog option that keeps the plot moving if that's your focus). However, the areas you can traverse are huge despite them not being very busy/complex. It can take you well over a minute or so to get across the area, for example, which in an adventure game requires 10 seconds of walking or, if you're lucky, has a double-click fast travel option. So, it’s strangely both streamlined in most areas but slower as an adventure game because of the distance you have to traverse in the (gorgeous) 3D environment.
It’s a very interesting game, and I really got sucked into the story, with the document contents being fantastic at world-building. I especially liked how the game tested your attention and logic, not your exploration and creativity like most games. While it has a few minor flaws, it’s a great game that I am glad I played.
The Positives:
-This isn't a classic SCUMM-type point-and-click adventure game; it's a modern third-person perspective 3D adventure game with conversations, item gathering, quests, and puzzles. I kept having the recurring thought that this game felt like a Resident Evil game (e.g., the letter-writing lore-building, the third-person angled-camera view were present, common plot elements and puzzles) minus the zombie combat and survival horror elements. Very interesting.
-It is quite the unique story. The premise: an automaton factory is being sold, and you're the lawyer sent to close the deal. To close it, you’re tasked with understanding the history of the factory owner’s family to determine how to complete the transaction. Through that process, you become invested in the family. I can’t tell you how many times I had to remind myself that I’m a lawyer and not Anna, the owner of the factory. That’s how powerfully immersive the story is. The most reading you do is a whopping 18-page journal in the game that gives you the whole history, and between that and the audio reenactments of key historical events, you really feel like you experienced them instead of simply witnessing them.
-The visuals were great, and I didn’t really feel that reusing the classic cutscenes was a problem like many other reviews mention. Yes, they’re slightly less high-definition, but they are the same people and have a nostalgia factor for me since it takes me back to when those graphics were cutting-edge. The audio—music and voice acting—is great, too. Though one of the songs has a similar portion to Platoon’s Adagio for Strings and kept making me think of that score.
-Once I figured out how the game worked in terms of what puzzles and things they were going to throw at me, I was able to move briskly through the game. It also gets a little more direct as you move on in the game (e.g., the first section has a bunch of parallel quests; by the last areas, you have one task at a time). It still had the "stuck in area, explore, solve problem, proceed" formula, but it felt less egregious than other adventure games.
-I just have to reiterate how the game is very simple yet incredibly touching and deep. On one hand, your task never really changes…but, on the other hand, you discover new lore with every conversation and document. It feels like I know a ton about the world and the situation from fewer collectibles than an RE or collect-a-thon game.
-I think my favorite part about this game vs. other adventure games was that other adventure games tell you what you need to do, but then you spend an hour figuring out how to do something that would normally be stupidly simple; this game gives you the information you need where, if you pay attention, you know exactly what you need to do or where to go and can progress easily (if you don’t, then it’s hard). I love that. It rewards paying attention, and so I started taking copious mental notes. The only time I couldn’t find the thing I was looking for was when I looked away from a cut scene to check my phone—completely my fault, as I would’ve known what to do had I just watched the scene.
The Negatives:
-The file size is ~15x the size of the original game, and I think the original looked pretty good from the screenshots I saw and so I think many would prefer that version if they played it first or like the retro style. The game seemed to require decent performance for high-quality graphics, which makes sense for a newer game but seems like it was more demanding than it should've been. Finally, my game crashed once, it occasionally had a weird slow-for-a-moment-and-then-speed-up effect, and then there’s the aforementioned switch between HD and classic cut scenes. None of this was bad...just thought I'd mention them so they don't bother you.
-The main issue for me was how long it took to get everywhere, which really slowed the game down. Yes, a couple of revisits were my fault for not knowing that I could progress the game without traversing the whole map again, but still. They make you walk in tight inside areas, which makes logical sense but makes the game feel even slower. You need to get used to one-minute travel segments where nothing new happens.
-Some things near the end just happen out of nowhere, not making much sense. It's almost like they had to streamline things for time. For example, the dialog with the "final boss” makes it seem like you’ll need to solve some super-hard puzzle to escape, but you already have everything you need and just need to leave the way you came. The dissonance between the script and your actions makes it very anti-climactic. Then, you return to an area you were before and are about to take off again, and *boom* the game ends. WHAT??? It doesn’t even make sense because the log says that the person you're looking for was discharged in 1985…I mean, I liked that it didn’t pad the run time, but I would’ve preferred a final train stop and closure for the whole mammoth story, which they never resolved (maybe that’s for the sequel?).
-It was a just a little too straightforward at the end. I think it was the contrast between them setting it up like it was going to be some big thing and I literally just clicked a button and the problem was solved; I probably wouldn’t have minded it if the plot point didn’t conflict with what I actually had to do.
Overall, I really liked the game. I will play the sequel because I really want too know if there are any payoffs with the whole mammoth obsession and Syberia. That was my biggest letdown. I liked the story, enjoyed how the puzzles, phone calls, conversations, and documents created an immersive experience, and loved the streamlined adventure game approach 90% of the time. I’m torn on the repeated “you’ve changed” comments that didn't make sense to me (it was a several-day journey) and the strained-relationship side story (on one hand, the protagonist was a jerk, giving her flaws, but the writers also kind of forced it in to get the ending they wanted), both which were driving the story toward a “finding myself along the way” moral that didn't work for me. It’s a great game, and I’d recommend it…the small flaws don’t ruin the experience. It's a refreshing change from creativity-centric adventure games to a logic-centric one.
