The Bradwell Conspiracy

This game is a good example of why an arbitrary yes or no review system doesn't really work for a game. It was a tough decision and I flip flopped back and forth as it is not a horrible game but given the current price tag of $22CAD, I cannot recommend this game. First off about the game. The simplest way for me to describe The Bradwell Conspiracy is sort of like Firewatch meets Portal, but it is sadly not as good as either. It is essentially a linear walking-sim with some very light puzzle solving in which you are trying to escape a collapsed building and find out how you got there. Like in Firewatch you have someone on the other end of the comm system throughout the game giving you tips and feeding you story. You also have the ability to take a picture of anything and it will send it to this person. I feel like this was kind of a missed opportunity as there could be more puzzles using this feature, but as it stands it is mainly just used if you get stuck or to progress the story and open a door. The other major gameplay hook is that you have a sort of 3D printer gun that lets you store and print a few different items to help you progress through the levels. I feel like this is the biggest let down for me as it is a great concept however you really only use it to get across gaps and I feel like the "puzzles" if you can call them that, are few and far between. It is also extremely finicky and frustrating. It often doesnt let you build something where you want to, which after a lot of trial and error, turns out to be exactly where you are supposed to build it.. [b]The Good[/b] [list] [*]The story/ setting was interesting and kept me intrigued until the end. [*]The voice acting is great. [*]The visual style is nice and works well for the game, although it doesn't always look the greatest even on Ultra. [/list] [b]The Okay[/b] [list] [*]In theory the gameplay concepts such as the 3D Printer gun and camera are good, I just wish they were used better and more frequently. [/list] [b]The Bad[/b] [list] [*]The use of the 3D printer gun in game. As the 3D printer is pretty well the only game play mechanic outside of walking, it runs in to a lot of problems. For example, you will have to print platforms at various points to get across a gap in walkway. Now there is no puzzle as you know you have to get across and you have the ability to build platforms so you should just be able to make the platform and continue. However, the game will just not let you build the platform anywhere! You will spend 10 minutes trying to find the perfect exact spot the game will let you build the platform (I am talking in game inches not feet) and then just shake your head and move on. [*]Length. I think you are looking at 3 hours, maximum 4 hours if you 100% the game and read the few emails and posters on the wall for additional story tidbits. (I am not sure what my game time will say as i went out for dinner midway through my play through and didnt shut it off) I think the game could have used a couple more hours to build up the story and have a few more puzzles as it does go by very quickly and for the price this would be a deal breaker for me. [/list] Overall I think the game is worth checking out for the interesting style/story, but given its length, current price and occasional frustration I would recommend waiting for a decent sale.

Man... I dunno. Not a huge fan of this so far. I'm past the "tutorial" and a few things are really grating on my nerves. Firstly, your "partner" that you can send photos to in exchange for hints and commentary really needs to be more context-sensitive than she is. I skipped ahead a bit before I was supposed to - you know, EXPLORING - took a picture of a sign, and she told me "Yeah, that's literally where you need to go, it says so right there." But I actually wasn't supposed to go there yet, I was supposed to go back and fiddle with something in the previous room. Very misleading, and kind of ruins the whole point of this system if she can give completely wrong information. She also told me at one point "Take a picture of where you are so I can help!" So I did exactly that, and her response was "I have no idea what you're trying to tell me." Give me a break!! Also, after completing an obstacle course section where you're explicitly tasked with creating a bridge to walk between two platforms, I came upon another section where I had to cross a slightly larger gap between two platforms. I had plenty of matter-juice available to do it, but for some reason, the little matter-creation gadget arbitrarily refused to function in this spot. I spent several minutes jumping down, looking around, trying different angles, trying different spots.... and then it turned out that the solution to the puzzle is to ask your "partner" for help and have her solve it for you without needing to use your new toy at all. I'm sorry, but "this puzzle is actually impossible, but if you give up and ask for a hint it magically solves itself" is not compelling. It's lame. I'm not going to refund this immediately, but I'm not impressed so far. I'll give it another shot later, if the game gets better I'd be willing to change to a thumbs up. Really not an encouraging start, though. Also, you'd think a team of BaFtA LuMinAriEs could figure out how to support 1440p. Just sayin'.

[h1]The Bradwell Conspiracy[/h1] The Bradwell Conspiracy is a narrative driven walking simulator with puzzle solving. The story takes place in 2026 after a sudden explosion at the museum. This game reminded me The Stanley Parable and Portal. It's 3,5-5 hours long depending on how many letters/audio recordings you'd read/listen. + As one of the main advantages of The Bradwell Conspiracy I want to note a very lively and well-written NPC with which you will interact throughout the game. + Awesome voiceovers for good dialogues. + Interesting story with a rather fun in-game world (office) exploration to get pieces of story via e-mails and notes. + This game does a pretty good job at entertainment part - it doesn't get repetitive constantly offering slightly different puzzles and mechanics. - The color scheme looks disgusting in darkened rooms - I really tried to fix it but it looked bad for me at any settings. - Minor though very annoying glitches with planks positioning - There is practically no physics in the game, you can’t jump here, but I was able to climb onto a palm tree just by “going” on it along a vertical texture. And should I even mention the solution of one mini-puzzle by stopping a powerful mechanism by weight of an empty bin? Things like this don't hurt narrative part of the game but it hurts immersion a lot. I was rather disappointed by the ending of the game. I don’t even know how to describe it, but if I wanted to spoil something, then it would be difficult for me to do this. It was too obvious and rather dull. And I'm still wondering how I missed 2 achievements while I explored everything carefully. The Bradwell Conspiracy would entertain you if you're looking for a decent narrative driven adventure with easy puzzles and light conspiracy mystery. On the other hand there's nothing outstanding about this game. 7.5/10 [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/32296668-Casual-Game-Reviews/]More reviews on our Curator Page[/url]

Highly recommend this game for anyone in to the shorter puzzle games. The story is great, the enviroment looks great and the mechanics and challenges are fun. The only downside is - almost 20€ for a 3.2 hour game (yes, i did explore a lot and read signs, monitors and so on)

I actually enjoyed this game. It's not as polished and interesting as Portal but I like the idea of it. I didn't have any glitchy problems at all. If it's on sale I'd say it's worth it.

A walking simulator with ambitions towards first person puzzle game. Unfortunately the puzzle bits and occasionally even the walking suffer from poor sign-posting and sometimes outright bugs, particularly in the final puzzle of the game. When the puzzles work, they tend to be on the easy, sometimes trivial side - anybody looking for a challenge should steer well clear here. The game starts out looking nice enough, but towards the end both the environments as well as the objects become quite generic. The story also ends very abruptly, leaving me quite unsatisfied. Was this perhaps rushed to meet a deadline? Even the musical score is strangely generic, considering the big name composer responsible for it. Finally the game is poorly optimised and demands way too much graphics and CPU power for what's on display. The one flawless aspect of the game is the (English) voice acting, really good and believable performances all around (including the Charlie Brooker cameo). Still, even at 50% discount, I felt I had overspent on this. Would cautiously recommend at 75% discount or more, otherwise no.

Imagine combining Portal and Myst, and getting the less thrilling parts of both. It was OK. I beat the story in 4 hours, and don't have any desire to play it again. Whereas Portal I can beat in under an hour, and it's like watching an old favorite movie so I play it at least once a year. The puzzles were not challenging, except when they were extremely frustrating. The hint system (you send pictures to an NPC, who comments on them) was hit-or-miss. Sometimes it was really immersive and engaging, and other times you are taking pictures of your problem and it's just like "I don't know what you're trying to tell me". I also had it glitch out a few times, where I had to quit and reload the game to get the NPC to acknowledge the picture I sent. The music was actually quite good. It added a nice spooky atmosphere to the game. The best parts of the game reminded me of NaissanceE (which is free and you should absolutely play if you are into first person puzzle platformers). The game looks really good, given it's simple aesthetic. There were lots of areas I wished I could explore more, but YOU CAN'T JUMP so tiny barriers prevented you from reaching those neat places. And actually, another time I had to reset the game was when I somehow fell into an area I wasn't supposed to be, and got trapped. That was annoying. The game basically had only 3 kinds of puzzle, that you repeat over and over again. 1) Make items to place in spots 2) Make bridges to cross gaps 3) a neat puzzle with mirrors near the very end. I think there could have been more variety (the door puzzle near the beginning was unique and fun, but never gets repeated again). The NPC you communicate with was sometimes very funny, and sometimes just annoying. Overall not to bad, and for the first hour or so that part of the gameplay was very immersive and fun. If you are into narrative first person puzzle experiences, I would recommend it for $5 or so.

Whilst it started well, the quality of the game drops from there. Passable dialogue, somewhat ropey story and buggy puzzle design let down what could have been an interesting game.

Reminds me a lot of INFRA. You play as a museum visitor. Musem collapses, then you are forced to go through underground complexes, labs, facilities, water treatment areas and offices etc while fixing broken ♥♥♥♥ and uncovering a conspiracy as the place is collapsing.

~4-hour walking and building a bridge sim with some timed sections, because that's what people playing these games want. when the first sentence and 'feature' on the store page is 'created by an international, award-winning team', you gotta be skeptical as hell. or expect much greatness if you're naive, believe marketing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ or are impressed by excessive name-dropping. I was prepared for the usual 'all style, no substance, nor functionality' situation, but it's done almost well enough and works on win7 despite the stated win10 minimum. except [b]no manual saving, nor saving on exit, only checkpoints here and there, an instant dealbreaker[/b]. why can't you let me stop playing whenever I want without taking away progress? chapter selection fills up as you play, but 'chapter 2' without a description or screenshot is as useless as it gets. settings are available anytime. resolutions, windowed mode, overall gfx setting, v-sync, anti-aliasing, motion blur, texture and shadow quality, brightness, field of view slider, separate volumes, rebindable controls, head bob toggle, camera [i]senstivty[/i] (sic!), vertical/horizontal flip and vibration toggle. [b]subtitles are the only thing under accessibility, why would you offer something for the timed sections?[/b] the silent (or rather silenced) protagonist has to communicate via pictures. [b]each snap takes a few seconds to send instead of being instant[/b], putting a damper on getting a reaction out of your partner by sending them random images. still fun though, but I don't think [b]firewatch[/b] will ever be topped in the 'dialog in walking sims' department. [b]sometimes subtitles appear before the lady starts talking, then audio cuts out because the next line is starting, triggered by who knows what in some cases[/b]. again, damper. walking speed is not too bad, running is better but not good enough for large open spaces. there's a run toggle, only for activation, so it has to be pressed again every time you stop for more than a millisecond. [b]an always run option would've been necessary.[/b] no map but current location is shown in the corner. reading emails and the activity feed is a pain, the mouse wheel barely does any scrolling, gotta click the scroll bars. the other mechanic is 3d printing with bradwellium, adult play-doh. grab items for materials and blueprints, then make whatever's necessary to solve trivial puzzles. [b]only allowing scrolling through all the blueprints one by one makes things even more tedious than rotating and placing platforms already is, what with finding that one pixel the game deems valid and no jumping[/b]. some hotkeys or other convenience options would've been nice. or fewer instances of 'build a bridge here'. it's not a puzzle, it's a chore. I also ran into a [b]game-breaking bug[/b] near the end. sent the pic of a code while amber was still talking and even though it was delivered and should've triggered the next thing, like always before, it didn't. back to menu, continue from last checkpoint. as if dialog skipping randomly ahead wasn't annoying enough, and from what I've read it can happen elsewhere too. [b]the endgame was pretty bad anyway with all the timers[/b] (not making the elevator leave automatically would've made a world of difference), then an [b]incredibly tedious laser-redirecting puzzle[/b], still hindered further by ♥♥♥♥♥♥ item placement, on top of all the running around slowly in a big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cave. to sum it up: subpar save system, iffy controls, bugs and glitches, mediocre story with a disappointing ending, even worse gameplay with an even-even worse final section, sold at way too high a price (I picked it up at 85% off, still a waste, and it used to be on apple arcade for 5 bucks or something). good amount of settings (though music is either non-existant, too soft or too loud without ever touching the slider), cool sidekick, excellent voicovers, even jonathan woss makes an appearance, but these are nowhere near enough to save it. as an aside, bossa studios used to be the publisher and they have a horrible reputation (great choice, devs), but since 2021, after an unannounced change, the devs are shown as publisher on the store page (not in the game), so there's that.