The Edgelands

I thought this game was great! Very moody. I liked how dark it was, in imagery and content. I would have like to have been able to walk a little bit faster, but I kept going back and forth between also kind of liking that it made me slow down. I found restarting chapters to get all the dialogue worth it as well. Often you only get to choose one option per conversation. Usually each option provides a bit more information.

This game was good and bad at the same time. It has charm and a good atmosphere. I enjoyed the dialogue and the puzzles were OK but very simple. There is no save function between chapters so I had to restart twice after quitting the game. That was a major Con for me since I only wanted to play 20-30 minutes at a time. I would recommend it for the atmosphere and story, but not for the price it's listed for currently. Try to get it on sale. Gameplay Here: https://youtu.be/81vKW5GVPgI

I think The Edgelands (TE) is best described as an interactive story, and in many aspects it's similar to Kentucky Route Zero -- a psychedelic journey in a reality that used to be our reality but then made some strange choices in its life. There are interactions with various objects and NPCs but, I think, only two puzzles that aren't completely straightforward. Those interactions are always narrated in a way that has a feel of an old-school text adventure, in equal parts businesslike, ornate and tongue-in-cheek, and the writing is excellent throughout. The in-game texts aren't too verbose, and the dialogs are quite short. TE's stylized graphics are somewhat similar to pixel art, mixing higher-resolution stylized shapes with some lower-resolution elements in the backgrounds. TE has lots of subtle animated details. There's always something to look at, such as various creatures reacting to the protagonist (the girl? the Stranger?) or just going about their business. Or some subtle or not-so-subtle changes in the surroundings. The setting, the mysterious places and creatures, the writing, the graphics and the animations really come together to produce what I think is one of the best short interactive story games. What you might not like: - TE doesn't bother having a reason for the journey or an overarching story. The game is more like a collection of stages - sometimes it looks like the protagonist or the animals are moving sideways (that is, facing slightly the wrong way when they move) - walking is rather sluggish. It's really tied to the design of the game though, as the player is supposed to see things happening while walking. And the fact that there's always something to look at (have I said that already?) helps - I can easily imagine the reactions to the game's soundtrack varying from "Superb use of electronic music" to "Why does it make those strange sounds at me?"

In fairness i'll leave my original review below which I'd wrote only after my initial short session with the game. It left a good impression with me at the time, but I changed my mind after getting a chance to spend more time with it. I still really like the atmosphere and artwork, but the rest of the game quickly became bland and predictable. There's not much of a story for you to invest yourself in the character or what's going on. It feels like a Point A to Point B interactive story without much of a plot nor variation in between. You play through a series of short levels (small physical areas that the story progresses you through), each of which typically has a puzzle (more like a task) that you must complete to progress to the next area such as finding a key for a door. The tasks require no thought or effort whatsoever... basically talking to this person who says to find some thing that's in plain site to then take here yadda yadda. Now I do occasionally enjoy walking/exploration games with good artwork, but there's not enough story to keep my interest and the walking pace kills my desire to explore the limited level area. I'm sure there's some people who would still enjoy playing it though. ------ Stumbled across this game and decided to pick it up since the artwork/style looked interesting. So far I've been enjoying it since I tend to favor these light puzzle / exploration kind of games (similar to Oxenfree in that sense). I like how most objects are interactable with dialog (reminds me a bit of The Fall) to help explore each of the areas. The visuals and sound seem to go well together to produce surreal/creepy environments. So far it doesn't feel particularly challenging but rather has a relaxed feel to the gameplay - but I haven't got too far in the game yet so that may not always be true. The only complaint that I have about the game is the walking speed. There's only one pace of walking and it feels painfully slow at times when walking through woods. Luckily I haven't found the need to backtrack much at all but it still bugs me.

I really liked this game, the atmosphere at times reminded me of Alice when she's lost in the forest. The soundtrack really works with what's happening on screen making for a nice overall game play. My only criticism is that I felt I needed to walk faster - especially when having to go back & forth over ground already covered, it felt like a long trek at times.

Edgelands is a minimalistic point and click adventure with interesting art and sound direction. I recommend this game more for atmosphere and story than for the puzzles or play time. Movement speed and play time are the main downfalls. With that said if your into wierd distopian futures and point and click games pick this one up, at a discount.

I would rate this game as a meh? It had a nice atmoshpere and music, some neat visuals but that is it. The walking speed is slow, somewhat infuriating at times especially when you have to move from one side of the screen to another. The puzzles are not really puzzles, you pick things up and automatically use them, there is no item management, so you just walkaroung click on prompts feels kind of like busy work really. But the game isnt to long or expensive, so its not offensively bad just a meh game.

I helped a bit with the beta and I can tell you: This game is very well made. The themes and art style are beautifully presented and the design is both familiar and wrong, enticing a beautifully uncanny sensation that is incredibly enjoyable. If you like art-house style games, you'll love this game and it is worth every penny.