The St Christopher's School Lockdown

The game is a great puzzler for everyone that ever played the classics from LucasArts and Sierra. Altho this is the studio's first ever published game and therefore feels a bit rough around the edges, the team managed to put together an interesting and compelling plot with storylines people can relate to. + Interesting story + good narration + clever puzzles in the form of mini-games that can be repeated at leasure - rough around the edges. some solutions can be seen as far-fetched - playing the anti-hero may feel forced for some people. i give it a 7/9. would play again. :)

I don't really know where to begin. I guess I should start by saying that I wish Steam gave you an option for when your opinion on a game is mixed. Do you recommend this game? Yes or No... I need a "Maybe" option, because that's what this game would get. However, I would still say that my opinion on this game is mostly on the negative side. Pros: - Cool, fun(ny) characters - Vibrant graphics/art style - Strong writing - Good voice acting - Unique story - Logical solutions to puzzles - Ambitious Cons: - Plagued with numerous potentially game-altering or experience-ruining bugs - Far fetched solutions to puzzles - Nancy Drew-like puzzles that aren't fun - Inconsistent inventory - Despite having sections with voice acting, most of the game is text - Empty, unfinished storylines - The ending The bugs/issues (major ones): - Music doesn't play when you load your game - Static/Popping recorded in certain music tracks - "Tab to see hotspots" feature that's in most point and click adventure games is broken - In certain areas, specifically the ballroom, it takes you 10-15 seconds to go from room to room - Characters disappearing - No way to exit the screen after clicking certain items in inventory, causing you to have to close the game, sometimes losing progress and having to do stuff you already did over again The puzzles: For the sake of full disclosure and total honesty, I will admit this. I absolutely sucked♥♥♥♥♥at this game. I did ♥♥♥♥ing terrible. I don't know what it was, perhaps my brain and the brain of the puzzle designers just don't... we just... aren't on the same wave length, I guess. I had to rely on a walkthrough and the help of people online to get through the game. I really do hate using walkthroughs, as do a lot of people, but I really do try not to let it hinder my experience. Do I get salty when I can't figure something out and the solution was right in my face? Yes, as do most people. But I don't blame the game unless the game deserves to be blamed, unlike a lot of people. In a lot of instances, it was my own fault, and not the game's. The puzzles did make sense. However, some solutions are quite far fetched and very difficult to figure out, in my opinion. So I felt like it wasn't entirely my fault at the same time. Also, it's worth mentioning that this game isn't very popular, so at the time of me typing this, there are no full playthroughs or walkthroughs on the Internet. All the Nancy Drew-like puzzles, such as the water out of the phone "minigame", the fire alarm cog puzzle and the light/mirror puzzle at the end of the game were just not fun (walkthrough used). I straight up sucked at the water/phone puzzle. I wasn't sure whether to match + with + or + with - on the cog puzzle and there were no instructions so I didn't want to waste my time, and I got really lucky with the light/mirror puzzle, despite using a walkthrough to know the right color to choose. I figured out every other Nancy Drew-like puzzle on my own, but for the most part, I found them more annoying than fun to try and figure out. I feel like multiple instances where I got stuck in the game can basically be pointed to the same two reasons... 1. I forgot that something existed in the game (an item, a feature) 2. Inconsistent inventory only lets you pick up/keep things when you need them, therefore, you forget about them. On the flip side, the teacher's lounge was a complete mess because you could pick up EVERYTHING, even if you don't need it. I went from 12 to 31 items in my inventory. And you naturally overlook things when you have a bunch of♥♥♥♥♥♥in your inventory. The missing girl solution was a huge reach... You make your way to the roof, and you're supposed to know to call Martin's phone while you're next to the water tank on the roof so that you can hear his phone ring. Like... wow. Now, Martin is definitely sketchy, and you think he's probably behind it. But you don't know for sure. I just would never have thought to do that. Let alone start a campfire under the water tank (which they are apparently inside of... don't ask) to get them to get out. While everything involved with this puzzle is logical and made sense, it's just way too far fetched for my liking. The entire library card puzzle and the process of getting into the library is an absolute mess. I didn't even bother with it, honestly. I looked straight on the discussion thread for this game on Steam, because I saw a thread titled "library card", which was the most commented on thread in the forum. Basically, just go to that thread, and you'll see for yourself. Thankfully, someone just posted the code to get in the library, so I didn't even bother with all the nonsense and just put the code in. I normally don't do this (because I don't look at walkthroughs to begin with), but this game was just too much at times. To explain the contradictions in my Pros/Cons... I mostly just had mixed opinions on them. Or opinions that changed as the game went on. For example, the story. At first, the story is intruiging. You play as a criminal named Kayleigh. She's running from the cops, and somehow finds herself in the middle of St. Christopher's, a "prestigious British institute" where students are protesting against new laws put fourth by the Ministry of Education. Basically, they're protesting because♥♥♥♥♥♥s too expensive. So they lock themselves in the school, in protest. Kayleigh disguises herself as a student and joins the protest. We find out that she owes someone money and that the person she owes money has her brother. So it's some serious stuff. To cut to the chase though... All of these storylines have no resolutions. Every single storyline in the game has no resolution. We don't know what ends up happening with the protest. We don't know what happens to Kayleigh's brother. We still don't know anything about the person Kayleigh owes money to. We don't know what happens to any other characters in the game... Which brings me to the ending. First of all, the Kayleigh/Roger "love" storyline just felt shallow. They drunkenly slept together once. You could tell there's potentially something there, but... at the end, when they're going through the cliche "don't forget about me" type of dialogue, it just felt weird to me... like, since when was it that serious? And then the thing happens at the end, which was just... so dumb. I have no idea why anyone would think that's a good ending for this game. For a game that made me feel dumb the entire time, it just had to go out making itself look dumber than I did playing it. (EDIT: Apparently, this game is actually the first installment of a series of games. I didn't know that when I typed this review. Despite this, my feelings haven't changed. Everything just felt so empty and pointless, as if nothing meant anything. They didn't give nearly enough to satisfy me.) Briefly, some other things: - Really loved the voodoo game, and I wish it were more prominent in the game, honestly. You only really have to play it once. On the flip side, didn't like the mood fixer game. At all. Thankfully, I only had to do it a few times. - The game is really funny, a lot of funny dialogue moments and characters. - What I mean by "Ambitious"... You could tell they tried really hard with this game. To make it stand out, to make it unique. Overall, I just can't recommend this game. However, I will say this. I said my feelings towards this game were mixed, but mostly on the negative side. I was, at one point, considering giving this game a positive review, despite my frustrations with the bugs and far fetched puzzle solutions. The reason for that is, I thought, perhaps someone else will have an easier time with the puzzles than I did, perhaps they'll enjoy them more than I did, and perhaps they won't experience all the bugs that I did. But ultimately, I decided that it just wouldn't make sense for me to recommend the game based on my experience with it.

I liked this game for the old school point & click adventure-ness of it all. The story kept my interest and had quite a few twists and turns to it. I did think the end was tiny bit rushed. When I get that much of a twist, I would have liked a bit more time to process. Also - don’t want to give spoilers, but you aren’t playing a hero here. Your character is a not so great person who does not so great things. Game time is estimated in the description at 8 hours. Don’t see who finishes their 1st run in that time if they explore everything and don’t use a walkthrough. It took me about 19 hrs and most of the reviews here so far I see are at 15+ hrs. Play time is definitely worth the price. The most challenging part of the game for me was in the adventuring of ‘how do I solve the story goals/predicaments.’ One I particularly liked was being locked in a group of 3 rooms. The devs load up your inventory with about 30 items – making it difficult to toss inventory items at the problem! They also gave you 3 ways of getting out of the rooms so you get to take your pick. The in-game puzzles I thought were creative and very doable. Manual saves! I like those but loading them got glitchy for me mid-game. The first save slot always loaded so I developed a workaround. I saved game progress in whatever slots I wanted, but when I was opening the game, I loaded the first save slot and then went back to the main menu and loaded my most current save to avoid being kicked out with an error message. This was a fun and creative point & click that was worth dealing with it.

“The St Christopher’s School Lockdown is a subversive, irreverent point-and-click adventure set in a prestigious British Institute. We strive to provide gamers with a stunning hand-drawn visual art style, thoughtful puzzles and minigames, and memorable writing.” This game delivers everything that’s promised the most noticeable immediately on starting the game the wonderful art style. I found the story immediately engaging wondering how the protagonist had managed to land up where she did & why, but during the course of the game you do learn of her predicament through playing through some different scenarios she was involved in prior to arriving at the school. This is a regular PnC adventure in the ‘traditional’ vein that incorporates into the plot, as well as picking-up & use of inventory, some very nice puzzles & a series of mini-games that grew on me although I think you only need to play one of them to progress. One of the most impressive aspects about this game was that there were a number of solutions to a few dilemmas & I had a lot of fun fiddling around with the alternatives. The dialogues of the characters you encounter seemed quite realistic giving a good sense of their personalities & you will be familiar with the different types I’m sure! Intermittently some of the characters were voiced but not all the time, just enough to know what they sounded like when the voicing wasn’t there – it worked okay for me! What I did love more than anything was that it was a change to experience a game set in the real world that never resorted to the paranormal, horror, sci-fi, occult etc where the tale was one more of normality....well as near as you can get! Overall I thought this was an excellent game with exceptionally good gameplay & well worth your time if you would like a compelling story, with a variety of puzzles, alternative ways of solving some of them, interesting characters & all set against a backdrop of gorgeous artwork!

It's awesome! I love it! The ending I got went out with a BANG! It scared the ♥♥♥♥ outta me lol.

****1/2 A classic-style point-and-click adventure with a unique and eye-catching graphic novel art style. The characters are well written, dialogue is believable and well acted, and the environment feels very well lived-in, with a great use of flavour text to maximize humour and character by describing the world through the character's eyes and personality. The only flaw I can think to mention is a few interface issues that can get annoying but should definitely not stop you from playing this little gem. Fans of standard point-and-click adventures will find a lot to enjoy here. Intermittent mini-games keep the game fresh with some variety, each one being challenging, fun, and clever. The Voodoo Wars mini-game is also quite a blast, though I've only found a couple opportunities to play it so far (I've finished a single playthrough and likely missed out on a lot of content). The game's difficulty starts very low, as though the game was more of an interactive graphic novel than a proper adventure game. However, there is a moment when SHTF and the puzzles ramp up with no turning back. Even the most hardened adventure gamers will find a great deal of challenge with the puzzles in the second half. There are some aspects to this game that might not be for everybody, but if you're a fan of point and click adventure games and you're looking for a point and click adventure game, you know what you're getting into and this game will meet your expectations. St. Christopher's School Lockdown is a fun and challenging game, a wonderful experience, and a triumphant debut for Classroom Graffiti Productions.

An extremely interesting and entertaining look at class division in Britain via a private school protest attended by well-meaning, sympathetic teenagers who are nonetheless ill-prepared and kind of ignorant of their own privilege, through the eyes of Kayleigh, a young woman with much more serious and urgent problems, who has to balance keeping her head down, helping out the people around her, and looking out for an opportunity to steal something valuable and leg it. Slightly janky at times but great voice-acting and phenomenal writing, this is a criminally overlooked title. Highly recommend.

Probably the most obscure game I played in 2018r=, The St. Christopher’s School Lockdown is a graphic adventure game with a novel setting; an English private school, occupied by students revolting against the country’s massive tuition hikes (a thing that really happened when the Tories took power). I backed it on Kickstarter, and in late 2017 it came out after many years of protracted development. It’s an odd duck, and hard to place. The setting is enjoyably novel and the voice acting is much better than one would expect from such a low-budget affair. Unfortunately, my progress throughout the game was start and stop; it seems nobody bought it, such that even walkthroughs are unavailable, and on a couple of occasions I had to email the developers to get help with a puzzle I was stuck on! I still have enjoyed what I played and plan to finish it, but it’s like playing a point and click adventure in the days before the internet; sometimes, you just get stuck and have to come back later.

Love the dialogue, and I'm a sucker for point-and-click adventure games so this gets a thumbs up from me.