TR-49

Well ... this one has me torn. I loved the deduction and reading, trying to piece things together. And I loathed the cryptic dystopian story that had me dangling mid-air all game long and even after the end. I simply couldn't make head or tail of anything, which became somewhat frustrating. The well-done deduction part and the technically well-executed game have me leaning towards the thumbs-up button. But TR-49 makes me wish there was a neutral option. While some of the things do fall in place eventually, a lot of it remains in the dark. I still don't know what "revisions" actually are in this game, which meant that I had to google the other endings (originally I ended up saving one person but not "the world" if you like - don't want to spoil anything). I still haven't got the slightest clue why it was vital to destroy a certain book, nor why the machine is supposed to be a menace to mankind. Admittedly, I may have missed a clue in the conversation (which was easy enough to miss as I was reading text on the machine at the same time that my character or her counterpart started talking). And I am not really into Sci-Fi stuff, so my brain automatically reverts to reality mode when trying to make sense of stuff. Add to that being thrown into the very deep end of a world and mechanics that you are supposed to take for granted, and I was lost at sea at the very start. As I mentioned before, I really liked the deduction work leading to new clues and entries. I also liked the novel approach of entering commands into a machine that only allows you to enter a combination of two characters and two numbers. The aesthetics are well done (keep in mind, you spend all game in front of this machine) and I think the price is very fair for what you get. If you are less rigid than I in accepting an implausible (or impossible) Sci-Fi scenario that defies reality, and if you like books and a world that revolves around the power of the word, this should be the game for you. Take your time, read everything thoroughly and let the sleuthing begin.

With "Reduce Hints" switched on, I think this might be my new favourite game in the niche genre of "database search games". The obvious comparison is something like Her Story, which I did enjoy, but here the cohesion between the mechanics, the story and the way the world of the game 'works' is much stronger. I haven't seen many reviews about the new 'Reduce Hints' mode. For the first hour or so of the game, I hadn't seen this option and didn't have it turned on. I was overwhelmed by the conversation between the two main characters, which iis technically optional, but I felt obliged to press the 'Talk' button whenever it was available. Part of the problem is that the conversation is generally interesting! I didn't want to miss it, but it did feel like I was consistently being interrupted [b]just[/b] as I was getting engaged in puzzling out the database. Turning on 'Reduce Hints' put the game right in the sweet spot for me. I still got to experience good character and story moments, but now had my brain much more to myself to sift through the documents and make connections: the heart of the game. Making those connections and figuring out the codes was sometimes tricky but always natural, with no moon logic. I did look up some vague hints in order to find a final (interesting but not critical-path) document that I had missed. I almost regret doing that, because the solution made so much sense that I think I could [i]probably[/i] have arrived at it myself with a bit more thinking time. I'm now on the hunt for (very) similar games. Please drop a comment if you know of any!

A short little puzzle game reminiscent of the old HTML link games like E.B.O.N.Y. Your job is to find document codes and associate them with their titles. Along the way, you begin to piece together the story of a world gone very, very wrong, and discover how to set it right. Bonus: Plays great on a potato.

This review is especially made for those who like to get all the achievements in games. Minor spoilers ahead. TR-49 is another great detective game by inkle that takes place inside a special computer and your goal is to find a secret entry, jumping from book to book, cross referencing journals and other publications, until you can associate the entry code with the publication’s title. The computer’s input is just a pair of two letters for the author and two numbers for the year of publication, but soon you’ll find out that the numbers can also mean something else. I won’t spoil the story because even after reaching the endings some facts are still left for interpretation and I find it fascinating. The visual style of the computer itself is very retro and seems to be based on Alan Turing prototypes that were used to break German ciphers. The screen itself is also very strange, resembling more colored vinyl than a CRT or LCD monitor. Besides this, you’ll only look at files and the basement where the game takes place. To complete the game and discover everything you will need to read a lot and pay attention to the details referencing years, encounters and family relationships, but you can also brute-force the discovery of new entries by guessing the publication dates. Often I’d do this besides paying attention to what was written but eventually I got everything. If you want to save time, here are a few hints:[spoiler] Most authors have an index with all the books they published, the code is their two name and surname letters and the last two digits of the year they were born, but the second letter code will change after the female authors get married and widowed or divorced. The entries with a red dot in your list mean there are links still left to discover[/spoiler]. The achievements are all story related and are awarded for discovering all entries and getting all the endings. The hardest ones will be getting two of the endings [spoiler]that aren’t in the list you get after discovering everything, so here are some clues: one of the endings requires erasing the earliest theoretical concept the machine is based upon, the other requires erasing the technical knowledge of how it works[/spoiler]. [b]Achievements:[/b] [b]How many:[/b] 21 Achievements. [b]How much time:[/b] Around 8 hours, on my own, without a guide. [b]Game difficulty:[/b] Medium, without a guide, but very easy with one. [b]Achievements’ Difficulty:[/b] Medium, no missable achievements. The trickiest ones are related to the different endings you can get, [spoiler]4 + 1 in total[/spoiler]. [b]Overall opinion:[/b] TR-49 is another great game by inkle with a compelling and complex story but with a darker tone than previous games. It requires persistence and a lot of trial and error to discover everything on your own, but you can use a guide for clues and the solutions [b]Join and follow my group [u][url=store.steampowered.com/curator/42556190-Ribbon-Hunters/] Ribbon Hunters[/url][/u] for more suggestions and reviews of easy indie games to get all the achievements.[/b]

I enjoyed this game immensely for the puzzles. The story in the books and notes is great, the story in the voice acting is a little lackluster at parts. I highly recommend this game to anyone seeking a challenging puzzle game that requires you to use your brain to intuit new information as well as giving you the opportunity to advance without restriction.

I recommend this game, though somewhat reluctantly. The dialogue and voice acting almost completely ruined the whole thing for me. I don't mind the esoteric vague plot that some people are complaining about, I think it works fine, it is more or less coherent. But the constant whiny inflection in the voice acting was grating to me. There's too much of it and yes there's storytelling and that's all well and good, but it's all told in the same annoying way. Would it have killed them to crack a joke or two? The reveals just didn't have much impact either. The deduction puzzles are decent, it was fun to piece together all the connections between the different characters, I enjoyed my time with it.

Short but interesting deduction game in the style of Her Story or Immortality. Navigating this book catalogue and discovering all the books and commands and passwords was surprisingly challenging, especially towards the end. It wasn't that hard to figure out what I was supposed to do and what are the "rules" but at some point you do feel like you are out of leads. At least I did. I really enjoyed reading everything and understanding the events that lead to where we were and what my end goal is, even if I did stumble on a few key moments or information by chance.

A good mystery game with some faults. The story is great. I think some of the much later puzzles don't entirely make sense. Also, you're going to be bombarded with a lot of information and only able to pursue one path at a time. There isn't a search function to go through text that you've accessed before. That would have helped me when I came back to the game after a day and couldn't remember the start of a specific breadcrumb trail I left alone.

BibTeX: The Game. Gave me flashbacks from my thesis days. 10/10

I enjoyed filling the pages, and trying to piece together what might have happened. However, it was kind of annoying how the guy constantly wanted to talk, especially as he usually didn't have anything important to say. Please let me do my puzzles in peace!