Veritas

I played a lot of Glitch games on my iPad back in the day - they had some of the most consistent point-and-click adventure game content in a market frankly oversaturated with awful point-and-clicks. They've tackled a lot of very different styles, from the corny pun-filled Ferris Mueller's Day Off to the ambient horror Forever Lost series. Their staple game mechanic - the camera which lets you screenshot various game elements - is a brilliant way of providing the player with the tools necessary to take notes without having to grab a pen and paper (or commit long codes to memory). While a lot of the individual puzzles in Veritas are still very fun, with answers hidden in the environment in interesting ways, the game itself is bogged down by a bizarre genre-hopping story with a lame ending and frankly awful performance for the PC. The story presents itself as a horror story - filled with diaries to find, blood trails and bodies - but it also includes humorous pop culture references which clash with that theme immensely. Similarly, many of the puzzles involve interpreting your environment in clever ways to find codes to solve puzzles, but then one puzzle involves a bizarre out-of-place pun straight from the world of Ferris Mueller which I would never had guessed without the game's hint system. The story itself is also incredibly cliche, and I quickly found myself disregarding the more detailed logs on the computers throughout the game when it became clear the story would likely lead to nothing [spoiler](and indeed it does, the whole thing amounts to something similar to 'it was all a dream', making all the lore pointless, and the stakes next to zero)[/spoiler]. None of this was helped by the fact that, despite coming out in 2022, this game performs worse than Myst, which came out almost three decades ago. Moving between screens in order to navigate the massive map is tedious and frustrating, and makes the (normally satisfying) process of returning to an earlier area to solve a puzzle take ages. There's no clear indication of which areas or objects are interactable, which is especially problematic when half of the set pieces in the game are 'glued on' or 'fake' in-universe, which makes it hard to tell which objects you should interact with and which you shouldn't. The most egregious interface in the game is the one used to navigate the game's computer terminals (which are not essential to complete puzzles but contain much of the game's 'lore') which are so slow and clunky (and, frequently, broken) that after exploring the first one a little, I never interacted with another again. If that weren't enough to make you think this game lacks polish, after Chapter 4 comes Chapter 8 (according to the title cards between chapters). I am at a loss as to how something basic like this gets into the final product of a game, unless it was a genius trick by the developers to make it feel like the game you just played was longer than you thought (which isn't necessary, because this game was so tedious it already felt like it took longer than 3 hours to finish). These issues make the game feel incredibly unpolished and disappointing. The few good moments you'll have with this game - both with the story and puzzles - are bogged down by the foreknowledge that the story won't amount to anything substantial, and the slow, tedious interfaces you need to interact with to play the game. I'd hazard a guess that this game is nearly a direct port from some mobile version, which is understandable, but doesn't make the game any better to play.

wiped save after two hours of play, dev website says its a fixed bug(clearly not fixed). the workaround of importing also doesn't work

nice

The game is designed poorly, becomes unplayable. got to chapter 2, and when trying to open things or solve puzzles, a single left click would at points take you back to the starting room. don't waste the free space on your PC. REFUND REQUESTED!

nice game for this price i trully recomand

I gave it a thumbs up, BUT: You have to LOVE very hard puzzle games and a ton of backtracking. You will need to draw a map of each chapter and where each and every puzzle is located because this game doesn't seem to naturally flow and it's easy to forget where everything is located. (Did I mention a ton of backtracking?) Some of the puzzles seem So Far Fetched that even after you look at a walk-through, you still find yourself saying: "WTF"? I think you HAVE to be a real puzzle hound to enjoy this work. When creating any kind of game, there is this fine line between too easy and too hard that is the sweet spot that makes the game enjoyable for most. aka Portal, etc. This game didn't even try to hit that sweet spot. They just went for Hard As #hit.<<<Now, that has it's rewards amongst the die-hard puzzle fans but it will 'probably' turn most people off. [spoiler] One example of Ridiculous is that when you finish Chapter 4, the next Chapter is 8...WHAT? You spend a countless amount of Wasted Time trying to figure out what you did wrong. However, You didn't do anything wrong, the developers just added more confusing ridiculous nonsense to make the game that much less enjoyable. [/spoiler] The audio and graphics are just fine and run smooth as silk and just about everything is mouse controlled which is a plus. You can take pictures or snapshots whenever you want and these scenes are stored in a folder that you Always Have With You.<<<Extremely helpful! The game also remembers where you are when you exit so you don't have to save and load. I think that if I'd paid more than 7 bucks for this game WITHOUT a large red banner that proclaimed it VERY HARD and ABSURD at times, I would have felt cheated. That said, IF you are one of those puzzle fanatics that just love complicated and sometimes irrational puzzles and a ton of backtracking, go ahead and pay the 14 dollars. BUT, if you aren't that intense, I'd say 6 or 7 bucks is fair because some of the puzzles are hard but make sense and seem to naturally flow which will give you that Aw-Ha moment. And for the other puzzles that are off-the-hook borderline ridiculous, there is always a walkthrough.

Glitch does not disappoint! As usual, great puzzle game! Love the graphics. Love the music. Love the story. Love the funny things the mc says. In game camera is a necessity for keeping track of all the puzzles. I really like the write on photo feature. The hint system is just right for not too heavy handed and out of the way when not needed. If you like this game, their signature series is Forever Lost. Go check it out. If you love it like I do- sign up for their newsletter. There's no spam just updates on the games they're making- once a month, I think. Great job devs! Can't wait for the next one!

Highly recommended for point & click adventure enthusiasts (classic Myst, Fidelio Incident, Haven Moon, Palindrome Syndrome, etc.). Very well executed with interesting storyline. Puzzles are not too complex, mostly logical and blend with the story. Great integrated hint system if needed - provides several hints and then solution if desired. Good inventory system including the ability to combine items, and a fantastic camera capability that offers the ability to superimpose an image from the photo library on the main screen for reference - can even rotate the image and zoom - well done - I wish all point & clicks had that feature. Excellent value for the investment - good length - many chapters. Reading the computer files was a bit tedious and didn't seem necessary to solve puzzles or advance, but did provide good context for the story. Speeding up the rate (maybe from 300 baud to 9600 baud?) would be welcome. This story concept offers a lot of opportunity for sequels or parallel stories. All in all, if you enjoy point and click adventures, I highly recommend it. Great job Glitch Games! Keep them coming!

Very good escape room type puzzle game. Saves at whatever point you left off on even though there are chapters. Pretty good length. Decent hint system built in. Can take pictures of helpful clues with a camera.

Great game. Some of the puzzles really got me and I admit I had to use the hints a couple of times. Really enjoyed the variety of puzzles and story.