Vidar

The thing is, I WANT to reccommend this game, but I can't. The reasons; it has a lot of (gamebreaking) bugs and has been abandoned. I could never finish the game because I experienced a recurring bug at one particular point that I had no way to work around. I did get in contact with the creator, who responded and tried to help me at first, but eventually they just stopped responding and never fixed the issues. What I DID get to play was magnificent, and I absolutely loved it. The story, the mechanics, the pressure, the soundtrack, I enjoyed it all. I don't think everybody experiences the impassable bug, so you might be one of the lucky ones, but you'll have to risk it if you buy the game and be prepared to restart over and over again to avoid the ones you do encounter.

I had high hopes for Vidar, but my excitement quickly turned to disappointment upon encountering the numerous problems and crashes that plague this game. Even the most dedicated fans of puzzle games should approach Vidar with caution, as it suffers from various design flaws and technical issues. Allow me to elaborate on the key problems I experienced during my time with the game. Technical Difficulties: First and foremost, Vidar is prone to crashes, which makes for a frustrating and disheartening experience. In addition to these crashes, I also encountered issues with the game loading in the lower-right corner of my screen, rendering it nearly impossible to play. This is a serious problem that has yet to be addressed by the developers. Character Movement and Dialogue Woes: Continuing a saved game often resulted in my character moving at a painfully slow pace, with frequent pauses that hindered my progress through the game. The characters themselves suffer from repetitive dialogue that quickly becomes tedious, such as one character repeatedly saying "Flies on Horse Sh*t." Timed Puzzles and Unreliable Save System: Every puzzle in Vidar is timed, which makes it difficult to enjoy the process of solving them, as players are constantly rushed to find a solution. Another issue lies within the game's save system, which is only accessible when starting the game, making it nearly impossible to save progress while playing. Given that the auto-save feature is unreliable (as demonstrated by my progress being reset to the tutorial after reaching the ice cave on day 1), the save system is in dire need of an overhaul. Interface and Control Shortcomings: The game's interface is clunky, frustrating and without mouse support, requiring players to constantly press the escape key to access the main menu for essential features like inventory, journal, or map. The lack of shortcut keys for these functions is a significant oversight that detracts from the overall gameplay experience. In addition to this, players must repeatedly press the Enter key to close messages like "Locked Door," which only adds to the interface's cumbersome nature. Storyline Inconsistencies and Lack of Polish: The world of Vidar is fraught with inconsistencies that detract from its overall coherence and immersiveness. For instance, a church nun with a cross around her neck inexplicably worships polytheistic gods, leaving players confused and disillusioned. The presence of the "Star of David" symbol on graves in the cave is equally confounding. Verdict: Vidar is a poorly designed game that suffers from various technical issues and bugs that have yet to be addressed by the developers. From its unreliable save system to its frustrating interface, this game is a disappointing experience that should have been labeled as "Early Access" to warn players of its many shortcomings. As it stands, I cannot recommend Vidar to anyone seeking a polished and enjoyable puzzle game. It would be best to look elsewhere until these issues have been adequately resolved. [quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] and check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote]

I played Vidar a few times at Playcrafting NYC over the course of the last year. Definitely a game I'll be playing again and again. The randomly generated puzzles and plot give it enormous replay value. The story of how the game got made is incredible in and of itself (Google the Kotaku article on Dean, Vidar's creator). Big shot Manhattan lawyer quits to become an indie game developer. That takes balls. It's worth buying the game just to support that and stick it to the man!

[h1]Vidar is an experience like no other[/h1] There are games, that keep us engaged through their gameplay mechanics, their fast paced action, their ingenous design or brilliant plot. Many of them also immerses us with their great audio-visual fidelity. Vidar is not one of those games. Vidar is different. Here, it's [b]each one of the little stories, every human connection that create a social net of the small village of Vidar that kept me hooked from the very 2nd day I woke up and found people mourning[/b]. The first day in Vidar feels awkward. You meet all these characters, talk to them and try to understand what it's all about. Some of them you will remember instantly, others might feel bleak or undefined. Yet as you get to know them one by one, you start to sense there is something wrong with all of them. Even the bleak-sounding ones you start to identify as simply trying to deny or otherwise cope with the circumstances surrounding them. The circumstances you don't know a lot about at the start, but learn quickly enough. And then, suddenly, you get it all. You start looking at every single villager and see a different kind of grief reflected in their attitude and behavior. You see their lives being affected by the death of loved ones, friends and enemies alike. You see the whole web being torn apart, slowly collapsing after loosing those little strings, each of which seemed not to play that much of a role in the overall design, yet proving to be absolutely necessary for keeping the whole together. You see denial, hopelessness, the will to fight and the lack of will to live any longer. Not only that, you can see one person going through these states of mind as days go by. You see people ready to help the grieving ones today, only to lose all their resolve tomorrow, when a person close to them is taken away from them. You see them collapse when their support is gone. You see people trying to understand what's happening to them, to find the meaning of all of that. Some of them turn to religion, while others turn away from it. Some of them lose their senses, others drawn their sorrows in booze or turn away from their families, as if they wanted to live all their future sorrows while they grief today. The nostalgic feel is enhanced even more by the artistic direction of Vidar. Both the art assets and the music create are simply spot on. I don't remember ever playing a game that coherent accross the board. Here, there is almost no division between the art, the music, the narration and the story - it already is a perfectly ballanced mixed of each of these elements, and the game feels deeply immersive thanks to that. [b]This is a game like no other, an experience that everybody should live through.[/b] As for the early access state of the game - so far so good. There are no blockers I'm aware of, the game is fully playable. There are some technical glitches and other rough edges here and there, but none of them stand in the way of enjoying the game or block progression. The developers have so far shown every bit of resolve to polish this game and are listening carefully to the community, which is a good enough reason to hop on board now and join the playerbase to support them.

I was an early backer of this game and I'm pleased to say it was well worth it. I've spent many hours playing the various alpha versions of Vidar and I'm glad it's finally available for everyone to try. A novel concept is hard to find in games these days. A well-executed one is even rarer. Vidar is truly a gem. The art, the music, the characters, the puzzles; everything about this game seems to be made with thoughtful consideration and great care. In my opinion, Vidar is well worth your time and excellent value for its current price.

I am thoroughly enjoying Vidar and plan on adding many more hours to my time played. First off, the story is really well done. It's dark and mysterious and has had me coming up with several theories trying to figure out just what the heck is going on in the town of Vidar. Each night someone new dies and it's your job to complete quests for the villagers before they snuff it. Quests do help give some insight on the past of Vidar. The music is beautiful. The graphics are great. The puzzles are difficult and fun. And the game is punishing in an "it hurts so good" kind of way. It's one of those games that you WILL need to play multiple times before you can figure everything out, but given how enjoyable it is, I don't see that being a problem for me at all. I highly recommend it!

It's really difficult to say what hasn't already been said in the other early access reviews. Heck I don't even think i deserved the free copy I got. But anyway: "What do you think of this game?" That's the question on all your minds. This game is, to me, best described as an emotional roller coaster whose main attractions is Death-a-Day. That's right. Every single day, one of the townspeople randomly die, and you don't a say in the matter. They could be the goal of a quest or even a questgiver, or even someone that doesn't do anything. But they die. And the town is affected by it. Each person in town has relationships with each other, and it makes this sight a bit more alive and realistic. Like people in real life have their own personalities, so do the people in town. It can make a player feel joy when someone dies, or even feel a heavy burden of guilt when someone else dies. Sometimes there can be more death and there's nothing you can do about it. Other times it was your fault. It's like real life in that sense. Things happen and you can't control them whatsoever. For the basic stuff: The music is very calming to counter the [spoiler] satanic devilspawn the world knows as snow [/spoiler] and the sense of dread the town has. The piano tunes make me feel at ease and try to calm the nerves, but I know very well that my actions can mean life or death for these people, as thier actions do the same for themselves. The cave you traverse into each day has a set timer for how long you can be down there, and you have a choice of quickly delving farther in at the cost of time. If one is fast enough, you can quickly make it through numerous sections instead of losing precious time in the long scheme of things. Puzzles aren't too hard, but to be fair I want to say I was in the basic area of the game still before I stopped my one sitting. Farther in they might be more difficult, but luckily by completing whole areas or even sections you can get through areas quite quick. I had only one real complaint about this game, There was a point where a spoiler] a ghost [/spoiler] blocked my path and I didn't know if it was because that was all that was part of the early access or if I broke something. I couldn't really tell since I couldn't interact with it, so I want to assume the former. I'll update this review when the game gets some updates here and there or play more later. Right now I'm just a bit sad.

It's been awhile since a game has hooked me the way Vidar does. I think the music does an amazing job of setting the mood. While I find all the character's names really hard to remember I somehow have been really getting engrossed with all of their stories. I say "somehow" because typically I find in JRPGs that walking around and talking to people to find out where you need to go next to be sort of a chore, but it is a core part of Vidar's game play and in that sense I care much more about the dialogue and getting to know the characters that Razbury Games has created for us to enjoy. I honestly did not think I would like this at first but it has really pulled me in. I highly recommend this game for anyone who likes cool puzzles, and a deep and intricate story. They have done an incredible job at building the world and telling the story of Vidar. Truthfully though, just once - JUST ONCE - I would like to prevent someone's death!

Have been playing this through pre-Alpha, and happy with where it is! The music and storyline I really enjoy, they fill out the game nicely and provide quite a dynamic lore through the character interactions. The artwork is pretty good for my money...a lot of games in this style don't really have quality artwork, but Vidar has done an excellent job in that regard. I think one of the cooler parts of the game is that the game story randomizes, and each night a different person (or more) dies, which changes trigger points, dependencies, and alters the storyline, providing replayability you don't normally see in an RPG (or at least I haven't). Controls are simple and robust. My only knock is that because it is currently in Early Access, there are some bugs out there, and changes are still being made that when your game updates, you may have to re-start a save file due to format changes. If you can live with that, and like the old-school feel of RPGs back to the days of Ultima 3&4, or even the old Sega Genesis JRPGs, I think you will enjoy this game. I am! Full Disclosure - I was a Kickstarter backer.

Warning in advance - I know the developer, having met him in person and having him as a guest on my show (IndieGameRiot) several time, in addition to getting review copies of this game for free. I did NOT back this game during its crowdfunding campaign. That being said, I pride myself on separating the above from my reviews of a game. I highly recommend that you play this game. I've played several builds throughout the development of this game and it got better each and every time. I have some gripes, some relatively minor quibbles with the game that I'll elaborate on later. The Good: There's quite a bit of replayability in this game as the quests available, the completion of them, etc., all rely on the population of the town and someone dies every night. This piece of randomness helps add to the pressure that you are feeling - trying to explore, discover what is going on, rescue/escape the town, etc. The characters themselves are generally fleshed-out. Though a few of them can feel kind of trope-ish, I never found myself "knowing" everything about the characters until my second or third playthrough. I have, instead, found myself getting emotionally captivated by the denizens of Vidar. The puzzles, being required to progress in the game, are well thought-out and challenging. But, there are shortcuts that you can unlock to bypass those puzzles for later trips through the cavern once you've beaten it. The Bad: In the most recent version I played, there's a lot of no guidance in questing or consistency in how you can access/complete quests - for example, I've been given a quest to locate "X" but the quest-giver died before I was able to unlock the area of the game to complete the quest. This ties into that "good" section above about the pressure that the random death mechanic adds - but when it works against you, especially if you're a completionist or a collector-type, it gets frustrating. Some of the puzzles appear to be impossible - this is in large part due to a lack of information available at the moment in game - E.G., I only learned that I could switch characters in one of the first puzzles by accident. I'm certain that at some point, there'll be some more information available or a help-file/controls type page in the options. The Ugly: I'm completely color-blind and most puzzles have some color coordination factor to them and those puzzles end up being a trial-and-error for me. This is my single largest complaint about Vidar - and I acknowledge that it's really not going to affect most people, so it's essentially not an issue. There are a few things that don't fit into the above Good/Bad/Ugly that aren't really big issues, but are noticable. Some of the menu layouts don't make a lot of sense with their placement - ideally, menu options that you are not going to utilize much should be towards the bottom of the menu, with the more common options being at the top. These kind of things, though present and mildly irritating, are easily ignored. There are a few minor bugs/glitches - such as the wrong gender being mentioned, etc. All in all, I have followed this game's development for a few years now and I'm so happy that it's now available for you all to enjoy as well.