Wayward Manor

I am one of those "more than 3000 fans" who backed this game when it was first announced. I've read all the books by Neil Gaiman, and I own most of them. He has been one of my top ten authors for nearly 20 years. Of course I backed this game. I played for 38 minutes, then I couldn't take anymore. The gameplay is mindnumbing. The puzzles are repetetive. Maybe the story is really good? I have no idea. When I gave up, it was still just a bunch of cryptic flavour that will probably be really meaningful and engaging in the end when it all comes together, but doesn't make much sense until then. After I gave up I vaccuumed my whole house. It was a more fun.

After reading some reviews, I was wary. I could understand some of the points others were making and I went into the game worried about gameplay, graphics, and story; but I pleasently surprised. There were a few bugs here and there, but it looks like the developer is taking care of them as they find them. This would explain not encountering some of the bugs others had previously mentioned. As time goes on, I am sure there will be little to none to speak of. The graphics, although not up to the quality of some of the larger titles, has character and style. It was actually an enjoyable break from the drab color-palatte of larger games. And since this game is tagged as both indie and casual, I am to take into assumption that it isn't meant to rival a heavy-budgetted game and just live up to what it wants to be; fun. Intent aside, the rooms are fun and visually enjoyable, the characaters are amusing to watch, and the resolution seemed fine for whatever screen I played on. The gameplay was simple, a point and click combination puzzle game that didn't have me frustrated by level 2 by some overly-complicated design. Even further in, the difficulty was raised, but feasable. The complexity came into the 'secret scares' which would be the achievements for this game. The story felt a bit loose, but the quick cutscenes between the worlds as well as blurbs from stuffed animals/gargoyles/tutorial-like house narration helped keep you tethered to the story and who was involved. I didn't feel like it was a visual narration of one of Neil's books, which I can only assume others felt dissapointed by. All in all, the focus was more on the fun gameplay than bogging the player down with too much story. As a over-all whole, I enjoyed the game. I even spent time trying to get all the secret scares, some of which took me a while to get, and some yet elude me. TL;DR : It's a fun casual puzzle game with some character with a bonus of Neil Gaiman's narration.

I was really excited to play this on release but was extremely disappointed. I didn't realize you would be stuck in one room at a time per level trying to scare people by knocking down an item. I thought maybe you would get free roam throughout the house. I would not recommend this to anyone.

FULL REVIEW HERE: http://noisecannon.com/2014/07/15/wayward-manor-pc/ For a game that had an extra year to be released by dark humoured author Neil Gaiman and Los Angeles developers The Odd Gentlemen, Wayward Manor is unfortunately disappointing. The story is fun enough: you take on the role of a recently released ghost who needs to spook the living inhabitants of Wayward Manor to make them leave, with the Manor itself guiding you through the point and click style levels to take back the house. Each level takes you to a different part of the house with a different member of the unwelcome family to frighten, with hints on how best to scare them provided by pets and animals hiding in the rafters. The ghostly ability to move objects and manipulate the characters is a great aspect of the game, and with the changing of rooms and people it is an aspect that does not get repetitive or simple. Timing the rattling of suits of armour or the scurrying of a rat provides a sense of strategy to the game, along with the ability to combine objects for some spooky fun. The plot of Wayward Manor is an interesting one, written by Coraline and The Graveyard Book author Neil Gaiman, with the ambience of the game taking the same direction as the surreal and innovative film Coraline. As you take back Wayward Manor you uncover pieces to the puzzle of your death, making the levels all the more interesting to replay and discover every detail and objective. The graphics are one of the main downsides to Wayward Manor. In a gaming world which focusses on high quality landscapes and frames per second, Wayward Manor looks as though it was made at the time of Playstation 2 level graphics, the boxy objects and poorly stretched textures leaving much to be desired by modern gaming’s visual standards. When completing a level by scaring the inhabitants enough that they are ready to run out the door screaming the objects in the room swirl in a ghostly tornado, however when the objects swirl half out of the building the effect is sorely dampened, and may leave you wondering what the extra year of development was spent doing. Sadly this is not where the glitchiness ends, with poorly placed clouds of smoke to represent cartoon like scuffles and levels often prone to freezing, the otherwise enjoyable gameplay loses a lot of its finesse and impact. Wayward Manor has a lot to offer in terms of story and the tactical use of the environment, but the meagre aesthetics and poor coding (at the time of writing) lead to glitching and freezing of the levels, ruining the experience and quality of the game. This lack of attention making one of the levels impassable due to glitching all Wayward Manor has going for it is the story and its author’s notability. With an hour’s worth of decent gameplay at the most, it seems the ghost of Wayward Manor will scare off any hopeful gamers who patiently waited over a year to play this broken, lazy game.

I went into this game with pure anticipation due to Neil Gaiman bringing out a horror comedy game. I was really looking forward to it having loved his previous work. First Impression Video before it went sour [url]http://youtu.be/w-pFZqwC05A[/url] The game was released, I dived in with high expectations. I loaded it up, and found that it only supported a maximum resolution of 1920x1080, not an issue it's still HD. The narration starts and I fill with joy as I listen to Neil Gaiman narrate the plot while characters are shown on screen. The game certainly has a rather funky art style. It instantly reminded me of newspaper comics strips that made fun of politicians with their eccentric facial features. I started off with a really good impression of the game, sure the graphics looked dated. The art style and music suited it somehow and it seemed fine. The puzzles start off slow and get more complex, but sadly there is no free roaming as a ghost. You're limited to a single room at a time for your ghostly deeds of frightening the denizens out of their abode. Then, things went south rather quickly. I experienced a bug that locked the level, unable to knock over a vital bottle. No problem I say, I'll just reload the level, and sure enough it works and I continue my spectral adventure. More bugs, and more, items clipping, clicks not registering and then...then dreaded chapter 3, part 2 where the game refuses to continue after spooking everyone. Five retries later and I was still stuck, not to worry I'll quickly email the developers. Sure enough they respond in kind and have patched the level. I can still not continue. Sadly once again the same happens, this time the puzzle items are broken and you're unable to catch a drunk patriarch dancing to scare him. Several tries and the same issue. Sadly due to limited gameplay with many puzzles just reusing the same items over and over again; broken puzzles, and game breaking glitches galore I cannot recommend the game. My first impression video is in direct contrast to what I have come to realise the game is like upon playing it to near completion. ( I cannot finish it due to the puzzle bugs) The writing, although good, is also not to the level one has come to expect of the Author, leaving you wanting more. The games needs more polish, better gameplay, and much more depth sadly. It's shame, as Wayward Manor had so much potential, although it seems Neil despite being a brilliant author does not know how to make a game. I hope that in the future he will make a second attempt and that everyone gets what they want: a successful and good game.

A lot of people seem to not like this game. I'm not exactly sure why. I like it. Neil Gaiman does an excellent job with the short narrations. And the entire concept of an old house calling on a ghost to haunt the current annoying residents out is in no way a new concept but it is done well here. The artwork is interesting. You won't see much like it. Now some are really hating it because they just can't seem to get why everything is so...well ugly. However, I see that it is all based on Victorian style cartooning, (please go look up Alice in Wonderland and look at the original artwork by John Tenniel, you'll see exactly what I'm referring to.) So its not supposed to look pretty by todays standards, its supposed to look the way it does and I find that its quite charming. The puzzles; if your an adult or near adult then I imagine this game will be rather easy and will just become tedious to you. If however, you have children or if you are a child then the puzzles will be challenging but not too much so. Now the Music, at first the music isn't the worst thing in the world but yes it does become very very irritating. The sound effects are very repetitve and will make you want to shut off the sound. At least they did with me. Lastly, the bugs, yes there are some serious bugs. One is that the objects sometimes don't interact with the enviroment like they are supposed to. Sometimes the items at the end of the level when they are all flying around the room will indeed go through each other or through the walls. And yes sometimes the game will in a sense freeze up because the people wont run out of the room but rather just run around the room trying to get out and you will have to restart the level. As it stands currently I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars. If they fixed some of the bugs, then maybe would consider raising it to a 4 out of 5.

About half way through the game and having a great time! Love the art direction and the puzzles are a lot of fun, I'll definitely go back to solve them in different ways. Ran into a few minor bugs, but nothing that stopped me from playing. Defintely worth it for the music alone.

Okies, this game isn't for everyone, it has a simple quirky nature to it which some peeps may find annoying or way too simple, but if you're a casual gamer who likes something a little different and not too fussed on fancy graphics or thrills, then this may be for you. It's quirky, fun, simple, silly, easy and yes somewhat low budget, but it's alright in it's way. :)

How to enjoy this game : Launch the game. Start the game. Close your eyes. Click. Click again. Don't forget to click. And please click. When your hear a different music, congratulations, you just have finished a level ! Now, keep your eyes closed, and click, click, click to change the music.