With Good Intentions

[h1] Мистические тайны. Hidden Gem. [/h1] Визуальная новелла о связи времён, жестоких сражениях и тяжёлых решениях. Без спойлеров обзор. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2878327241 [h1] СЮЖЕТ [/h1] Основа игры. Если коротко (и не выходя за рамки описания на странице в Стим), то группа беженцев попадает в странный монастырь, а наш главный герой (капитан Пауль Ланге), внезапно "выходит на связь" с неким рыцарем (магистром Рейоном фон Эйго), жившим тут сотни лет назад. История подаётся как набор их приключений в прошлом и настоящем, которое приведёт к разгадке местных тайн. [h1] ГЕЙМПЛЕЙ [/h1] Игровой процесс представляет собой визуальную новеллу. Имеется два игровых "режима": - Приключения капитана Пауля Ланге. Это условное настоящее время, которое, в свою очередь, представляет собой вымышленный мир века этак 19-го. Здесь у нас империя, которая летит в тар-тарары и группа беженцев из большого города, которая скрывается от жестоких повстанцев. Этот герой не имеет права на ошибку и если уж помрёт, то помрёт. - Приключения магистра Рейона фон Эйго. Он находится в этом же монастыре за сотни лет до того как Пауль появился на свет. И у него своя история и своя война. Здесь наиболее серьёзные сражения и испытания, но, к счастью, этот герой может умирать сколько угодно раз и пользоваться полученным опытом для преодоления трудностей. При игре им происходит что-то типа "дня сурка" и ищем упорно выход в котором этот персонаж бы не погибал. Переигровки обыграны сюжетно и таят в себе новые варианты действий. К тому же, происходят с ключевых точек сюжета, а не с самого начала игры. Так как очень часто происходит перемещение в прошлое, в события, которые уже имели место (соответственно - все диалоги уже прочитаны), то реализована удобная функция быстрой промотки разговоров вперёд до момента какого-то выбора, если надо "листать" дальше, то жмём кнопку ускорения ещё раз. В плане механик, если оставить за скобками постоянные воскрешения рыцаря из прошлого, игру можно назвать типичной визуальной новеллой. Движемся по сюжету, ведём разговоры, принимаем решения с последствиями, любуемся местными видами. Имеется что-то типа подсказок - в дереве принятых решений, которое формируется и пополняется во время прохождения. Чисто логически, в нём можно понять - куда надо идти прямо сейчас, так как ситуации бывают запутанные. По ходу игры воспользовался им по полной только с драке с финальным боссом, ближе к концу. До того и так более-менее всё понятно. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2878327311 Рассмотрим плюсы и минусы игры, подведем итоги. [h1] ПЛЮСЫ: [/h1] + Приятная графика. Местами красивые арты. + Хорошее музыкальное и звуковое сопровождение. + Отличный сюжет. Истории двух главных героев мистическим образом переплетены. + В игре достаточно много контента: текста, ситуаций в которых оказываются герои. + Отличная идея с быстрой промоткой сюжета вперёд, когда это надо. + Русский язык текста. [h1] ТО, ЧТО МОЖЕТ БЫТЬ КАК ПЛЮСОМ ТАК И МИНУСОМ: [/h1] ± Имеется некоторая затянутость из-за постоянных смертей или неудач героя-магистра. В прошлом отнёс бы это к минусам, но теперь, пройдя за относительно короткое время несколько визуальных новелл и немного вникнув в эту тему, могу сказать, что большому количеству игроков как раз нравится поиск разных вариантов развития событий. Здесь получается, что не раскрыв основных тайн дальше не продвинуться. Так что кого-то порадует, кого-то нет. [h1] МИНУСЫ: [/h1] - Грамматические ошибки и неточности по тексту. Не очень много, но есть. [h1] ВЫВОДЫ ОБЪЕКТИВНЫЕ [/h1] Достойная визуальная новелла. Интересный, интригующий сюжет. Игра получилась как многослойный секрет, который раскрываем шаг за шагом. Хорошее графическое и звуковое оформление, много текста и внезапных поворотов. [h1] ВЫВОДЫ СУБЪЕКТИВНЫЕ [/h1] Игра поначалу кажется довольно затянутой из-за того, что рыцарь-магистр практически во всех случаях кроме "правильного" постоянно умирает. Пока первый раз прошёл за него главу - чуть не сломался и не забросил игру. Кнопка промотки времени очень выручает, но даже с ней это несколько напрягает. Однако, де-факто, на этом строится вся игра, в новых "заходах" наши герои обладают новой информацией о происходящем, применяют её в диалогах и решениях (появляются новые варианты) и это двигает сюжет вперёд. По итоговым впечатлениям могу отнести проект к скрытым блиллиантикам игровой индустрии. PS: Традиционно, полную версию обзора, со скриншотами, описаниями, красивым оформлением, можно найти в кураторе или группе. [code] Если понравилось - жмите палец вверх и вступайте в группу [b][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/RunnerStreams]RunnerStreams[/url][/b], у нас здесь обзоры, конкурсы, актуальная информация о скидках на годноту, раздачах и прочее. Подпишитесь также на [b][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6851324/]куратора[/url][/b]. [/code] Всем хороших игр!

This one hurts me to write because I wish the developers success with this game in the end. I always respect smaller game studios that release ambitious products. However, I feel I have to refund this product and so I must write a negative review about it on the hopes that maybe the devs will listen. I'd be happy to revisit this game in the future but atm it's unplayable for me. This game is either missing key features for a visual novel OR it's just way too buggy. I have no way to read previously read text - and when I click a button that seems like it'd give me the option, a black box pops up with nothing. I had no context for the first decision that I had to make in the game so it was just a total shot in the dark for me. It's annoying to have to make decisions when I'm given little idea about the background and the implications for each decision. Plus, there is no manual save system so once you make a decision you're locked in. I don't understand why developers don't just give players the option to save freely. There is no way to change the text speed. There should be a way to change the text speed. This game is seriously missing some basic QoL features. Finally, this game seriously needs an editor for the English version. Is it readable? Yes. However, it is written in such a convoluted way that it's just a pain to try and decipher everything the writer is trying to say. I don't want to have to hardcore focus in when I'm reading a visual novel. I want to have an enjoyable experience where I can just read along and understand the story. It's possible to write a story that is at an advanced reading level yet not written in a convoluted manner. Maybe this issue would be partially alleviated if I was able to read previously read text but I cannot. No disrespect to the devs. I'd be happy to come back and reconsider this in the future but ATM I just can't play this game.

[h1]Sum-Up[/h1] [h3]In-depth analysis further down.[/h3] [table] [tr] [th]🟩 [b]Pros[/b][/th] [th]🟥 [b]Cons[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] - Solid art style that contributes in creating an immersive atmosphere, particularly during battle and action scenes. - Interesting setting that spans across two different timelines, and has decent world-building depth. [/td] [td] - Lack of instant dialog skip, manual saving and bugged dialog log make the experience tedious and frustrating, especially in the ‘past’ timeline where repetition is common. - Unique branching choices don’t really feel impactful on subsequent events, as their consequences are rather obscure most of the time. - Frequent issues with translation quality, proofreading, typos and sentence construction. The localization to ENG from RUS is of subpar quality, at best. - Dubious logic and narrative fallacies in multiple chapters, especially in the ‘past’ timeline, in which you’ll frequently fail and die for hilariously forced, implausible reasons. - Most characters feel generic or are indeed interesting at first, but then fail to evolve and keep interest up with their persona as the adventure continues. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]🟨 [b]Bugs & Issues[/b][/th] [th]🔧 [b]Specs[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] - Multiple instances of missing or untranslated text. - Dialogue history is lost on reload and has bugged scrolling in longer sequences. - Scene backgrounds move alongside the mouse, possibly creating motion sickness. [/td] [td] - 3900X - 2080Ti - 32GB RAM - SSD - 1440p [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]Content & Replay Value:[/b][/td] [td]I’d reckon finishing all ten chapters wouldn’t take more than 6-8 hours depending on reading speed, number of retries and bugs. I have way more because I forgot the game running one day (whoops). There is some replay value given certain branching choices, however most of the content will stay the same.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]Is it worth buying?[/b][/td] [td]No. Even if the price of 13.99€ is more than fair and the game has some genuinely good ideas and moments, its glaring flaws and technical issues drag it down too much.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][h3]Verdict: Bad[/h3] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2548409603]Rating Chart Here[/url][/td] [td]Despite a solid start and some genuinely -good intentions- to spice up the VN genre, WGI falls victim to its own technical inadequacies and dubious narrative choices.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote]Visit our website, [url=https://indie-hive.com/]Indie Hive[/url], to read other interesting reviews and articles.[/quote] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2890133289 [h1]In-Depth[/h1] With Good Intentions spans across two separate timelines. The present one is set in a 1800s-esque environment that sees captain Paul Lange lead his imperial scouts, alongside numerous allies through the countryside, after a major rebellion toppled the government and put the military in disarray. In the past one, you’ll instead play as Rayon Von Eigo, master of his own knightly order and charged with commanding the Shemergard fortress, in place to repel enemy invasions. Most of the story, in both timelines, takes place in this massive fortress-monastery and its environs. There’s a stark contrast between the past and present versions of the place, with the former being well-maintained and stocked, while the one visited by Lange in the future is not only dilapidated, but seemingly haunted by dark forces as well. What once was a mighty fortress now lies in ruins, becoming a last ditch attempt to shelter a routing army. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891765465 The atmosphere is quite excellent, even if the lack of music and sound effects in most ordinary scenes takes away some of the pathos. The different art styles applied to respectively talks, action scenes and narration panels come together nicely and offer some aesthetic variation that is indeed, welcome. With Good Intentions saves most of its soundtrack and SFX for the most important scenes - with a probably limited budget, this is a wise choice indeed. Main and side characters are of inconsistent make: some quirky and intriguing individuals may arise from time to time, however it’s also true some of the (supposedly) centerpieces of the adventure just prove bland and one-sided (such as Lange’s sidekick sergeant, to name one). There’s a lack of insight in most characters’ personal life or ideas, as there simply won’t be the chance to have any dialogue with them that isn’t related to the main story’s progress. This becomes especially true and evident in later chapters and will be a hindrance if you’re trying to understand anything beyond the characters’ role in the fortress environment. There’s never any further elaboration on the world or lore either, making the monastery seem like a self-contained bubble (and in some ways, it actually is) where no topics except the daily misadventures ever exist. Sure, you’ll hear some rumors and trivia but that’s it. With Good Intentions is made unique by its handling of death - because yes, in this visual novel you can actually die - as Von Eigo at least. Basically, every time you take a wrong ‘route’, your demise will be inevitable, be it at the hand of an enemy or more mysterious forces. The knowledge acquired from dialogues and actions will however be kept for the next instance of what essentially is a time loop, with Rayon being able to use it to change things to his favor. Each ‘past’ sequence is ultimately a combination puzzle where you die until you find the right set of actions that give a (single) good ending, thus finishing the chapter. In the present, conversely, you won’t be able to die, no matter how badly you may seem to screw up. On paper this system would be intriguing, but it’s terribly implemented for the most part. Technical shenanigans aside (and those are already enough because let’s be honest, it’s a visual novel, not Space Engineers) there is a clear lack of proofreading and mediocre translation quality; expect weird syntax and wording as common issues. On top of that, the absence of manual saving and the inability to skip to the next choice immediately, when repeating an already-seen dialogue, make the experience tedious because the non-adjustable text speed is too low (even with speed-up enabled). This leads to an enormous amount of wasted time and filler that have no place in any decent visual novel. Another huge flaw is found in the numerous non-sequiturs (in layman terms: nonsense) related to the causes of death, or to the available choices in some dialogues. On numerous occasions you’ll find poor Rayon dying for arbitrary reasons that at times are not even explained properly, or him suddenly unable to use critical information in a logical way, simply because that choice wasn’t accounted for. It leaves a bitter, disappointing taste to see how much potential was wasted due to mediocre writing and dubious logic. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2892117127

[h1][b]The road to hell is paved [i]with good intentions[/i]…[/b][/h1] The abovementioned proverb describes this visual novel perfectly, as perhaps its initial ideas were solid; however, their implementation is half-baked at best—even that might be an overexaggeration. That would be because [i]With Good Intentions[/i] tries to be overly complex for its own good, switching between many literary genres without fully committing to them, leading to their superficial presentation. As if that would not be enough, its death mechanic forces you to venture through many paths repeatedly, bringing tediousness and killing my interest swiftly. Anyway, taking place in the possibly 18th century, it all starts in the city of Shemergard, where a group of rangers hides before the vicious attack of the rebels. While you manage to fend them off, you start noticing strange curiosities in this ruined town; time seems to flow differently at certain places, and even some weird visions appear to haunt our protagonist’s mind. It does not take long, and you start witnessing the events happening in the distant past from someone’s else eyes. There is definitely something wrong with this place, as an unnatural threat is slowly awakening just to grasp you and never let go. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895459126 Then, even with a solid beginning that planted intriguingly-looking seeds of curious expectations, the plant itself turned to have many branches, growing into a wild mess that was no longer beautiful to behold. Simply put, [i]With Good Intentions[/i] hops between the said genres, making it feel like a weird mishmash rather than a coherent story. There is your action-packed yet primitive sequence focusing on an underwhelming battle, a detective part that tries to be mysterious despite the obviously-looking perpetrator, or a fantasy one full of monsters and curses to deal with, and much more. But as it constantly switches between these without a proper transition, it makes them seem like random short stories rather than a captivatingly interconnected narrative. Moreover, it does not respect your time due to its horrendous mechanic that was supposed to be the “big twist”. When witnessing the events from the past, you might – and will – die. Once that happens, you have to start the whole chapter again; you are allowed to set one checkpoint only in defined paths. Thus, you will either have to re-read it all or smash the skip prompt like crazy because it does not flow automatically at times. This constant dying forces you to go through various paths to obtain more knowledge, so you can use it for a successful, flawless run that lets you proceed further. Apart from these annoyances, it undermines many other aspects, if not all of them. Most of the deaths feel forced, illogical or straight-up dumb just so the game could scream: [i]“Aha! Bet you did not see this one coming, huh?”[/i] [insert smirky expression of the writers]. Many of those have no purpose, existing only to prolong the playthrough. Besides, in numerous cases, solid writing would manage to connect these paths without killing you; it is a cheap way of delivering less, especially under the pretence of having an “innovative” mechanic. The game also does not tell you about the said checkpoints; I discovered it randomly halfway through my journey, in fact. But even with them, it is still monotonous, and I just cannot understand why I cannot choose a specific scene to return to instead of this dreadful mess. Consequently, the characters and their development – which is rather non-existing – suffer the most from it. There is not enough time to bond or to give them proper depth because, at any random time, you might restart the chapter. You spend more time re-reading (or re-skipping) through conversations you already saw than learning something new about them; this fact also discourages me from actually caring about anyone because you mess around more with the skip prompt than with the protagonists. Not that it would matter much, as the writing itself is nothing to [i]write[/i] home about either; I already mentioned that it is an incoherent mishmash that pretends to be more than it actually is—a cheap, generic and bland narrative whose themes you witnessed numerously in undoubtedly higher qualities. Yet, other issues undermine this experience even more. For some reason, [i]With Good Intentions[/i] is obsessed with overusing and butchering quotes from more competent works from which it blatantly copies without shame. As expected, the result is rather disastrous. For example, there is a dialogue where one of the protagonists gets mad at one of the factions, reciprocating the infamous [i]“Where was Gondor when Westfold fell?”[/i] from [i]Lord of the Rings[/i], just so its recipient would respond with [i]“It’s treason, then.”[/i] from [i]Star Wars[/i]. At that moment, I could not comprehend my feelings as disgust, sorrow, cringe, irritation, and much more floated through my mind. Those are not the lone offenders, as there are sadly more of these. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895459579 And as if that would not be terrible enough, the quality of the English translation seems like from a robot at times, not even to mention the lack of proofreading. That inherently influenced my time with it as well because I cannot really immerse myself in a text that constantly slaps me in the face with errors or if I have to try to interpret what the authors actually meant. To add to these inconsistencies, a whole lot of text is missing at times, so all you see are blank pages instead of dialogues or even choices; that mainly occurs in the eighth chapter, which has the most paths to go through, so you can imagine the pain of not knowing what you learned and have to use for a successful run. And the so-called final straw for me was the fact that no matter what I do, my game gets stuck at the beginning of the ninth chapter (there are ten in total), so this is the incredibly rare time when I did not finish my review copy—because it will not let me! One aspect that is not inherently subpar is the visuals, as all the design of characters and places is beautiful and detailed. The art style also changes a bit depending on the situation, which is a nice touch. While I could moan about some irregularities, they are not as bad as anything I have mentioned so far. Unfortunately, the audio is much worse, and while I get that this is a smaller project, I am still not a fan of completely silent sequences, just so some mediocre melody would start humming all of a sudden. To summarise it all, [i]With Good Intentions[/i] perhaps had [i]good intentions[/i], but it did not manage to implement them well, and you already know how that ended up. I mean, I was forcing myself to finish it, yet I was not even allowed to do that! I do not play visual novels often, as I carefully cherry-pick them – and I usually get my hands on the juicy ones – but now I made such a grave mistake that I will not touch some for a while. [b]PC Specs and Performance[/b][quote]I played it with an [b]i5 8300H[/b], [b]GTX 1060 6GB[/b], and [b]16GB RAM[/b], at high settings, at [b]60[/b] frames per second, at [b]1920x1080[/b] resolution. Sometimes, the game got stuck and crashed in the main menu, forcing me to restart it. [/quote] [b]Acknowledgement[/b][quote]This game was provided for review purposes by the developers. Thank you![/quote] [b]Curator links[/b][quote]Wanna read more reviews from me and my colleagues? Then check out [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/]Summit Reviews[/url]. If you are interested purely in my thoughts, then check out [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41545671/]Blue Lips and their Quips[/url]![/quote]

Не поймите меня неправильно. Данная визуальная новелла большую часть времени мне нравилась. История прописана хорошо, каждому персонажу хочется сопереживать и главная тайна сюжета постепенно обретает целостную картину. Визуальный стиль приятен глазу (не считая, разве что, некоторых упрощённых изображений). Даже геймплейная часть в виде дня сурка не так сильно утомляет (как, например, в Twelve Minutes). В игре, пожалуй, имеется чересчур много технических проблем: музыка пропадает при повторном заходе в участки игры, на которых вы остановились; периодически видны символы '\n', которых, естественно, не должен игрок видеть вовсе; в определённых моментах не появляются имена персонажей, которым принадлежит фраза, либо подпись может предназначаться другому герою; визуальное представление персонажа может баганно показываться (слишком долго на экране находиться/слишком быстро ушёл с кадра/персонаж не появляется вовсе) и т.д. Также иногда (хоть и редко) видны грамматические ошибки. И я бы сказал, что эти проблемы всё же не помешали мне насладиться игрой. Но (!) невероятно сильно помешала система сохранений, состоящая *исключительно из автосохранений*. Честно, для визуальной новеллы - это наитупейшая идея, особенно когда геймлей завязан на выборах и дне сурка. И ОСОБЕННО меня разозлила эта система в конце игры, где оказался такой же тупейший выбор, ведь, по какой-то причине, разработчики решили вместо того, чтобы дать вам один последний выбор, они его *расширили на два*, из-за чего первый выбор оказался _бесполезным_, а второй _абсолютно не внятным_, хотя суть была в том же, что и в первом выборе. Из-за этого я выбрал вообще не тот выбор, который хотел сделать. И *естественно* разрабы говорят "нет тебе перепрохождения последнего выбора". Господи, у меня ТАК полыхало внутри. И этого бы не произошло, если бы игра была короткой, но взгляните на мой счётчик игры: 18(почти 19) ЧАСОВ. Это было одно прохождение, и если я хочу выбрать тот вариант, который хотел изначально, мне придётся провести почти столько же времени! От этого с ума можно сойти! И если разработчики, как минимум в ближайшие месяцы, не переделают систему сохранений и не дадут мне возможность создания ручных сохранений (а ещё лучше выбор глав), то моя оценка останется негативной!

好消息是有中文。 坏消息是翻得不咋地。 故事安排很有意思，前期连蒙带猜也不是不能玩。 但越到后面越难受，还是推荐英语大佬购买。 啥时候翻译优化啥时候接着玩。

With Good Intentions is a very interesting simple game. Extremely intriguing storyline. Nice graphics. It is very pleasant to play this game.

Good game. Gripping storyline, nice drawing. I'm not a big fan of visual novels, but this one is definitely worth the money.

Сырой продукт. Без нормального инструментария для комфортной игры. Вариативность как таковая - тоже отсутствует.

Интересная визуальная новелла, но есть нюанс: пройти игру до конца вряд ли получится из-за технических ошибок. Разработчики знают о багах, но исправлять не торопятся. Пока не рекомендую