At Eve’s Wake Definitive Edition Reviews

It's a short game, around 4 hours, that you can replay a bunch of times. But to what end? I didn't get any special vibes from this. Not lovecraftian. Not gothic fiction. Not murder mistery. The only thing you get is basically an atmosphere of a small-minded and spiteful nature. Most characters are bad. You can mess around trying to kill specific ones, but I suspect you have to replay / click through a lot of stuff repeatedly to get what you want. Some characters are decent, and ideally you would want to save them, but it's the same deal. Maybe I just had an unlucky playthrough, but nothing really happened. The somewhat intriguing plotlines all fell flat. I didn't learn about the entity they worshipped. I didn't get a chance to tell arrogant pricks apart from actually evil characters. You don't know what your choices will do. The characters don't have personalities that you can discern so you don't know what to say to them to build rapport. All in all, at a very heavily-discounted price, it's okay. I hope there is a more complete story in there if you take the time to play all the possible paths. I mean if you have a lifespan of at least 500 years.

This game is amazing! Tt\he characters are all complex and interesting, great art, great story, and I love this game! It's so complex with the story without being overburdened by extensive world building. This surely one of my favorite games to remember. The journey and emotional rollercoasters are wonderful. I've never played a game with this much replay value and I love the idea of such a hard earned win with so many wonderful secrets to discover! This game is worth the asking price and even more! Love this game.

Price tag is a skosh high for the amount of gameplay you get out of this, but wow it's a beautiful game. I wouldn't call it horror per-say as its not particularly scary, but, its a fun rich story driven game. There is a lot of murder mystery, decisions, and killing, but still not horror in my books. More like a mystery thriller. I still really recommend this game...just maybe buy it when it goes on sale because I finished several outcomes in a few hours and feel a little disappointed for 20$. ALSO bonus points for including non-binary people, trans folks, lesbians/gay people, polygamy, and a cheeky narrator who seems to learn about you as the game goes on. I was a man who ended up marrying a man, being a cult leader, and having a polygamous royal family...so..yeah pretty dope. :) Edit: [spoiler]ALSO yes, the endings do feel a little short cut...I married Woden, I wanted more meat to that other than just some text and implied frickling lol. In the same play I became the cult leader and he didnt say anything, it felt a little lack luster. I wish specific characters would've said something to you at the end or you got to continue the game and make choices for the family etc. Walk around the whole mansion one last time.[/spoiler]

A visual novel that is very easy to dive in to. The "main" plot can be finished rather quickly, which is a good thing. Let me elaborate. The game branches in many different ways. The relative short main story keeps you aware where you can change a decision in a next playthrough. And next playthrough you shall. Decisions are almost always mutually exclusive, so you need to be aware of what is possible. The music compliments the music incredibly well. Do give this game a shot, you might actually get into a whole new genre of gaming !

This is what you get when you combine cosmic horror with a family battle royale. I was not disappointed by the amount of choices the story offered. What I would suggest is that dev's make it more clear that choices can be manipulated by loading to earlier points.

Well, that was... something. Whole game can be completed in less than 2 hours and, during this time, your character will pointlessly walk around the mansion, stumble upon people and their "schemes". The game, obviously, was made to be completed several times each time walking different roads and choosing different sides, but, after my first playthorugh, I just don't want to play it more. The concept is interesting, but implausible and leaves a lot of questions. The 80% characters are same boring arrogant snobs and other 20% have very little screen time. The visuals are nice (for a VN), but that's about it. Also, there is no "Skip Read Text" button which is ridiculous, considering the amount of text you will have to re-read. What was the point of making the game in Unreal Engine instead of more logical Ren Py? The optimization (yes, in VN) is horrible, all the time I've been playing the game my videocard was working at 100% making the fans also rotating at maximum speed. Cyberpunk, Metro Exodus, Crysis, Kingdom Come Deliverance, etc. - not a single game made my videocard work so hard.

If you follow me you probably enjoy twisty-turny story games with a lot of options and a lot of possible outcomes, and that's exactly what you'll find here. There are many paths to take, some of which are only unlocked on later playthroughs, and many secrets to unravel. If you hate making decisions without knowing what will happen or you're not into spooky family cults, though, you will find it stressful.

Do you want to be haunted forever by the spectre of what this game could have been if its intriguing story and setting (accompanied by a phenomenal soundtrack) weren't marred by an incredibly flawed technical implementation that makes you want to tear your hair out at the unfairness of it all? Then by all means, buy and enjoy. Personally, I'm not sure that's the kind of horror the developers intended players to experience, but it's what I got after playing. The lack of a skip read text-function, story flowchart, or any useable ending guides will be the least of your worries when your PC threatens to overheat from running a VN in windowed mode. Do listen to the soundtrack on your streaming platform of choice, though.

[h1]Description[/h1] [b]At Eve's Wake[/b] is a horror visual novel where knowledge is accrued over multiple playthroughs and unlocks new options. You have amnesia and are attending the funeral of your grandmother. Things devolve quite quickly and you must soon pick sides. Lots of sides. [h1]Pros[/h1] [list] [*] Interesting premise [*] Beautiful visuals [*] Serviceable music [/list] [h1]Cons[/h1] [list] [*] No "skip read" feature, making later playthroughs a painfully slow click-fest... especially egregious in a game that fully expects you to play it many times [*] Clicking on options sometimes stops working for no apparent reason [*] Inconsistencies galore (the game may or may not remember your actions in any given playthrough) [*] Some events in the game do not have any impact on the later proceedings for unclear reasons (example: [spoiler]if you agree to marry Woden to break the ritual... the ritual will proceed anyway[/spoiler]) [*] One special object ([spoiler]the Black Heart[/spoiler]) can be lost forever, forcing you to reset the game to access some endings [/list] [h1]Verdict[/h1] I really wanted to like this game... and I suppose I did during my first couple of playthroughs. But trying to unlock more endings, secrets, and achievements is way too frustrating. A pity.

High-quality visual novel with multiple endings, fantastic graphic and sound component, and intriguing premise. The Good Parts: - Fascinating set-up of family ties based on cult-like faith, bloody competition, and something outright paranormal with overall dysfunction taken to the next level. - Great writing throughout. It manages to introduce a complex fictional idea in a manner that captures attention and makes you ponder. - Atmospheric world-building. There’s sinister feeling intertwined with some outright shocking moments. “At Eve’s Wake” isn’t horror in the pure sense of the word, but more in a psychological one, so it has a very well-done horror element burning its way through the game, sometimes on slow simmer, sometimes as a wildfire. - Multiple plotlines that cannot all be explored in the same playthrough. Occasional branching decision may lead to an unexpected path to the (sometimes very quick) end. Choices do matter. - Cast of interesting characters competing with each other for their unlikability and wickedness, and yet developed with such depth that will make you try and see of what exactly they are capable of. - Brilliant visual element. Especially, the background art. Just stunning. Characters are also fantastic (hats off to whomever created the High Priest visual part of character), but the emotional change doesn’t read as well, mainly due to style chosen. Many can be used interchangeably unless it’s an open snarl or something along the lines. - Marvelous music component. Instrumental tracks range from ominous, sinister ones to forlorn ones, with a bit of sadness. All are properly atmospheric and contribute to immersion. - You can get eaten here. The Parts That Didn’t Quite Work: - After so much build-up and a variety of ways to finish this game - the endings come through rather anticlimactic. Mostly because they all end with text that tells you what’s going on and then a black screen. A strong visual to correspond with the ending would have set it apart and made a much more significant impact on the player, as opposed to just reading about it. - “At Eve’s Wake” simply begs for some sort of roadmap. I achieved multiple endings and even finished the game in some unexpected ways half-way though, but I’m having a tough time knowing whether I discovered 90% of everything or got slightly over half. Some paths are unclear; they end in such way that it’s impossible to say if that was all there is to it or something correct wasn’t done to achieve a different outcome. It’s also hard to say how much of an impact the whole “strength/wits/charm” system has on the game. In some instances, it did give me a different way to move forward (often, not drastically so), but I have no idea if I missed something spectacular by not choosing some obscure dialogue option with a particular character on a particular day having picked “wits” this time. Roadmap could have been a great help. - Having to choose language I wanted to be referred to EVERY time I started a new game is immersion breaking. There should be a way to fix my first choice and have an ability to change it manually if I ever desire to. I did several runs in a row to see different outcomes, and since for me it was a fixed choice for all my runs, it took me out of the game every time I had to reset it to something I already chose. - In a few cases, dialogue prompts take more than a few clicks to launch. “At Eve’s Wake” is well-crafted visual novel that was clearly done with love and care by a talented team. It has surprisingly well-done psychological horror component that manages to keep the mood uneasy and the dark adventure tense. The biggest drawback is the lack of distinctive visuals to a wide variety of finales (some are so colorful as far as descriptions go, that I almost grunted in frustration to not have it captured on screen with gripping visual that would make for a lasting impact). With graphical part so strong, it’s almost a crime to rob a player at the path’s end. Still, the game plays well, and the process of searching for a unique way to participate (or not) in this strange and bloody family meeting is rather addictive. I’m not big on VN genre, but this is a worthy, high-quality entry I can definitely recommend for those who find this title intriguing.