1954 Alcatraz Reviews

1954 Alcatraz hasn't aged particularly well. A few years ago, I found it genuinely exciting - but this time around, my enthusiasm is limited. I wouldn't recommend it. However, for those who are drawn to the genre and intrigued by the story, it might still hold some appeal.

WARNING! Game will softlock you on multiple occasions! That alone is reason enough for down voting this game!!! Despite its 3D look, "1954 Alcatraz" is a very good point & click game with good writing and voice acting. It plays like an old movie and incorporates all the usual tropes of that setting and era. This game is fairly short and tries to be realistic, for that reason it lacks ridiculous moon logic for which German point & click games are famous for, especially Daedalic Entertainment who made this. It is sad that a decent game like this is ruined by these horrible softlocks and bugs. It is not quiet that old, so how come developers haven't fixed it yet? There are also no fan patches! I read the other reviews, there are other types of softlocks but personally I have experienced these various softlocks: While playing as Christine, I had multiple ways to progress. The game allows to choose in which order to approach the given tasks. But that is a LIE as there is a proper order that must be followed or you get stuck!! I opened the safe before passing on the Bird book to the other protagonist. This locked Christine from any further actions and made her inventory INACCESSIBLE! Without the book, the second protagonist could not progress and you get softlocked with your pants down like an idiot! This is a well known issue as I found out from the forums and there is no fix for that in 11+ years!! Only way is to use an old save before the mistake, if you had made one! What if it is way back? Gotta replay whole segments like an idiot. - Another issue is that the UI is utter trash and even clicking too fast will freeze your screen! Only way to fix is to alt-tab and shut down the game in Task Manager! - The UI sidebar and menu in this game are just atrocious! In order to save the game, you have to click through 3 screens. Annoying but not the real problem. The menu can get stuck and softlock you, meaning you can't even save and have to alt-tab again! - Clicking once on the sidebar opens it but god forbid you accidentally double-click it, it will LOCK the sidebar! The game is still playable but you lose access to inventory or to save/load game!! This can be fixed by leaving current screen and returning. But what if due to story, you are stuck in one location and can't leave to "reset" this bug? Well guess you are softlocked and got to alt-tab YET again! So when you experience these annoying softlocks and bugs, it does not help that you got to repeat actions over and over again. What absolutely does not help is that some dialogues can't be actually skipped! You can press the skip button but the next line won't appear until the voice line for the previous one concluded. So you are stuck listening to it anyway! - The game's clunky movement and positioning gets very annoying. I had less issues with collision when controlling entire armies in "Warcraft 3 (2002)"! Despite its flaws, I was willing to recommend this game. Except these softlocks ruined the whole experience! What did not help are these CARELESS developers who abandoned this game and never fixed this, and knowing them never will. "Irresponsible Games Studio" what a fitting name for these a-holes. Any game that has unforgivable softlocks is an instant NOT RECOMMENDED.