Qasir al-Wasat: International Edition Reviews

Fun stealth based game. Nice artwork. Atmospheric audio. The only negative, if it can be called that is the absolute need for a controller.

The stealth mechanics are simple, but that's not a bad thing at all. Learning how to navigate the palace, evade traps and guards, and get to the "golden" ending provide a satisfying challenge.

Just brillant! I'm not a fan of stealth games at all, never have been. And this game has lots of stealth elements. But in a very unique way. First of all, you play one of the most interesting characters imaginable. Then the story is dark, nothing is like it seems at first. The setting is fantastic. I don't want to spoiler so that's about it. I just want to say, I've bought several games in the last time that I found more than disappointing. This little gem here is different. I've only just played somewhat over one hour, but already I have the feeling that I've become addicted in a certain way. I want to know where this game is going; I want so see if my decisions affect the outcome, if I gather enough informations etc. Just buy it, if the trailer seems like it could give you something. I wrote the comment above quite some time ago; sadly, what killed the game for me, was a bug that prevented me from progressing. Or I did something in an order that prevented me from progressing. As I know what to do, that this don't happen anymore, I started again, because I really loved the game, but stopped playing after half an hour, because now it feels just lame, repeating everything again, just because the game hasn't thought of the possibilities the players choose. This is sad!

More fun than I was expecting. Like Legend of Zelda with mostly puzzles. It was easy, but tough to know everything to do. It was to play as far as I could, then still fun to follow along with a guide from the web to learn what I was missing to do next. It was easy to keep playing each day in a row until I solved as much as I could do before stumped. But after setting it down for a week, I never felt interest to pick it up again. I'm glad I played it through. I didn't really care enough to open it back up to "finish" it after I did what I could. But I'm still glad I played it for bit. [3/5 stars]

This game has unique, beautiful and polished art style, interesting lore and engaging plot. I loved every minute of exploring the enigmatic palace. Puzzles were the right amount of complexity for me too. Sound design is minimalistic, but quite clever. My only complaint about the game would probably be the music, or the lack of it really. As a musician, i cannot but think how this game would benefit from simple but authentic music, like oud or ney taksims, or mid eastern percussion layers, maybe something of this kind: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYQ_ol3L9Ag] Ney flute music [/url] I'd recommend this game for you if you enjoy artwork, atmosphere and exploring in games. This is probably not the game for you if you expect fast paced action. My thanks to developers for the great experience!

This game took about 10 hours to complete, so for the current steam sale is completely worth it. The puzzles in it were enjoyable and a bit difficult but that only made it better. I didn't have to look up a guide to figure any out, so that was nice. What I did have to look up a guide for was what I had to do next towards the end. Usually that's a deal breaker for me, but it was fine with this game since most of it was actually really well designed. As far as the gameplay, I generally hate games like this. I don't like walking around, running between rooms and overcoming traps and guards. However, the story was good and it drove me to continue and the mechanic of sneaking had a sense of fantasy realism. Basically no one is invisible (duh) but if they were the game portrayed how it would play out well enough. The graphics were fitting. I don't like 2D anything unless it's one of my old favorites, but actually the art was a really good. The sounds were good and musical. I wish there was voice acting, but instead it's something like Don't Starve when conversation happens. The voice acting could have really upped the game's value. Nonetheless, it was well done the way it was done. So I definitely recommend you purchase it even if it isn't up your alley (but at the $10 sale.) If it is up your alley, 15 dollars is better than acceptable. If you speak Arabic, I'd recommend it at $15 simply because it was so fun to read the names and know that you know the translations. It's set in a Muslim setting, so if you are Muslim, I guess that's nice too, but I'm not, so I have no idea.

This is a remarkable game, mainly because of its lore and ambiance. The mechanics, which some reviewers harshly criticize, are not that bad at all. They just require the player to take things slowly. Achievements are fun to get and truly improve replayability. All in all a game I would like to see a sequel to.

Solid, enjoyable puzzles. Simple stealth mechanics. Beautiful aesthetic. If you like demonology, djinn, and alchemy type stuff, and the style in the screenshots appeals to you (and if you, unlike some of the people leaving reviews, have the foresight required to look at the "How to Play" screen in the menu before playing), then it's a solid use of 5 dollars and 6-7 hours.

This game looks pretty but beneath the look lies some serious issues. The Good The art style and story are very interesting. I didn't get far but I really wanted to see more. The Neutral The music works but doesn't have any tracks that stand out in my mind. It did it's job but not something I go out and buy independantly The Bad My first complaint is the lack of a decent tutorial or even a very visible prompt that pressing s is required to move in stealth. The game gives you an easy to see prompt for movement by popping up the movement keys, and pops A over a door which you see your character swipe at and open, indicating it's probably an attack as well (It is). However the game never tells you that you need to press and hold s in order to move stealthily, otherwise your character can move one step and then be attacked because for a stealth game where you will most of the time be moving at a stealth speed, stealth is NOT the default. This is a bad decision which leads to numerous problems. Further the actual stealth gameplay does not seem deep with some of the areas being too tiny to actually do anything. Throw in an autosave feature vs. a manual save combined with autosave and you will be redoing sections if you mess something up in another section and get to sit through the dialogue...again. The unskippable dialogue of people talking that occurs outside of cutscenes, in which the dialogue is skippable. On top of this, I had the frustration of wanting to quit the game and hitting escape and realizing this did nothing. It wasn't until a frustrated 30 seconds later that I finally realized to open the menu, you need to hit return. ESC does nothing except skip cutscenes, I believe. This goes against gaming conventions and led to another annoyance added on top of the prior ones. It is within this menu that I finally discovered the section that tells you how to play. Also, I'm not sure if it actually tells you but I don't remember it telling me the difference but it does say you can poison people. What's the difference between poisoning them and a regular attack against them? I have no idea as I don't remember it saying. As for the stelath mechanics themselves. It's essentially a move silently and don't get in their physical way and you'll be fine. There are no ways to really move guards from their positions other than your ridiculously loud default movement. It doesn't matter what surface you're walking on. If it's carpet or stone, stealth movement is silent, default is loud. There are no pots or other objects that you can hit or use to distract the guards. This game lacks depth, nuance, and good feel for the gameplay.

This Game is excellent. The stealth and puzzle game play is solid, but that's not the sell here. It is the rest of it. Set in 12th century Syria, utilizing Islamic mythology and synthesizing it with Crowleyesque fantasy, and looking like a cross between Persian/Mughal miniature art and The Legend of Zelda, this game is a unique aesthetique experience.