Playtime:
613 minutes
In general, I like FIVE-BN's games, so it's difficult to give this one a thumbs down, but having completed the main story (I haven't played the bonus story yet), I cannot recommend it. It's not a bad game overall, but the last 25% or so of the main story was nothing but frustrating, not fun. I did enjoy the first 75% of the main story, so it's hard to give a thumbs down, but since there are so many positive reviews, this one negative review won't hurt the overall rating.
The problem I had, and the only reason for me not recommending this game, is the insane amount of backtracking required. For the first 75% or so of the game, you proceed normally, finding items, performing actions, going back and forth a bit (nothing drastic or annoying), and generally having fun.
Somewhere around the 75% mark, however, things take a drastic turn. I don't know if they had a different designer for this ending portion of the game or if they just decided the play time wasn't long enough, but after this point, there is a ridiculous amount of backtracking. I don't mind backtracking in general, but in the last 25% or so of the game, I feel it was done exclusively to artificially increase the play time. The problem is that you aren't backtracking to recent areas, you're backtracking across the entire map, almost constantly going from one end of the map to the other after every action or every other action. You'll find an item you need to use in a scene you played six hours ago or you'll find a key you need to unlock a cache in a scene you played four hours ago, and in that scene, you'll find an item you need for a scene you played 15 minutes ago, and then, in that scene, you'll find an item you need to use in the first scene of the game. It keeps going like that, constantly bouncing you around from one area to another, ruining what had been a very enjoyable game.
Some people may not mind this backtracking because the game does have an interactive map which not only allows you to immediately jump to any location, but also (depending on the difficulty setting) shows which scenes have available actions. However, I found that even using the interactive map, I spent far more time jumping between scenes than actually performing actions. It took what was an enjoyable game and turned it into a tedious, annoying exercise in frustration. I cannot imagine how anyone would be able to finish this game without the map showing which scenes have available actions.
So, if you like hidden object and adventure games, and you don't mind an insane amount of backtracking, then you'll probably enjoy this game. If, like me, you find constant backtracking to be tedious and annoying, then you may want to skip this one.
👍 : 5 |
😃 : 0