Hi guys,
I‘m not completely done with
The Hand Of Glory yet (about 3/4 or halfway through the final second part) and for anybody interested I'll probably leave some more impressions after completion.
But what I‘ve played so far - WOW! This game is really, really, really good and by far the most underappreciated Point’n’Click adventure I‘ve played in a very long time.
The puzzles are challenging but fair and very diverse (not only classic inventory and environmental puzzles but also ones with numbers, codes, a search engine, musical notes, reading other people’s body language etc), there are plenty of very clever puzzle chains and the story so far is great, with a playing time of at least 12 hours.
At first you think you're playing a run-of-the mill detective adventure with a self-involved yet still humorous and sympathetic main character but there are quite a few twists and especially the one by the end of part 1 was a complete surprise. Don’t wanna spoil anything but it was heartbreaking, unexpected and it completely changed the emotional tone of part 2.
Yet most of the NPCs are usually funny, all with their own quirks and eccentricities like a snooty homeless person, a (very) absent-minded priest, a giant man of a portier who misses his plush toy and so forth.
Also, great production value, everything needed for a smooth experience is there: Full, professional voice overs, well done cut scenes, quick travel, hotspot function etc.
I’m positively stunned how the devs managed to pull of both parts of the game so well and professionally in every regard, especially considering how much it has flown under people’s radars so far.
The few reviews out there I found are all positive, with jumpdashroll.com for example calling it "
the best traditional point-and-click adventure in years" and I urge everyone who likes varied, classic PnCs and/or just a good story to give this one a try - I myself am very glad I did.