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Adventure Games Thread 2020 - Get To The POINT Where It All CLICKS
- Thread starter Vampire On Titus
- Start date
Vampire On Titus
Member
Not gonna lie I'm salty Apple Arcade is getting it before PC but at least the release is only a week away. Can't wait to play it, I really hope its a good game.
frogmeetsdog
Member
Hi guys,
long time no see (read), hope you all got (or are getting, depending on your location) well through the crisis.
I was sure the Apple Arcade release of Beyond A Steel Sky had already been mentioned here and as I know the stance to playing on mobile/tablet of most of you guys, I thought it could be helpful to leave a few initial impressions
The wait for the game’s release has basically been the only reason I haven‘t terminated my Apple Arcade subscription yet as it’s pretty disappointing how the service - after the initial not too bad start with ~90 games and weekly releases of one or more titles - has developed so far. The premise is great but most games are smaller/more casual stuff from Indie devs, there are only very few and not too good PnCs and the release rate has slowed down a lot - Now it’s often one, mostly not very interesting title just every two weeks etc.
But I digress ... Considering how much I was looking forward to Beyond A Steel Sky, so far I‘m not too impressed with the final product.
Initial impressions:
- Movement is slow and clumsy
- Controls (not talking about touchscreen but controllers, which seems to be the main scheme the game was made for) are imprecise and feel rather clunky
- The world feels hollow and empty
- Already had a few glitches and bugs in my stint with the game
- Lots of dialogue but very few puzzles so far and those that appeared are rather easy plus the “use” option is already greyed out for most combinations, talking away any possible remaining challenge
- Story has started rather meh, meaning it looks predictable and run-of-the-mill, so far at least
- Even though I, as probably most adventure gamers, don’t care about visuals and graphics that much for completion’s sake: Character models and the world are rather ugly and outdated, don’t think 3D was the best choice for the game
- Also, and this probably will only be an issue for mobile but imo is speaking volumes about its - at least technical - quality: The game closes e v e r y time you change to another application, no matter how briefly. Haven’t seen something like this with an iOS game in a long time, even much more graphically demanding titles with probably much higher memory usage manage to stay open in the background if you shortly have to switch to something else. Luckily I‘m playing on a tablet but - as long as you don’t go into airplane mode or something - on a phone this has to be a nightmare with incoming calls.
Anyway full disclosure, I’m only about an hour into the title so take these initial impressions with a grain of salt for now, even though those often are a good indicator for the remaining experience.
Also, I’m not the biggest fan of Revolution Software’s sparse release catalogue after the 90s, except for Broken Sword 5 which wasn’t too bad. Benath a Steel Sky has always been my favorite from them (by far) though.
Planning to update these impressions once I’ve gotten farther into the game (or have finished it, after it has hopefully picked up a bit)
long time no see (read), hope you all got (or are getting, depending on your location) well through the crisis.
I was sure the Apple Arcade release of Beyond A Steel Sky had already been mentioned here and as I know the stance to playing on mobile/tablet of most of you guys, I thought it could be helpful to leave a few initial impressions
The wait for the game’s release has basically been the only reason I haven‘t terminated my Apple Arcade subscription yet as it’s pretty disappointing how the service - after the initial not too bad start with ~90 games and weekly releases of one or more titles - has developed so far. The premise is great but most games are smaller/more casual stuff from Indie devs, there are only very few and not too good PnCs and the release rate has slowed down a lot - Now it’s often one, mostly not very interesting title just every two weeks etc.
But I digress ... Considering how much I was looking forward to Beyond A Steel Sky, so far I‘m not too impressed with the final product.
Initial impressions:
- Movement is slow and clumsy
- Controls (not talking about touchscreen but controllers, which seems to be the main scheme the game was made for) are imprecise and feel rather clunky
- The world feels hollow and empty
- Already had a few glitches and bugs in my stint with the game
- Lots of dialogue but very few puzzles so far and those that appeared are rather easy plus the “use” option is already greyed out for most combinations, talking away any possible remaining challenge
- Story has started rather meh, meaning it looks predictable and run-of-the-mill, so far at least
- Even though I, as probably most adventure gamers, don’t care about visuals and graphics that much for completion’s sake: Character models and the world are rather ugly and outdated, don’t think 3D was the best choice for the game
- Also, and this probably will only be an issue for mobile but imo is speaking volumes about its - at least technical - quality: The game closes e v e r y time you change to another application, no matter how briefly. Haven’t seen something like this with an iOS game in a long time, even much more graphically demanding titles with probably much higher memory usage manage to stay open in the background if you shortly have to switch to something else. Luckily I‘m playing on a tablet but - as long as you don’t go into airplane mode or something - on a phone this has to be a nightmare with incoming calls.
Anyway full disclosure, I’m only about an hour into the title so take these initial impressions with a grain of salt for now, even though those often are a good indicator for the remaining experience.
Also, I’m not the biggest fan of Revolution Software’s sparse release catalogue after the 90s, except for Broken Sword 5 which wasn’t too bad. Benath a Steel Sky has always been my favorite from them (by far) though.
Planning to update these impressions once I’ve gotten farther into the game (or have finished it, after it has hopefully picked up a bit)
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Vampire On Titus
Member
Long time no see,
frogmeetsdog
Happy to read your impressions even if you haven't been impressed so far. Obviously I can't speak to the game's quality yet (still very eager to play) but I did look at some footage of the Apple Arcade version and I think it may have some significant shortcomings compared to what's been shown on PC.
The visual comparison alone (from the video I saw) is stark:
Robert's face looks lifeless by comparison, the environment has far less detail and the colors are way off. I also noticed some glitches and a general lack of polish/weird quick cuts and scene transitions. I don't really know much about apple arcade so maybe the quality is different depending on your device? But from this video it seems in substantially worse shape than (what's been shown of) the PC version.
In any case I hope the game picks up for you and I hope that these visual/technical issues I've seen don't apply to the final PC release. Welcome back, Frog.
frogmeetsdog
Happy to read your impressions even if you haven't been impressed so far. Obviously I can't speak to the game's quality yet (still very eager to play) but I did look at some footage of the Apple Arcade version and I think it may have some significant shortcomings compared to what's been shown on PC. The visual comparison alone (from the video I saw) is stark:
Robert's face looks lifeless by comparison, the environment has far less detail and the colors are way off. I also noticed some glitches and a general lack of polish/weird quick cuts and scene transitions. I don't really know much about apple arcade so maybe the quality is different depending on your device? But from this video it seems in substantially worse shape than (what's been shown of) the PC version.
In any case I hope the game picks up for you and I hope that these visual/technical issues I've seen don't apply to the final PC release. Welcome back, Frog.
ShadowNate
Member
They look like two completely different builds of the game. Hopefully the PC version will be better and more stable overall. The transition to 3d especially when on a small budget will almost always result in spaces that feel empty.
I like the original game too much and even though I didn't want a sequel, now that we get one, I don't want it to suck.
I like the original game too much and even though I didn't want a sequel, now that we get one, I don't want it to suck.
Fuz
Banned
Vampire On Titus
Member
Depends on how acclimated you are to the 80's~90's era difficulty that the game seeks to replicate. If you've made it through games like Gabriel Knight, Day of The Tentacle, LeChuck's Revenge, etc then you know what you're in for. Personally, I appreciated the challenge and felt most of Virtua Verse's puzzles were tough but fair. There are some rough spots and the occasional pixel hunt, though.
You could always come through to the thread for hints if you decide to give it a shot and wind up stuck.
Red_Martyr_Entertainment
Neo Member
Sorry for dropping this promo bomb, but maybe some of you may be interested...
We have an ongoing Kickstarter campaign for Saint Kotar. Just two things:
1. On Friday we'll push a new update to the prologue (both on Steam and itch.io) that will include the "Classic Horror mode" (allowing you to play the game in the vein of the old horror movies), the Czech and Spanish (America Latin) localization, and some minor tweaks and fixes. You can read more about this in our newest update on Kickstarter: https://bit.ly/2CVwdpq
2. We have lots of rewards on Kickstarter that might interest you and one of them, perhaps, could be interesting to take a look: the "Eyes and Ears of the Asylum" - limited to 1 backer.
Kickstarter campaign: https://bit.ly/3duUjUs
Thank you and keep being an awesome community on this thread!
We have an ongoing Kickstarter campaign for Saint Kotar. Just two things:
1. On Friday we'll push a new update to the prologue (both on Steam and itch.io) that will include the "Classic Horror mode" (allowing you to play the game in the vein of the old horror movies), the Czech and Spanish (America Latin) localization, and some minor tweaks and fixes. You can read more about this in our newest update on Kickstarter: https://bit.ly/2CVwdpq
2. We have lots of rewards on Kickstarter that might interest you and one of them, perhaps, could be interesting to take a look: the "Eyes and Ears of the Asylum" - limited to 1 backer.
Kickstarter campaign: https://bit.ly/3duUjUs
Thank you and keep being an awesome community on this thread!
Vampire On Titus
Member
July 16th for Beyond a Steel Sky on PC.
frogmeetsdog
Member
Aww, that’s warming the heart
Missed you guys too I’ve had more work than usual lately but main reason and to my undying shame, after Veritas on iOS, I hadn’t used my remaining gaming time to play any (new) adventure games. Mainly cause, after I got it a year back or so and have played through every Switch adventure title I could get my hands on - culminating in my great experience with The Count Lucanor - I got busy playing its exclusives like Zelda BotW (which is huge), Luigi’s Mansion 3, Mario & Rabbids, Super Mario Odyssey and other big titles like Hollow Knight or Binding of Isaac Afterbirth(+) (which is super huge if you get lost in it)
Also got a used PS4 from a buddy and delved into some of its exclusives like eg God of War, Spiderman and atm The Last of us 2.
Meaning, all in all I didn’t have much to contribute to this thread
Now, Beyond a Steel Sky has finally woken me up from this Point-and-Clickless slumber
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frogmeetsdog
Member
So, Beyond a Steel Sky. Gladly I played on despite my rather not so positive first impressions.
The game really picks up after the first three, four locations. Especially the hacking/scanning mechanics make for some pretty clever new puzzles after a while and they definitely had some great ideas in that area. A lot of puzzles aren‘t all too hard but also not so easy that you don‘t have to think out of the box once in a while. You also often have a sense of accomplshment after solving successfully. Despite not so many items available, most impossible combinations already greyed out from the get-go and only a few hotspots to interact with in the environment you often still feel like congratulating yourself for figuring it out.
Also
Vampire On Titus
is completely right, the difference between the PC and the iOS screenshot is like day and night, even though the game already looks much prettier on iPads with more RAM than my old (2015) iPad Pro 9,7“ with only 2 (alas the only Pro with that little RAM).
Talking about RAM, I already had a five paragraph rant written two days ago, because I’ve had two gamebreaking crashes always on the same spots, one before and one after the latest update/patch. There were/are also a multitude of other bugs, glitches and crashes, as I later discovered a majority of them “only“ happen due to a device with less than 4GB RAM though.
Of course Revolution should have figured this out before releasing the game and/or selling it as compatible with those devices. Looks as if QA wasn‘t too attentive and suppose they also had been under quite the pressure from Apple to release the game, which firstly was advertized to come out at the same time as Apple Arcade after all. Arcade needs any wins, big names, (timed) exclusives it can get ... as it apparently still isn‘t all too successful atm.
So playing on the 2GB device has been a nightmare, with the game barely being playable and recurring crashes ruining the rest.
”Luckily” I also have another iPad Pro (12,9“) from 2015, this one has 4GB RAM though and the difference was like day and night as well. There are still plenty of glitches (see screenshots) and other illogical stuff (the main char still having the same comments about an item, combination etc despite changed circumstances or your Droid giving you tips about puzzles you’ve already solved a while ago.
But all in all the experience has been much smoother and much more bearable if it weren‘t for the cracked screen on my 12,9“ iPad Pro which often develops a life of its own like a ghost hand is frantically tapping on the display.. (Apple doesn‘t sell the display for this model anymore, so every repairshop I asked dropped out, so hope to get it somewhere else and somebody who doesn‘t have two left hands, i.e. not me, being able to exchange it).
Anyway, long story short (I know, too late ^^) the game is mostly not too hard but still has a lot of clever puzzles (plus a vaguish hint function if needed), the story still is rather predictable so far but nonetheless gets more interesting the farther you play and the length is also nothing to sneeze at. I‘m about 7 hours in and still only at half up to two thirds done.
Really gotta do a 180 from my initial impressions and wholeheartedly recommend the title. Especially if the game won‘t be as egregiously buggy on PC as it is for 2GB RAM iOS devices right now. But other than that and the other more minor cons I‘ve already mentioned, this has developed into one of the finest P&C experiences I‘ve had in quite a while. So, mea culpa - Never trust first impressions
Still sharing some screenshots of the bugs and glitches though:
A kid named Pixel (who has to go to another location for you to be able to continue) melting with and getting stuck in the middle of a roundabout.
Main Char hovering over the floor slanted by 30, 40 degress instead of walking.
Conversation with an inadvertently invisible NPC.
NPC passerbys taking a stroll on your head.
TL;DR: Great game after all, very buggy especially with some lower RAM devices, hope they’ll iron out potentially similar stability issues for PC release.
The game really picks up after the first three, four locations. Especially the hacking/scanning mechanics make for some pretty clever new puzzles after a while and they definitely had some great ideas in that area. A lot of puzzles aren‘t all too hard but also not so easy that you don‘t have to think out of the box once in a while. You also often have a sense of accomplshment after solving successfully. Despite not so many items available, most impossible combinations already greyed out from the get-go and only a few hotspots to interact with in the environment you often still feel like congratulating yourself for figuring it out.
Also
Vampire On Titus
is completely right, the difference between the PC and the iOS screenshot is like day and night, even though the game already looks much prettier on iPads with more RAM than my old (2015) iPad Pro 9,7“ with only 2 (alas the only Pro with that little RAM).Talking about RAM, I already had a five paragraph rant written two days ago, because I’ve had two gamebreaking crashes always on the same spots, one before and one after the latest update/patch. There were/are also a multitude of other bugs, glitches and crashes, as I later discovered a majority of them “only“ happen due to a device with less than 4GB RAM though.
Of course Revolution should have figured this out before releasing the game and/or selling it as compatible with those devices. Looks as if QA wasn‘t too attentive and suppose they also had been under quite the pressure from Apple to release the game, which firstly was advertized to come out at the same time as Apple Arcade after all. Arcade needs any wins, big names, (timed) exclusives it can get ... as it apparently still isn‘t all too successful atm.
So playing on the 2GB device has been a nightmare, with the game barely being playable and recurring crashes ruining the rest.
”Luckily” I also have another iPad Pro (12,9“) from 2015, this one has 4GB RAM though and the difference was like day and night as well. There are still plenty of glitches (see screenshots) and other illogical stuff (the main char still having the same comments about an item, combination etc despite changed circumstances or your Droid giving you tips about puzzles you’ve already solved a while ago.
But all in all the experience has been much smoother and much more bearable if it weren‘t for the cracked screen on my 12,9“ iPad Pro which often develops a life of its own like a ghost hand is frantically tapping on the display.. (Apple doesn‘t sell the display for this model anymore, so every repairshop I asked dropped out, so hope to get it somewhere else and somebody who doesn‘t have two left hands, i.e. not me, being able to exchange it).
Anyway, long story short (I know, too late ^^) the game is mostly not too hard but still has a lot of clever puzzles (plus a vaguish hint function if needed), the story still is rather predictable so far but nonetheless gets more interesting the farther you play and the length is also nothing to sneeze at. I‘m about 7 hours in and still only at half up to two thirds done.
Really gotta do a 180 from my initial impressions and wholeheartedly recommend the title. Especially if the game won‘t be as egregiously buggy on PC as it is for 2GB RAM iOS devices right now. But other than that and the other more minor cons I‘ve already mentioned, this has developed into one of the finest P&C experiences I‘ve had in quite a while. So, mea culpa - Never trust first impressions
Still sharing some screenshots of the bugs and glitches though:
A kid named Pixel (who has to go to another location for you to be able to continue) melting with and getting stuck in the middle of a roundabout.
Main Char hovering over the floor slanted by 30, 40 degress instead of walking.
Conversation with an inadvertently invisible NPC.
NPC passerbys taking a stroll on your head.
TL;DR: Great game after all, very buggy especially with some lower RAM devices, hope they’ll iron out potentially similar stability issues for PC release.
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Fuz
Banned
Same, I'm not playing any P&C lately, but I always lurk the thread.
frogmeetsdog
Member
Vampire On Titus
Member
Thanks for the in depth impressions
frogmeetsdog
. I'm glad to see you're enjoying it more and I hope they get those patches out quickly to improve the stability of the Apple Arcade version across all platforms. Just from looking at some Apple Arcade communities on reddit it seems like Beyond has gotten a fair amount of ppl to resubscribe to the service so it'd definitely be best for the game if their experience isn't hampered by technical issues.
In any case good to see the game picked up. I'm really looking forward to playing later this month.
frogmeetsdog
. I'm glad to see you're enjoying it more and I hope they get those patches out quickly to improve the stability of the Apple Arcade version across all platforms. Just from looking at some Apple Arcade communities on reddit it seems like Beyond has gotten a fair amount of ppl to resubscribe to the service so it'd definitely be best for the game if their experience isn't hampered by technical issues. In any case good to see the game picked up. I'm really looking forward to playing later this month.
frogmeetsdog
Member
Sorry for dropping this promo bomb, but maybe some of you may be interested...
We have an ongoing Kickstarter campaign for Saint Kotar. Just two things:
1. On Friday we'll push a new update to the prologue (both on Steam and itch.io) that will include the "Classic Horror mode" (allowing you to play the game in the vein of the old horror movies), the Czech and Spanish (America Latin) localization, and some minor tweaks and fixes. You can read more about this in our newest update on Kickstarter: https://bit.ly/2CVwdpq
2. We have lots of rewards on Kickstarter that might interest you and one of them, perhaps, could be interesting to take a look: the "Eyes and Ears of the Asylum" - limited to 1 backer.
Kickstarter campaign: https://bit.ly/3duUjUs
Thank you and keep being an awesome community on this thread!
When I first discovered the game I remember thinking that - from a gameplay standpoint - this is probably gonna more in the vein of classic Point’n’Click adventures puzzle-wise.
But after I‘ve read through the Kickstarter description it rather looks like Saint Kotar will mainly be a story- and decision driven game?
Besides the description saying exactly that at some point, the inspirations also point in the direction that puzzles will probably take a back seat to the story. After all, of the ten insprations listed three are other adventure games (the rest authors and TV shows/films mostly from the horror/mystery genre) and of those only Gabriel Knight has a few rather challenging puzzles (and was probably also listed due to its horror themes/story instead).
So I guess my question before deciding to make a pledge is, will there be some brainteasers too or is the main focus of the game on story decisions and getting through it without too many puzzle-interruptions?
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frogmeetsdog
Member
Thanks for the in depth impressions
I agree. Remember when Bertram Fiddle 2 came out - which at its core is a great Point and Click adventure - and it had been extremely riddled with bugs, lots of them gamebreaking.
I‘m a rather patient gamer but even I had enough when despite having installed patch after patch the game’s autosave function with its one and only slot still screwed me over for the third or fourth time (having saved at a bugged situation/location with no way going forward and the only option having been to restart the game once again).
Talked to the dev back then and the guy sounded pretty exhausted and desperate not only from the pressure he‘d received from all those players with a ruined gaming experience but of course also because of all the angry feedback/reviews and potential sales this premature broken release had destroyed.
The first few days/weeks after release are the most important for a game after all and if you screw those up badly due to a bugged up release there‘s hardly ever any way back. Especially as a smaller dev.
So hope Beyond won‘t have similar issues on PC it had with a lot of iOS devices. Would certainly not be the best publicity.
Vampire On Titus
Member
Playable prologue/demo for Dexter Stardust is now available for download. I like the look of this game and It seems like something that Space Quest fans could be into. I havent played the prologue yet but from watching the video the female lead's VA seems a bit... dicey. I'll give it a play and see how I feel about the game itself, though.
frogmeetsdog
Member
Discovered a pretty neat game a few days ago (available for PC & Switch), Creepy Tale:
Most puzzles are really clever, not too easy, not too far-fetched and with some tenacity and out of the box thinking you even figure out the harder ones eventually.
It‘s pretty impressive what they did with the puzzle difficulty despite the game having no dialogue despite picture thought bubbles (you always know what you‘re supposed to do though) and a non-interactive inventory (meaning you can‘t combine items and your character uses the right item automatically if you click/tap on the correct destination).
Anyway I also love the art-style and even though the story is nothing groundbreaking, you certainly wanna see what happens next.
And despite there being monsters in the game (which you usually need to trick to get to the next destination) it’s certainly no scary horror title or something in that vein. Rather a creepy atmosphere all around, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering the game title
The only real con I can think of is that the game is definitely too short (depending on your adventure/puzzle skills I suppose playing time will be around 2 1/2 to 4, maybe 4 1/2 hours).
Nonetheless, despite wishing it were longer I really enjoyed it. Adventuregamers basically only had two negatives for the game, the short playing time and apparently they feel like despite the devs having thanked some artist for his inspiration that they took it too far and rather plagiarized his art style. Not that I condone that but from a gamer/gameplay standpoint it doesn‘t influence my experience in a negative way.
But reading their very positive review about the game, puzzles and gameplay itself it seems they at least took away 1/2 - 1 1/2 stars because of this issue. It‘s their prerogative of course, Steam reviews are very positive all around though. I definitely don‘t regret the purchase one bit and imo for 5€/$ you‘re getting a very enjoyable adventure experience for one or two gaming evenings.
Most puzzles are really clever, not too easy, not too far-fetched and with some tenacity and out of the box thinking you even figure out the harder ones eventually.
It‘s pretty impressive what they did with the puzzle difficulty despite the game having no dialogue despite picture thought bubbles (you always know what you‘re supposed to do though) and a non-interactive inventory (meaning you can‘t combine items and your character uses the right item automatically if you click/tap on the correct destination).
Anyway I also love the art-style and even though the story is nothing groundbreaking, you certainly wanna see what happens next.
And despite there being monsters in the game (which you usually need to trick to get to the next destination) it’s certainly no scary horror title or something in that vein. Rather a creepy atmosphere all around, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering the game title
The only real con I can think of is that the game is definitely too short (depending on your adventure/puzzle skills I suppose playing time will be around 2 1/2 to 4, maybe 4 1/2 hours).
Nonetheless, despite wishing it were longer I really enjoyed it. Adventuregamers basically only had two negatives for the game, the short playing time and apparently they feel like despite the devs having thanked some artist for his inspiration that they took it too far and rather plagiarized his art style. Not that I condone that but from a gamer/gameplay standpoint it doesn‘t influence my experience in a negative way.
But reading their very positive review about the game, puzzles and gameplay itself it seems they at least took away 1/2 - 1 1/2 stars because of this issue. It‘s their prerogative of course, Steam reviews are very positive all around though. I definitely don‘t regret the purchase one bit and imo for 5€/$ you‘re getting a very enjoyable adventure experience for one or two gaming evenings.
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Vampire On Titus
Member
Played through the Dextet Stardust prologue/demo. The VA is definitely not the best but it was starting to grow on me in an "amateur charm" kinda way, YMMV. The rest of the experience was a really well polished adventure. The demo was only ~20 minutes long with fairly straight forward puzzles but I found the characters likable and it's good to look at. For sure gonna check out the full game when it drops.
Also theres a new trailer for Perfect Tides:
Really looking forward to this one. It's been pushed back to 2021 now. But I'm here for the angsty 90s coming of age vibes.
Also theres a new trailer for Perfect Tides:
Really looking forward to this one. It's been pushed back to 2021 now. But I'm here for the angsty 90s coming of age vibes.
TripleSun
Member
I do love some good ol 90s angsty teen vibes. This looks beautiful. The music in the trailer says a lot haha
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GreenAlien
Member
Dystopian/cyberpunk scifi setting with beautiful art.
Horrible Performance.. but it still plays fine with the occasional 15 FPS, so.. might be worth it to put everything on Ultra just to get the most out of the visuals.
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frogmeetsdog
Member
Just finished Beyond a Steel Sky. The story was rather thin and predictable, could be really funny at times though, especially the exchanges involving your sidekick. Unfortunately the playing time counter was bugged, so I don’t know how long it exactly took me to finish the title but the length was above average, if I had to guess I’d say it took me 12-14 hours to complete. I definitely liked how they balanced the puzzle difficulty most. Imo this is Revolution’s best game in this area so far.
You don’t get to use your inventory items very often and most items stay in there from nearly the beginning of the game on, some you never even get to use. A lot of the puzzles involve the hacking/scanning mechanic, some of them are rather straightforward, some a little bit more complicated, they’re all solvable as long as one pays attention though. A good portion was pretty clever, I especially loved the math puzzle in the last MINOS section, the apartment had some cool ones too.
All in all I really enjoyed the game after a rather rocky beginning (glad my rather negative first impression didn’t last). Luckily the third patch also ironed out nearly all of the bugs and crashes. Glad that Apple funded the production and hope the game will sell well on PC. Would definitely like to see another point’n’click adventure from Revolution in the future and hope you guys will enjoy your time in Union City as much as I did when the game comes out on PC tomorrow.
P. S.: 3D worked much better with the game than I’d expected, except for particular minor nuissance glitches.
You don’t get to use your inventory items very often and most items stay in there from nearly the beginning of the game on, some you never even get to use. A lot of the puzzles involve the hacking/scanning mechanic, some of them are rather straightforward, some a little bit more complicated, they’re all solvable as long as one pays attention though. A good portion was pretty clever, I especially loved the math puzzle in the last MINOS section, the apartment had some cool ones too.
All in all I really enjoyed the game after a rather rocky beginning (glad my rather negative first impression didn’t last). Luckily the third patch also ironed out nearly all of the bugs and crashes. Glad that Apple funded the production and hope the game will sell well on PC. Would definitely like to see another point’n’click adventure from Revolution in the future and hope you guys will enjoy your time in Union City as much as I did when the game comes out on PC tomorrow.
P. S.: 3D worked much better with the game than I’d expected, except for particular minor nuissance glitches.
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ThatStupidLion
Member
just got to part 4 of the curse of monkey island. i either never beat this game, or played it on easy back in elementary school because i dont remember a lot of this.
loving it though. feels so classic and fresh. missed this art.
loving it though. feels so classic and fresh. missed this art.
frogmeetsdog
Member
Oh part 4 (suppose you’re talking about Escape of MI) hope you can cope with the controls better than I did when I replayed it a few years back (I actually never came far when I first played it in 2000 cause of a gamebreaking bug involving a coconut) - Very mixed emotions when I remember this title
Every PnC suddenly had to have the newest hype 3D (MI4, Grim Fandango, King’s Quest 8 (only PnC in name though), Broken Sword 3 & 4 etc.) which unfortunately was horribly implemented into the game (can’t think of any PnC with worse 3D controls - I ran in circles and inadvertently in and out of screens more often than I could count).
But still great puzzles and the old Lucas Arts magic ... Sigh, where did the time go
I’ll always like 3 the most but would love for Disney to sell its anyway unused MI rights to Gilbert so he can finish the trilogy like he always wanted.
Telltale’s Monkey Island title is actually pretty good too. Was before they shifted to pure choice-driven story adventures.
Btw,
ThatStupidLion
thanks for the nice post in another thread Edit: If you mean Chapter 4 of Part 3 (Curse) sorry for the confusion. In that case, glad you’re enjoying it. Definite must-play for any adventure fan and one of the greatest PnC’s of all time imo (I know Fuz, I know
).
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H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
Ouch - that killed my interest in Beyond a Steel Sky. Oh well, one less thing on my backlog I guess.
frogmeetsdog
Member
May I ask, what reason(s) exactly killed your interest? Just asking cause my experience (mostly) was a rather positive one and critical reception is above average as well (Metacritic critic’s average 73, little divided: highest 90, lowest 50).
If you or someone you know got an iOS device you could even give the title a try (or play through it) “for free” if you sign up for Apple Arcade for the first time (free trial month).
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hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
Thin and predictable story, very light inventory usage, horrible bugs (yes they got fixed but really it shouldn't have released in that state) - it sounds like they've gone down the modern safe and bland accessible route.
Vampire On Titus
Member
I'm not sure Its right to say they played it safe on the basis of fewer inventory puzzles. For one, there appears to be a rather ambitious (or at the very least different) puzzle mechanic in the LINC havking/VT. In my experience some adventure games that played it safe the least have no inventory puzzles (Loom, Blade Runner, Heaven's Vault) or relied on them less (Last Express, The Colonel's Bequest, The Neverhood).
From the impressions and reviews I've read the general consensus is that ppl like the story and gameplay. They also like the visuals but take issue with some animations. It seems that the game's biggest problem is bugs/technical issues. Scores are in the 7 to 8 range (mostly), depending on that persons tolerance for the bugs. There's some outliers on the high and low end but that seems to be the overall take.
Of course I reserve my final judgement for actually playing the game but I don't foresee the technical issues ruining my experience. I can't imagine it'd be worse than Blacksad at launch, which I still managed to enjoy. But it's totally valid for ppl to be turned off by technical problems and Revolution could have helped their critical reception in a major way by releasing this game in a more stable condition.
It's also worth mentioning, Rev has stated that reviewers are playing an earlier press build and the steam release should have some of those issues fixed. I don't imagine there'd be too much of a difference tbh but who knows.
From the impressions and reviews I've read the general consensus is that ppl like the story and gameplay. They also like the visuals but take issue with some animations. It seems that the game's biggest problem is bugs/technical issues. Scores are in the 7 to 8 range (mostly), depending on that persons tolerance for the bugs. There's some outliers on the high and low end but that seems to be the overall take.
Of course I reserve my final judgement for actually playing the game but I don't foresee the technical issues ruining my experience. I can't imagine it'd be worse than Blacksad at launch, which I still managed to enjoy. But it's totally valid for ppl to be turned off by technical problems and Revolution could have helped their critical reception in a major way by releasing this game in a more stable condition.
It's also worth mentioning, Rev has stated that reviewers are playing an earlier press build and the steam release should have some of those issues fixed. I don't imagine there'd be too much of a difference tbh but who knows.
ThatStupidLion
Member
Edit: If you mean Chapter 4 of Part 3 (Curse) sorry for the confusion. In that case, glad you’re enjoying it. Definite must-play for any adventure fan and one of the greatest PnC’s of all time imo (I know Fuz, I know
whatever THIS is for you:
Vampire On Titus
Member
Yeah, love the hand drawn animation of Curse. I've always wondered if the normal/easy mode has that golden tooth bubble gum puzzle, that's the big one from Curse that really kicked my ass for a while.
ThatStupidLion
Member
iirc the normal modes puzzle for that one is the same up until the tooth falls out. I want to say once its on the ground the game allows you to walk out of the restaurant with it, whereas on hard you have to go the extra mile to get it outside
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frogmeetsdog
Member
Well, imo the story is typical standard conspiracy fanfare
with a „surprise“ twist
A story like this has been told endless times before and if it were a movie nobody would be all too impressed. The ending came rather abruptly and at least for me it had been pretty obvious that it would play out like this in some way after the first 1, 2 hour(s).
Anyway, the journey itself was still enjoyable and I’m more in for the puzzles anyway. Hearing beforehand that the inventory is more of an afterthought would probably have deterred me too. I mean it never exceeds more than 7, 8 items and you mostly only get to use one of them multiple times, most of them just sit in there. Eg in midgame I got a valve as an item I never got to use once. I usually look in every nook and cranny so I don’t think I overlooked some special use for it ... And this wasn’t the only item like that either.
I also wasn’t too happy at first that they’ve greyed out nearly every impossible item combination beforehand which looked like to take a lot of the challenge away. But a little later luckily the hacking/scanning mechanic was introduced and they really did a lot of clever puzzles with that.
It’s different from a conventional PnC of course but as I said in a post above, they somehow still managed to have a great difficulty balance. If you’re concerned the game would be too easy because of the small role the inventory plays, I can at least assure you, that they made up for this with quite a few pretty nifty hacking and environmental puzzles.
Of course, the technical issues suck - On iOS they at least ironed them out within 10 days so here’s to hoping Revolution managed to do the same for the PC version BEFORE it’ll come out tomorrow.
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frogmeetsdog
Member
namekuseijin
Banned
I like adventure games and the adventure component in action-adventure games.
I didn't play text-adventures back in the early 80s (too busy with Atari), but I did follow the revival in the genre in the late 90s and early 2000s. Infocom games are the standard in finesse and the best 90s authors around ifarchive followed their lead and gone beyond: Counterfeit Monkey, Hadean Lands, Make it Good and others dwarf in interactions and scope old favorites Spellbreaker, Deadline or Zork. After those last behemoths in parser games, the genre and community moved over to gender identity agenda and lesser tools and illiterate clickable gaming and I left. text-adventure is a thing of its own and highly enjoyable for those favoring textual descriptions over clickable scenery and inventory-based puzzle solving - the 90s folks elaborated so many good rules of fairness in puzzle design that led to less frustration in asinine puzzle designs - worth a reading their docs and discussions on ifarchive even today...
Being mostly a console guy, I also missed much of graphical adventures in the 90s. Played some in emulators, but not extensively. Played a fair bit of Full Throttle when it came to PS4. But I'm really more acquainted to the likes of Machinarium, The Witness, Obduction, The Room - modern takes on an old and veritable genre focused on exploration and puzzle-solving. I care a lot less about their cheap bastardization as "escape room"...
anyway, watching this thread
I didn't play text-adventures back in the early 80s (too busy with Atari), but I did follow the revival in the genre in the late 90s and early 2000s. Infocom games are the standard in finesse and the best 90s authors around ifarchive followed their lead and gone beyond: Counterfeit Monkey, Hadean Lands, Make it Good and others dwarf in interactions and scope old favorites Spellbreaker, Deadline or Zork. After those last behemoths in parser games, the genre and community moved over to gender identity agenda and lesser tools and illiterate clickable gaming and I left. text-adventure is a thing of its own and highly enjoyable for those favoring textual descriptions over clickable scenery and inventory-based puzzle solving - the 90s folks elaborated so many good rules of fairness in puzzle design that led to less frustration in asinine puzzle designs - worth a reading their docs and discussions on ifarchive even today...
Being mostly a console guy, I also missed much of graphical adventures in the 90s. Played some in emulators, but not extensively. Played a fair bit of Full Throttle when it came to PS4. But I'm really more acquainted to the likes of Machinarium, The Witness, Obduction, The Room - modern takes on an old and veritable genre focused on exploration and puzzle-solving. I care a lot less about their cheap bastardization as "escape room"...
anyway, watching this thread
namekuseijin
Banned
you'll be a lot less salty once you realize how much more intuitive adventure gaming is when you drop that old 60s mouse. No more dragging the damn pointer and clicking over stuff, you just touch them. Even touching with your finger over a glass surface has its days counted: you're really missing directly manipulating virtual objects in your own hands in VR. Obduction, Red Matter, A Fisherman's Tale, The Room VR... this is the next step
frogmeetsdog
Member
Apparently Apple financed the development as producer. Better Arcade first, PC second than no game at all
Vampire On Titus
Member
Adventure Gamers' review of Beyond A Steel Sky just dropped. 4/5 Stars. There are some really glowing passages:
---
Interesting to read a seasoned take from someone who was well into text adventures at one point. They're admittedly the part of the genre I know the least about. I had no clue that there was a scene for text adventures in the 90s going on. One of these days I'll play some.
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Interesting to read a seasoned take from someone who was well into text adventures at one point. They're admittedly the part of the genre I know the least about. I had no clue that there was a scene for text adventures in the 90s going on. One of these days I'll play some.
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Vampire On Titus
Member
Apparently Apple financed the development as producer. Better Arcade first, PC second than no game at all
It's alright I've managed to shake off some of the salt seeing as we're a day away from release.
namekuseijin
Banned
if you ever do, this is a reasonable list of memorable games, some commercial classics but mostly non-commercial and freely playable directly in the browser:
it's a community ratings list. I'd just beware of most things post-2014 or so and that top positions may not be exactly best or representative of parser IF... still, I don't see any real stinkers and most memorable games are there in the list...
aside from hypertext ones, I don't recommend playing parser text-adventures without some beginner intro to the genre, and there are many. Andrew Plotkin is one of most celebrated 90s authors and he wrote one such tutorial game called The Dreamhold, but honestly I still think it's more fully featured and hard on beginners than it was supposed to be, so I'll just point you to his Dual Transform, which is fascinating on its on while still being quite fun and short:
Interactive Fiction
eblong.com
but it's basically a escape room with not really inventory-based puzzles, so after that, try The Dreamhold to learn how to navigate text-adventures and how to use the inventory...
Fuz
Banned
Since we're talking about text adventures something came back up to my mind, does anyone remember a Commodore 64 one that was - I think - about a murder in Germany or something, and at some point you have to take the train to Spandau? Don't remember anything else, but I used to love it as a kid. Took me a LONG time to beat 'cause I was writing "Spandau" without a capital letter and thought it was the wrong command. That particular detail stuck so much with me that when I visited Berlin... I took a train to Spandau
Would really love to remember its name and revisit it and destroy my good memories.
Oh, I have another stupid question, this time on Beyond a Steel Sky... can you zoom back to center the camera?
Would really love to remember its name and revisit it and destroy my good memories.
Oh, I have another stupid question, this time on Beyond a Steel Sky... can you zoom back to center the camera?
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Vampire On Titus
Member
Revolution is doing a live stream to celebrate today's PC release of Beyond A Steel Sky. Starting in 6 minutes. It's almost time!!!
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frogmeetsdog
Member
Vampire On Titus
Member
Playing through Beyond a Steel Sky and I'm really liking it so far. The environments look really nice on PC with everything maxed out. So far I haven't run into too many bugs. The only issue that's happened a few times is characters walking through NPCs in dialogue exchanges. The broader picture of the plot is still revealing itself but so far I like the moment to moment situations. The characters have a lot of personality and I love Foster & Joey's banter. Right now I'm just tracking down leads while the game establishes the new Union City.
Where I'm up to the puzzles are starting to become more challenging. I recently did the one where you have to get Joey's disembodied hand to slap his religious devotee. That moment in particular really reminded me of the humor of the first game. The inventory puzzles have definitely taken a back seat, so far. They're typically one quick step in a multi step hacking puzzle.
My biggest issue with the game currently is that some of the animation is awkward. In particular the facial animations can be weird . Not all the time, but enough of the time to feel "off" for sure. It's improved over animations in the preview material but still not fully where I'd like it to be. Other than that I think the dialogue trees could stand to be more straight forward but I've kinda gotten the hang of them at this point. Topics tend to disappear and reappear sometimes without any clear reason why.
So that's where I'm at right now. I like the characters, the game looks real good (save for some clunky animation) and the puzzles are fun. I think it's the best game Revolution has made in a long time.
Unfortunately
Fuz
I don't think there's any option to change the camera from how it is.
Where I'm up to the puzzles are starting to become more challenging. I recently did the one where you have to get Joey's disembodied hand to slap his religious devotee. That moment in particular really reminded me of the humor of the first game. The inventory puzzles have definitely taken a back seat, so far. They're typically one quick step in a multi step hacking puzzle.
My biggest issue with the game currently is that some of the animation is awkward. In particular the facial animations can be weird . Not all the time, but enough of the time to feel "off" for sure. It's improved over animations in the preview material but still not fully where I'd like it to be. Other than that I think the dialogue trees could stand to be more straight forward but I've kinda gotten the hang of them at this point. Topics tend to disappear and reappear sometimes without any clear reason why.
So that's where I'm at right now. I like the characters, the game looks real good (save for some clunky animation) and the puzzles are fun. I think it's the best game Revolution has made in a long time.
Unfortunately
Fuz
I don't think there's any option to change the camera from how it is.
PhoenixTank
Member
Red_Martyr_Entertainment
Neo Member
Hey frogmeetsdog, sorry for just getting back at you, we missed your post by accident
there will definitely be puzzles in the full game, a lot more and more difficult than the ones in the prologue for sure. We have 4 days left on Kickstarter so we'd like to invite you all to play the prologue and consider backing the project - we want to achieve as many stretch goals as we can! One goal down, many more to go