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[Vampire On Titus]

Developer - Stuck In Attic
Publisher - Stuck In Attic
Release Date - August 7th 2019
Platforms - (PC) (MAC) (Linux) (Steam) (GOG)




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What is Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure?
Gibbous is a cosmic horror, Lovecraftian, comedy adventure game inspired by the LucasArts classics of the genre's golden age and brought to life in a hand drawn style of animation reminiscent of The Curse of Monkey Island or Disney films. The Transylvanian developers (one of which is a regular poster in the GAF adventure games thread; Mr Underhill ) have gone to great lengths, jam packing each one of their over 60 hand-painted environments and 70 fully voiced characters, with the kind of care and attention to detail rarely seen in adventure games. It even has a special guest appearance from Doug Cockle, voice of the Witcher. Gibbous promises a lengthy adventure with moments of comedy but also a darker overarching mystery.

Things have been getting weird in Darkham lately. It's always been an unwelcoming, shady, place but recently a number of odd and mysterious cults have begun popping up all over. Whispers of the unholy book, The Necronomicon, are heard faintly. A detective named Don R. Ketype has been hunting down the evil book but unbeknownst to him librarian, Buzz Kerwan, finds it first. Buzz accidentally uses The Necronomicon to transform his pet cat, Kitteh, into a talking kitty with human intellect. A change that she doesn't take very kindly to.

Buzz Kerwan
Buzz is an unassuming librarian working off his student debt at the Miskatonic University Library. One day he finds The Necronomicon and accidentally transforms his pet into a talking cat.

Don R. Ketype
Don is a thoroughly grizzled, bad ass and hard-boiled detective. Hired by mysterious patrons to find the Necronomicon.

Kitteh
Kitteh is rather pissed about being unceremoniously yanked from the serenity of normal felinedom. Despite not caring for her newfound, human, concerns consisting of dark magic and spooky cults; she must deal with them to return to her normal state.

Gibbous is a classically styled but modern graphic adventure game. Inspired by the 90's LucasArts point & click titles. You will be exploring your way through various environments, examining your surroundings, collecting items, conversing with characters and solving puzzles. If you're familiar with titles like Monkey Island or Sam & Max, you know the drill, but what Stuck In Attic have done to stand apart is include an unprecedented level of detail. Not just in the fluid traditional animation, either. Most interactable items in the game have multiple unique "examine responses," every object in your inventory has a unique combination response. 70 voiced characters with over 12,000 lines of fully voiced dialogue. 4 hours of original music with live instruments. Over 60 hand-painted environments inspired by Transylvanian nature and architecture. It's that level of attention details large and small that will, hopefully, make Gibbous an absolute joy to play.

Softpedia - 8.5

Hands-down I have never played a game that was as funny as Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure, and I wholeheartedly recommended it as a treatment for chronic depression.
More so, despite being a game that is extremely story-centric, it doesn’t really lose any of the replay value once you finish it, since you’ll most likely replay it the way you watch a rerun of your favorite movie.

All in all, Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure is a game that no self-proclaimed point-and -click fan should overlook, as it will definitely find a place in your gaming library, comedy movie collection, and finally, your heart.

Power-Up Gaming - 9.2

I haven’t shouted, cheered, or laughed this much at a point and click adventure in a very, very long time.

Gibbous A Cthulhu Adventure is a game carefully and lovingly designed to evoke these reactions as often as possible, and it certainly achieved that in my case. If you’ve been hankering for an adventure with some LucasArts-esque humour, this is a must-play.

GameWatcher - 6.0

If we view Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure in the most “objective” terms, it technically gets things right. It looks stylish, it runs smoothly, and it doesn’t come with the bugs you’d expect from modern gaming. However, the details that make a game a hearty recommendation aren’t there.

Ragequit.gr - 9.0

Every fan of traditional point n click adventures must play and support Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure. A really solid and complete game, including humorous dialogues, smart (but not very difficult) puzzles and a unique cast of characters, with only drawback its relatively short duration.

Well Played - 9.0

Playing through Gibbous – A Cthulhu Adventure made me realise how much I miss this type of adventure game. It does a fantastic job of taking the world of Lovecraft and turning it into something unique and memorable, thanks to a gorgeous art style and well-written characters. If you’ve got a point-and-click itch that needs scratching, then Gibbous may be the remedy you’ve been waiting for.

Adventure Gamers - 3/5

Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure looks amazing and will make you laugh, but its inability to tell a coherent story prevents this comedy cosmic horror adventure from fulfilling its abundant potential.

JustAdventure - A

I enjoyed this game immensely. The ending did what endings are supposed to do, surprise you. This game will make a Lovecraft fan out of you. Hear me, you who worship The Great Old Ones, and heed me well: Play this game!

Cthulhu fhtagn!

GameSpew - 8.0

Forget about the Cthulhu in its title; you don’t need to be a fan of Lovecraft to enjoy this accomplished point and clicker. Gibbous – A Cthulhu Adventure will tickle your funny bones with its dialogue and won’t leave you flummoxed when faced with its puzzles. And because of that it’s fun from beginning to end. It isn’t groundbreaking in any way, but did anyone expect it to be? It’s just yet another very good entry into a genre that remains ever popular.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Nice OT, excited for the game since it's made by people from my country, which is rare to see, especially a point and click adventure.

 

[Mr Underhill]

Hey y'all! Thanks so much for the thread, we're just as excited as you guys. Two days to go!

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Hey y'all! Thanks so much for the thread, we're just as excited as you guys. Two days to go!

No problem, can't wait to get my hands on it. I hope it's a smooth launch and that the game's a big success.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

totally missed this OT thanks for posting. been looking forward to this game

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Got to play about an hour and 45 minutes or so before going out to dinner. I can already tell this is gonna be one hell of a game. The art and animation are fantastic and even early on there's been some great gags. Particularly at the very start with Don. Buzz's set up is a little light/off, for me, but once things get going, the back and forth dynamic between him and Kitteh is great. On the technical side everything is clean as a whistle, save for some lines of dialogue being noticeably louder than others. I'm already loving how many observational lines there are and little touches like the verb coin's eye closing once you've gone through them all are simple and smart.

Gonna jump in and play more real soon.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Completed the game. I'd say that Gibbous is a well worth playing for any fan of the genre. It does run into some stumbling blocks. Most notably, I'd say, is some muddled plotting that creeps up as the game introduces all it's mystery players and competing factions. Keeping track of them all, what they're doing and why, is a bit taxing. Especially when you spend much of the game tracking down these people who are just out of reach. A glimpse at who or what they are, here and there, would've gone a long way.

However, Gibbous does overcome these issues on the sheer strength of its charm and the main cast's likability. Along with the consistently solid puzzles and undeniably gorgeous art and it's an overall winning combination. The art feels like The Curse of Monkey Island brought into the HD era, and that's about the highest praise I could think to give. Some of the scenes that come later in the game (I'm specifically thinking of the return to fishmouth during the festival) will absolutely knock your socks off. Especially if you retain in the back of your head that this is all the effort of a 3 person studio. Crazy what they managed to pull off.

Buzz and Kitteh have a fun dynamic. There's a lot of snark, but it's the good kind, and Gibbous does a good job of making Kitteh useful for more than one liners by including her in various puzzle solutions. Don is probably my favorite character and the writers showed some adeptness in knowing when lean into the hard-boiled detective schtick and when to pull back and give Don some vulnerability. I do wish there were more moments of interaction between all three, and eventually all four, of the main characters. But, hey, that's what sequels are for.

There's a good variety of puzzles ranging from inventory puzzles, deciphering codes, manipulating the environment/machinery, dialogue puzzles,etc. All of which are well integrated into the plot. You never feel like the narrative was put on hold for padding or busy work. Save for a few examples the puzzles are none too challenging. But they're not brain dead either. Which makes Gibbous an easy recommend for someone looking to get their feet wet in adventures but could alienate some hardcore fans. Personally, I found them stimulating enough to be enjoyable and was never frustrated. That's a win in my book.

Overall, while Gibbous takes some hits, it managed to take them and stride and cross the finish line triumphantly. I could easily see Stuck In Attic taking all the lessons learned from this impressive first outing and making something even better with their next project. If you like adventure games, gorgeous 2D art and cat jokes Gibbous is an easy recommend.

 

[amigastar]

Never heard of this game but it looks definitely interesting.

 

[Fuz]

I haven't had the time to play it yet (I tried the other night, started it, climbed the stairs to the library and fell asleep on the keyboard ) but I want to say one little thing: I don't like the detective VA. I mean, he sounds like a good actor, but he's totally out of character and make the character not believable for me. They needed some older VA with a raspier, Bogart-ier voice.

Oh. Second little thing that I noticed in the demo - kinda offputting how it looks a little like flash animated graphics. I know it's not... but there's... something that gives me that feeling. Maybe it's how the colors are used and the world feels like it's made of flat cardboard figurines.

Sorry for the negativity, I'll give a better evaluation when I find the time to properly play it.

 

[Fuz]

So, I wanted to give full impressions once finished with it, but I'm not playing much these days (no much time and I play it only at night - and I always fall asleep on my keyboard pretty soon ) and it will take quite some time to finish it, so here's a few more impressions I've got so far (I'm only in fishmout):
- Animations are amazing. Seriously, this is top notch work here.
- Graphically great, fantastic style and use of colors - a bit on the dark side (of course, since the setting) which makes a little hard to see details sometimes. Characters are all pretty cool and interesting, but the main characters themselves are kinda... bland? Also, that mild "flash" feeling that I can't really pinpoint from where it comes. Reminds me a lot of Discworld 2.
- I love the zoom. It's a little thing, but it's pretty nice to have.
- Voiceover is hit & miss. Good things here, bad things there.
- Story is a bit preposterous, but it does its job nicely most of the time.
- Puzzles are super easy. I don't care too much, but if you're looking for a challenge you're gonna end disappointed.

One thing that really pisses me off: if you alt tab, the game switches to a different resolution (which covers part of the dialogue choices) and you can't change it again without exiting and loading the game again. And I alt tab A LOT in any game. So it's super frustrating for me and one of the reasons I'm playing it so slowly.

All in all- SO FAR it's a really greatP&C adventure, seems to be one of the very best of those years. They did an amazing job and it's super recommended.


Edit:

One thing that really pisses me off: if you alt tab, the game switches to a different resolution (which covers part of the dialogue choices) and you can't change it again without exiting and loading the game again. And I alt tab A LOT in any game. So it's super frustrating for me and one of the reasons I'm playing it so slowly.

Yeah, I don't think I'll be able to finish the game. I keep alt tabbing after some time, get frustrated when I go back into the game, alt+f4 and fuck it I'm doing something else. Major game breaking bug for me.

 

[Mr Underhill]

Hey. I've been hounding our programmer to fix this for a month now, the problem is that it only seems to happen to very few people and on seemingly random hardware; we're doing our best to sort it out. If you could give me a rundown of your hardware, or DM me, it'd be really appreciated. It's driving us nuts too, 'cause we just can't figure out why it's happening, what triggers it, and what hardware it's related to. Thanks !

 

[Fuz]

Well, just finished it. The story compelled me more than my OCD alt tabbing did

Oh wow, I wasn't expecting that ending. Loved the story and how the misteries progress, kept me glued to my PC. It's comedic in tone, but it's really Lovecraftian at its core, faithful and respectful of the source material. Yes, the puzzles are SUPER easy, but I don't really care much. And I'm still amazed at the insane quality and quantity of the animation.

It's a 9 from me. Absolutely loved it from start to finish, the only weak part is inside Vlad's castle, feels a bit rushed.

Need a sequel, BADLY.

 

[Kadayi]

Looks cool. I like a point and clicker. Purchased.

 

[A.Romero]

Didn't know about this game. Just got it on Steam.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Well, just finished it. The story compelled me more than my OCD alt tabbing did

Oh wow, I wasn't expecting that ending. Loved the story and how the misteries progress, kept me glued to my PC. It's comedic in tone, but it's really Lovecraftian at its core, faithful and respectful of the source material. Yes, the puzzles are SUPER easy, but I don't really care much. And I'm still amazed at the insane quality and quantity of the animation.

It's a 9 from me. Absolutely loved it from start to finish, the only weak part is inside Vlad's castle, feels a bit rushed.

Need a sequel, BADLY.

How did you feel about the book case pentagram puzzle and the secret language one? I felt like those were fairly challenging, although the bookcase pentagram one is more-so deceptively simple.

I hope the game does well enough to give Stuck In Attic another go at the series, for one because of the cliffhanger ending, but also because I can see the next game being even better. I think my favorite part of the game was the return to Fishmouth during the festival. Highest concentration of cool characters and funny moments. Also it just looked so damn good.

 

[Tesseract]

neat, i'll check it out!

 

[Fuz]

How did you feel about the book case pentagram puzzle and the secret language one? I felt like those were fairly challenging, although the bookcase pentagram one is more-so deceptively simple.

Both super easy if you just listen to the obvious clues. Those both had me thinking "Now, what the fuck is this?" but they clicked pretty fast.

I think my favorite part of the game was the return to Fishmouth during the festival. Highest concentration of cool characters and funny moments. Also it just looked so damn good.

Yeah, that's amazing. Those background animations are Disney cartoon level. I also really liked Transylvania except the castle, which seem really out of place with the whole game. Actually, if feels like a scene ripped from a different game and glued to Gibbous. Different storyline, different tone, different type of puzzles. Weird.