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(Go buy it, it's 15% off as of this writing, but the best 15% off* you'll ever spend.)

The good:

- The game treats you like an adult - not like a kid from bumfuck nowhere who's never seen a computer before, and not like an Alzheimer's patient high on meth. Basically, it uncovered all adventure-game-related trauma I didn't know I had, promised it'll never hurt me, and then gloriously kept that promise. On occasion, I pre-cringed in anticipation of incoming stupidity, and the game never failed to do something awesome instead. If you've ever felt the pain of things like:
"I need a basic household item! Clearly, I must travel to the other side of the world";
"Oh noes, a morally gray character has a gun! Who will s/he shoot? Awww I can't bear the scalding hot TENSION!!!1!";
"Holy shit s/he works for an evil global corporation that employs ten milion people? S/he MUST BE EVIL",
this game extends its condolences.

- However, don't get the wrong idea: it doesn't do this "hur hur adventure games are stupid amirite? aren't we clever? aren't you clever? don't you feel good about giving us money?" thing. It's very secure and independent in its excellence.

- No stupid references, either narrative or textual, and no mangling of trademarks. If a character wants to say "this is like Star Wars" (or whatever), s/he just says so; the work in this case is a normal cultural touchstone. There are no jokes at the expense of other media, no contrived situations specifically made to mirror hackneyed plots, no beating the dead meat.
(The only exception to the "no mangling" rule is an offhand mention of a notoriously lolsuit-happy quack celebrity.)

- Characters behave like people; most of them are pleasant and realistically helpful to strangers. No one is being a cringeworthy asshole for the sake of a dumb puzzle.

- Characters talk like people, too. Awesome writing, voice acting, translation. (Now, I can't German, so it's possible something got lost in translation, but it never felt like anything was missing. It could've passed for a US-made game if the US were any good at making adventure games. *sunglasses*)
(Note: this applies to the English version, which also has full VA. FIS is text-only, and might be bad for all I know.)

- Smooth and fast walking. You can't adjust the speed, but trust me, it's perfect. Not a snail's crawl, not yakety sax. It's amazing how much walking speed and animation matter for characterization and immersion.
There's fast travel via the map, too.

- Sexy title drop.

- That lady has a bike!

The bad:

- There are occasional close-ups during cutscenes, and for some reason the game just blows up the regular sprites, compression artefacts and all. Why. (Yes, I played on the highest settings.)

- In a couple cutscenes, the game lost track of my character's position, and the speech bubble was coming from the side of the screen.

(yes, that's it)

The YMMV:

- Hotspot assist. Some creators pride themselves on not needing to implement assist for the game to be playable, but if the game is neither a pixelfest nor a hidden object game, this ain't gonna fly.

- Every chapter begins with a standalone puzzle that's meant to convey computer hacking. Plot-wise, someone is indeed hacking into something, and in the narrative it serves to mark a chapter break and enhance the cliffhanger. I liked them. You might not.

- One particular puzzle has to explicitly reference an earlier scene in the game to prevent it from being unwinnable and to not break the contract with the player that keeping track of details like these would never be necessary. Sure, having the player be stuck there would be very gamey and idiotic on part of the other characters (who were interested in him succeeding and could provide help at any time), but I couldn't help but feel I didn't really earn the solution: it could've been a better puzzle in a worse game.

clicky clicky

*yup, that's a regional pricing joke.
Post edited July 28, 2018 by Starmaker