I'm still a fan of this genre, even thought it's very hard to find an adventure game that's well done. I'll start off this thread (that's likely to die a quick death) with a review of the newly released:
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (spoiler free).
Indie
My last review of an indie developer adventure game was for Primordia. The expected scope for an indie game is usually small. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter's execution feels like a much larger game. Just ignore the indie title.
The Look
This is usually the first thing you hear about this game. The game uses 7+ gigs for textures, which is almost the entire size of the game. It looks like a painting and can get away showing overly lush environments because of the game type - first person adventure. Just search for screenshots; it's an Unreal engine game using very high res textures.
The Story
The story is told minimally; there's no filler. Dialog is sparse and to the point - good. Most adventures game drown the player with walls of dialog so the important stuff is hard to find. In this game, you experience the story instead of reading about it. This is probably the best executed part of the game and it's the reward for solving puzzles. There is reading in the game, but it's linked to major events and has an important context.
The Style
It's similar to Dear Esther, but it's an actual game. There's a lot of walking around and discovering, but it doesn't lack actual interaction with the game world.
Gameplay
The game begins with a message warning you it will not hold your hand. To do this successfully, the game better be damn intuitive. Some of the game's mechanics work this way. It's the first-person version of a point and click game, but it's far from traditional. Clicking on an items gives you a glimpse into the mind of your character. Labels and questions pop up and drift around an item, telling the player what the character is thinking about.
The lack of any hand-holding also works against the game. It lets you progress almost all the way through the gameworld without actually doing anything. There's almost no key-gate puzzles. So, there's no way to test if the player knows or understands the basic mechanics of the game. Discovery of how the game works is very hit-or-miss.
Time 'till Walkthrough
As mentioned in the Primorida review (linked above), you can gauge how well an adventure game works by how long it takes you to seek out help. After reaching the fifth puzzle, with only two of them solved, it was time to seek out a walkthrough. The cause was obtuse game mechanics that were discovered very early, but not understood.
The game isn't hard because of the puzzles. Once again, the Primorida review mentions the biggest problem in all adventure games: motivation. The "point to inspect" mechanic works very well and the motivation is clear: you and your Detective character have a desire to discover information. The visualization and sound cues of the mechanics are the only tools available for gathering information about how the game works. One of the earliest puzzles used a visualization that implied progress was being made. The motivation was to seek out similar items until the visualization shows 100% completion.
The hard-to-get mechanics don't conceptualize an idea very well, so there's no clear motivation. Without it, there's no reason not to move forward and expect items for a puzzle may be found much later in the game. Figuring out the mechanics will probably be the biggest stumbling block for most players and the source of much frustration. If you want to avoid the major walkthrough spoilers, here's some hints about the mechanics that are spoilerish:
Overall
The game does a damn good job of presenting a fantastical story where you feel like part of it.
Some of the game mechanics will make some people say "how the hell was I supposed to know that?". It's the only significant negative thing about the game.
The game can be finished in one or two sessions (4 hours), so the 20 dollar prices tag is OK, but 10 bucks feels like a better price.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (spoiler free).
Indie
My last review of an indie developer adventure game was for Primordia. The expected scope for an indie game is usually small. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter's execution feels like a much larger game. Just ignore the indie title.
The Look
This is usually the first thing you hear about this game. The game uses 7+ gigs for textures, which is almost the entire size of the game. It looks like a painting and can get away showing overly lush environments because of the game type - first person adventure. Just search for screenshots; it's an Unreal engine game using very high res textures.
The Story
The story is told minimally; there's no filler. Dialog is sparse and to the point - good. Most adventures game drown the player with walls of dialog so the important stuff is hard to find. In this game, you experience the story instead of reading about it. This is probably the best executed part of the game and it's the reward for solving puzzles. There is reading in the game, but it's linked to major events and has an important context.
The Style
It's similar to Dear Esther, but it's an actual game. There's a lot of walking around and discovering, but it doesn't lack actual interaction with the game world.
Gameplay
The game begins with a message warning you it will not hold your hand. To do this successfully, the game better be damn intuitive. Some of the game's mechanics work this way. It's the first-person version of a point and click game, but it's far from traditional. Clicking on an items gives you a glimpse into the mind of your character. Labels and questions pop up and drift around an item, telling the player what the character is thinking about.
The lack of any hand-holding also works against the game. It lets you progress almost all the way through the gameworld without actually doing anything. There's almost no key-gate puzzles. So, there's no way to test if the player knows or understands the basic mechanics of the game. Discovery of how the game works is very hit-or-miss.
Time 'till Walkthrough
As mentioned in the Primorida review (linked above), you can gauge how well an adventure game works by how long it takes you to seek out help. After reaching the fifth puzzle, with only two of them solved, it was time to seek out a walkthrough. The cause was obtuse game mechanics that were discovered very early, but not understood.
The game isn't hard because of the puzzles. Once again, the Primorida review mentions the biggest problem in all adventure games: motivation. The "point to inspect" mechanic works very well and the motivation is clear: you and your Detective character have a desire to discover information. The visualization and sound cues of the mechanics are the only tools available for gathering information about how the game works. One of the earliest puzzles used a visualization that implied progress was being made. The motivation was to seek out similar items until the visualization shows 100% completion.
The hard-to-get mechanics don't conceptualize an idea very well, so there's no clear motivation. Without it, there's no reason not to move forward and expect items for a puzzle may be found much later in the game. Figuring out the mechanics will probably be the biggest stumbling block for most players and the source of much frustration. If you want to avoid the major walkthrough spoilers, here's some hints about the mechanics that are spoilerish:
'Touch' - a gate that shows progress. 'Fix' - The detective doesn't just want to find clues, he wants to recreate the scene. 'Question??' - think radar, but don't walk.
Overall
The game does a damn good job of presenting a fantastical story where you feel like part of it.
Some of the game mechanics will make some people say "how the hell was I supposed to know that?". It's the only significant negative thing about the game.
The game can be finished in one or two sessions (4 hours), so the 20 dollar prices tag is OK, but 10 bucks feels like a better price.
