Recent reviews by DocCovington

I will try to keep this short… as short as the playtime of this game.

1. Are you wondering why this game doesn’t sport any achievements? That’s because there is nothing to achieve. This game is a pure walking simulator ornate with florid narrations. If you want to have a beautiful read, go grab a classic novel or some poetry instead. The writing here is cheesy beyond compare. See #6 for more on this.
   
   
2. Speaking of walking, that is pretty much all you can do in this game. No running (unless you tweak the userconfig.cfg), just creeping along, slowly. The game does all the thinking for you (when to jump, when to turn on the flashlight). There is as much interaction required on your part as there is in making the wind blow.
   
   
3. General movement: limited and painful. Not just because of the snail’s speed, but more so due to the fact that you can’t climb at spots that look easily reachable and explorable, you can’t even swim (on an island that features a lot of water, naturally). Whenever you attempt the latter, you are tortured by painful sounds and flashes of the same images repeating until you feel your head is going to explode. After reading various reviews, I realized I missed out on some more or less important "story" details, merely because I was busy being frustrated at my surroundings and how one cannot "conquer" them.
   
   
4. Sound volume. This game’s options menu reads like a slimfast diet. This is especially annoying when it comes to sound adjustment. You can’t regulate the volume of speech, environmental sounds and music separately, so whenever the narrator talks the string quartet or piano is giving you yet another headache while you are trying to make out his babbling (if it wasn’t for the close captions, it would have been even more painful to follow the monotonous voice guiding you through the emptiness of this place).
   
   
5. Soundtrack: nothing special, don't waste your money on it.
   
   
6. Story. What story? I understand that this is not a regular game but supposed to be an "experience", a narration that is "pulling you in" - unfortunately it does nothing for me. I don't play computer games for this purpose, I can read a book instead. When I play a game I expect to get involved (through exploration, interaction and deduction). This game did not evoke the slightest feeling in me, no compassion or curiosity, except maybe impatience fueled by boredom. I was glad when it was over, then I requested a refund (why this game is still not available at a discount is beyond me).

If you would like to experience a good game of the genre, you have to check out The Vanishing of Ethan Carter: http://sp.zhabite.com/steamstore/app/258520/ - Now there is a brilliant game that will touch you deeply, move you to tears, excite you, and creep you out, all at the same time.

The hitbox issue has finally been resolved in CS2!

Unfortunately, that is the only positive thing I can say about the forced "upgrade" from CS:GO to CS2.

The graphics are awful, and the UI design has the charme of a kindergarden playground.

There are a few things that are almost ruining the game for me:

1. You can't jump, which is ridiculous with all the obstacles and the junk lying around.
2. Invisible walls, further limiting your movement.
3. Very slow running speed (snore).
4. You can't save at any given time, which can be quite annoying in certain RL situations.

Apart from that, there hasn't been another well programmed Alien game before that captures the tense atmosphere and suspense of the first two movies as authentically as this one does.

I haven't played through the whole game yet, but I am looking forward to the Ellen Ripley DLC.

Sometimes, photo-realistic images are not desireable for a game. One of those cases are HO games. It makes it a bit painful to work through the puzzles when you can't get a clear ímage of the item due to shadows and certain lighting.

Apart from that, this game has a tense atmosphere. The soundtrack tried to increase the tension but fails at times due to repetitiveness and annoyance.

The clicking mechanics are so-so, if you want to have perfection to compare this to play Enigmatis 3 or Fairy Tale Mysteries 2.

This game is nothing like its great successor TSO3: Ancient Times. Awful voice acting, truly terrible! Also, some of the sound effects (especially of the constantly recharging hourglass at each screen) are extremely annoying. The steps you need to take to get to a certain point make very little sense. Overall, this game seems to have been made for 10-year olds, intellectually (storyline etc.) and in regard of its level of difficulty.

I can only recommend the game on a discount price.

Loved it! Made up in every aspect for the boring second part of this trilogy. :) A must-have HO game.

P.S. Great soundtrack, too. It is obvious that Artifex Mundi's best artists have worked on this game.

I can recommend it as a HO game. As for the story, however, I must say that I have rarely been this bored with an Artifex Mundi production.

I have not played a HO game this bad before...

Boring through and through, predictable villains, the ending was truly shocking (for its comical 1999 animations as much as for its extremely bad story-telling), worst voice-acting ever, annoying soundtrack, and the HO scenes made as much sense as a cooler in the arctic.

Did I mention this game has no achievements either, making it even less appealing to finish it?

Also, the fonts used looked like a child picked them; especially the handwritten looked very fake (I have this font installed myself, you need to reduce the kerning to make it look like actual handwriting).

The biggest crime committed in this game was the game itself. I often found myself pausing to check my e-mail or surf the net rather than focus on this game.

Edit: The only positive thing I have to report are the still graphics, all images are crisp and clear and well-drawn.

It's been a year since I first played this game and I am still in love with it. Unlike any other game, this stunningly unique piece of art will have you in awe. Beautiful graphics, simple controls, a tense atmosphere and, most importantly, an emotionally and psychologically engulfing story -- absolutely worth your time. Goosebump guarantee!

And without spoiling too much, I would like to have a quick word with those of you who claim that the ending makes "any analysis of lines of dialogue, narrative, and story telling null and void": You obviously don't understand much about human psychology. Everything you experienced in the course of the story does matter. It is a display of human relationships and emotions, of pain and abuse, of how a child feels under certain circumstances within the boundaries of their family and expresses their feelings and finds a way to vent in order to escape said pain. Ultimately, the tragedy unfolding before your eyes explains everything you saw, heard and felt prior during the course of the story. The mystery part is just a nice bonus to it all. If you aren't capable of understanding nor feeling that, then you must be quite an unempathic human being and this game is not meant for you.

For the game itself, read my basic game review. As for the CE content (which was included in my bundle for free when I bought it one and a half years ago), totally worth it. <3

This game is a joke, and a bad one for that matter.

First of all, it is not the full version -- parts of the story as well as the character animations are missing. What was Valve thinking adopting this version of the title for Steam? *facepalm*

I played the prequels on PlayStation 1 and couldn't wait to finally play part 3 on PC, but this? Nope, don't buy it, you'll only regret it.