Seneste anmeldelser af makka

It's okay, I think a younger audience will enjoy it quite a lot. I didn't like the ring-game runner, but I understand it's a game featuring sonic. I just wish you could skip all of them up until the final boss. Sonic doesn't actually die, but I'm glad this game's plot does not follow some cliche trope. I was sort of expecting some Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express kind of ordeal, but thankfully it's not like that. The dialogue and the story elements are fun enough and fits the sonic universe.

This is more of a visual novel than a point and click or who-done-it. Most the time you are given two to three options, and the answer is obvious. I figured out every solution at the same moment the problem was presented, they are all immediately obvious without any sense of subtlety. I figured out who the murderer was almost immediately, mostly since he was acting unusual and his alibi didn't hold up. I figured out the "twist" of the story well ahead of time too. Again, the game isn't subtle at all, and I assume that is very intentional as this would be an excellent beginner's point & click.

It's only three chapters, however they are all a bit on the lengthier and more difficult side. It's not as tight of storyline as the main campaign either, and also the puzzles aren't as integrated into the story where you can come to the same conclusion from multiple perspectives. That was my favorite part of the main game, that I could revisit chapters and find multiple paths to nearly all the solutions. Remnants of that idea are still here, and while I never required a hint, I was still not really satisfied with the solution even after solving it and revisiting all the clues in the chapters.

The first two chapters are the strongest, especially the first one. The third one is... underwhelming. There's not a lot of hints, and, most disappointingly, it seems the entire plot is crammed into a single puzzle element of which you need to extract the entire conspiracy. You need to read quite deep into these diagrams and at that point it seemed to me just sort of guessing what it meant rather than coming to a satisfying conclusion from a collection of deductions. As well, the narrative it portrays doesn't fit the entire story together like the main campaign does. The main story had this magic of re-contextualizing nearly every previous chapter, and there's some of it here too but, again, I can't understate how much you have to unpack from 'educational pictures' at the end.

I'm still left with quite a few questions, & I don't feel like the puzzles satisfied every loose end like the main game does.

Even with all that said, I really like this game, and I really liked that it gave a backstory to the first chapter between Oberon and Albert which I was keenly interested in when I first finished the campaign. It's a solid DLC, and I really enjoyed the first two chapters. The issue I had with the third chapter I think ultimately comes down to not having the breadth of chapters to tell the story, instead cramming it down to a single small-sized chapter.

If you like quake strafe/bhop movement, get this game!

I enjoyed it, it's pretty simple and it gives a wide enough variety in the tavern design. However there are some things that come to mind that could have been part of the game.

The game doesn't really have enough complexity. It's a bit too sandboxy. You can cram patrons into very tight side-by-side cheap tables on cheap-ass benches, like some school cafeteria from hell, and given the limited space you kind of have to if you want to scale up your income. There are no mechanics to deter this, as patrons/waitresses can intersect/walk through each other, and the patrons really don't mind the tight space. Even royalty don't mind sitting in such crowded spaces on such uncomfortable benches. As a result the game is pretty easy.

Once you get far enough into the game, you will not really do anything during the day. There is no direct control over food quality, refills/restocks happen immediately (besides the adventuring part which is a bit shallow), there is no way to inspect customers (to get their impression on food quality, happiness, comfortable levels, etc, though those mechanics don't exist), there is no lasting impact on angry customers, you can't build anything without pausing the game, you can't eavesdrop on conversations, etc. I'm not saying all the mechanics need to exist but the game is a bit too simple as-is.

I wish instead of unlocking floors, you unlocked different tavern locations, with each region having different scope of customers, different tastes, different challenges, etc. This would also allow introducing new mechanics be much more natural. For example, the second tavern could introduce fires, the 'rare' tier of characters, parties, a second floor, more kitchen options, etc. Higher tiers would introduce gardens, hotel rooms, restrooms, royalty, etc. Right now it's a bit awkward as you end up decorating and designing your tavern only to get near the end of the game and have the 'bathroom' unlocked, which you can avoid without penalty, wait until you unlock a new floor to add, or redesign a part of your existing tavern to add. Either way if you add the bathroom then you risk angering your customers if they wait in line too long, and if you don't then they seem to hold their bladder all day without complaint. There is no benefit/requirement to adding a bathroom. Anyways owning multiple taverns would be a natural solution to adding new mechanics.

However in its current state its actually pretty enjoyable and fun for at least a few hours.

This game is a missed opportunity. I know I'm in the minority on this opinion, but I just can't grok this game.

I launch the game and in a few minutes I just have a sudden urge to exit. It's tedious just for the sake of being tedious. Artificially injected tedium, from everything to the enemies respawning, to the tedious level design and map objectives, and limited inventory and resources. Also, there are just such weird design choices like being damaged while within proximity of enemies even if they are not attacking, which is just absolutely janky and breaks immersion. Or when they constantly camp doors so you are just immediately screwed with unavoidable contact damage when you re-enter rooms. Which you will be doing **a lot**. I just don't want to play it. I've played SH2 and RE2, they weren't like this. I don't think it's trying to deviate from traditional horror gameplay elements, it just seems to go overboard with the tedious elements of those games.

On a side note, the performance is surprisingly poor and framerate can vary wildly depending on the current area.

does not work on proton

I enjoyed the game. It's first and foremost a puzzle game. There are elements of horror, but there are no jumpscares, no being chased down by monsters, no combat, etc. The puzzles are mostly fair, however as they are so vague it is easy to confidently come to incorrect solutions.

I have an issue with the graphics. I'm fine with low resolution textures, low triangle count models, etc, but this game takes it a bit too far with its shader effects. Affine texture mapping (undoing perspective-correct interpolation) and the low-resolution vertex origin ('vertex shake') in particular is not pretty. Thankfully you can turn these off, though there seems to be an inconvenient bug where the options are not remembered after reset. Some uncontrollable stuff is still a bit too far, like the dithering shader, cracks in geometry, and some lighting issues (some bits of geometry will seem highly reflective).

The story isn't particularly interesting. The characters don't seem well fit into the story as I'd have liked to see, and they all seem pretty flat. I wish they chimed in more often, as they all seem to just stand around doing absolutely nothing as you run off to solve everything single-handedly. Even Torres who is around the entire story, and has a lot to say at the start, will also go radio silent. I feel like this would help a lot with some puzzles that are a bit too vague. This could also provide incentive to players to save everyone. There is something to be said, that of the characters that are ostracized or villianized (William, Charles to some extent) by others (Ruth, Torres), ironically, they all equally contribute nothing to their escape. Even Kai is absolutely pointless, both for the story (being 'selected' randomly out of desperation/convenience), & for the nearby characters.

I'll leave spoilers here to unpack the story. Basically, the ending is rushed, butchers the characters even further into uselessness, and fails to explain the context and situation of Tartarus and the plot.

There are two 'good' endings, one being the 'true' ending. However there is a blatant plot-hole in that Alex travels back to the past to help herself solve puzzles. This only happens in the true ending, making it impossible for her to perform the same feats in the 'good' ending. Just seems like a complete oversight, and, to be honest, rather unnecessary in most instances if she instead Torres had been a bit proactive. I don't know, I guess it just seems a bit silly to rely on this 'travel to the past to save myself' trope when there exists a character that could have filled the role, though I suppose it helps amplify the horror.

As well, the aftermath statements of all characters remain either identical or nearly identical regardless of the ending, which is just a bit disappointing to the pointlessness of Alex's sacrifice to those around her. Alex doesn't undergo much of a change in her character either, making the sacrifice a bit flat and superfluous to cap off her non-existent arc. I guess, in general I don't like sacrifices that were unnecessary to the story. As well, Alex dying doesn't explain how Charles was able to become a respected historian of the occult (whereas if she lives, he is ostracized from the community).

The introduction of the Demon thing was a bit random. The whole story and all the characters lead up to it, I suppose, but I think it would have been stronger and more satisfying to find the 'cult' itself and put a stop to them. Her randomly tackling a demon and expecting that alone to be enough to send it back into the portal just seems too rushed. In other games this would be the final puzzle where you concoct some solution that either works and you get the good ending, or fails and you get a bad ending. However, I suppose due to time constraints, it doesn't exist here.

I suppose I would have liked to see a 'good true' ending where, after solving some final puzzle and saving everyone, all the people you have helped would arrive to save Alex from being thrown into the portal. I just don't see how all five of them can decide to "wait" on Alex, then decide to leave and get 'more help.' It's just a bit insulting to these characters of how absolutely useless they are . This would also help explain how Charles can become a respected historian of the occult, and help lead to the arrests of the cult members, etc.

All this, and there really isn't much explanation as to what the point of the Demon is. Does he just eat people? Is he feeding off the misery of the failed? How does he collect the bodies? How did Tartarus form and what is their connection to the Demon? Is he providing them with 'power' and if so how? Why is the kidnapper being tortured at the end? Why is there such an elaborate plot involving an entire salaried team of people if the victims are just going to be killed anyway? What was the entity that kept opening doors, dropping items around, and making noises? Why is this entire team of people completely absent from the mansion basement (where presumably they watched)? What is the point of the cameras, who is controlling them, where are they watching from, and again, why is there such an elaborate plot if the goal is to just feed this Demon? This and more, probably easy to answer questions, but no real solid explanation

Lack of field of view settings makes this game very nauseating, as the field of view is far too low. Can't play the game for more than a few minutes. If this is addressed I will replay, but from the little I played I was forced to brew to specific recipes and this feels too railroaded for what essentially ought to be a simulator. The controls are very poor too and tasks that would be menial and straight-forward to do in real-life (like pouring/measuring ingredients) are abstracted behind very clunky and counter-intuitive controls. That you can only fast forward time in 1-day increments is pretty abysmal and unfun.

Poor port. Requires creating an account, registering with an email, etc. Just completely poor practice and unnecessary. I don't mind the graphics, but the 15 framerate is unbearable. Whatever is driving the audio could have been updated too since it seems to have hiccups on modern systems.

not a fan of the mechanics.