Seneste anmeldelser af Happiness Officer

If you're a fan of the original Broken Sword, then, as you can probably tell from the other reviews... This is, by and large, a safe bet for a great game

As a newcomer though... I'm not entirely bowled over

Done right, point-and-click can be brilliant. Certainly, the start of the game is very engaging. You're exploring places for useful / hidden items and trying to work out how to piece them all together. It's not long before you're given some challenging but great puzzles to solve too (the door lock and the decryption of the letter) - The characters are also quickly likeable, and George's charm in fumbling around Paris is certainly endearing. The game also packs a lot more humour than you'd expect - And I confess I garnered probably too much amusement from showing people soiled tissues, drain-openers and desperately trying to make them shake my hand

So why the thumbs down?

After the quick-draw of puzzles at the start, they almost seemed to dry up. The 'thinking' puzzles largely became talking to people in the correct order or showing them a certain item to trigger an event... which then required you to talk to yet more people. Whilst the reactions were fresh and entertaining to begin with, I admit I started getting impatient half way through the game and sometimes skipped through the unimportant dialogue or George telling me the item was not suitable - my heart sank a bit when I walked into a pub of about 5-6 characters... all to talk to, all with around 6-8 potential dialgues (based upon the item I show them). It started becoming a lot of sitting around and wasn't massaging my cerebral matter very much

Your actions also don't really seem to amount to much. You have a few 'options' in dialogue, but where they seem to garner the same results, it felt a bit pointless. You can't exactly seem to do things "wrong", and it's sometimes just trial and error (and clicking) until you find the right one. In effect, you find you're not quite exploring the game, but just fumbling around until you can find the plot trail it ultimately had prepared for you. It basically started feeling like less of a game and more that I was slowly clicking my way through a film

It was engaging enough to see me through to the end, for sure - though a tad anti-climactic. The graphics were delightful (nicely remastered without too many elements where the old pixellated style was evident) and voice acting great... but it just didn't do it for me

Kid finds the Bastion on Steam sale...

It welcomes him with a familiar, yet fresh style. Its landscapes like an oil painting, its soundtrack envelopes the world beautifully and animations are elegantly sleek. Certainly a strong argument that games can themselves be a work of art

Hack n slash... kid's seen it before. But not like this. Elegant combat mechanics and a hearty arsenal that continues to grow throughout the game - each with their own distinct niche and style. Hard to comment on balance... kid seemed to believe that some were stronger than others, but friends found otherwise. Certainly reassuring to see each weapon come with its own learning curve of sorts. But kid can only pick two... that and the shield on his back. Game's not that cruel though... kid can change loadouts, and even change the upgrades themselves for free - allowing the full enjoyment of exploring different combinations to suit their style without punishing the decisions. Certainly more forgiving... than the calamity...

About that... this story ain't anything new. It doesn't twist and turn, but is elegantly spun with nothing more than the guiding sound of a rustic narrator to weave the story together as the world itself continually weaves beneath the kid's feet. Every now and then the plot will be augmented with a single, simple, yet beautiful drawing

Black potions also help the kid to... swing things in his favour in a pinch. A single special ability. Balance is definitely more questionable here. Use the Calamity Cannon multi-shot ability and come tell me the other ones match it. Passive bonuses from the distillery (and my... special stash) futher enrich the level of customisability and allow the kid to really carve the game in his style

Sure the kid's seen games like this before. But what it does, it does to near perfection. It burrowed into the kid's library and found a special place in its heart

I guess you could say it found the Bastion

Ow... my head...

Do not mistake this game for a Portal remake. It's less about learning the rules and how to apply them... but more about discovering how the creators can well and truly bend the rules to screw with you. In fact, where Portal sometimes suffered with 'puzzles' coming down to how quickly you could react / move - 99% of Anti-Chamber comes down to purely trying to out-think it. The puzzles are divine and the steady inclusion of increasingly-versatile matter guns keep the challenges and dynamics fresh

For the most part, the balance is struck just right: That frustrating mind-ache as you get completely stumped, followed by that invigorating moment when you finally crack it. There's no tutorial, which creates a nice quirk where you're forced to explore, look around and touch things - doing God-knows-what to try to make sense of what is and isn't possible. You can't help but smile weakly as it feels like the puzzles are mocking you in the background... revenge for all those times you laughed as your less-gamer siblings tried to play your games and hopelessly failed. It's surreal but so enjoyable

There's no 'plot' per se... but you are guided around by some very simple, yet beautiful, chalk drawings. They're charming, sometimes quite funny and really add a warm touch to an otherwise sterile environment

Who needs cake...

You might like if: You loved the original Amnesia and want more, but do not mind a weaker plot and the loss of limited light sources or puzzles.

The spiritual successor to Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but not quite of the same calibre.

I'm undecided about 'A Machine for Pigs' - It's certainly got the Amnesia style and it's a pleasing change to see it taken to a more 'Industrial Revolution' style setting, than attempt to recycle the original. The smart, yet empty, house and the networks of industrial machinery are unpleasantly eerie and set the tone nicely. Crackling radios, the creaking of valves in the distance and the solitary ring of an isolated telephone... certainly a well-crafted environment.

The problem, however, is that a large portion of what made the original scary has been removed. The tinderboxes/lamp are replaced by a lantern with unlimited fuel. Whilst the new mechanic does get used to good effect on a few occasions - There's no longer any dread, no longer any fear and rationing. You don't lose sanity, so the darkness is more an inconvenience than a threat now. The only fear now is what you're likely to stumble upon, which isn't quite sufficient to carry the game on its own. Unnerving, yes - but lacks the same intensity and immediate danger.

The puzzles / environment interactions have also been largely stripped from the game. Whilst I appreciate looking in your inventory and collecting items might detract from the plot: It wasn't an issue before, so seems odd to remove it now. You're left with a more linear path and just having to throw switches / carry objects from A to B.

Truth be told, the main appeal seems to be the story... but that too, has taken a kicking. It feels reminiscent of those films where you're shouting "don't open the door you idiot!" You're being lured deeper into a nightmarish factory by a weird voice who keeps ringing your phone to go "Hurry. You must come quick, it's your kids..." and the schmuck of a protagonist going "Sounds legit. Shall I come unarmed and unaccompanied?"

It works as a horror, but not much as a thriller. It's still fun to play, but it lacks the same exciting tension as before.

You might like if: You crave a thriller that psyches you out, as opposed to resorting to cheap horror tropes that set out more to disturb or disgust.

I've had 3 Amnesia-related nightmares (no really) and spent the first night after playing it looking at my cupboard, bracing myself to run into it if my bedroom door started getting kicked in.

And yet I still come back for more.

The horror genre is currently saturated with remakes of loud noises and things jumping out at you to rip off your head and eat it in front of you. It's frustrating and is more like developers just trying to repulse and upset you, than actually create a terrifying yet exciting experience. But this is what Amnesia does beautifully: It psyches you out. It doesn't milk the "hey, you've opened a door - Let's have 50 spiders jump at your face" but just drip-feeds uneasiness with a brilliantly cultivated environment to the extent that you're jumping at your own shadow and freezing when you hear creaks of floorboards...

The tension just mounts further as you have no weapons and must make do with limited sources of light (lest your sanity crumble). Nothing exacerbated the sense of dread more than sheltering by a single candle in winding labyrinth of pitch black corridors and rooms - with nothing more than 2 tinderboxes and a drop of oil.

The story is also superb, even if you don't get scared by the game. You wake up with no memory and a hand-written note from yourself... and that's it. As you progress and find more scattrered notes, diary entries and flashbacks - you unearth the dark stories of what's occurring. It's grim in places, but tastefully done and drives the story well.

2 people playing, taking in turns, tends to get the best result. Good scares but a lot of laughs.

Kill the lights, turn up the sound... get stuck in.