by Simon » Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:01 am
Ok, I've been playing with the demo and I'm stuck :p
I'm in the first house with a locked door, a desk with a lamp and 3 books, and on the left another room with a stepladder, paintings and shelves.
I found the word which explains how to open the door, I took the key I found in the trash can, and got also the pliers on the shelf.
I then used the key on the door mecanism, it worked correctly and put back the rotative arrow to the top.
Then the judge says he needs something to insert in the holes so he can rotate the mecanism. I've tried the pliers many many times. I also have some soap which doesn't seem very helpful here.
I've tried clicking everywhere in these 2 rooms and didn't find the way to go further...
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First impressions on your game. I'll be honest, and I hope I won't seem too harsh.
The overall is good, I like the direction and how the story takes place. The voices are a good surprise and fit well to the game, even if they're not always very persuasive. But that's an excellent thing to have voices, and it makes the game more immersive. The scenario seems serious and well thought, and the mystery around the murders made me want to continue the game (until I was stuck...)
Overall : good.
The audio is very good, I really felt the oppression in the opening scene, then the panic while escaping from jail. Both the sfx and the music are well chosen. There's a sfx I didn't like (the one when a new object is added to your inventory) : it reminds me of a windows sound or something I already heard somewhere...
Audio : very good.
Graphisms are effective, I feel there was a lot of work on them. The environments are as glaucous as we expect them to be in this game, and I liked. The colors are well chosen too, and I didn't feel amateurism in this part. All I could say is that the environments are a bit empty.
On the contrary, I'm mitigate about one of the characters. The policeman in the opening scene seems unreal, like frozen. I don't know how to describe him... I think his posture is too straight. But that's a detail. I really liked the way some mysterious characters appeared : the one which gives us the key to exit the jail, and the mysterious shadow talking to us before the second murder. This is exciting, because it works well with the story !
Graphisms : good.
I'll end with the gameplay. This is somehow what gave me most problems. There are a lot of good ideas (the letters being kept in the documents near the inventory), but sometimes you don't really know where to click. I think it's often a problem of cursor : when I see a down arrow, I think the camera will watch downstairs, but in fact it brings the hero a few steps backwards.
Also, I don't always understand your choice of placement of the hotspots. And one thing that really annoyed me is that you can't go back on your steps most of the time. I understand it's due to the urgency of the judge's situation, but it's a bit frustrating sometimes. Example : when you get out of the jail, you have to open a big door with 4 (or 5 ?) locks. But when you're in front of the door, you cannot go back on your steps to watch the desk which was on your right. You can't even go back in your jail. Same thing when you're in the street : I cliked immediately in the left path (which continued the story with the 2nd murder), but I couldn't go back to examine the police car I saw quickly before I clicked on the left alley.
Well, that's somehow logic for the judge to go fast (who would like to go back in jail ?) but we're in an adventure game, and you never know if you didn't forget a new object to add to your inventory... The player needs liberty in this kind of game, I think...
Gameplay : a few problems to solve.
To conclude, I'd say this is an interesting game. I couldn't go very far as I'm stuck, but I enjoyed the play. There was a lot of work to make this game, I can feel it, and I must congratulate you for your motivation. If only you could solve the small gameplay problems ! I encourage you to keep the good work and continue to make this kind of games !