Recent reviews by rec

Cats… Robots… Obviously a must play.

The immediacy of poor voice acting and awkward animations was a terminal turn off for me, despite loving so much about the setting and general aesthetic. Looking forward to seeing how the team's production quality improves with future projects.

I’m only just getting around to playing this, a decade after its release. It’s a point-and-click masterpiece.

• Incredible art amidst captivating worlds
  
• Likeable characters and great character development
  
• Excellent dialogue writing and AAA quality voice acting
  
• Great story arc with a shockingly awesome twist to conclude Act 1
  
• Logical puzzles cleverly wound into context of narrative

I particularly love how the characters reactions and feedback to your interactions are clues unto themselves, gently nudging you in the direction of progress with action suggestion or affirmation of intent where that would be helpful. Broken Age does this better than anny other game in the genre that I can recall. In large, there’s ann absence of obtuse ‘moon logic’ in Broken Age, which is most welcome. With few exceptions, the game is devoid of frustration - solutions to problems typically make good sense.

Despite Act 2, the second half of the game, being notable weaker than the first, I’m delighted that adventure titles of this calibre are still being produced so long after the glory days of the 90s. Broken Age nudges close to Adventure Game royalty. While not quite achieving that status, for me it sits pretty close to the likes of Secret of Monkey Island, Broken Sword, and Blade Runner. In many ways, it is in fact a much better put together game than all of those. Incredibly thoughtful game design choices are abundantly apparent. And similarly to Monkey Island, it’s light hearted enough to play with kids, while still being thoroughly enjoyable for adults.

Here’s hoping we see even more modern point-and-click releases from Tim Schafer and Double Fine! 🤞

The mystery at hand, simple puzzles, and time travel mechanic was just enough to pull me through to the conclusion. I did like the environmental art, the audio, and the ambiance they created together. In the end however, it was unsatisfying to complete the story arc. Of particular disappointment, the voice acting of the protagonist was the weakest of the cast and really put a dampener on my immersion - repeated faux stuttering was enough to cause a grimace or two. It’s a 4/10 from me unfortunately, with countless point-and-click adventures I’d recommend you play instead.

As a point and click obsessive, I will say this is by far the best remastered classic adventure game that I’ve ever played. It is far better than the rework given to The Secret of Monkey Island, better than the rework given to LeChuck’s Revenge, and better than the rework of Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle as well.

As comparative examples, the reimagined art of Secret was a terrible misfire, and the remastered art of Tentacle and Throttle - while faithful to source - did nothing to elevate it.

Reforged on the other hand: wow. Faithful to source, yet improved beyond expectation. It is an absolute delight. The redrawn and recoloured scenes are simultaneously better than ever, yet also makes the game world feel as beautiful, detailed and compelling as I nostalgically remember the original to be, playing it on the PlayStation back in 1996.

The gameplay still stands up. A good point and click adventure can be a timeless experience perhaps more so than any other genre, and that is certainly true here. I’ve long said this is my #1 of its kind, and unlike so many other games I should have left in rose tinted memory, it’s a pleasure to be reliving this one in 2024.

A must buy. Reward the amazing effort put in by Revolution and play it now. Hopefully we see the sequel get the same treatment.

Edit: amazing on Steam Deck.

F*cking awesome.

I initially played for 20 minutes, then turned it off for two years. I didn't appreciate the art style or the modernised interaction method. I came back to it on Switch a couple weeks ago, and having now given it a real chance, I've kind of fallen in love. I grew to adore the stylised presentation, and thoroughly enjoyed the story. I've now played it through twice on Switch. Onto my third run now, this time on Steam.

For me, the new game order stands as 1. Secret, 2. Return, 3. Curse, 4. Revenge.

While I absolutely loved my replay of Monkey Island 1 as if it were a brand new pixel adventure a couple weeks ago, I didn't really enjoy my first-in-decades replay of LeChuck’s Revenge. I remember it much more fondly.

Puzzle solutions in LeChuck's Revenge are less logical than the first game (and less logical than most great adventure games), meaning more roll-of-dice, Hail Mary, trial-and-error is required. Far less rewarding than genuine, earned, eureka moments. And man, the inventory bloat is just a cheap mechanic for distraction.

Sadly this kind of makes sense. Ron Gilbert wanted it to have the capacity to be a 40 hour game… but making things unnecessarily obtuse is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ way to achieve that. Gilbert also says the original was the better structured game, which seems starkly evident to me personally.

The scanned in art in Revenge is also a bit sloppy in terms of implementation. Needed more refinement and tidying up for low its low res presentation (Secret of Monkey Island looks overall better, albeit less painterly). Revenge feels rushed and the developer commentary suggests as much.

TL;DR everyone should play the original Monkey Island again, in ScummVM, with the Ultimate Talkie mod and the crt-lottes-fast CRT filter.

Great game. I’m just sad I realised there’s an *unbeeped* DLC after almost finishing it.

Don’t play the Enhanced Edition. Play through the original version with a ScummVM CRT shader such as crt-mattias or crt-lottes-fast to relive the glory days. Even in 2024, Blade Runner is still an exceptional point-and-click adventure that is oozing with awesome sci-fi atmosphere. A must play for every Blade Runner and cyberpunk fan.

Edit: playing the original version via Steam doesn’t count your hours played and there are no achievements. You’ll have to play it for the sheer enjoyment of it, just like the good ol’ days!

This is one of the best adventure games I’ve played since the era of Monkey Island. The mature narrative and exceptional writing is like nothing I’ve experienced in the genre before. I adore the fact my character is not on screen. This is adventure top 5 calibre for me, up there with Beneath a Steel Sky and Broken Sword.