Recent reviews by Fidel.Casserole

The short version: Like Dear Esther but with puzzles.

The long version: While it shares a few comparisons with Dear Esther in terms of plot and setting--male protagonist wandering alone on a dreary-but-hauntingly-beautiful island--I'd have to say that Montague's Mount is by far the more disturbing of the two. You are likely to figure out what's going on halfway through, but uncovering the manner in which those things occurred still manages to keep the final reveal from feeling anticlimactic.

The inclusion of puzzles obviously sets it apart from DE, and while some of them stumped me for a little while (the Compass Puzzle comes to mind), they didn't inspire an urge to rage quit. I have to admit, I was a little put off by how slow the character was, especially when certain puzzles required retracing my steps. Still, the game establishes the need for limited movement from the very beginning; as a storyteller myself, I do appreciate that foundation even if the gamer in me occasionally kept pressing left shift in hopes the narrator would move that walking stick just a little bit faster!

By far, the best part of this entire game is the voice acting. As an American, I'm in no position to comment on the quality of the accent, but he definitely managed to put genuine emotion where it was needed. I felt for him when he began to despair. I felt his frustrations with his marriage. The reading of the last letter also helped the ending from falling too flat. The music in this game was also very lovely and added to the mood of the game.

(That said, I wasn't entirely keen on the occasional popping up of quotes, even if they were relevant to one of the game's main themes. It kind of interrupted the immersive atmosphere that otherwise existed.)

Speaking of the ending... I was expecting to continue on to the eponymous Mount after that last narration, only to wind up at the title screen! Right now it feels too open-ended. Part of me does think it fits, considering what we learn of the character over the course of the game. Since I've only just finished it, I think I need more time to really turn it over to definitely decide whether or not I liked the ending.

Overall: It's worth playing through for the plot and voice acting. The music is appropriate and helps set the mood, the puzzles are an appropriate level of challenging, and if you liked Dear Esther--or just point-and-click adventures in general--you'll probably like this as well.

Have you ever seen The Grey? This game is a lot like that, except you're not Liam Neeson and the wolves are way more visible and way more interested in attacking you on sight rather than toying with you.

In all seriousness, this game is gorgeous to look at, and you definitely feel the pressure of trying to survive in the bitter cold. The result is a two-pronged reason to fully explore every nook and cranny of the environment. I will admit, the repeated house interiors are kind of boring after a while, but if anything that should encourage more outdoor exploration (and since I'm writing this while the game is still in Early Access, don't hold the sameness against it).

Definitely can't wait for the story mode to be released, and I'm hoping that after the main story gets launched that (because a girl can dream) maybe the devs will consider doing DLCs with additional stories with different survivor protagonists further down the road. There's so much potential here!

Just finished playing this for my gaming channel. The graphics are eye-poppingly lovely and the banter between Vinnie and Anthony is pretty amusing at times. Wasn't too thrilled with the platforming sections (and I now understand why first-person platforming is the enemy of many a let's player) but they aren't so bad as to keep me from finishing. Apparently there are two possible paths, offering some replayability, but I'm personally not sure if I'll play it again to see how they're different. Maybe later on after I've spent some time away from it. The ending I did get was definitely an unexpected one, though.