Need some Codex advice

[Aenra]

Obligatory greetings!
[and an absent introduction since you wouldn't give a damn anyway;]

Came across the Bloodlust thread here, which lead me to its Steam page, which lead me to the "studio" itself.
Apparently, the current tile seems to be an exception, as the guy behind it had up to now self published adventure games?
http://www.lasthalfofdarkness.com/about.htm

The two adventure-related sites i semi-trust speak well of them, but as i do not torrent, i would like some Codex advice before buying them. Mostly interested in the 2000 onwards titles, but any critique/thoughts whatsoever you may have are obviously welcomed

I am not gonna make life harder for me by tagging said people in my very first post here, but would especially welcome Jaesun's, Ghostdog's and Sceptic's opinions.
Have fun and thanks for reading

 

[Sceptic]

Unfortunately I cannot help you. I was always interested in them but somehow never played any of the games.

 

[Jaesun]

Man I totally forgot about this.

Try the demos out and see what you think?

 

[Aenra]

yeah will do, just thought i'd ask first

thanks for your time btw, will come back to post some impressions later on

 

[Sceptic]

will come back to post some impressions later on

Please do! I'd love to hear more about the series, as I mentioned I've had some interest in it since the early 90s but never actally got around to playing it.

 

[Aenra]

Okay, no screenshots to share am afraid, not supported ingame, and native OS function just..who knows! No pics

My thoughts so far:

-to start with the graphics since i fail at basic functions, they are what you would expect from an Indie developer going at it solo. While "graphicz" wise i suppose they are subpar, they do mostly succeed in setting the tone just right, which is what is aesthetically the intent. Grim, dark, foreboding.
My first issue is that they are obviously rendered/made (what's the collocation?) for a much lower resolution than my 1920x1080. It really shows, and since the usual assortment of gfx/resolution tweaking options is entirely absent from the menu, you are stuck with the "stretching" effect. Bearable.
My second issue however is that while i comprehend the intent, the result varies, since rather than going for the abstract, he has chosen to go for detail and plenty of animations, both of which suffer from the Indiesque syndrome. Nothing to mentally visualise, too much of a low quality to cause alienation. Less would have been more

- Good enough sound effects, tight triggers, good durations, neither too long nor too short

- VO on the characters, again the expected quality. Personally not fussed, could see how someone else might view this differently

- No musical soundscore outside of the animations. At all. Really takes so much out of the package

- no side/scrolling puzzles (and Aenra rejoiced)

- logical puzzles, most of which thus far had been organically tied to the plot

- items can be picked up prior to their becoming essential for plot continuation. You can tell he knows what the flow is when things go well in adventure games, and how to formulate around one

- easy towards very easy puzzles [note one, subjective most obviously, note two, oldie in the genre]

- no difficulty slider

- a few (but glaring) plot holes

- mediocre (unless average sounds a touch better? Not my intent to offend the man) writing. He has a story, but if you've read your literature, the cliches, abrupt synapses and generalised pointers will tire you pretty fast

- from inventory management to mechanics to exits, pretty much standard fare, one should not get it in expectations of the new

- the above goes for 22,95$ boxed

Would i recommend purchasing it? No to be honest. Sadly.
Would i recommend it over episodic movies with no actual player input even though it costs more than them? Definitely