cratecruncher

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

"Brilliant", "Beautiful", "Incredible story" is all I heard about this game until I bought and actually played it. I rarely have a negative review of a game. But I had to say something to warn others from falling for the hype like I did. The game mechanic consists of reading a few paragraphs of story followed by some incredibly tedious timed jumping to retrieve pieces of jigsaw puzzles using awkward keyboard controls that can't be remapped. The problem is it's the same basic tedious timing puzzle over and over. I got bored with it within 30 minutes but soldiered on hoping for some variety that never materialized. I was really disappointed with this overhyped, overrated platformer. If you love the genre you've likely already played and love it (see first sentence). If you hate tedious, repetitive platforming games avoid Braid.

This game is an artistic gem. The entire city is a real model made from paper and other materials with the character animations superimposed. That sounds a bit hokey for a computer game but the execution is near perfect. The puzzles were clever and varied with an emphasis on logic rather than cartoon logic which can be frustrating in games of this genre. Overall, this was an excellent exploration puzzle adventure with an art style that is sublime. I finished it in about 6 hours which is a bit short so catch it on sale.

A fun little puzzle/platformer style game with some unique tools that help allow the player to reshape the environment. I played the game with a keyboard and mouse and had some trouble negotiating a few of the trickier jumps. The game is quite linear and you can't back-track so if you miss a secret too bad. Overall, it's a short, inexpensive but fun indie game to while away some free time.

Without question, the most beautiful game environment I have ever been in. The game has everything: great writing, touching story, interesting puzzles, tons of unique places to explore. My only knock is that just when it really started to rock it was over. This game is short! Others have mentioned they missed things or experienced them in the wrong order. I guess I was lucky but I just slowly worked over every inch of ground as I progressed through the valley. The story unfolds just as it should if it you explore that way.

I really like this game because the physical puzzles looked like fun. I was surprised how solid the game play is in this game. The puzzles get progressively more complex adding new elements to the mix. It is very easy to experiment with an alternative approach and then reset the puzzle with no penalty. so you are encouraged to try creative approaches. If you feel stuck there is a hint system available to help just enough without conveying the solution. Overall, I call this a great 2d puzzle game. I took off a point because the beginning puzzles felt too easy.

Pillars is a long game with dozens of side quests, dungeons, interesting companion characters, and a unique story. It took me 160 hours to complete the game on my first playthrough. Great game in the traditional Baldurs Gate Infinity Engine mold. Only better because there isn't so much "grindy" map clearing like those old games.

I picked this up in a GOG sale because I heard it was supposed to be really controversial back in the '90s. I was surprised it turned out to be a really entertaining point and click adventure game with interesting story and characters, solid puzzles based on logic, and bug free for such an old game. The end involves some combat which is pretty clunky but the creepy story kept me in the dark until the very end. It tries not to take itself to seriously either. This is a very fun 10 hours if you like edgy adventure games.

I recently played Sanitarium for the first time and found it had interesting environments and logical puzzles to solve. The game is getting old so don't expect cutting-edge graphics but they still hold up in 2015. I've not played a lot of classic "point-n-click" adventure games so was relieved to find most all of the tasks and puzzles pretty straight forward. I only got frustrated at one or two points in the entire game. The real joy for me however, was the variation in environments. Because the PC is "crazy" the writers dump him into increasingly bizarre situations, confronting increasingly bizarre NPC's. The overall story never really develops into anything spectacular but the ride is fun.

The Room is a fun little puzzle box game you can knock out in 2 to 4 hours depending on how much you rely on the hints system. I didn't use the hints and it took me less than 4 hours. The puzzles themselves are pretty basic so if you play a lot of puzzle games you might not find it that challenging. Catch it on sale and finish it off in one sitting.

I bought this game in a Steam sale thinking it might be like Portal or something. Portal it is not, lol. Qbeh-1 is a series of 36 different 3D mazes that are floating suspended in the upper atmosphere. Your job is to find your way to the end of each maze using increasingly specialized blocks to bypass obstructions. There is also at least one hidden secret in every maze which ramps the difficulty dramatically if you want to unlock everything. My play-through lasted about 40 hours according to Steam but I was taking it easy, often finishing each maze, then returning to find the secret later. If you like 3D puzzle games you'll surely like this one. I would have given it a 10 but there really isn't any story at all.

I bought the game on sale because I like rpg's, love Obsidian games, and because I'd heard it was funny. I'm not a Southpark devotee but appreciate how difficult it is to make a game truly funny. Cartman's quips are laugh-out-loud funny but much of the references are merely smile-worthy. I really felt like I was hanging with a bunch of potty-mouthed 12 year olds and I guess that really is the game. It's not really an rpg, more like an rpg spoof. Inventory has no weight, etc. But that being said, I really was looking forward to leveling up each time so I could start using more powerful weapons and armor. Overall, it's a fun 12 hour romp in the park for $10 but as I'm not really into Southpark, I wouldn't pay more for the game.

I recently spent 135 hours on my first play through so I obviously enjoyed the game. It is truly the sequel to 1988's Wasteland game containing many of the same plot devices and situations. I fear many of the red votes here are from users that expected Fallout 2.5, not Wasteland 2. The bad: The attributes don't have much influence on the characters skills or abilities, enemy melee fighters can walk up to your toes on their first round, and the special dialog choices I was hoping for were just a one-line comment and some xp. The combat was fairly fun but I'm not big on combat anyway. I play crpg's for the plot twists and convoluted dialog trees so was very disappointed with the special dialog. The Good: There are some great conversations, and the inter-faction rivalries are quite clever if you take the time to screw people over and change alliances on the fly. The game has no good/bad morality, just shades of gray. I plan to play the game again making totally different choices just to see new content. Again, it's not Fallout! It doesn't have prone firing or aimed shots, you can't play as a loner or search for the G.e.c.k. either. Fallout is a great game but it is a different game. Besides, if Obsidian had made it any closer to Fallout canon Zenimax would have sued them and we'd never have gotten to play it.