This italian-made game is a well-crafted love letter to Amiga point & click adventures of the early 90s. Gorgeous retro visuals and music and reasonably accessible puzzles (though on occasion fairly illogical) make this a title worth playing.
Unfortunately the game falls prey to a number of pitfalls in the narrative department, namely an unhealthy amount of "member the 80s?!" nostalgia baiting (as an example, you spend the entire game with a useless Power Glove in your inventory), plus the entire cast of characters being composed of loathsome nihilistic assholes, completely unlikable as a result. So much so that when someone among them dies, you would be hard pressed to feel sorry for their fate, ironically much like the game doesn't seem to care.
There is some interesting commentary about overreliance on technology, alienation and conformism in its cyberpunk yarn, but it's hard to look past the jaded cynicism of the characters (who all narratively speak in the same voice) and their complete disregard for anyone around them.
One particular puzzle sees the protagonist hack a tattoo parlor machine in order to impress the wrong gang tattoo on someone's leg, which leads to the person to being gunned down in cold blood and the protagonist doesn't react to this in any way. That might have worked in a game where you play as a hardened criminal (i.e. Innocent Until Caught), but in one where you play as an average computer geek, such cavalier attitude towards procured death is narratively off kilter.
The cherry on top is the condescending manner in which the main character addreses the player. Spending ten minutes trying to combine items and hearing this dickbag tell you some variant of "are you dumb?" every time is beyond irritating, especially considering the moon logic nature of some of the late game puzzles, which is hardly the player's fault.
It's also overlong for an adventure game, throwing new section after the other at the player with the excuse of another detour to fetch yet another gizmo, when it was already time to wrap up a couple hours before. You might be tempted to breeze through the final chapters with a walkthrough just to get to the end, and save yourself a few hours of back and forth pixel hunting.
Well produced and mechanically solid but lackluster in areas that matter.
Unfortunately the game falls prey to a number of pitfalls in the narrative department, namely an unhealthy amount of "member the 80s?!" nostalgia baiting (as an example, you spend the entire game with a useless Power Glove in your inventory), plus the entire cast of characters being composed of loathsome nihilistic assholes, completely unlikable as a result. So much so that when someone among them dies, you would be hard pressed to feel sorry for their fate, ironically much like the game doesn't seem to care.
There is some interesting commentary about overreliance on technology, alienation and conformism in its cyberpunk yarn, but it's hard to look past the jaded cynicism of the characters (who all narratively speak in the same voice) and their complete disregard for anyone around them.
One particular puzzle sees the protagonist hack a tattoo parlor machine in order to impress the wrong gang tattoo on someone's leg, which leads to the person to being gunned down in cold blood and the protagonist doesn't react to this in any way. That might have worked in a game where you play as a hardened criminal (i.e. Innocent Until Caught), but in one where you play as an average computer geek, such cavalier attitude towards procured death is narratively off kilter.
The cherry on top is the condescending manner in which the main character addreses the player. Spending ten minutes trying to combine items and hearing this dickbag tell you some variant of "are you dumb?" every time is beyond irritating, especially considering the moon logic nature of some of the late game puzzles, which is hardly the player's fault.
It's also overlong for an adventure game, throwing new section after the other at the player with the excuse of another detour to fetch yet another gizmo, when it was already time to wrap up a couple hours before. You might be tempted to breeze through the final chapters with a walkthrough just to get to the end, and save yourself a few hours of back and forth pixel hunting.
Well produced and mechanically solid but lackluster in areas that matter.