This review contains spoilers
A dark and enigmatic point & click, it's easily one of the most unique games I've ever played. Garage is not only aesthetically unique, it pretty much adds unique twists to everything it does, being easily one of the most complete games among the weird/surreal point & click subgenre.
For starters it uses a weird on rails movement that consumes fuel and so you must recharge and eventually upgrade to carry more fuel and last longer. You fish, get new parts, discover new places, even get new items for your house, while you explore a surreal landscape full of strange inhabitants and uncover its dark secrets. It may sound disconnected, but it works very well, being objectively one of the most interesting Director games.
As for the remake... well I am not a big fan of the remake. There are common complaints like it being made primarily for mobile and the infamous use of arial font. And the usual praises like the QoL improvements(which are indeed great) or the extra content and improved textures. About the improved textures, I gotta say I much prefer the grittier graphics of the original and the consistent 480p(which upscales great in my 23" monitor) instead of a weird mix of HD and low resolution assets(Moriwaki's fishing graphics look extremely ugly and out of place when playing on a big screen for example).
And about the new content... Well, the original has a great sense of pace, balancing the "tell" and "show" in a way it always leaves you wondering what will happen next. The remake additions sadly don't follow this scheme and go for a "tell tell tell". There is less space for ambiguity as the author makes sure the characters tell you all they have in their mind as the game forces you to visit then over and over again to progress.
Meanwhile the original never feels like it forces you to care about the characters, if you know what you are doing you can finish barely talking with some characters... there are no side quests or anything, the interactions follow a strictly utilitarian formula(the MC only does tasks that further his goals) for most of the game... and yet you end up caring about the characters and in the ending the choice of whether or not "end" their world has weight- the player slowly warms up to then and you can choose to keep the world going on for a bit longer to interact with then in the post game. In the remake there is no real choice whatsoever, it wants you to care and then it wants you to just cope with whatever you wife robot ends up doing like a fucking buffoon as the author decided it was a good idea to remove all player agency. You can't even threaten Medici with the noise box!
That being said there is a lot to like in the remake's new content too and Juice's route had great moments, just as discovering more lore was interesting.
For starters it uses a weird on rails movement that consumes fuel and so you must recharge and eventually upgrade to carry more fuel and last longer. You fish, get new parts, discover new places, even get new items for your house, while you explore a surreal landscape full of strange inhabitants and uncover its dark secrets. It may sound disconnected, but it works very well, being objectively one of the most interesting Director games.
As for the remake... well I am not a big fan of the remake. There are common complaints like it being made primarily for mobile and the infamous use of arial font. And the usual praises like the QoL improvements(which are indeed great) or the extra content and improved textures. About the improved textures, I gotta say I much prefer the grittier graphics of the original and the consistent 480p(which upscales great in my 23" monitor) instead of a weird mix of HD and low resolution assets(Moriwaki's fishing graphics look extremely ugly and out of place when playing on a big screen for example).
And about the new content... Well, the original has a great sense of pace, balancing the "tell" and "show" in a way it always leaves you wondering what will happen next. The remake additions sadly don't follow this scheme and go for a "tell tell tell". There is less space for ambiguity as the author makes sure the characters tell you all they have in their mind as the game forces you to visit then over and over again to progress.
Meanwhile the original never feels like it forces you to care about the characters, if you know what you are doing you can finish barely talking with some characters... there are no side quests or anything, the interactions follow a strictly utilitarian formula(the MC only does tasks that further his goals) for most of the game... and yet you end up caring about the characters and in the ending the choice of whether or not "end" their world has weight- the player slowly warms up to then and you can choose to keep the world going on for a bit longer to interact with then in the post game. In the remake there is no real choice whatsoever, it wants you to care and then it wants you to just cope with whatever you wife robot ends up doing like a fucking buffoon as the author decided it was a good idea to remove all player agency. You can't even threaten Medici with the noise box!
That being said there is a lot to like in the remake's new content too and Juice's route had great moments, just as discovering more lore was interesting.