Lackluster.
The game is made to be an interactive film - playthroughs are independent of each other with an overall completion status at the end of each play through.
As enticing as it may seem to find out how many things there are to uncover (15 endings!) they all fall so flat.
The binary choices feel pointless. Sometimes reading an email affects a choice but it’s rare. It’s so uncommon for Loralyn to adapt to what your actions are. For example - you may be able to find a piece of information that you read and then recall it later to affect the story. But most of the actions don’t give you an option to use to your advantage. Many options aren’t straightforward with choices seemingly irrelevant to what ends up happening to the characters. It makes it hard to recall what you did in previous play throughs because the narrative just does what it wants.
This is far from being a decision based game and definitely falls in the realm of interactive movie. It’s definitely not thrilling or horror it’s got minimal suspense and some mystery and that’s about it.
So many missed opportunities of building up lore and narrative because the game relies on having a linear and independent play through. Unlike other FMV that allow you to uncover information out of sequence and build up longer narratives and character development this is just a snippet of content that doesn’t hit the spot.
I played several times to platinum but had to use a guide for the last couple since I just couldn’t remember what my choices were on past plays throughs - the most confusing one involving Jacqueline since she literally had the exact scene at least two other play throughs I had but the trophy is looking for something particular I was missing how to get.
While I mentioned your actions really don’t affect Loralyns ability in decision making (ie - recall a previous action) - most choices do affect what comes next. choices will affect if an email can be read or if a character calls you which is weirdly annoying to try to figure out how to get things to reappear or if you are trying to uncover all of the story ( which I say just don’t even bother).
It feels chaotic and maybe that’s the point to hide any linear / clear choices - it hinders a pit of the replay value. Unless you have time to write down the choices and branch them out or you have a phenomenal memory the game does little to promote a completionist play through.
Many trophies pop mid story so there’s really only a few ending you even need to uncover from an achievement perspective. I think I uncovered maybe 5 endings (you can only see this information at the end of your play through there’s no other way to see it). You can track things like documents uncovered and your relationship status with characters but it’s entirely dependent on your current play through with no ability to see what you had in any other prior game. I had 0 benefit of these features. I never used them I looked it maybe once or twice but really it all meant nothing to me.
I wouldn’t pay more than 4 bucks for the game - if you are looking for a simple platinum then it’s definitely possible to get in under 4 hours.
The game is made to be an interactive film - playthroughs are independent of each other with an overall completion status at the end of each play through.
As enticing as it may seem to find out how many things there are to uncover (15 endings!) they all fall so flat.
The binary choices feel pointless. Sometimes reading an email affects a choice but it’s rare. It’s so uncommon for Loralyn to adapt to what your actions are. For example - you may be able to find a piece of information that you read and then recall it later to affect the story. But most of the actions don’t give you an option to use to your advantage. Many options aren’t straightforward with choices seemingly irrelevant to what ends up happening to the characters. It makes it hard to recall what you did in previous play throughs because the narrative just does what it wants.
This is far from being a decision based game and definitely falls in the realm of interactive movie. It’s definitely not thrilling or horror it’s got minimal suspense and some mystery and that’s about it.
So many missed opportunities of building up lore and narrative because the game relies on having a linear and independent play through. Unlike other FMV that allow you to uncover information out of sequence and build up longer narratives and character development this is just a snippet of content that doesn’t hit the spot.
I played several times to platinum but had to use a guide for the last couple since I just couldn’t remember what my choices were on past plays throughs - the most confusing one involving Jacqueline since she literally had the exact scene at least two other play throughs I had but the trophy is looking for something particular I was missing how to get.
While I mentioned your actions really don’t affect Loralyns ability in decision making (ie - recall a previous action) - most choices do affect what comes next. choices will affect if an email can be read or if a character calls you which is weirdly annoying to try to figure out how to get things to reappear or if you are trying to uncover all of the story ( which I say just don’t even bother).
It feels chaotic and maybe that’s the point to hide any linear / clear choices - it hinders a pit of the replay value. Unless you have time to write down the choices and branch them out or you have a phenomenal memory the game does little to promote a completionist play through.
Many trophies pop mid story so there’s really only a few ending you even need to uncover from an achievement perspective. I think I uncovered maybe 5 endings (you can only see this information at the end of your play through there’s no other way to see it). You can track things like documents uncovered and your relationship status with characters but it’s entirely dependent on your current play through with no ability to see what you had in any other prior game. I had 0 benefit of these features. I never used them I looked it maybe once or twice but really it all meant nothing to me.
I wouldn’t pay more than 4 bucks for the game - if you are looking for a simple platinum then it’s definitely possible to get in under 4 hours.