This review contains spoilers
A real diamond in the rough. The parts of this game that I love the most are when you're just walking around and talking to people, exploring the incredibly creative environments and learning more about the world. That probably takes up about 50% of this game. The other half consists of turn-based combat in the style of JRPGs and the obtuse puzzles of classic point-and-click adventure games. The combat isn't too bad, and can be pretty satisfying at times (especially the area-of-effect attacks that can damage whole groups of enemies at once). It really is the puzzles that absolutely bring down the game for me. They are designed in such a confusing and frustrating way, often requiring you to navigate from one side of the map to the other and picking up items that are barely visible. And the worst thing is that the puzzle solutions are usually pretty dry and don't incorporate any of the charm or humor of the main story (something done much
better in Telltale's Sam and Max games). I eventually had to give up and use a guide to finish parts of the game, but even then it was still difficult to follow. The puzzles ruin the pacing of an otherwise intriguing and epic story.
I ended up giving up very close to the end of the game because I got to a point where some of my characters couldn't progress due to being under-equipped, and I did not want to re-do a puzzle section that had proved extremely frustrating. I watched the ending cutscene on YouTube instead, which was well-done but since the game ends on a cliffhanger there isn't really any feeling of resolution.
So it's a testament to the world-building, characters and overall writing that I'm still glad that I played this game, even if parts of it made me want to tear my hair out. I've simply never played a game that had so much variety, that could contain so many creative and interesting ideas inside one package. I can only imagine what plans they had for the sequel, but this definitely could have been the start of something special. We definitely got a spiritual successor to this game in the Mass Effect trilogy, which I definitely vastly prefer to this game, but I definitely can imagine an alternate universe where Anachronox got its own trilogy and was able to continue the story of Sly Boots and his friends but with more streamlined gameplay and creative puzzles.
better in Telltale's Sam and Max games). I eventually had to give up and use a guide to finish parts of the game, but even then it was still difficult to follow. The puzzles ruin the pacing of an otherwise intriguing and epic story.
I ended up giving up very close to the end of the game because I got to a point where some of my characters couldn't progress due to being under-equipped, and I did not want to re-do a puzzle section that had proved extremely frustrating. I watched the ending cutscene on YouTube instead, which was well-done but since the game ends on a cliffhanger there isn't really any feeling of resolution.
So it's a testament to the world-building, characters and overall writing that I'm still glad that I played this game, even if parts of it made me want to tear my hair out. I've simply never played a game that had so much variety, that could contain so many creative and interesting ideas inside one package. I can only imagine what plans they had for the sequel, but this definitely could have been the start of something special. We definitely got a spiritual successor to this game in the Mass Effect trilogy, which I definitely vastly prefer to this game, but I definitely can imagine an alternate universe where Anachronox got its own trilogy and was able to continue the story of Sly Boots and his friends but with more streamlined gameplay and creative puzzles.