Bear With Me: The Lost Robots
This is a first impressions style of review, as I haven’t finished the game, and I’m part way through what I guess is the prequel.
Firstly, I love the art style. Growing up, seeing some Don Bluth animations, and Space Ace / Dragons Lair arcade games, the cartoon quality animations always made me go “wow”. Now we take it for granted. However this is one of those games that makes you go “wow”, with the film noir 1930’s / 1940’s style, with the modern animation. I really do like it. And surprisingly, the grey scale works amazingly well and fits in with the whole style.
– Real player with 26.8 hrs in game
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A trully masterfully made little game that at first glance seem to have no right to actually be as good as it is.
Bear with me is a mix of a noir style detective narrative, with some clever humor sprinkled in that at times is way to cynical to be targeted at children, so don’t be fooled by the graphics style. To top the noir atmosphere there’s a very layered narrative that can be enjoyed both by kids on a surface level (with the cute looking characters) or on a deeper level by adults who might reminis about their past. The DLC even has a bit of twin peaks thrown in for good measure and is generally darker than the main game.
– Real player with 24.8 hrs in game
Azurael’s Circle: Chapter 5
Enjoyable game with plenty of characters, puzzles and a good story.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
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A novel idea start to finish, and while I recommend this for anyone wanting to finish the saga of Azurael’s Circle, I feel it was not a fitting ending. It came too soon - the game play, while familiar, lacked the intensity and scariness of some of its predecessors. I would love to see an epilogue that goes further to finish the story… otherwise, the mechanics remain as awesome as they ever were. I still enjoyed the slow reveal of the light in the shadows and having to make sure I walked every square inch of each room to ensure I didn’t miss anything.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Joe Kowalski Chronicles: Murder in a flat
Joe Kowalski Chronicles: Murder in a flat is a dark detective neo noir point and click adventure game. You take the role of a police detective Joe Kowalski who gets tricky case just as he was about to pass out on the bed. Woman was murdered in Joe’s neighborhood and he’s the closest detective sent to investigate. As you set on your journey lies, mystery, deceit and horror awaits in this atmospheric neo noir detective story.
Game has all standard point and click mechanics and additionally you can pull out a gun and use it to solve some puzzles, and in rare cases maybe even shoot people. Your main job is to find killer and solve mystery around dead woman.
This game is first episode, free to play prologue to four chapters that will follow afterwards where Joe will go on journey from police detective to private detective.
This chapter will be fully playable from start to end, mystery will be solvable and story will continue afterwards.
Read More: Best Point & Click Detective Games.
Emerald City Confidential™
Emerald City Confidential is an enjoyable romp through the land of Oz, set 20 years after Dorothy’s initial visit to Oz. In those 20 years, a number of things have changed, and although a number of the character names will be familiar, their personalities and motivations have changed.
You take the role of Petra, a Detective, who is initially hired to find a missing person. That goal expands throughout the game. There also is ANOTHER underlying more personal case for Petra that spans the entire game. As Petra, you will not only visit the Emerald City, but you will also visit other lands of Oz as well
– Real player with 19.8 hrs in game
I can’t recommend this hidden gem enough.
Pros:
Setting, the game is set in a dystopian adaptation of the Wizard of Oz. Many years after the adventure of Dorothy Gale and her ragtag group, the city of Oz and the surrounding world has taken a very dark turn. The Ozian empire suffered a catatrosphic attack by foreigners that nearly destoryed the country, magic has been outlawed and punished harshly (even death in some cases) and the world has become corrupt and dark. Many of the characters well loved in the original story have become tainted. New characters added could have been in the original story as they fit into the universe perfectly.
– Real player with 12.6 hrs in game
Face Noir
Not a bad game until the ending, and the voice actor is terrible. He is not the right choice for a hardboiled Raymond Chandler type detective. His voice is effeminate to the extreme and his diction is too precise for someone just out of prison and working on their last dollar during the Depression. And that actor as an Italian? How insulting to Italians everywhere. How many times do we need to hear dannazione? It was a piss poor performance. Even the guy playing the Irishman Sean was awful. His accent degenerated as the game wore on. At first his accent was passable, but by the end he must have gotten tired because he was unable to hold it together at all. He started saying “da” instead of “the.” I think he forgot who he was supposed to be because he suddenly sounded Swedish at certain points in the game. Just total amateurs! Both lead actors almost killed it for me until I turned the voice volume way down and tried to enjoy the game without them.
– Real player with 52.8 hrs in game
I rarely leave reviews for games, but felt that with the mixed reviews, I should give my input concerning this rather unique Point-N-Click.
What makes this game unique? Having played a number of other P&C games, I liked the refreshing approach in this game to selecting/using items. Unlike most selections of this genre where items are viewed & selected from a 2 dimensional panel or menu, Face Noir allows the option to view & select items in a separate closeup 3-D view, where the main character holds each item individually, and of course provides witty banter concerning each one. Another refreshing difference in this game is the ability to use some of the items via moving the mouse in strategic directions, thereby increasing the interactivity of this piece beyond the traditional “Point & Click” mechanics. These of course are not deal makers/breakers as far as the core substance of the game, but certainly add their charm thereto.
– Real player with 15.1 hrs in game
Gemini Rue
Gemini Rue is a sci-fi detective-noir style point & click adventure game. It’s retro in appearance, using pixel art graphics reminiscent of early to mid-90’s Sierra and Lucas Arts games. Its story, however, is more modern and gritty.
The game opens with a small cinematic of a character called Delta-Six, who is having his memory wiped, then switches to the first playable character, Azriel Odin, standing around waiting in the rain on an empty street. His short scene before playing informs you that you are looking for your brother, but not much else. It’s a little unclear what your role is or who you are in the greater story at this point, but that’s slowly revealed over time. Throughout the game, you’ll end up switching between playing as Delta-Six and Azriel Odin, discovering each of their narratives and how the seemingly unrelated stories intertwine. There are several elements to the overall story that seem like they’re meant to misdirect you as to your relationships with certain people and what your past actually is. This helps to keep you guessing in the game and eager to discover more about the characters. Unfortunately, this also leads to pacing issues that make parts of the game seem unnecessarily slow. The overall writing is decent and fits well for the tone of the game.
– Real player with 21.1 hrs in game
Need a quick help deciding whether to buy this game or not? Here, it’s an old school point and click adventure game with a sci-fi/cyberpunk/noir vibe to it, think about Beneath a Steel Sky. It also seems to be emulating all the flaws that classic adventure games used to suffer from. If that alone is enough to sell you, grab it, otherwise, skip it.
The game is using the classic adventure game control scheme in which you can do several things with each object in the game world. If you ever played something like Monkey Island, you know what I’m talking about. It’s the outdated control scheme that makes you wonder if you want to open a door, look at it, smell it, lick it or write a poem about it. Some people like this detailed style of interaction but personally I think it’s gone from most modern games for a good reason. It just makes you click more until you find the right way to interact with each and every object. Thankfully Gemini Rue has only four ways to interact with everything, but apart from maybe two objects in the entire game, there’s only one interaction that gets you anywhere for each object. Looking at stuff is useful, arguably, because it gives you flavour text and sometimes hints, but do you really need the option to shoot every fire hydrant and talk to every mailbox if you never have to in order to progress? It leads to absurd situations when you get stuck and try all the options on everything to find something you think you might have missed and you suddenly find yourself trying to kick graffiti or talking to a random piece of rubbish on a sidewalk.
– Real player with 12.9 hrs in game
Genesis Noir
Having completed Genesis Noir, I’m not sure how to describe the experience. It is a unique mix of visuals, music, poetry, philosophy, and Big Bang theory. You interact in terms of clicking or moving characters. The biggest challenge is trying to figure out what is required to advance each scene.
The game is split into 12 chapters which have common themes and characters but are very different. Some are super short and others feel like they take forever. Some had obvious ties to the idea of the Big Bang, while others felt like unrelated interludes. At the end of each chapter, you circle back to a central screen with a telescope/cannon (used to select the next chapter) and a display area with collectibles. There is no inventory and the main character pockets items of interest and automatically places them when appropriate. Most of the game is done with black and white line drawings, using gold to accent. Other sections pull in bright colors and feel as if you are looking through a kaleidoscope. The sound track is a mix of jazz, vocals, occasional voice overs, and environmental sounds.
– Real player with 14.1 hrs in game
Genesis Noir is quite a strange and scintillating adventure, featuring a time-traveling being trying to reverse the Big Bang. Aside from a few sporadic puzzles, everything is linear and just keeps moving. Otherwise, it’s really not much of a game, as there is very little that you have to do other than follow along the preset path and click on a few items of interest as the game moves forward in its artistic and musical exhibitions.
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
Jack Orlando: Director’s Cut
Do NOT buy this game!
edit: I still don’t recommend it but if you want to finish the game, there are workarounds at the end of this review.
This version of the game isn’t worth 10 cents. It’s a wine prefix with major issues. Jack Orlando is an old pal who, unfortunately, aged very very badly.
Pros:
- used to be a decent point&click (when it run as intended)
Cons:
-
bugged stereo support and no mono option
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bugged resolution support
– Real player with 6.7 hrs in game
Because I’m a fan of the noir genre and adventure games, I was curious about Jack Orlando; though, even as I’m writing this after spend six hours on it, I still do haved mixed feelings about it.
I’ll explain the pros and pros before giving my final thoughts on it.
But first, a brief summary:
Jack Orlando is an African-American (don’t let the cover art fool you, the protagonist is black and I found it very refreshing!) private detective in the 1930s, just after Prohibition ended. One night after drinking his sorrows away, Jack unwittingly stumbles onto the scene of a murder - and the blame is immediately placed on him due to the lack of witnesses and evidence. He’s given two days to find the real killer; thus, he soon finds himself tangled in an elaborate conspiracy.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Murder In Tehran’s Alleys 1933
This would be a decent short point and click adventure title were it not so… slapdash. The English translation is pretty engrish, though the voice acting isn’t that bad. Some locations have two music tracks accidentally playing on top of another and the game characters have entirely different design and looks during in-game and cutscenes. (The protagonist alternates between having a black three-day stubble and a shaved face with silver moustache – and gains about 20 years of age!)
Puzzles can be roughly divided into two categories – there’s item-using puzzles that fit the world, and random bouts of sudoku and tic-tac-toe that seem there just for filler. And I had the tic-tac-toe glitch on me. It’s just so half-hearted and I’m willing to give historical adventure titles quite a bit of leeway.
– Real player with 33.3 hrs in game
I liked it, thought it was worth a couple of bucks. I wish the captions/writing would be proofread & fixed. The characters are good. The story is good, except that some of the pieces of the plot do not fit together because of the poor translation. Overall I was glad I played it, if you like old school point & clicks it’s worth a shot. I really wish the developer would fix the captions/writing, that would really improve the game for very little money.
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
Bear With Me - Episode One
Well, for some reasons I played this game many months ago, more than a year, and then the third episode came out few months ago so I bought it as soon as possible and played it, enjoyed it a lot and so on.. now the collector’s edition’s out on Humble Bundle as far as I know.
Anyways this game’s is a great hidden object/graphic adventure with an awesome story; I loved everything here although the whole game setting is probably too restricted thus don’t allowing you to explore as much as I wanted to.
– Real player with 23.6 hrs in game
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a clawsome game that is impawsible to furget. Having a charming yet grizzly atmosphere that you won’t find too polarizing, I just couldn’t bear to put it down.
Sorry, I’ll stop the bear puns now.
Promise.
Ahem, so ‘Bear with Me’ is an episodic point and click game with a heavy noir detective theme. But you know that from reading the description, and really if you’re interested by that idea then you’re probably going to enjoy this game. Yet if you’re still a bit sceptical then let me assure you, it is worth the time to go through.
– Real player with 20.6 hrs in game