I've always been quite a big fan of HP Lovecraft, which is the main reason I gave this a go. This is only my first impression and will openly confess I've only played around 40 minutes so far, but as there doesn't seem to be many reviews out there I thought I'd give you a quick indicator. There are certain words that you never really see in a review and the one that sums this up great is, meh... It just doesnt really leave you feeling anything, I expected the writting to be something incredible with lots of emotion, deep rich story telling and amazing characters, but so far they are just, meh... the writing isn't exactly impressive but at the same time it's not bad either.
Moving onto the graphics, again they are nothing special. Akin to the like of Fable or Valheim, the models are not high detailed however they do the job sufficiently, a word that I imagine is going to be prevalent through out this review. The lighting and textures are both, for want of a better word, sufficent. Shadows cast where they should although not all items have shadows and textures are quite basic although clearly define what surfaces are made out of. Essentially they do what they need to and not a touch more.
So far, so sufficient, what about the game play you ask. Well the controls tend to be a bit ropey especially on keyboard and mouse. 'Q' & 'E' rotate the camera while W,A,S and D do all the heavy lifting in the movement department, which is fine except when moving and rotating the camera at the same time. It can be a little inconvenient especially given that your characters direction changes when you rotate the camera.
The main part of the gameplay is investigationg and exploring various location, for fans of H.P. Lovecraft you'll recognise a few. While exploring a little dot will show on a points of interest, it may just be a bit of lore or it could be a clue. Certain clues have what's called a Complex interaction, it's essentially a choice on how you perform that task. Each complex interaction has a knowledge type attached to it, for example putting a broken vase back together would be involve logical knowledge. If the investigators on the mission have that type of knowledge they will offer advice on the best course of action.
Choose correctly and the story will progress, however if you choose incorrectly the Mythos Clock will tick forward, once the Mythos clock is full the Great Old Ones will intervene to slow you down. Be on your guard... (I've no idea what that means yet but I'm sure I'll find out soon enough).
If you do make the wrong decision you can then choose again, progressing the story. I really hate this as a concept and it's a similar issue I had with Sherlock Holmes - The Devils Daughter, given that they're both investigative game, there should be alternative way of progressing rather then just saying no you got that wrong, try again.
As well as investigating and exploring there is also a turn based combat system, that again is just fine. You'll know when you are entering a combat zone as there will be a glow emitting under the door to indicate enemies on the other side, not a great feature in my eyes as it serves as warning, where as really you should always be prepared. The order that characters engage is dictated by their initiative roll, the decided order is shown across the top fo the screen. During a turn characters have so many AP (Action points) they can use, each action taking up a certain amount of points. Attacking tends to use quite a lot of points, while moving, reloading and various other actions use less points. If you've played other turn based combat games, X-Com or Mutant Year Zero you'll be familar with how it works. Although there is one big difference, there doesn't appear to be a chance to hit statistic, giving me the impression an attack will always land. I'll update this as I learn more, but I'm quite disappointed by the lack of this concept. Although the game appears to be more centralised around the story and investigations, so it's not surprising the combat isn't as full as other games.
Each character also has a Health Points and Sanity Points, when a characters Health Points reach 0 they will fall unconscious, getting up the end of combat or after being injected with epinephrine. Sanity Points are slightly different as they can be effected at any point during the game, maybe a loud scream will scare the character or they'll find something disturbing while investigating. The different characters have a mental resistance stat that govern the chances a scenario will effect the characters sanity. If the Sanity points reach 0 that character will suffer from a trauma with debilitating effects, that can be reset by resting a character for a full chapter. I do really like this feature although I have yet to experience a trauma.
Like I said at the begining it's ok, it's nothing amazing and it's not that bad either. I will continue playing, just to find out what happens and also to give you guys a more indepth review, but as it stands at the moment, it's sufficient.
