I liked the game, I feel like the narrative was a bit more indepth and was a step up from the Blackwell series (which is one of my favorites from WEG). I know that's much easier said than done and involves a lot of work and cost. There's no polite way to ask this, so I just have to ask it: was this game rushed? If yes, I think a "director's cut" or "remastered edition" would do the game justice. The reason Shardlight seems so mediocre to me is because it has to stand with the other games in the WEG line up, a few of which I honestly think are classics that are on the same level as the 90s golden age adventure games. I had some other things to say about the characters, but I think I'll stop here. It goes pretty fast, don't you think? For being the antagonist's stronghold, it seems like there's not too much to see or do. There were times when I felt like I was watching a cutscene game. Maybe there's 1 more thing I need to do before using that password, for example. Instead of having Amy more or less take care of things, what about inserting some more stumbling blocks that force the player to think more. When compared to Resonance for example (or your WEG of choice) the puzzles in Shardlight are elementary. Find the appropriate sheet of paper and you're good to go. With 1 exception (debatable 2), there's no decoding or anything. And when I say "find the password," that's all you need to do. On the point above, the puzzles lack complexity! It's your standard inventory item puzzle game w/a few "find the password" puzzles thrown in there to mix it up. In general, locations don't get revisited Like I mentioned before, the game is linear, so add to this the fact that you can't die, and it doesn't take you long to brute force your way through. Is the player supposed to be intimidated by Rockwall? Danton talks about it like it's a hellhole.all I saw was a cell and a courtyard w/ 1 guard in it. There's no deaths after all, so just keep on clicking. Just click on everything to get some items, then goof around trying everything on everything until you beat this 2-screen (!) prison escape. The prison escape stood out to me as being way too easy, especially as it's midway through the game. It's nice to have a capable adventure game protagonist, but I almost feel like the game would play itself if I just inspected and interacted with everything. Amy can do just about anything, and she has a crossbow that is the solution to about 5 or more puzzles through the game. I'm not saying that Techno had nail-biting moral dilemmas in it, but the lack of choice in this game seems pretty egregious to me. Removing choice makes both the game and the characters less interesting, IMO. She only has 2 choices to make that I can see: (*mega-spoilers*) the choice whether to kill Denby, which only seems to change some minor lines of dialogue and the final ending, where the choice is reduced to a dialog selection, and really doesn't relate to what you've done in the game up to that point. Amy does the bidding of more powerful characters, going from 1 task to another. Please believe me when I say that this isn't hate. Quarantine was my favorite part.Īlright, here we go. I felt the game redeemed itself a little bit towards the end when things got more interesting. It's ok as an adventure, and I recommend getting it on sale. Of course it's all subjective though.Īgain, I don't want to sound like I'm hating on the game for no reason. I'm going to raise what I believe are fair criticisms, and I'm curious to see if anyone agrees or it's just me. I thought Shardlight was *ok,* but not up to the standards of other WEG games, and this is the first time I've felt disappointed in a WEG release. Their games are great, Technobabylon being my personal fave. Let me start by saying that I'm a big fan of WEG, and I salute them for not going the episodic release route.
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