Gothic Fiction: Dark Saga
3.8
5
55
55
HOPA Without The HO
I bought the CE version and will say that I LOVE these developers and I simply love this Adventure games. At first the game looks like an HOPA and by now most of you already know that there are absolutely NO HO scenes in this game. Again I repeat: NO HO Scenes whatsoever. Gothic Fiction is strictly interactive adventure with puzzles. I have no idea what acronyms to use but all I can say that this game will appeal to adventure lovers like myself. The stortline is your basic "My daughter has been kidnapped by evil Witch and now I must save her!" theme and our adventure starts off in an abondoned school filled with creepy plants and ghosts of children gone missing. As the tale unfolds, you discover that your enemy is one very powerful witch and there is alot to do before you can save your daughter. The Graphics were sharp, good resoluiton on my computor and I always am a great fan of using Real live actors with voice overs. For fans of spooky games with dark shadows lurking about and creepy sound effects, this game is just great playing in the dark. There are three game modes and I recommend that hard-core players go with advance. Absolutley no hand holding, making for a very good adventure. Game features a journal, a map that alos provides a list of tasks, a hint that refills quickly and also a Witches diary where you need to collect pages in order to find out her story. Once your adventure begins, you look for inventory objects, tools and also need to pick up energy balls along the way. There are 15 of them inside the paintings that you come across. There are alot of mini games to play and some are challenging and some are easy. I found that the Game play runs smoothly and sometimes a bit mechanical but I did enjoy myself neverthless and for those who passed up on the CE version, this is a great SE game which provides you with 9 chapters of entertainment.
September 21, 2012
SUCKS YOU IN FROM THE BEGINNING
A very spooky adventure in an old school, trying to get your daughter back and save other children captured by a witch. Excellent production values - the developers did a fantastic and creative job in making this one of the creepiest games around. There?s so much to do. Even with a map (not interactive) to tell you where actions are required, a pen and paper will come in handy.
Uses real actors with voices and natural-sounding dialog that is spot on. Soundscapes (especially the background screaming and wind storm sounds) add to the already eerie atmosphere. Graphics are a visual delight - beautifully drawn and detailed environments, befitting the story perfectly. Little roving eyes found everywhere add to the creepiness. Wide variety of innovative and brilliant puzzles that are a lot of fun.
This game just sucks you in from the beginning and is the perfect game to play on a stormy night with the lights low and no one around.
September 21, 2012
A true adventure game
This is not a hidden object game at all. Good news for those who were getting tired of them. I am a die-hard HOPA fan.
You and your daughter are going to live in England for a bit and she picks out a school to go to. The school has been taken over by a witch and the witch in turn grabs Hannah and tries to get rid of you. You must save her and the rest of the children she has snatched.
This game plays in 3 modes, casual, hard and advanced. You have a map, a journal, a notebook and a witch's book thattells her story as you go. You collect pages. You pick up items to use in the story and the puzzles. Lotsa puzzles. "Defeat the Witch" is a really cute game.
The music is good, there are real people playing the daughter, Hannah, and the other children. The graphics are rather "sketchy" as opposed to a more photographic look. The atmosphere is rather somber and drab. the gameplay is smooth and easy to decipher. I didn't need a walkthrough nor did I have to use the hint button to find out where to go next. A delightful feature in any game. Mini-game explanations were clear, too.
The demo went fast so I was neither bored nor not having fun. I have to assume the rest of the game is as entertaining as the demo. I don't remember the CE being any better than this SE. Definitely worth a credit.
September 21, 2012
For adventure game lovers who hate HOPAs
I'm a big fan of "adventure" games, and was glad there were no junk-pile HOPAs to wade through. Beautiful graphics, and this game had a lot of potential, but a few issues keep it from being a 5-star, especially the lack of assistance in the "help" (it was so non-helpful, it actually made me aggravated, and I had to close out and look at the BFG Blog walkthrough several times). :
The good:
-HOPA-free adventure game
-Nice graphics and a fine soundtrack--no extra weird sounds to distract you while playing
-You never hold too many inventory items at one time, so you can more easily keep track of
-For selected (and honestly random) moments, when you collect an item required to complete a task, a ghost shows up and makes a portal to jump right to the location. I LOVED that part and wished they had more of those.
-Lots of different types of mini-games, and none is too annoying. I was only felled by one, so that's not bad
The "meh"
-story line is tired, and quite silly
- you are not always able to skip through dialog (sometimes are, sometimes aren't)
-I must be the only BFG player who finds the live actors annoying in these games...if you like 'em, what I can say is that the acting isn't as ridiculous as other games
-Mini-games were way too easy overall, so if you like a challenging brain-teaser for your mini-games puzzles, be warned that you won't find them here
The bad:
-totally useless help system
-weird map that doesn't always keep track of outstanding tasks (there were things I knew I still had to finish but marks wouldn't appear on the map)
-no ability to jump to locations on the map--you had to wait for a ghost to open a portal for you if you wanted to jump
-a LOT of running back and forth, and of long distances between locations, so be prepared to use your mouse-clicking finger
I don't regret getting this game, but it isn't one of my favorites. That said, I hope they make more games like this in the future, since I loved the fact that there were no HOPA junk piles, and I don't usually mind the back-and-forth of most adventure games.
September 22, 2012
Fun and Fabulous
I absolutely love this developer. I actually Beta tested this one in June, and have been waiting patiently for it to come out in the SE (can't always afford the CE). This one is so much fun as are all the games from ERS. No HOS scenes as others have mentioned. You do find useful objects lying around, and have mini-games to solve. It reminds me of Azada in Libro. I like these as well as HOS games, so this was an easy decision to buy.
September 21, 2012
good game
I liked it. I like adventure games and do not care there is not much for HOS.
December 20, 2012
It's OK,
The game play is fairly good although another one of these back and forth back and forth games... BUT if you are from Britain it WILL annoy the heck out of you. It's set in England although the makers don't seem to have a clue about anything English... so why bother? Why have an American school bus with a driver on the left, why have a school principle, why not do some research first? I may buy it as a daily deal but it's just tooo annoying to spend more than that on.
September 22, 2012
gothic fiction dark saga
this was a good game I enjoyed it I like the interactiveness instead of a lot of ho scenes.
September 21, 2012
woohoo
Loved the game..you do have to go back an forth but it is a fab game... i bought it and finished it...
September 21, 2012
The art of a good SE is not lost
Based on the whole game.
This didn't quite become my favorite game in the world but I did enjoy it immensely. I give it five stars because on top of overall good game play it . . .
-was complete in itself. It feels like so many of the SE games released are CEs minus the satisfying ending. It's like getting people to buy movie tickets and then requiring them to play double the price to see the last 10 minutes of the film. Not so here. The story was complete in all its spooky glory.
-had no HOSs. I like adventure. I tolerate HOSs because they come with the territory, but I often find myself wishing they had a charging skip button like puzzles do (try The Witch's Prison if this describes you too. I'll add the link).
-was long and covered a lot of ground. It took me a couple of afternoons to get through it, and there was TONS to explore (to that end, the map is EXTREMELY helpful). The length is particularly significant because of the lack of hidden objects. HOSs serve to lengthen a game without adding content. So, a "long" game can end up having very little to explore in reality.
-doesn't have a whole lot of hand holding. The map gives you an idea of where you need to go but not how to accomplish the task you are given. I feel like I figured out a lot on my own, and that is a good feeling.
These are features that are very rare in the current trend, and ERS deserves to be commended for the genuine effort they clearly put into this game as an SE.
October 3, 2012