Senaste recensioner av Xaph

I adore detective games like this and I was very excited to play Rise of the Golden Idol, with how much I enjoyed Case of the Golden Idol. For me, Rise came very close to Case apart from some very minor complaints. Part of what I loved about Case was the extremely wacky character art and music, and Rise was a bit tamer on both those fronts. However, the gameplay and narrative were still great in my opinion. A worthy sequel as long as you're not expecting it to be exactly like the 1st game.

My thoughts on this game are complicated. For me, there were plenty of things about it to love. There were certain story moments and plot twists around the middle part of the story that gave me as big of a thrill as anything I'd experienced in the previous LIS games. However, by the end it had really fallen flat for me. The entire last chapter was a complete miss for me and really left me in a bewildered and unsatisfied mood while the credits rolled, which is never a great feeling when finishing a game, and definitely does not live up to the endings of any previous LIS game. As a huge fan of the series as a whole, I'm glad I got to catch up with Max and see where she's at in life now, and I don't regret buying or playing the game. However, I feel like it had way bigger potential that it didn't quite live up to.

As someone who loved GRIS, I knew as soon as Neva was announced that I would definitely be playing it, and somehow this game is even more beautiful than the first. I loved it so much.

I would die for Dys

I found this game to be a bit of a slow burn at first, but once you get to the payoff, it PAYS OFF. I'm now fully indoctrinated and can see myself continuing to play this game for as long as it continues to exist.

I would die for Wuk Lamat

There are animals in the well

I enjoyed this game, would say it was worth the ~3 hours. However, I feel like it comes up short compared to many other similar games out there (such as What Remains of Edith Finch). The story is unfortunately just a little bit on the boring/predictable side for me. I also felt like it was a little strange how many objects were interactable when only a few actually had any impact (I spent WAY too much time opening drawers and finding them to be empty). But I still enjoyed it enough overall to give this a thumbs up.

I really struggle trying to decide whether to give this a thumbs up or thumbs down. Ultimately decided on thumbs up, because it gave me an excuse to replay this great game, and the updated facial animations really do a great job at conveying the characters' emotions (which is very important for a series like this). HOWEVER, the game is still a pretty buggy mess, which is unacceptable when it's been over 2 years since it was released. Really disappointing to me that they haven't kept following up with more bugfix patches. Play the original if you want a more polished game, but play this one if you want better animations.

I have played Myst many times before, both original Myst and the realMyst remaster. My love of puzzle games definitely stems back to playing this as a young kid.

The good: I loved the 360 camera control and updated graphics. LOVED the "randomized puzzle" mode - this was a great way to keep it fresh for someone like me who had all the original solutions already ingrained in my brain.

The bad: Hated the cartoonish animated versions of Sirrus/Achenar/Atrus (thankfully there is an option to use the original FMV's, but it warns that it may not work without restarting the game). Some lighting choices were strange too - I didn't understand why Myst Island looked so hazy, or why Selenitic Age looked so vivid blue, and Stoneship Age so vivid yellow. Audio balance seemed off in some places too - the ambient insect sounds in Channelwood were bizarrely loud and actually hurt my ears, then other things (like Atrus's dialogue) were super quiet in comparison.

Would recommend buying this on sale, I think $30 is a bit steep for what this game offers. You could also consider playing realMyst instead as I think it's probably a more polished product overall. However, overall I personally enjoyed revisiting this world in this format.