I guess what's most interesting about this game - from what I played - is how it is almost entirely controlled using the stylus. At this point in the platforms lifecycle I get the sense that game companies where either forced to (or desirous to try out?) to implement mostly stylus-controls. Here's it's stylus all the time except that you can sometimes press a button (or keep it pressed), any button to toggle a state change. For example, to enter shooting mode, and stuff like that.
The game is also, curiously, played with the DS sideways - book mode?. This results in a taller but narrow screen. It's interesting, and reasonably comfortable, but I felt the camera was pulled in too tight so I was often getting shot at by baddies who were out of camera. Sure, you can look at the radar/map on the other screen, but it's all dots with no facing, so it's only marginally useful (when it comes to combat). The game itself has some interesting ideas, though the controls took too long to get used to for my tastes and things were still rather imprecise and wonky. Interesting ideas (for a Bond game):
a. This one's interesting, but probably bad. You can pick up different weapons and they have stats - like better aim and damage. So, you need to be careful. I didn't like this too much because, while firing isn't hard - you miss a lot and it's hard to tell if you missed because you were bad at aiming/tapping the stylus or if the gun's stats betrayed you.
b. Enemies sometimes drop playing cards. They each do something different (bonuses to melee damage, for example) and you can equip five of them at a time. BUT, you get special combo bonuses if you have special poker hands! Pair, two pair, that sort of thing.
c. Reloading is really annoying - you have to enter inventory and drag a clip over to the gun. It's annoying to do in the middle of combat. An auto-reload might have been the better design choice here?
d. Melee combat is a special mode, you walk up to an enemy, press the button and then enter melee where you must swipe the screen in different ways to do different punches. Sometimes they'll block - or be ready to block, so you need to be careful. It's a neat system, and is definitely more interesting than just tapping a button. It feels more involved.
I think the game is also voice acted - by the actors, and there's images from the film. So, it's pretty authentic in that sense. Mostly I'm impressed by how smooth the game runs (for being polygonal 3D and so on) even if the camera often gets in the way - I mean, the level geometry gets in the way of the camera.
I loved the rhythm action sections of the game - I looked forward to seeing a deer (which you sort of chase/follow while doing a song). They were neither too hard nor too easy, and the music was fun. I think I might have to look it up separately because I'm sure there's a way to buy the tunes...
Anyways... it's an interesting game - there's more climbing and exploring than I expected and I'll admit I was starting to get a bit frustrated because I was late for Beltane and it seemed really hard to make progress sometimes. Mostly frustrating because there was a place I was sure had a path - but nothing. So I had to backtrack around a bunch until I found a map that showed a path to the place I was sure had the path. So that was annoying.
But, I enjoyed how much stronger Moira gets and I began to worry less about the weather and more about enjoying the views and the landscape and the journey. Some might call this careless hiking and they'd be correct. But hey, it's a videogame!
I also enjoyed the slight mystical/magical things? I mean, I got picked up by an eagle at a point, and I met a "person who lives under the mountains" also... There was lots of that sort of stuff to discover and learn. Some of it doesn't quite work - at least in terms of helping me understand when I was making progress. For example I'd find maps that had clues to parts I'd already passed through/by..so that was a bit of a waste.
But overall? Yes, not too long, not too short even if my trip was longer than it should have been? I took 10 days to get to the sea. Found 9 maps, climbed 16 peaks, named 10 of them, and blessed one. The one from which the eagles picked me up!
It seems like I can play again with the maps I've found, so perhaps it gets easier in this sense. So, is this game a sort of narrative rogue-lite with a metaprogression ?
This game's title is 100% accurate. This is all solitaire games, like you would play with a deck (or more) of regular playing cards. There's tons and tons of them. I didn't play them all but I played a few really interesting (to me) ones. I thought it was neat how they're all grouped into "families". I'm curious as to how this was all put together. My first thought is that someone bought a book of solitaire card games and then just implemented them all? So, the groupings (families) would have come from chapters in the books?
I think the game's a really great resource - and it would definitely keep you "busy" for...ever? There's just so many variations...I'm still kind of stunned. Also, to make it even more interesting there's a "rating" system that covers how much luck matters, how long they take to play (e.g. is this a mostly skill solitaire?) which is really useful as well.
Ok, this is not what I was expecting. I though the game was mostly (primarily?) a visual novel - lots of reading, going places to meet characters, and then more reading. But, I've spent most of my time moving around a 3D environment, jumping, and collecting stuff. And yes, meeting characters and chatting - but more moving around. And, it's weirdly compelling. Despite being pretty lo-fi in terms of visuals. And I'm not a fan of the music (just not my thing, not that it's "bad"), and...well, everything is sort of "not my thing". Yet, here I am , enjoying the game. Slowly piecing together (in my head) what is going on. Discovering "secret" areas and things...and really having fun with the exploring and collecting. I know I won't get everything - and I am curious to see how it all ends (I know about the trial and blablabla, but I don't know if I'll figure everything out or not!).
