Although this game presents itself very well and has had an overwhelmingly positive reception, I must beg to disagree. Let's start with what I liked about this game: The soundtrack. Oh my God, is it amazing! It's one of the most perfect OST-Game combinations I've ever seen! It simply ties in perfectly with the game, as if the story and the song were but one thing. Also, the story up until Act 2 is simply superb. I honestly had myself close to crying more than a few times and it deeply touched me multiple times.

But, that, as they say, is that. Nothing else good, to be honest. The graphical design is neither good nor bad, it's simply a matter of personal choice (one with which I agree). The controls/interactivity is, simply put, godawful. You get stuck on random parts of the scenery ALL THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ TIME and the mouse control simply doesn't work for movement. The gameplay is awfully repetitive and gets annoying quite quickly and even though some might argue that 'gameplay isn't the point of this game, story is!' that isn't an excuse for a lack of interesting gameplay. The lack of multiple endings and the puzzle solving of interacting with the mementos is, in all seriousness, a letdown.

And finally we arrive at what let me down the most: the story. Now, as I said earlier, I absolutely LOVED the story up untill the second act. What happened after that, you might ask. Well, what happened was they completely and utterly thrashed a lovely and sad, but heartwarming story. Spoilers ahead. Throughout the first two acts we get to see how John and River got to know eachother, fall in love, get married, the troubles and whatnot they went through. Then we find out about Joey (what, to be honest, was more than expected at this point in the game) and the reason why John wants to go to the moon. All fine and dandy still. But then... They somehow manage to change his memories and make him happier memories. The thing is, how is that a good message? All they ever did was present him with a comfortable lie which, although comfortable, is still A LIE. Instead of an inspiring story teaching us how life, no matter how troubling at times, is happy in itself and that we should all struggle to learn to enjoy our life as it is... We get a 'you done wrong, your life sucks because of some bad choices made for you when you were very young and you should be sad about it'... Which completely ruined the experience for me. Honestly, I was playing this game from beggining to end straight, without a single pause and right after the emotional crescendo which was the revelation at the carnival, we get this absolutely mindblowing idea that 'a comfortable lie is better than the truth'. I honestly wish the game had had a different ending. For me, it was a completely waste of time and emotions. Why should you ever feel sad at all? Simply construct a comfortable lie for yourself and everything will be fine!

That's only my opinion, of course, but sadly I cannot agree with this game, despite the hype.

Although this game presents itself very well and has had an overwhelmingly positive reception, I must beg to disagree. Let's start with what I liked about this game: The soundtrack. Oh my God, is it amazing! It's one of the most perfect OST-Game combinations I've ever seen! It simply ties in perfectly with the game, as if the story and the song were but one thing. Also, the story up until Act 2 is simply superb. I honestly had myself close to crying more than a few times and it deeply touched me multiple times. But, that, as they say, is that. Nothing else good, to be honest. The graphical design is neither good nor bad, it's simply a matter of personal choice (one with which I agree). The controls/interactivity is, simply put, godawful. You get stuck on random parts of the scenery ALL THE GODDAMN TIME and the mouse control simply doesn't work for movement. The gameplay is awfully repetitive and gets annoying quite quickly and even though some might argue that 'gameplay isn't the point of this game, story is!' that isn't an excuse for a lack of interesting gameplay. The lack of multiple endings and the puzzle solving of interacting with the mementos is, in all seriousness, a letdown. And finally we arrive at what let me down the most: the story. Now, as I said earlier, I absolutely LOVED the story up untill the second act. What happened after that, you might ask. Well, what happened was they completely and utterly thrashed a lovely and sad, but heartwarming story. Spoilers ahead. [spoiler]Throughout the first two acts we get to see how John and River got to know eachother, fall in love, get married, the troubles and whatnot they went through. Then we find out about Joey (what, to be honest, was more than expected at this point in the game) and the reason why John wants to go to the moon. All fine and dandy still. But then... They somehow manage to change his memories and make him [i]happier[/i] memories. The thing is, how is that a good message? All they ever did was present him with a comfortable lie which, although comfortable, is still A LIE. Instead of an inspiring story teaching us how life, no matter how troubling at times, is happy in itself and that we should all struggle to learn to enjoy our life as it is... We get a 'you done wrong, your life sucks because of some bad choices made for you when you were very young and you should be sad about it'... Which completely ruined the experience for me. Honestly, I was playing this game from beggining to end straight, without a single pause and right after the emotional crescendo which was the revelation at the carnival, we get this absolutely mindblowing idea that 'a comfortable lie is better than the truth'.[/spoiler] I honestly wish the game had had a different ending. For me, it was a completely waste of time and emotions. [spoiler]Why should you ever feel sad at all? Simply construct a comfortable lie for yourself and everything will be fine![/spoiler] That's only my opinion, of course, but sadly I cannot agree with this game, despite the hype.