Recent reviews by Prodi

As a preview for the full game it hits all the right notes and builds expectation. The visuals, audio and interface seem thought out and well crafted for their intended purposes. The narrative elements also portray a tone of mystery, danger and excitement. Ready for the full release!

Noctropolis is a point and click adventure game and what gives it it's uniqueness is the "swallowed into a dark comic book" premise, the general 1990s vibe of many elements and the rated "R" content which is unusual for adventure games (with a few exceptions).

The gameplay is pretty standard for adventure games and can require some extended reading of dialogue along with some pixel hunting. Many bits of dialogue are voiced but not all by quite a margin. The soundtrack is midi synthesized and very good considering, suitable for a 90s dark action film (like Johnny Mnemonic, Dark City, The Crow etc..). The setting and location artwork is also very good and stylized for a comic book look. The character art is a little weaker as viewed on the backgrounds but there are always closeups used for interactions that make up for it and portray the cast much clearer. Also some fmv cut scenes at times advance the story.

All in all I give it a recommendation for adventure gamers looking for something different or if your like me and looking for a video game that has some crossover with comic books. The included soundtrack is also another reason to look the game over, it has all tracks as ogg vorbis files (.ogg) and also the midi files in .MID format.

Spy sapped the 2016 election! But for Blue or for Red?

An unexpected but solid follow-up to the original single player card game adaptation with some new additions and improvements in your quest to defeat "Darkness".

This time around there are three overall stages instead of two and the setting is moved from infested-with-malice urban New York to an untamed infested-with-malice Mexican jungle guarding an Aztec temple within. With this transition in location comes some different enemies and obstacles more fitting to the "cultists and other worldly evil in the jungle" theme, along with a few new pieces of gear and equipment. Also there's some brief cut-scenes carrying the narrative forward between stages, not just a preface and an epitaph like in the first.

Overall the game is a worthy successor featuring the same brutal gameplay, relentless 60 minute timer mechanic, and unforgiving difficulty if played at the original hardness setting with some welcome new ingredients in the formula.

A great pickup if your searching in the underrepresented genre of card games for a single player!

I ran into gamebreaking bugs along the way but the uniqueness of the game encouraged me to troubleshoot and finish (which was possible with help from the internet).

There really hasn't been a game like it that I've encountered. The camera and audio effects tied to "sanity", the many scripted in-engine cutaways for notable scenes and events, its being in the classic Cthulhu setting and time period along with varied gameplay (obviously firstperson ranged and melee combat but also environment and inventory puzzles, platforming and also mandatory and othertimes optional stealth) revolving around a developed narrative with elaborative backstory material strewn about in the form of journals, letters, books and miscellania. All well presented visually and audibly in an adequate (for it's time and still decent) engine.

I'd have loved to experience the fullness of the creators vision, it's a shame this is reputed to be truncated.

It could have used some more polish and some of the small deficiencies include

• difficulty (this can be changed in Options however)
  
• the game can only be saved at save points (and they are sometimes sparsely placed)
  
• ammo scarcity (although this is likely by design catering to the horror genre)
  
• some of the puzzle solving requires copious running back and forth (agonizing sometimes if trying to stealth!)
  
• the stealth system gives you little feedback as to whether you are close to being detected other than trial and (lots of) error (although in time I got the hang of it)
  
• the terrain sometimes allows you to traverse vertically and when something other than a ladder is the visual cue this is not always apparent
  
• some of the puzzle points and objects are not easy to locate or identify (but this is generally true of all games with puzzle components)
  
  Personally I really enjoyed it but can understand the frustrations of those hung up by bugs. *Spoilers ahead.*
  I had to use the unofficial patch to get past the ocean faring level (the chanters) and then at the end the patch didn't work for the escape but setting the cpu affinity to one core allowed me to finish.
  If you don't understand what I just refered to and don't have the patience to research it if you run into bugs then you should think twice before purchasing this title. But if you think you can overcome the technical hurdles and aren't dissuaded by last-gen visuals you will get to experience a very immersive mystery/horror/adventure game that isn't afraid to try things that other games haven't done already.
  
  As to what the game does well, it was able to ellicit some authentic dread at times and that is a rarity for myself. The ambiance contributes to this from the very beginning and creates a feeling of isolation, unwelcome, and heightened suspicion amongst strangers that is very apropos. You encounter this from the initial embarkment but things continue to ramp up; the pace of exposure to negative mental stimuli was very measured and carefully crafted throughout the whole. The sound scape contributes a lot to this and is excellent thoughout (ambient sounds, footsteps, combat sounds, enemy sounds, environment sounds, etc). A nice touch are the sounds (and dialog) that greets you as you exit the game to the menu (and this varies). Some bit characters are merely adequately voiced but the voice acting is on balance very good, particularily with the recurring cast. The level maps are unique thoughout and a lot of care and detail was given to each due to the many scripted events and having the map reflect progressions in the plot. It takes sometime before you move beyond the general local of the beginning of the game but once you do it changes much more frequently, however the duration in the first locale is plot dependent and makes the change of location a median acheivement of the game as a whole. The second half is difficult to describe without spoilers, let's just say it's quite a journey. Visually I would call it adequate to good, the character models and textures are generally last-gen looking but are decent. There are definately some crazy moments in the game and the visual do not get in the way from creating the desired effects in the player (imo).
  
  For those who know how to do so this game can benefit from an ENB and/or SweetFX profile/s. I can attest both can work.
  
  Overall it is a unique game that despite some drawbacks offers a singular experience. I highly recommend it!