Eve Williams And The Secret Of The Trunk

Eve Williams And The Secret Of The Trunk is a classic-modern adventure game with 3D-rendered characters and backgrounds, evoking memories of the second golden age of point&click games. The verdict: Generally recommended if you like the genre, but with one major caveat. The pros: [list] [*]Well-written story [*]Very nice character design [*]Unique cel-shaded art style [*]Multiple endings (presumably, only unlocked one so far) [/list] The mehs: [list] [*]Relatively short, but length was ok for the price [*]QTEs are mostly very easy [*]Some animations feel stiff and out of place [*]Perspective mismatch between character sprites and some scenes [/list] The cons: [list] [*]AI-generated voice-over [/list] Yes, most of the voices were generated by ML models. It wasn't particularly noticeable at first, but the numerous mismatched phonemes, inconsistent stress and modulation, plus weird noises, made it extremely obvious (and annoying) towards the end. In retrospective, I'd have preferred no voices at all. I hope the developer takes this into consideration for their next games.

[h1]Eve Williams’ first outing is a gem💎[/h1] [h3]If you liked the demo, you will enjoy the rest of the game.[/h3] There’s something special about [i]The Secret of the Trunk[/i]. The worldbuilding is excellent; the environments have a consistency of design; the characters’ motivations resonate; and the scenes have a range of emotions from chill and laidback to nail-biting and intense. I enjoyed interacting with the game’s world. This is a grounded cyberpunk setting that is comprehendible. I found [i]The Trunk[/i] to be refreshingly bereft of any ‘moon logic’ type of puzzle design. The game is mostly about exploring, interacting with the environments, and talking to characters. There are a few quick-time style action scenes, and while I usually don’t like QT action scenes—after the latest patch’s adjustments—I thought that they were tastefully done and added some nice spice. They occurred sparingly enough as to not outwear their welcome. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by my time spent with [i]Eve Williams[/i]. The experience held up the whole way through. [h2]Pros:[/h2] [list] [*][h3]Unique art and aesthetic:[/h3] The architecture; the vehicles; the environments; the fas…

This is a fun, well-written point-and-click adventure game. I enjoyed it quite a lot.

I really liked the game. The characters are likeable, especially the charismatic protagonist. There are characters who seem boring at first but become interesting as the story progresses. The plot is interesting and sometimes surprising. A huge plus is the presence of romantic lines. The level of complexity of the riddles is gradually increasing, but in general, everything can be solved. As a person who is not very good at solving puzzles, I managed to complete almost the entire game without guides. Among the minuses, I want to highlight the riddles in the final location; they seemed to me illogical and greatly slowed down the ending. There was an impression that the plot was speeding up and the gameplay, on the contrary, was slowing down. One more thing—not entirely minus, but it seemed strange. The technology, especially the cars, looks like it was collected from different eras. Some cars look like they are from our time, while others look very futuristic. Perhaps there is some kind of artistic idea in this, but it caught my eye. Otherwise, the game is very good. I really want to see more adventures of Eve Williams.

This was a nice adventure. More than ever, I appreciate the immense effort it takes for a solo or small developer to deliver a complete story and game. The gameplay is retro-style in a good way. I'm not nostalgic—I usually prefer modern adventure games—but the developer skillfully blends modern narrative priorities with old-school puzzle solving. The key difference is that the puzzles are more compact and faster to understand, avoiding the clutter of too many hotspots per scene. This results in good pacing, which is just right for a detective story. It's simple sci-fi; the future is little more than a backdrop for (currently) unrealistic events, but that's perfectly fine. Eve is a likable character, even if she's basically a male P.I. trope with... female assets? Think of the original Lara Croft, but Eve has a better sense of humor and less money. Yes, there are AI voices, and they are bad. However, you somehow get used to them. It reminded me of the awful dubbing in games from years ago, which oddly amplified the retro feeling—that bittersweet sensation, like a guilty pleasure. The graphics are basic, but they're still cool because they fit the project's scope, and you know th…

Let's start with the most important part: I've just finished the game and I feel satisfyingly entertained. I was looking for a quick dose of cyberpunk and point & click adventure and I certainly got my money's worth. Everything else I say should be viewed against that background, it's minor niggling and only intended to encourage the creator to create more and even better games in the future! [hr][/hr] As a programmer who has dabbled in game-making myself I know first-hand the difficulties of making suitable art and I think the solution of having pre-rendered backgrounds and cel-shaded characters on top works surprisingly well, there's the usual issues with walkable areas and proper z-layering, but nothing I found too annoying. The game is fully voiced and I applaud leaning into the VAs german accents by setting the game in Germany; However a lot of the minor character voices are synthetic (so probably "AI", but maybe one of the older voice synths) and they neither work particularly well, nor do I like seeing too much "AI art" (or something easily mistaken for it). I think the game would've been better served by simply not voicing those characters, plenty of adventures hav…