Ellingby House

How in hell is this a free game, I will never understand :D Extremely high production value - great graphics, great sounds, pretty good FMV sequences - the only gripe I have are the original myst like movement system and the inability to skip animations, but all in all I throuroughly enjoyed 92% of the 6h it took me to complete the game :) Highly recommended!

Overall, a fun game to play. I played it in one setting because I got really invested in it and wanted to see things through to the end. As an inheritor of the Myst style of gameplay, it definitely brought back some nostalgia from the game while being in a modern setting. The puzzles were fun, sometimes a bit challenging, though it's mostly because it took me some time to adapt to them. Most of the things that did not make sense at first in the game itself were eventually explained through the story, tying of all the things we encounter together in a nice, easy to understand way. Speaking of the story, it touches on something very modern and tied to the current world. Even for people who don't necessarily know a lot about finances and digital currencies, things are explained clearly and make a lot of sense. The situation presented is realistic, though naturally not showing an everyday occurence. I will gladly give a pass regarding the use of some synthetic voices, notably at the beginning of the game, as this is offset by the work done by the actors and voice actors. While the mix of 3D and live-action did feel a bit janky in some rare occurences, the acting made up for it and i…

Above all, this was a really fun and well-made game. The puzzles were difficult but followed clear logic, the story was compelling, the acting was well done and thoughtfully used, and I love the little optional "collectables" for achievements. The only negative thing I have to say about it unfortunately nearly prevented me from playing the game entirely. I had to stop myself from turning it off in the opening cut scene when the montage of AI voices reading headlines played. The AI disclosure claims they are real voice performances altered with AI to "protect the actors' privacy" which is a completely baffling explanation. They're actors, not states witnesses; the concept of privacy in this regard is diametrically opposed to the profession, to say nothing of the staggering privacy concerns surrounding uploading your voice into an AI model. Beyond that, these "performances" all had the stilted, mechanical cadence of poorly made llm voice agents that makes me question if a human ever spoke these lines into a microphone. And beyond all of that, none of it was necessary. All of the information could have easily been conveyed in newspaper headlines or other forms of text and would ha…

Fun little Myst inspired interaction point & click mystery. Some rough edges, would be nice to skip animations, especially after initial viewing, but overall a well constructed puzzle game. Easily worth the price as its free now.

I like it.

Why would this game ever be free