Frank and Drake

I recently completed my first playthrough of Frank and Drake, and I have mixed feelings, though the experience was generally positive. The absolute highlight for me is the visual presentation. The rotoscoped animation is stunning and gives the game a very unique, almost dreamlike atmosphere that sets it apart from other narrative adventures. It’s clear that a lot of heart went into the artistic direction of Oriole City. Regarding the gameplay, it took me some time to get used to the very specific rhythm. The pacing is quite slow, and the way you switch between Frank during the day and Drake at night creates an unusual flow that requires some patience. However, once I adapted to this 'quiet' pulse, I found the investigative aspect and the communication via sticky notes quite charming and entertaining for a first run. My main critique lies with the story. While the setup and the supernatural mystery are intriguing at first, I felt that the narrative became rather far-fetched toward the end. The conclusion felt a bit forced, which unfortunately dampened my interest in exploring the other branching paths or multiple endings. In summary: I don't think I will play it a second time, b…

The artistic aspects—the graphics and the music—are really good. The story isn't bad either; it's average. However, there are a lot of branching paths in the game, and you'd have to replay it over and over if you want to fully understand the story. It takes about 6 playthroughs; I did 2, and that was enough. I think it would have been better if the game were longer, with fewer choices, and you only had to play through it twice at most. More weird, deep games: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45665580-Dark-Surreal-Ps1Grafics-Weird-Deep-Games/

Frank and Drake deserves more attention, if only for how much love and creativity went into it - it's a work of art. A playthrough only takes about three hours but you need several playthroughs to actually unravel the mystery for yourself. Luckily the playthroughs are wildly different depending on the choices you make, and even on my third playthrough I was still discovering some huge plot points I didn't even know about before. There's a lot of detail and things to discover. The experience is elevated by original art, gorgeous music, and immersive storytelling. I found most puzzles actually enjoyable and the right amount of challenging (not way too easy like in many story driven games). The setting is gothic and relies heavily on supernatural aspects, which I really liked but which may be a matter of taste. The only real problem I had with the game is that nothing is skippable. This was no problem on my first or even second playthrough, but since the game has six endings, and there's only so much choices you can make, it would be nice to not have to go through the same cutscenes again and again (as good as they may be). Even though I would love to find everything, after four …

so confusing and disappointing. have given it 2 tries and i'm even more confused after playing for nearly 4 hours than i was when i first picked it up. controls on steam deck are nearly impossible- the cursor is pulled around making the level of accuracy needed to complete a puzzle too high. art style isn't great and makes me kind of nauseous. main complaint is that there are no instructions or hints for any of the puzzles, and no help online for all the branching endings. would definitely not recommend.

Unable to end even the first day due a 'known issue' which appears when you don't solve the word-riddle during the day, so you can't note it into your diary which leads to the issue, that you can't leave it as note for drake AND can't end the day. Nice

I'm the type to love narrative games and there are good things about this one. I loved the rotoscope animation and the soundtrack for instance. But everything else either felt like it came out of nowhere, the puzzles were confusing, the UI was annoying and having to go back through it multiple times to fully understand the plot sounds annoying, I also didn't understand the relationship system. It's not a terrible game and it has good qualities, but overall I can't recommend it, sadly.