It Returned To The Desert

Came here due to nostalgia and discussion of the game in "Stay Forever" podcast. Loved the game, I really enjoyed this and it certainly brought back quite some old memories (although many things really play quite differently). Thanks for putting the work in this, I would recommend. Final battle was quite challenging though, that almost drove me nuts :)

Wonderful little game, no doubt. It's inspired by a similarly named title for Amiga/MS-DOS called It Came from the Desert. The game follows a scientist sent to investigate a meteorite that fell near a town, and of course, it will all unfold with giant ants. We have a limited number of days to complete various tasks like investigating, recruiting civilians, gathering equipment, etc. The gameplay is based on time management, with turn-based combat and several minigames relevant to the story. It's great and well worth playing. I ran into some bugs, but nothing that saving frequently couldn't fix. EDIT: Game received an update about those bugs. [quote] [i] Check [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44959158-Critiques-Sans-Frontiers/] our curator page [/url] to discover more underated games like this one. [/i] [/quote]

Really enjoying it but I can’t get the controls on the driving sections to work properly on steam deck 😭

A bit rough round the edges but overall a good homage to the Cinemaware originals.

It Returned To The Desert is a fun romp that takes you back to the Cinemaware days of classic gaming. It's done with a modern engine but has the retro look of the old game. Instead of hand made pixel art it's 3D scenes with a filter. Not as effective but it's a nice touch. You play as a new scientist arriving at the town of Glint Rock to study a meteor that's fallen and through interactions with the people of the town uncover the secrets. This is a spiritual successor to the classic It Came From the Desert by Cinemaware made in 1989. The game has all of the elements of the original being a point & click adventure game with FPS and overhead elements. Tim Rachor does a great job evoking the original game but with his own twist. It's a great adventure to visit the town of Glint Rock and discover what's going on in the town.

I think this is a cheap and cheerful game for fans of the original, they definitely capture some of the feel of ICFTD, but perhaps carry a little too much of the frustrations too. Cons: - The map could do with being zoomed out a little more. - It's not really possible to complete in one go without replays, you will very likely fail your first playthrough. This is fine in some ways as it's quite short, but I couldn't see how I could have been faster given that a lot of events seem completely random, or happen at very specific times of day. This was ok back then but I don't have the patience for replays any more. - Flying sections had frustrating controls and no practice runs. Combined with a short time limit and the fact that you can only try once per day, this was annoying, faithful to the 90s but annoying today. - Trying to find an event trigger on the map feels very random, especially at the beginning. There's a lot of travelling to locations with nothing going on and no clues as to where to go next. Pros: - I liked the turn-based combat, excellent addition. - Recruit management was cool, I liked being able to assign jobs and equip weapons and items. - Captured the feeling o…