Mechanic 8230: Escape from Ilgrot

[h3] Entertaining story ... [/h3] Played chapter 1, the release of chapter 2 is imminent. The graphics are well done and the puzzles are not too hard. Everything was really enjoyable. The only negative I have is that some of the scenarios are a bit too dark in places to clearly see objects. I had to brighten up my screen quite a bit.

[*][b]Visuals[/b]: For me, the aesthetics were the highlight of this game. The 2D and 3D art/designs were all super charming. The robotic vibe reminded me a lot of Machinarium. [*][b]Gameplay[/b]: Just a chill point n' click experience. Some decent puzzles, but mostly pretty easy. This is probably a good game for people who don't have much experience with point n' click and puzzles. There was one puzzle involving some little light bulbs which I didn't quite understand the logic of. [*][b]Story[/b]: I wasn't particularly engaged in the story. It was very simple, but I did like some of the characters. The writing sounded a bit clunky, perhaps due to the fact that the game was made in Moldova, and accurate translations are probably difficult for small indies that don't have a huge budget to work with. It's also worth noting that Escape from Ilgrot is episode 1 of Mechanic 8230. Mission Citytone is ep2, and is not yet released at the time of writing. [*][b]Audio[/b]: I liked the music and think it was apt for the atmosphere. There were some constantly-repeating sound effects that were a bit distracting and unpleasant (vacuum-cleaner robot, welding droid). I had to turn the volume do…

EDITED I dig this game, but sometimes I press the mouse bottum and I get a double click, so the puzzle in which I need to add 12 is impossible to beat. I admire the game's vision, but some puzzles are a bit too abstract and don't connect with the whole atmosphere. It's a really great indie game, and I'm not sure if the problems I mentioned are with my mouse or not. After a developer's response to my review, I grabbed an old mouse lying around here and tried again. So yeah, the problem was with it. After beating the game, I can only admire the developer's vision and care. Even though some puzzles can be pretty frustrating (and I'm not really a point and click enthusiast), the game is filled with personality and the artwork is truly great. For the sequence I'd suggest changing the 'error' sound when the player misses something, and that's pretty much it. I teach Videogame Culture at an University and I'll recommend this game to my students.

I like it

A decent little point and click game that won't take too long to beat, and requires to use some problem solving abilities, and only a little bit of moon logic for some of the puzzles (maybe moon-logic is incorrect, but more 'unexpected things happening that seem to have no correlation with each other). The biggest issue I had with the game was some of the user-experience elements. specifically how the order of the inventory changes depending on what your last item used was. There were a few moments where I wasn't entirely sure what the game wanted me to do, so was trying to use each item on every other item, but as they kept swapping around, it made it a little harder to keep track. Though t he biggest UX issue was the auto-advancing text boxes with no option to disable this. While there are text boxes that are part of a cutscene (indicated by an egg timer curser) that will advance auttomatically, there are regular boxes that seem to require a button press to advance, unless you wait too long, and it'll advance anway. Just a weird choice. Not sure what objection there would be to having the player dictate how long the text is on for, as you don't really gain any advantage from …

Intriguing little world, great storytelling, awesome art direction, fun gameplay, it's a solid YES specially if you get it on sale! :)