The Castle (2019)

I had to look up a lot of stuff to get my 1st ending, but i feel like that's when the good stuff really begins and--much like GTAV side quests--they only get more obscure and weird the further you get into it. A masterpiece that exceeds its inspiration in some ways. Really looking forward to what's next...

Typos. Translation issues. The nine-verb interface is cumbersome and unwelcome, since most of the interactions will just result in a generic "no" response. The player character is unfortunately a hotspot and will often stand in the way of stuff I am trying to click on. I can't "open" the curtain to open the curtain, but I can "push" the curtain to open the curtain. Cool.

This is a homage to classic Maniac Mansion, in every sense. So basically you have a selection of various characters with different skills, the choice of who goes to the castle is going to block some puzzles and enable others, but at no point is the game adjusted for this. You can still get every item even if you cannot use it to solve any puzzle, red herrings are not removed. This is similar to Maniac Mansion of course. The setting and plot is similar, you go to the castle to vanquish some vampires. There's a master vampire who acts as the final boss. Depending on how you beat him you get one of the possible 5 endings, some of them require very obscure and moonlogic puzzles. Similar to MM, there's a character who can roam the mansion from time to time and can capture you. This time you can choose between 3 different prison places. Also, beware that it's possible to get killed. One of the endings, the hardest one, involves getting killed at some point. Expect to be roaming the castle a lot, trying to guess what is needed for the next puzzle. It's a really hard game and almost impossible without hints or a guide, at least if you want to see every ending. It's a hard re…

This is a hard review for me, because I'm a huge fan of MM and NotT, and you can tell this solo developer is too. You can tell they put thought into their design, and lovingly re-created a Maniac Mansion LOOK and EXPERIENCE. However, this game lacks almost all of the charm of the inspirational material. Wacky characters, all act the same, and say "bad idea" over and over again when you try this on that. They don't say "no way" or "not a chance" or "it's against my code" or anything like that- just "bad idea." Variety is the spice, and this game just simply feels lifeless. None of the characters interactive that differently outside of opening lines after playing three teams, outside of the Bernard analog who runs from scary rooms, and there doesn't seem to be nearly as many branching options with different characters or clever diversions away from the main narrative, of which there really isn't any. Villagers gather outside of a pretty familiar but well-illustrated castle in Transylvania, but they're idiots and ill-prepared. For some reason, your main character (the Dave analogue, since this game only has pod-person versions of their obvious inspiration) lies and says he's a profes…

very good. it has the magic adventure gamers are looking for. the art is superb as well.

No point in beating around the bush: this game owes much to Maniac Mansion. To clarifiy, it's a graphic adventure where the player leads a trio of unlikely heroes (chosen among a bigger pool) to explore a creepy mansion avoiding its ghastly occupants. That's the plot in a nutshell. The gameplay is a classic point-and-click but the difficuly is very high and there is little room for mistakes, as more than one party will be totally wiped out or simply get to a point where the game is unwinnable by design. This could prove frustrating for players who grew up with more forgiving titles (e.g. the Monkey Island saga), but also very satisfying for hardcore puzzle solvers. The solutions are always "logic", though. Long story short: only buy it if you want to dive thirty years in the past and use up all of the save slots.