The Crimson Diamond

The Crimson Diamond is an absolutely fantastic game. It breaks the barrier of the adventure game genre in so many ways and is quietly revealing itself to be so ambitious, it is doing itself a bit of a disservice by stating on the store front that it is a “retro-inspired, EGA text parser mystery adventure”. It may look retro with the beautiful and intricately animated graphics, but what you got in here is something that LA Noire and many other games merely dreamed to achieve. And not only is it a joy to play: the writing is so funny, so precious! I said earlier the game was ambitious: it is ambitious in its design, not in its plot, which is thankfully quite easy to follow. I contemplated buying this game for over a year. I regret not having jumped earlier: this is definitely one of my favourite gaming experiences ever, that I will place cherishly next to Dark Souls and the original Sid Meier's Pirates on my virtual shelf of gaming design brilliance. And if you're a bit daunted by the parser like I was, trust me and do not be! this parser is not a cold enemy like in most games using one; it is your friend, willing to help you in times of need. Bravo! BRAVO! BRAV--okay I'll sto…

A lovely homage to old adventure games that manages to be its own thing at the same time. The puzzles were fun to solve and mostly followed a pretty clear logic. I did have to use the guide a couple times to progress, but mostly because I didn't want to be stuck for too long. The text parsing will be annoying if you are not putting your full attention into what the game is telling and showing you. What I really enjoyed was that there some things you have to do to get through the main plot, so you are kinda guaranteed to get a general gist of the story, but at the same time a lot of optional secrets are hidden away throughout the game. Even better, the hintbook included in the game will let you choose whether you want help just with the main progression or with misssable things as well. I think the part I enjoyed the least was the dialogue and characterisation. It felt a bit too simple, although the general vibe of the story still felt surprisingly uplifting despite it being a murder mystery. A solid 8/10 experience for what it is.

Great mystery with a shocking amount of things to find on repeat playthroughs. The text parser is well done, I was sometimes surprised by being allowed to do really specific commands and only rarely had to retype the same command with different wording to get the parser to accept it. One drawback, navigating the world is a little annoying because you have to enter the command "o d" every time you want to open a door.

It is what I hoped it would be. I only found out about this game by listening to the Adventurers Guile Podcast. Love the vibes of the game!

I tried THE CRIMSON DIAMOND because I'd never played a text parser adventure game; I thought a modern one without the troubles of the "classics" would be fun. Besides, there are so few games set in early 20th century Canada! The EGA style was also a change of pace. What you get is a game which mixes LucasArts style no-dead end puzzle chains with Sierra-style missable puzzles, with that evdeince affecting how much of the crime you solve and your decisions affecting the ending. It's a good time. It helped me get the appeal of text parsers, rewarding out-of-the-box thinking; in one instance, I solved something by writing "smell" as a last ditch effort. The downside is the very same thing. The story is entertaining; playing detective and mineralogist, you'll need a book to keep track of evidence and lines of inquiry. I have a handful of small criticisms, but the complexity of the plot keeps things entertaining. I also love—love—when a main menu's significance becomes apparent. I don't think I'm necessarily up for a lot of text parsers, but I'm happy I got to play this one. Very talented dev and a fun game. You should play it.

This feels like a homage to those early EGA Sierra games with the text parsers. Clearly inspired by that genre and holds very true.