I just wrote an overall enthusiastic review about part 3 of the series "Shades of Fall", which I finished on Saturday. Since tonight there is a fantasy selling I just tried out the first part hoping it would be a as good.
While playing the demo I began to become aware, that I had already played it once and didn't like it all. I began to remember why: All those flowers, too much colour, covering what means to me the essence. Not clear, not crisp. Which could be said about the game play as well. When the cursor changes to the magnyfiying glass, it doesn't zoom in the scene. Just sometimes. This means this doesn't really make a difference, and I get bored.
It's just my own preference. Many many people like this game.
For me it's just a big Thx to the developpers for developping !!
I am not so much into fantasy games, because the look is often so "girlie" with too much candy colours, and the stories are one like the other. "Spirits of Mystery: Song of the Phoenix" was an exception for me, which I liked very much and played several times. Now "Otherworld: Shades of Fall" is even better. For me it's just the right amount of pink and violet, which I can bear. The story isn't so interesting. But the graphics blew me away. There is so much love in it. The nicest graphics I have ever seen in a game like this.
The gameplay blew me away too, because it's so original how you make your way. The given tasks are logical with only some back and forth in limited areas and include a lot of creative stuff I had not seen so far. Sometimes surprising with games within games, with puzzles which seem to be new (though often they are just new interpretations of old ones). HOS are of great variety, some listed items, but there's always more to it.
For me it's a very lovable game which has a cuteness which I like i.e. find bearable and great creativeness. Puzzles could have sometimes been a bit harder. There is a map but no journal, but you can change your inventory to a journal, which includes kind of photos, notes, images, clues, which - when necessary - will also appear automatically.
Since this is the first game in the series, which I have played, I am really looking forward to the first two, which some say here are even better.