Great potential spoiled by timed puzzels and ridiculous situations.

User Rating: 6.5 | Next Life PC
This game had so much potential; it has great graphics and a fairly unique and interesting story, however it's spoiled by:

1. Timed puzzles, timed puzzles and adventure games don't match - period. This is because as a player you not only have to find a solution to a problem, but you also have to figure out the solution that the programmers were thinking about... And when you've replayed the same scenario for the 10th time you start to get slightly pissed...

2. Ridicules situations. Let me give you an example; the main character is trapped in a car that's about to be hit by a train. I don't know about you but I would tear off the seatbelt, smash any window and just get the heck out of there. But instead our main character prefers to just sit there complaining that the seat belt won't open… waiting to die. For God's sake... just crawl under the seatbelt or something....

Let me give you own more; I spent 20 min figuring out the solution to a puzzle until I resorted to a guide. Then it turns out there's a hidden frame with a workers helmet, that was essential for solving the puzzle, that I didn't see. If I had been there in person I would have seen the helmet plain as day, but here in the game I had to walk to the bottom corner of the screen in order for it to magically shift to a new location that wasn't in any way previously indicated before, ridiculous...

Still not convinced? Let me give you one more then, later our main character find himself trapped in car wreck that's on fire (how does he manage?). Suddenly a completely illogical timed mini-puzzle appears that I'm supposed to solve... Only – there's no explanation how to solve it and I can't even figure out how to do it. So instead our "hero" is slowly roasted.... still trapped by the same seatbelt as before... Jesus....

3. The voice acting is one of the worst I've ever heard in game, ever.

4. You awake more than once to the same area, but on a new day. This is fine but every time you do so the camera changes to a new angle for every location in the area. This may not seem like much but it makes it hell to navigate the place since you have to re-learn where all the hot-spots are and how to get where you want to go all the time. It's just plain annoying and adds absolutely nothing to the game.

So yes - this game had a lot of potential but it's completely ruined by the above flaws, someone at The Adventure Company didn't do their work here. Games are supposed to be fun to play, not frustrate the players into wanting to hit something.