izigame.me

TLDR: too drown out with little reward for the tedium, the second game is much better in terms of puzzles and pasing and you won't miss out on story (the sequel has a recap button).
Maps are lengthy and bore you with the need to go from here to there multiple times. and Kate walks and runs slow, and uses stairs and ladders very slow, you can't skip the animation (you have to trust in developers' good will that they'll skip unneccessary animation, which happens with perfection exactly ONCE, at a blimp). The puzzles are either easy (fetch-quests basically) or hard because of lack of clear direction. Well, there are two good puzzles: making a drink for Elena and making legs for Oscar (this one is good, because of the way a hint is used in an NPC's dialogue). Key items and possible paths blend in and are hard to notice (I pulled up a guide multiple times because of this). Also you have a puzzle that is either intentionally reqiures a brutforce or was made very easy to brutorce. The cursor system for the game is a blessing and a curse - on one hand you will always know what interacts with what, avoiding typical point-and-click stupidity, on the other there are so little stuff to interact with and little insight into lore and puzzles, with no sense of discovery (which could've been compencated for with an accent on dialogue and searching areas, but...) the 'notepad' way of dialogue is good on paper, but very tedious since you don't know which option gives you a new piece of information, or which will be different because of information you have (something which was fixed in the sequel).
The writing is ok, I guess, nothing special, but filled with 'tell-don't-imply in your face' moments. The story is of Holywood quality (that is to say, with lots of unnecessary hysterical drama. The height of this absurdity is a former Soviet factory director, a sofisticated killer maniac (that's in the game!)). The setting idiosyncrastically switches from realistic to fantastic (clockpunk and imaginary 'aestetic' towns - New York, love drama, swiss inheritance laws - well, at least it's what I think they went with - in Switzerland you don't have to claim an estate, you have to disclaim it in three months - after which the estate and its debt is yours). The phone calls part of the story is the worst, which could be partially blamed on the fact that I lazily played with horrid Russian dub on, but only partially.
Sound design is excellent. Music is good, although most of your time playing will be filled with ambience (which is not a bad thing). The graphics are a e s t e t i q u e (kitchen-sink aestetique), of course, but sometimes dissonate with the narrative (where is the town around the fabric? where is the fabric, also? Where is the rest of Aralabad? Where are the suites in the hotel (I guess, in the wine glass corridor, but there is no staircase and I cannot explore further the empty space - something the game has no problem allowing (the first hotel - the extra room are there, even if there is no narrative need for it, its just and empty corridor, so what was the problem?)
As a Russian, I apreciate a lack of stereotypes typical for western media, although the inattentiveness to details transforms some parts of the story into a farce, an attempt to imitate without understanding (like a very unusual for the 70s characteristic of Hans' inventions as "counter-revolutionary" (also Hans fleed a few days before the test (the document I'm talking about seems like a cover-up) but wasn't declared missing? And he wasn't found even if he left his name in a hotel's guestbook? what did Hans do between 1979 and 1981? lived like a hobo?) or how the heck the director is in possession of the factory (which is closed? thus it must have been declared bancrupt? and sold as scrap? who declared bancrupcy - the state or a new owner? did the director became new owner and how? It seems the authors knew about the 'industrial crush' in Russia, but didn't know how and why it happened, so the factory just magically closed one day - a force of nature!) or a mechanical blimp! between Ukraine and Middle Asia! in the 70s! which functions 30 years after! Also Hans cannot be an heir, he is OFFICIALLY dead, there is a certificate, and unless he personally contests it, he is legaly dead and the factory is with no heir. No lawyer would chase a goose across Russia because there's a possibility an heir is alive. Does the Swiss government really wants him to inherit his sister's debt? Also-also, why didn't Anna make a will when she knew she was dying? She could invite the notary to her and make a will with his help, plus they are friends! She could make it oral at least! Also-also-also, the ending is the definition of anticlimactic.
Most characters are one-trick-ponies in terms of character and voice acting ranges from good to passable. Kate is your usual hallmark christmas girlboss (with the accent on 'girl'). The others are: nasty evil ones, posh official ones, quirky ones, quirky evil one, an old lady and a scientist. They aren't over the top (except for nasty), they are rather bland, dull and/or annoying. Although, there are three characters whom I like: the notary (because of voice-acting, almost the only one with a decent Russian acting, too), Oscar (a mechanical AI that insist on being a machine but clearly is capable of emotion, c'mon guys!) and the drunk cosmonaut (it's like I can feel his feel; also for this one the Russian voice-acting is much better - the english one is ok, but too bland for my liking). Why almost every man is hitting on Kate though (not only the 'bad' ones)?