Recent reviews by Bintoz

LIVE A LIVE is an enjoyable collection of short stories that are mostly renditions of well known stories and themes tied together by a generally satisfying final chapter that tells a story about how love can turn ambition into hatred and evil.
The gameplay is sometimes contributing the storytelling sometimes non existent but largely doesn't get in the way of telling the story. Only in the end the gameplay turns out to be more complex. It starts involved and almost difficult until it quickly turns tedious and finally boring. Thankfully you have reached the end by then.
Overall I really enjoyed my time with LIVE A LIVE and can only recommend it to fans of old school JRPGs that don't have the time or patience for a huge time sink, enjoy interesting stories and don't mind mostly easy gameplay.

The story has us follow the titular main character, Kathy Rain, as she uncovers a story about the death of a young girl in her family's hometown. Reconnected with her grandmother, through the death of her grandfather, Kathy re-discovers her family roots and unveils the involvement of her family in this mysterious story. The characters are extremely well written and relatable. I loved the relationship between Kathy and her friend E and hope they will get another case to work on together soon. The story is a good mix of mystery and supernatural; but what really shines here is the emotional story arc Kathy goes through, trying to understand motivations and secrets of past actions of her family.
The voice acting is professionally done and the voices fit the characters very well. Together with the rest of the audio, including music and sound effects, an amazing mood is set throughout the game that really fits the story.
The gameplay is pretty standard Point&Click inventory based puzzles, questioning characters on bullet points in a notebook and items, as well as the occasional section where puzzles, mostly number puzzles in form of riddles, have to be solved. It's all very fitting and complements the story.
The art of the locations and characters is very moody and beautifully drawn. The style is consistent with the look of old school Point&Click games of the VGA era. Sometimes the nods to these old games are, for me, a little too strong and that keeps the game from being truly exceptional.
Overall this game is top tier in it's category of AGS (Adventure Game Studio) Point&Click games developed by a small team. I like that the Director's Cut adds additional scenes and puzzles and overall improves on this great game.
This game won't make you like pixel Point&Click games but if you like those kind of games you will love this one!

The idea behind the story of A New Beginning is relatively interesting: time travel to prevent the world from "ending". The two main characters are Dr. Bent Svenson, a retired scientist, who is the world saviour "against his will" and Fay, woman from the future, who wants to save the world. Whereas Bent's character and backstory are written quite believably, Fay and her band of world saviours are full of character tropes and stay relatively bland. Although the story has its moments it stays generic.
The voice acting is professionally done. In the English version the voice actors fit the characters but it seems like all recording was done in just one take, without the actors having any clue of the context. In the German version the voice actors do a relatively good job but the actors don't really fit the characters except for Bent.
The gameplay of A New Beginning is pretty standard for Point&Click games. The inventory based puzzles are annoying, sometimes, when objects are missing because there was a totally random pixel that represented an important item, and forgettable, most of the time. The interesting parts are the "puzzle" sections where, relatively easy, logic puzzles have to be solved
What makes me give the game a recommendation is the art. The locations and characters are beautifully drawn and I like the graphic novel-style story sequences. Some of the animations are a little over the top but are generally well done and fitting.
Overall I would suggest this game to Point&Click fans looking for something new and who are interested in the story.

HELL IS A CLOSED DOOR

First, your puny bunch of adventurers are mowed down by seemingly unconquerable groups of enemies starting right from the first encounter. Then you face a ton of locked doors that get jammed by just looking at them and block the access to the rooms behind them forever. On top of that, this 'gameplay' is embedded in mechanics that are anything but obvious to a common modern player. However you don't give up and after spending hours reading through manuals and guides to create a party that has a chance to survive the first fights and repeated savescumming to open the doors the game throws at you, you spend the rest of the game staring at only one tile-set. It doesn't matter if you are in the castle, on a mountain, in the jungle or on a river you will see cobblestone floors and walls everywhere.
Now what is the appeal to play a game like that ? The beauty of this game is in its sophisticated turn-based fighting system (still unequalled by many “modern” games) beautifully designed monsters (considering the graphical limitations) and interesting, engaging story (It is rather cryptic though and you are mainly left to fill in the gaps with your own fantasy).
So if the downsides don't discourage you and creating your own story that liberates itself from being contained in your computer may tickle your interest, grab a pencil and graphing paper, print out the manual and experience a highlight of RPG gaming.

(Title is borrowed from the 1st gameplay video of a Let's Play series of Wizardry 6 by DoctorPirx)

A love-letter to Quest for Glory that delivers in every aspect.
The guys at Infamous Quests got it right with this game. It is reminiscent of the good old games without feeling the need to recite them word for word. Beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds and character portraits, an interesting, funny story with memorable characters and true old-school mechanics. I am especially impressed by the feeling of epic scale and freedom in the vast lands of Quest for Infamy. I would however love if the developers could make the RPG elements more relevant to the game play. I also think it would be a great addition to include a female character option for the main protagonist in the next game.
Overall the feeling of interaction in such a grand world that lets me choose what to do next combined with a tounge-in-cheek story that never feels ridiculous sent me on an unforgettable adventure that fills my heart with joy! Thank you Infamous Quests.