Best Wadjet Eye Game?

[Pumar]

Which is the best Wadjet Eye game? If I were to play one first I would like to play the best.
From outside techonobabilon, gemini rue, primordia a blackwell all seem interesting, but which is best for people that have already played?

From all Wadjet Eye games, which is your favorite?

[Mark Y.]

I'm pretty biased, but I think it really depends on what you're looking for.

In no particular order, here are a few thoughts. (I've written longer reviews of Resonance and Gemini Rue, if you check my profile.)

- Resonance, in my opinion, has the most innovations (the "short term memory" system in particular) and best puzzles.
- The Shivah has the most interesting concept (playing as a rabbi).
- Technobabylon is by far the longest and has gotten a lot of praise for how it deals with social justice issues.
- The Blackwell series has the virtue of being a long series, and since its center is the relationship between the leads (a medium and a ghost), you get to really watch that relationship grow and develop.
- Gemini Rue has the most exciting story (you're a trench-coated ex-assassin mercenary cop named Azriel Odin facing down neo-Yakuza across the galaxy) and Rise-of-the-Dragon-inspired shooting sequences.
- A Golden Wake has the most grounded "realistic" setting -- Prohibition-era Florida with no ghosts, robots, cyberpunk, or boxing rabbis.
- Shardlight is an allegorical struggle between wicked rich aristocrats and the downtrodden poor, a kind of comic book Les Miserables in a post-apocalyptic setting.

As for my own Primordia, I guess I would say its virtues are that the art has the strongest visual style, it probably has the heaviest dose of philosophy, and it has lots of robots, if that's your thing. :)

[Arator]

Primordia is my favorite with Technobabylon being a close second.

Resonance has indeed good puzzles, but playing multiple characters is not something that everyone enjoys, and it took me some time to get used to it. I'm currently playing Shardlight and so far i really like it.

As Mark said, all games are quite different and in the end it depends on your personal taste, but my vote goes towards Primordia.

[bliss]

I have finished them all and against all odds, all are truly enjoyable. Wadjet Eye has impressive taste in game design. There's no wrong choice and you are in safe hands with any of them, so I would recommend just reading the synopsis and looking at the trailer and screenshots to see which appeals to you.

Personally, I'm into sci-fi, dystopic and post-apocalyptic stories the most. I rate them as follows:

1. Primordia or Shardlight (I would have to replay both to decide)
   
2. Technobabylon
   
3. Gemini Rue
   
4. Resonance

Shardlight starts stronger than Primordia, but like Mark Y. said, Primordia is philosophically strong, and sticking with it pays off. Technobaylon is the best at exploring wild cyberpunk concepts. Gemini Rue is quite gloomy, and Resonance is the least consistent.

I had my reservations about Blackwell as I'm not interested in mysticism, the art is initially lower quality, and it's set in the boring old present day. However, it has excellent character relationship, puzzle design, and pace. I would recommend Blackwell if you like mystery / detective stories more than sci-fi.

[Pumar]

Well, I already own both technobabylon and Gemini rue, since both of those interested me, but I never got to play. While I hear great things about the game story and dialog, from watching the screenshots I always got bummed out by the 1980 style graphics and decided to play a prettier point and click from my backlog. While I loved the lucaa arts classics , I way prefer pretty graphics. The thing is all synopsys interest me, peharps should start with one the puzzles arent so hard, I hear techonobabylon got hard puzzles.

[bliss]

Yeah, I initially felt the same way. I wanted to play high-res games from Daedalic and Animation Arts. But the the WEG catalogue offers far better stories and game design, and you quickly become absorbed in that, and accustomed to the graphics.

I've actually began to really dig the graphics on some of them. Ben Chandler's pixel art is quite pretty I think. He did Blackwell Epiphany and Shardlight for example.

Well, if I were you I'd just try the ones you already have as soon as possible, then if you like them you can pick up the others before the Steam sale ends. Technobabylon has a couple of hard parts later on, but generally speaking I didn't perceive it as harder than the others.

[Mark Y.]

Pumar -- I think it is possible that after you play one or two, you will develop a taste for the art style, or at least the ability to tolerate it. :) In terms of graphics I think Primordia, Resonance, and Shardlight are the top three.

[wcc]

Okay, I'm here for the completely objective, unbiased review you were asking for:
1. Primordia – best story, lore, atmosphere, originality and overall depth
2. Gemini Rue – good story and atmosphere, but relies on a twist I could call before :(
3. Technobabylon – nice story and atmosphere, but relies on a twist everybody can call
Resonance keeps crashing, I could never play it.

[Francis]

Primordia is my favorite Wadjet Eye game so far. It had this depressing, yet awesome nice mix of apocalypse and happiness to it. And I liked the protagonist and sidekick very much. I loved the way he lives. Even they golden ending was happy in my eyes.

Gemini Rue was very nice. But didn't have many locations. Loved the feeling though.

Blackwell Series was extremely depressing from my point of world views. I mean death (real death!) seems the best thing that can happen in that universe. Everything else is "I have no mouth and I must scream"-ish

I'm still angry and bitter with Shardlight.^^ I liked the setting, but disliked those silly dressed government idiots (not the "love to hate" kind of villain) and the death of a certain cute character

Resonance... I liked it but I used a walkthrough, because I didn't feel much for the characters and the world. It was fun, but I had no patience to walk around in this game much longer. loved the twist though, since I didn't have much feelings for her and could enjoy what happened^^

Haven't played the other ones yet.

[wcc]

Since so many people mention the Blackwell Series. Maybe it's better than my impression was. But the portrait of the main characer was so unlikeable to me that I could never get immersed into the game, even after finishing all but the very last episode. :(

[SmackBlob]

I've played most of these games, and Technobabylon is the one that I think about the most often. Also, it has fantastic music. Unavowed is a close second in my mind. Great voice acting in that one, with very memorable characters

[lieutenantkirtar]

I know this is late but Primordia, Gemini Rue, and the Blackwell series are my favorite Wadjet Eye games so far (Haven't played Unavowed yet) I would say the Blackwell series might be the best to start with based on how it is rooted in modern day making it easier to get used to point and click mechanics using "normal" items. If you are already familiar with point and click games then any of them would be great.

Also glad I looked back at the previous games since it let me find out this dev is making another game Strangeland. Something else to look forward to.

[Mark Y.]

It's a good thing it took you this long to hear about it -- it's been a very slow dev cycle, and I worry we've tested the patience of even our very loyal fans. :)