I buy and play almost EVERY P&C adventure game that comes out and have been a fan since the Lucas Arts days with games like Indiana JOnes and the Fate of Atlantis etc... So naturally I gave this a shot... I am sorry its just not good . The voice acting is bad, the characters sound like they were typed in and auto spoken with microsof sam...that plus the characters are boring the puzzles are typical and its not fun enough to get me beyond the early start without getting so bored I shut it off.

I REALLY love adventure games...look at my library but this is no Monkey Island and pales to comapre to anything from Wadjet Eye or Daedlic... save your money for a better game.

To recommend or not to recommend...

This short adventure was created by a single person and is their first release. As such, it's no Return to Zork. Yet it has a low price and the developer is active and has responded to feedback with updates and edits. So should yo buy the game?

Yes, if you:
* like classic adventure games
* want a quick game that isn't too difficult
* want to support a new developer who is making a genuine effort

No, if you:
* hate short games
* expect perfection
* don't like classic adventure interfaces

The game can be completed in half an hour, and while there is nothing spectacular about the story, music, or artwork, it's still pretty impressive for just one guy. I've seen worse games from full studios. This llama approves.

1/5 Simply not worth it

I feel sorry downvoting a point and click adventure, but I have to do it this time. This isn't a horrible game, I think the designer is on a good track, but I felt like playing more of an experiment rather than a real game sold up here. I finished it in less than 1hr with no effort, and for 5€ this is insufficient.

What's good: I like the style of the graphics, it also fits the whole atmosphere of the game. I liked the sound effects and the music too.

Unfortunately, the rest is poorly executed.
First of all there is barely a plot, which is a big problem for a point and click adventure. The entire game ends without explaining much, and the general feeling of this experience is of a game that is trying hard, really hard, to accomplish something (being funny, consistent), but falls short.
Talking about the gameplay instead: the animations are clunky, they need to be smoothed over. Horizontal scrolling needs a logical rework (every time you click on the screen the character stops). Even though voices are good and clear, they are ruined by dubbing. Dubbing is out of sync most of the time and sentences between characters are separated by way too long pauses. Subtitles are fixed in the top center of the screen, which can be disturbing.

I see potential in the guy that developed this, but this is not enough for recommending this kind of product as of now.

This isn't terrible, but at the same time it isn't good enough for a positive feedback. The voice acting is pretty bad, the text positioning is really poor during choosing what to say, The game is far too short and the puzzles are too easy. I think this is the dev's first effort of a game and for that alone I don't think it is that bad. I will also add that for the length of the game, I would be unhappy paying the stated price. (I got this for free).I have been playing pnc games since the Amiga days and it is my favourite game genre, I may be a little critical of this game, but I am only being honest. The voice acting and text positioning for me ruined it, there is a lot more about this game I would class as poor, but I won't due to it being the first game for the dev.

My Score - 2/10

Now, I was pleasantly surprised with this game's graphics, sound and music - they are of quite high quality, especially the backdrops and music, which were both very nice, and fit each other very well. All dialogues are also fully voiced (with the exception of a few here 'n' there - not sure if that's due to a bug causing the sound to not activate, or whether the developer just didn't insert audio files for those particular sentences, for whatever reason), including your character's commentary on every single interactive item.

But this game was far too short, and ended really abruptly. And I mean really. I seriously thought the plot was just about to thicken, and we were about to enter the 2nd chapter, when suddenly "The End" appeared. I literally was like, HUH????

To be fair, the story itself is resolved. But the whole gaming experience ended up being unsatisfying because of how little gameplay was involved, and how rushed (and a bit absurd) the ending felt. Things might have been better if there were a longer lead-in to the conclusion.

My total actual playtime was only around 30 minutes. (I left the game running while going to get lunch and doing a few other things.) I would say you could complete this game in maybe 15 minutes or so, if you didn't have to wait for your character to walk sloooooowly from one place to the next. There's no way to adjust walking speed btw, and you also can't fast-travel between locations.

While there were many minor but irksome issues with user ergonomics (such as having to click specifically on "Skip" to fast-forward dialogue, instead of being able to click anywhere on the screen, for instance), as well as some bugs (like the Tiki Bar waiter whom you can still talk to even though he's supposed to have left the screen), the biggest issue for me was that everything ends just as it's getting better. Just when you're just starting to feel comfortably settled in this gorgeous virtual world you've been transported to, you are suddenly, forcefully yanked out of it. It's not a nice feeling at all.

I also hated the main character's (the guy you play) voice acting. It was excruciatingly slow and completely expressionless. All the other characters in the game were voiced so much better.

I'd like to see more stuff from this developer. I think the potential to produce a really awesome point-&-click adventure game is there. Bayou Island was a miss for me because of all the abovementioned reasons, but I did have fun playing it and I have no doubt - if the same high production values are adhered to - that future products by this developer will be a hit if the same mistakes are avoided.

No boats were harmed in the making of this review.

You play a cruise ship captain named Chris that somehow arrived at this mysterious island. How did you get here? Where is your boat? Explore to find various odd ball characters and items to find out.

As you talk to the other residents, learning that this island is named Bayou Island, you learn what goes on in the first area. Everyone here seemed to have washed up on the shore not knowing how they could of. There is also a correlation with boats disappearing as well. However Chris is a different story, having another passenger with him.

There is not much ways to grab hold onto the plot, as a lot is mysterious and questioning, especially the ending twist. As the price tag suggests, Bayou Island is a short. But the second half seems rushed compared to the first half, especially how the ending is so abrupt. There are a lot of questions other

With the ease of point and click mechanics, it is very easy to play. A wheel of options shows what you can possibly do. The only thing you might have to get used to is selecting the "use item" before clicking on an item. With the game's short stay I was not able to remember to use it every time, but I do see why it was made like that. Combining items is used by dragging an item to another so perhaps it was to not confuse the game.

On the puzzle side most of them were easy, taking no time at all. Some requiring you to just talk with the residents as the others needs items that are just laying around for anyone to steal. One had you playing an instrument, but it did not make sense what the character did in result of it. I do know that if you play an instrument behind someone inside a building, it will sound like it's inside the building. Not outside, especially when the person saw you coming inside. Other than this, another puzzle did not make sense at all. It is a combination but getting it is full of red herrings. It's not something obvious, it's not something based on the amount of certain items (which I initially thought), but based on time. With the descriptions of the objects not being useful till now, it's very weird considering the clue you get. The main red herring seems to be for something else that was originally planned but was scrapped.

The music accompanying each area goes well with the surroundings. The music in the Day of the Dead store, and the area behind it, has a Latin flare to it. Making it seem like Chris did get washed up on the Day of the Dead, which is possible but no decorations are shown outside of the shop.

The voice acting can be better. There are some that did well, such as the bartender, but the one for Chris is not as much. Sometimes it gives off a sarcastic tone while other times he pauses where it seems it should not. There are parts where it works of course, but not throughout the whole piece.

The art style is pleasant to look at, with the Day of the Dead area is the best. Backgrounds having some sort of color pallet depending where the area might be. While they do tell you boats disappeared, why can one be seen in the background? Some areas have weird proportions in the backgrounds, such as the bar's counter looking taller than Chris even though the bartender is the same height as you.

The characters do seem to have time put into them to make them unique. However one design is not on the store page, which also only has the side perspective.

Bayou Island runs well, not putting pressure onto your computer. The only options you do get is volume and you can go into windowed mode by hitting escape. Though I could not find a way to exit out of the game without going to windowed mode and closing out of that.

Of course with point and clickers, the only reason to really replay is for achievements or seeing the different choices you could of made if able to. Bayou Island currently has no achievements and no trading cards so replayability might not be there. You can go back and see all the hints towards the ending twist, but that’s about it.

+ Appropriate music
+ Art

+/- Voice acting can be better
+/- Puzzles spike in difficulty at the end

- Ends abruptly

Looking more into it, I do see that this is the developer’s first game. Originally going to be a two parter, with the first part having a different system in interacting. I will recommend a few things. The subtitles may work better on the bottom of the screen, and perhaps being able to skip by just clicking than having to press a skip button. Putting in a few animations can help, such as putting a 'waking up' animation instead of having the drunk man sit up and go to sleep immediately. Is Bayou Island so horrible that you shouldn’t buy it? No. With the problems it has, it still has all the aspects of being a good point and clicker. There are things to learn from and I hope this developer continues making games.

It's a cute concept, but it's very short and has low production value. Rather than performing animated actions (besides walking and one or two other things), the character will just state "okay, I did this thing" without moving. Every time you open your inventory, you can't just click on an item to use it--you first have to remember to click the "Use" or "Look At" icons on the right side of the inventory, THEN click on the item you wanted, or else the inventory will just close itself when you click on an item. There are many spelling/grammar mistakes in the captions, which gets distracting, and adds to the low production value. Again, cute concept, and the music was fun, but I think it needs a lot more work.

I would suggest the game has been heavily inspired by Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series and that's not a bad thing right?...

It's better than most of your independent point and clicks (which are mostly just screen transitions borderlining hidden object puzzles rather than containing animations).

I would expect that this is perhaps the developers first project on this scale as there are some minor issues;

- The voice of the protagonist is annoyingly delayed compared to the subtitles, it feels like there's a 1 second load time on each line of dialogue.
- Most of it is pleasantly logical, however 1 puzzle I found unnecessarily abstract.
- The lack of a menu is disappointing and with no obvious auto-save feature it makes you reluctant to close the program for fear of losing what you have done so far.



*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

The code for the fuse box is unnecessarily complicated, based on everything which preceeded it, the solution (being the actual numbers on which the hands of the clock was located) seemed out of place.

It's like asking someone what's 2+2, 2x2, 4+4, 5+5 and then just once throwing in 'recite pi to 14 places'.

There are a few other numbers in the room (such as a date above the door) that based on the general level of difficulty made it seem that you were doing something wrong rather than it being a red herring.


*END OF SPOILERS**END OF SPOILERS**END OF SPOILERS**END OF SPOILERS*




There is only 1 instance in the game where an item combination in inventory is used, making the mechanic almost unnecessary.

There is 1 instance where a character has a chain dialogue which doesn't occur before, the removal of 'unhighlighting' of used dialogue would have made this a lot more obvious.

Didn't take me long to complete, but then I'm a seasoned hand at point and clicks, I did enjoy it and would recommend it, however I think there are lessons to be learnt from this which I have no doubt will lead to a much more impressive and stronger product next time around for the developer.

Bayou Island is a point and click adventure with a 1990's nostalgic feel to it. The game was created by a one person indie game developer, who probably did all artwork and voice acting himself. There is a lot of potential. The game is not perfect, but good enough. Easy to Medium difficulty of puzzles, with one suddenly difficult one near the end.

If you enjoy point & click adventures I suggest you give it a go. However due to the shortness of the story I'd suggest you get this in a bundle or buy full price to support the developer so he will create more point & click games.

The Good:
+ Classic adventure point & click
+ Good music

The Bad:
- Short for the price

The game can be completed in about 30 minutes, depending on your point & click experience.

5 minutes of gameplay so you get a good impression of the game:
https://youtu.be/cBhVz_NG6P8

This is a nice fairly short point and click text adventure in the style of old-school 1990s games. I got it from an indiegala bundle so it was maybe 30 cents so I can't complain about the price.

I liked the art style since it looks almost hand-drawn. The music was in keeping with the theme. The voice acting was not the best, but considering this is an indie game, it's amazing that there was any at all. The story is a bit short, but again, if you bought it here it's five bucks which is pretty much a latte at a coffee chain. For a bundle it's a bargain.

The gameplay is pretty simple and experienced puzzle gamers might find it to be less than challenging, but if you're looking for something to kill maybe an hour or two, this is a good choice. Most of the puzzles are pretty obvious and the game basically locks you out of earlier areas so that you aren't wasting time in sections of the game where you've finished which I actually like so there's no pointless backtracking. Dialogues were fairly limited and given the short playtime (I was done in less than 90 minutes even while watching a couple youtube to get past two points where I got stuck.

The one point was regarding the combination while the other was regarding the waiter with the broken bowl.

For the combination: the most obvious numbers are not it. Is there anything else with numbers in the warehouse? Don't be linear with the numbers. There are four numbers and only 16 ways it can go. The 2 and the 7 are first in that order. Play with the other four numbers.

The other was with the waiter: be chatty and talk to him again. Pick the choices that make him say take this job and shove it.

Overall, for the price it's a quick game for a lunch break or two.