Huge fan of the webcomic. That said, the game was pretty disappointing to me. If you like the webcomic and are always hungry for more like me, then it may be well worth it to go through the game for seeing more of the characters and all that- but they don't quite shine as well here. I finished to the end in anticipation of an interesting story, but the ending felt very abrupt and anticlimatic.

Where to start? The graphics are...okay. The animations were pretty awful. They were very stiff slow and choppy and kept making awkward pauses in the dialogue that really interrupted the flow of the action. The sound effects? My ears were bleeding (especially that one re-used kiss sound effect oh god).
The voice-acting (in English) was all over the place, some of them were okay or pretty good (thankfully Larisa was still pretty awesome) while some sounded like grandpa in a skype call with a $2 mic.

The actual dialogue was pretty amusing. Again, Larisa is best.
The point-&-click stuff was pretty neat, though some parts were a bit too nonsensical/abstract to really solve except hoping to stumble onto it by chance. Then again, I haven't played too much point-and-click, so maybe I'm just really bad at them. I often got stuck trying every combination over and over only to finally realize I overlooked the simplest actions.

The minigames were simple but challenging enough to be fun imo. Plus, the CD's were a nice touch for when they could get too frustrating.

Personally, I would have really enjoyed it if the game's story took place more in the actual setting of the comic and used more of their existing characters that fans would love to see. It would be awesome exploring places that fit into the comic, like the school, cloud's house, the forest, the various places of the city- lots of potential there. Frankly it was hard to feel invested in that medieval setting with its short-lived characters who were little more than walking parodies of a genre.
If they made another game established more firmly in the comic's setting with more of its characters, I'd likely go back for more despite the various technical drawbacks. (please please fix that kiss sound effect though or it'll turn otherwise cute scenes into really cringey moments D:)

So, overall...I feel they could have invested much more time and effort into the quality of the animation and sound. Either that or lower the price to match what was put into it. Definitely room for improvement in the character models but was passable. Would definitely be more appealing with more focus on the comic's setting/characters imo. Good for some laughs and basking in Larisa's firey glory but probably not recommended for people unfamiliar with the webcomic. (then again, I'd recommend them the comic first).

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Edit:
In hindsight, just thought I'd throw this bit of clarification in. I really wavered over giving this a thumbs up or thumbs down because, honestly, that depends on the context of whether you're going in as a Sandra and Woo fan or not.

On one hand, I don't regret buying and playing it- I wanted to support the author anyways, and it was interesting to go through as a fan. I'm also being a bit of a critical arse in that spirit, out of that sort of respect and expectation of a series I love. I would hope that other fans will invest in this as well, and hope a sequel may be made that will outdo the first.

That said, I ultimately concluded that this game will probably not appeal to the average Steam user to happen upon it, and decided to vote within that context.

This game is an obvious recommendation to those that like the web-comic “Sandra and Woo”, but I will also recommend it to those that enjoy classic style point and click adventure games with likeable characters.

There’s little doubt in my mind, that you will find enjoyment in the game if you have already fallen in love with the main characters of the comic, but knowledge of the comic is not required to enjoy the game, if you are up for a cute and silly adventure game with a group of likeable preteens.

Negative:
Let us begin with the negatives, as I like getting those out of the way first.

Some of the animations are a bit stiff, didn’t really bother me much, since I feel the most important thing in the adventure game is the dialogue, and I enjoy playing some adventure games from the 2000s. (And not because of nostalgia. :P I actually only got properly into adventure games a few years ago.)

The minigames. The minigames are skippable, so again not a big negative, but yeah, a lot of them were more on the annoying side for me breaking away from the humor and fun of the main game. You might experience them more as a fun variation in gameplay, depends on taste.

Larisa’s face looked a bit creepy when she stood facing the camera directly. I don’t know if it was just a poor choice of design for her face, or if it was an intention to give her a “crazy eyes”/ “crazy look”. The thing is, Larisa doesn’t look crazy in the comics. Her actions, and the things she says is often absolutely crazy, but she doesn’t look crazy at a glance. I feel that she does in this game… Then again, that might just be me.

Last negatives are only relevant to the webcomic fans:

Some of the best side characters are missing. I admit, this negative is a bit more a personal preference, but it is especially annoying since my least favorite side-character Landon has a sizeable role in the story. I’d much rather have seen Cloud’s mom and sister or… Well really anyone other than Landon. :P The guy is dull compared to the rest of the cast...

Positive:
The game captures the world of the comics very well, and Sandra and Woo fits very well into a point and click adventure game, even before they get sucked into the “game world”. Since the “real world” in the comic already operates under a different set of rules from our own, natural laws and the fourth wall can be broken for the sake of comedy. Given the protagonists and the world, some of the sillier solutions in this kind of game makes sense, since you are thinking “If I was an imaginative child, how would I solve this?”

The game is fully voiced which is nice, though there are sometimes some words that don’t match the subtitles 1:1, but that kind of stuff occurs in a lot of games. Since I didn’t notice any points in the game where what was said and what was written had opposite meaning, then I don’t see any issue. Giving voices to characters from a silent medium is always a challenge. On the one hand fans might be excited to finally hear the characters they love… On the other hand, the voices can’t possibly fit what everyone assumed they sounded like when they read the comic. In my case, I think the voices fit, especially the boys and Sandra. I was surprised that Larisa had an accent, I mean I knew her parents were Russian, but I just assumed she was so young when she came to the country, and given she hung out with kids without accents that she would have grown out of it? By no means an up or a down, and I probably will continue to picture her without one. Just shows how difficult it can be to match people’s expectations, when you go from different medias.

The characters are likeable, adorable, and fun. From Cloud trying to be a hero and save his girl, to Larisa being bored whenever she can’t cause chaos, to Woo being his mix of lazy and mischievous, to Sandra being sweet and cute and still very much proactive when she has the opportunity. Okay I don’t like Landon, but he is very much faithful to his portrayal in the comics… I just hope that if they make a new adventure game that Larisa and Landon will have broken up in the comics as he has outstayed his comedic potential a long time ago. :P The jokes with him both in this game and in the comics are pretty much just going on repeat… The personalities of the characters are very much present in the game, and leads to some funny dialogue. Like trying to use handcuffs on Cloud when playing as Larisa (which doesn’t do anything else), she mentions that Sandra would probably kill her. And since the dialogue is the most important thing for me in an adventure game, it is nice to say it fits very well.


I’ll just leave a link to the webcomic here in the end, in case any one wants to check that out too. 😊 Sandra & Woo[www.sandraandwoo.com]

This game was pretty fun. Very challenging, I must admit I needed a guide more than once! But even so I was able to get by often and challenge my thinking and solve things all on my own. The story is based on wacky happenings but still captivating nonetheless. The minigames test your memory and spatial reasoning. The backgrounds are excellent and while the animation is sometimes choppy the characters come alive just like the point and click adventure games of yore. I must admit I haven't played one in a long time but this game definitely brings back memories. And if you're a regular read of the Sandra and Woo comic series I definitely recommend this; it was very neat seeing characters come to life in new ways! Overall, fun story and good adventure gameplay with fitting voice actors (usually) and good music, sometimes VERY catchy. I would recommend this game and am glad I played it.

Sandra and Woo a web comic series now have a game. The humor of this game is absolutely hilarious with many references that are quite subtle. Larisa your (not so) friendly neighborhood pyromancer is an even amazing character with her russian accent. Other than the odd and stiff animation, this game is amazing. It also stay true to the web comics. (Wish the gods could have a role or two or even a cameo) Buy this game if you're a fan of the web comic and like point and click adventure games.

An average point-and-click. Linux build seemed a bit buggy and could have used some more polish. The accompanying game guide is a nice feature but it does not make up for in-game problems.

Sandra and Woo in the Cursed Adventure is a massive pain in the ass. It looks like a fun adventure game, but it is very much from the bad old days of adventure games where the puzzles are pretty much impossible without a walkthrough. Good news, you can get the walkthrough as free DLC! Bad news, that still doesn't help you get past the infuriating minigames and several other trial and error puzzles whose solutions are not documented.

This is not a fun game. Some adventures (notably Daedalic) can get away with having very obscure puzzles because the comedy is so good that it becomes part of the game to combine all the things with all the other things and hear the amusing responses. If the dialog is really good, you can get hints about how to actually solve the puzzle from the failed attempts. But that is not the case here. There are no hints what to do. Even something as simple as combining the right items in the wrong order doesn't provide a custom response saying "maybe you should combine X with Y first", it just gives some iteration of "you can't do that". What little comedy is there doesn't work for me at all. The dialog is tedious to click through and it never comes up with any clever or unique gags.

I persisted for almost 7 hours on this game hoping it might get funnier or less frustrating, but it really didn't. Finally, near the end, when I was presented with yet another trial and error section that the walkthrough didn't explain how to pass, I gave up. I am a hardcore point and click adventure fan but I can't really see how anyone would enjoy this game. Maybe if you dig the comic that it's based on then the comedy will work for you, but the puzzles are really too much. Nowadays there are so many better adventure games, this one isn't really worth the time or money.

I like this game for two reasons: I'm a fan of the Sandra and Woo webcomic, and the writing here does reflect the tone and "logic" of the webcomics, which is a huge plus for me; I am also a huge fan of puzzle games, and this game provided some very challenging puzzles which is also another plus for me.

However, I find the use of 3D wholly unnecessary, especially when the animations are all very painstakingly slow that every reaction feels like slogging through mud. For reference, the 2000 game Escape from Monkey Island, the first 3D game in the Monkey Island series, has much better 3D animation quality in terms of smoothness, not to mention the 3D models look a lot better as well. The voice acting is abysmal, especially when the voice actors don't even seem to know what tone to take on for their lines. At some points, the difference in Cloud's tone is very obvious, even the voice is not consistent, almost sounding like two different persons are his voice actors. There are also inconsistencies between the voice acting and the subtitles, and you should get the grammar of the game checked by a professional since the message about bonus moves during the mini games is just grammatically wrong, and there was an instance where "Sixth" became "Sixt" in the game. My advice to the developer would be to ditch the 3D which provides no positive value whatsoever to the user experience; in fact, 2D is more flexible and you can go nuts with it. Take a look at the mobile games White Island and Beyond The Bounds, both by VisualShower Corp; they're both fully 2D, and the visual novel style of making characters pop up when talking also engages the audience better with facial expressions. Speaking of which, sometimes when the characters have speech bubbles for choices, their avatar beside the speech bubble does not match their in-game appearance, most obviously due to their clothing.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I enjoyed the game, but at the same time I am also very frustrated by the game's painful animations. The developer should use 2D instead of 3D since the 3D does not improve user experience and instead takes away from user experience, and voice acting direction should be provided, otherwise remove voice acting for background characters.

Pros:

1. It's a Sandra and Woo story!
   
2. Hard, challenging puzzles

Cons:

1. Poor animation quality even by 2000 standards - slow, with ugly character models
   
2. Inconsistent voice acting

When you want to get away from reality, what is better than to get sucked into your favorite video game. While books are close to that level, video games easily can with the interactivity. So it is not rare for someone to wish they were actually apart of another world rather than the one they are apart of. But what if you were sucked in involuntarily?

This is what exactly happens to Sandra and Woo on the fateful day of the last rehearsal for a school play. Sandra wakes up from a nightmare, depending on selecting a tutorial or not this varies in length, with her naked on stage she is understandably nervous. As Sandra is playing the Swan, and didn’t make costume till the last second, you help her gather all of the clothing items before her father comes in to scold her about not being in bed. Strangely throwing herself back into bed still in her costume moments before she gets sucked into her computer and thus a fantasy video game in the same era of the play. Luckily they get a chance at having an adventure.

This leaves Sandra’s friends Larisa, Cloud, and Landon to wonder what happened to Sandra and why she was absent from school. With Larisa and Cloud originally finding Sandra missing, and most of her room, they enlist Landon to help with the technical aspects after finding out about the game. Trying to figure out how to get her out by using something from the real world, with the ultimate solution being smart and honestly not what I would've thought of.

On this note, I do think some things could've been worked on for the models and some of the sound effects. The character models do look like they belong in that world for sure, but the animations do need to be worked on as I often found them needing to look straight on before talking. The voice acting does depend between characters, but luckily the main characters do have solid people behind them. Though honestly, there is an actual swan that shows up that I thought did a great job in playing a ditsy princess that thinks they lost their prince...even though it is a dark timeline for her. There are two sound effects I did not exactly like. One of them did not make sense in context, and this is towards a quest in finding a bell for a jester. By the sound effect it sounds like a bell you would ring to get a cashier’s attention, even the indention looks like it, but in reality it is a bell you would put on a costume. And lastly, the kissing sound effect which turns a sweet scene off with how it echoes and how high pitched it is.

I really liked this back and forth between sceneries and characters. Both sides of the story contrast well together, and even flipping the script. While sure Sandra and Woo is literally in a fantasy video game they are doing those quests you will often get such as fetching an item from a hidden place. So when it switches back to Larisa and Cloud, they are trying to find solutions that end up exiting and the events that up the stakes happen here before they become visible to Sandra and Woo. They all also have their own different puzzles (excluding one) they need to solve and they do go about solving it their own way and different values. While Cloud refuses to look through someone’s mail and damage property, Larisa barely cares. And a little thing, I do like how they all have different carrying packs they use. Not only symbolized by the inventory icon but also shows on the bottom of the inventory as it looks like it is coming out of their choice way of carrying everything.

The puzzles are mostly all fine, and do make you laugh at yourself for not realizing it. Though at some points it does suddenly use logic from video games, but for the most part they do give you some way to figuring it out. Along with this, there are minigames that are tied to the puzzles. With some of the obviously not that enjoyable, the most notable the one connected to the DJ Woo achievement mostly due to how long the replay is and only a few options totally not in the final product. There is also a hacking minigame that I totally see why others do not like it as it can be annoying with limited moves and trying to think in terms of getting pieces from horizontal movement plane to where you need it in the vertical plane, but they do give you bonus tiles to help and you can skip the hacking minigame after one level.

There sort of is a narrator, F1, but it sadly it feels like it is used to explain what happened because they couldn’t think of a way to naturally have it revealed in the story. It is quickly explained to how and why Sandra and Woo was sucked into a game and how he knew about Landon, Larisa, and Cloud messing with it. I do wish what he tells you with his few appearances were naturally put into the game or was found in the real world so you can have more interaction with it. As by the end of the day, they all do not know how it was even possible for real world items to be transferred to a game and I wish they did. It would of been interesting to see Landon researching it or going into the game’s code and seeing that the creator intended for his free game to have a trojan and all the computers with green lights had the game on them. And with them watching Sandra and Woo as well, maybe have Sandra and Woo finding various items that the creator put himself in. And with F1 finding out, maybe have him send vague messages, trying to free up space on the computer to suck them in, and basically doing more than having Landon only doing a hacking minigame. Than show him at the end and hint that he was probably working for someone else like they did.

This way you are actually getting the info by playing through it and going “Huh...this seems suspiciously linked to this event” and “Wow we must be close if he is trying to stop me”.

+ Characters
+ Dialogue
+ Interesting story
+ Little joke about the help center (by pressing F1 in the game)

+/- models can use a little more work in their animations
+/- some sound effects didn’t make sense for some items or was weird

- Wish the narrator/F1 was used less so the information he gives you was naturally revealed to you and the characters

Sandra and Woo in the Cursed Adventure is ultimately for the fans of the webcomic. As I am not familiar with the webcomic, excluding the couple ones I looked at, and how these characters showed their personalities in them, I do feel like I would know them better if I did. Especially with the story pushed by also how all the characters interact, which seems to be unique to how the webcomic does it as well. Though the whole fantasy game scenery does seem like they were also thinking about the people who might not know the pre existing characters. Making this a must play for fans but a maybe for the non fans.

Sandra and Woo is a great webcomic. Can't say that about the game though.
It is extremely well related to the comic, it have a nice plot idea, but it feels kinda.. inconsistent.
The plot seems unfinished. The art is good, but it ceirtainly could use more polishing. Voice acting is fine, but Spuknit seems definitely more russian than Larisa. Humor is there, but it doesn't save the day. And the minigames... well, maybe they're just not my type.

Ok for comic fans, but no-go for someone unfamiliar with the comic.

I recommend this game to those who read the Sandra and Woo web comic!

The most refreshing aspect to me was the hand drawn 2D animations. This has gotten rare today, it may look odd to some players, and it might not be your cup of tea. As a programmer trying to fiddle around with simple game design and animation I find it inspiring. Graphics and animation are more detailed and smoother than in typical games from the historic point and click era.

The voice acting is superb and grants additional depth to the characters from the comic! (I only played the English version but I expect nothing less of the German version.)

I tend to be frustrated by puzzles from point and click adventures, because the solutions often feel random. This game suffers from this a little bit too. Nonetheless I was able to solve the majority of puzzles on my own. When I did it felt rewarding. I find it better than most games of the genre.
For some puzzles I did use the game guide which is available as a free DLC.

The game is spiked with a number of simple mini games that look like children games. However they are actually aimed at an adult/teenage audience and are a lot harder than you would expect. I was pleasantly surprised by that!

This game is produced by the authors of the original web comic and the characters and humor from the comic fit very well. Although suitable for children, the humor is more grown up than the visual style leads on.

The game is positively non-violent but it features some some scenes where small animals get eaten by one of the main characters (a raccoon). If you intend to play this game together with small children (which you can absolutely do!) be prepared for that.

This is a lovely independent game production and the authors can be proud of their work!