Recent reviews by lake.kubilius

It's a fun game, and worth playing. I suspect this was made to try to be a remake of the original Larry 2, which is something that seems like can't and shouldn't be done. It basically succeeds at that, which is really impressive! But it does have some problems:
--The story is goofy. It goes weird places that I'm pretty confident an "original" LSL game would never. My best guess is that whoever wrote it also a huge Monkey Island fan and just doesn't get why the two don't mix.
--These new games obviously loved the original games enough to make more of them, but they're written as if they hated that character. It's way too much, and doesn't match the playful spirit that the original games used to tease him with.
--The intro sequence isn't very fun. It's a lot of Larry hate and exposition. Then the first half of the game after that is pretty great. This chunk is a really good point & click adventure game. But then the second half of the game (after you can travel using the map) is MUCH worse. The puzzles stop making logical sense, the subplots get much weirder and sillier, and this whole section feels rushed and thoroughly padded out.

Fortunately, if the next one (and I do hope there is a next one!) is vaguely a remake of LSL3, some of the problems this game had should be a lot easier to avoid. Here's hoping!

A very cautious positive review, with a couple of issues that need to be highlighted. The game basically has three parts. A sewing game, a health & family budgeting sim, and the humor and story:
1) The sewing game's controls are VERY buggy in terms of the garment rotation. Even if you continue to move your mouse in the same direction, expect the garment to unexpectedly turn around and swing in the opposite direction. This is frustrating and feels broken, though it doesn't seem to bother the other reviewers, so maybe I'm just bad at it? I personally found it to be impossible to meet quota during a workday: no point in even trying. (Just hold down the fast forward button until it ends.)
2) The budgeting sim is BROKEN. Your whole family is going to die. As near as I can tell, the best strategy is to let them. Don't feed them, EVER. The only person who matters is your husband, and only because he makes more money than you. That said, keep him alive while the children starve. This is the only way I found to get about 80% through the game. I'm not sure it's actually possible to finish. Maybe it's just barely possible if you're actually good at the sewing game, which (as mentioned) I am not.
3) The best part of the game by far is the humor and story, and this actually combines with the problems of the first two points to create something really, really (accidentally?) funny. The main plot is accessible by reading the newspapers each day. This will create the lol scenario in which you are choosing to buy a newspaper with a little under half your personal salary to advance the plot instead of feeding your children. Of course, to avoid a game over, you must personally eat, and so you end up going the humorously sociopathic route of feeding just yourself and your husband while casually allowing all six of your children to die. Their deaths are not even mentioned in passing -- there is the vague implication that you're just chucking them in the crawlspace John Wayne Gacy-style. And as they die, what you WILL be spending your time and attention on is unionizing your workplace! #Priorities

There will be a great deal of chatter about the gross unfairness of the capitalists as you:
--Complete zero work
--Collect your paycheck daily with zero risk of being fired no matter how useless you are or how much damage you cause
--Continue to argue that obviously the problem with this arrangement is the lack of a union
--Casually starve your useless children

Taken together, it manages to project a modern sense of entitlement backwards into an era where there really WERE issues with the treatment and valuation of labor. And, really, that is quite funny!

At this point, I'll buy pretty much anything these guys put out. It's always an atmospheric romp that ends up feeling extremely original, this game included. Solid ghost hunting game that veers into a more traditional point & click adventure somewhat unexpectedly, late in the game, right after you've concluded the one environment was obviously going to be it. It's a bit vague what you're supposed to be doing on several occasions towards the end, but still a great experience overall.

Looking forward to the return of Nigel & Lucy!

A short (~3 hour) game centered around solving three logic puzzles in the style of detective work, intermixed with some intriguing scruples choices that shape the outcome of the story. A fun graphic style, well-suited music, and all around immersive experience.

The biggest appeal is the novel implementation of how the logic puzzles are solved. This is a really fun mechanic that I hope to see more of in the sequels. (I think there are planned sequels, no?!)

A little too soon to tell how the scruples choices end up shaping the bigger story, but that seems promising as well. Looking forward to the next installment!

Did not honor KS obligations.

I played through all seven endings all in one sitting. (Which took a little over four hours.) Really enjoyed this! Seems very dry at first, but the intrigue builds quickly. I just wish we could get a little closer to what's "really" going on!

Definitely worth purchasing for a quick, unique experience.

A fantastic, atmospheric point & click adventure game. Really nails both a particular setting and mood in a way that makes the genre truly shine. Little flakes of a wonderful "infinitesimal (wo)man engulfed by enormous nature" sentiment are sprinkled throughout, including a scenic overlook over the vast lands that's not particularly meaningful in any specific way, and yet still just perfect. Puzzles are generally rational, and the emphasis is on the story and lore as much as the atmosphere. Truly well done! A definite treat for fans of the genre who like their games on the less frivolous side.

Solid addition to the franchise, feeling a lot like the original games. My only gripe would be that I'm not sure some elements of the story are really compatible with those of the first two games. In other words, some mild, iffy retconning. But it's easy enough to ignore this and enjoy all the rest!

A second issue is that quite a few of the puzzles give very little in the way of context of what you're trying to accomplish exactly. Occasionally that's the point, but not always. This can drive walkthrough use for reasons that seem weak by modern standards. On the other hand, I also recall owning huge hintbooks for the first two games, so there's a certain historical accuracy here.

I give this game a very tentative positive review for these reasons:
--I love practically anything in this genre. The "Scratches" style is great.
--Very atmospheric.
--Nicely done graphics and sound.

But there are some serious problems here. Avoiding anything that could be a spoiler, I played through this thing in one sitting and have absolutely no idea what happened story-wise. The narrative was completely incoherent. Who was I? Who were those people? Was the protagonist the same person in each of the three "scenes"? If yes, uh...? Did I kill anyone? Given where I found the last key, how could the thing I found after using it even have been written? Or, if that part does make sense, how does the thing I did after reading it make any sense? NO IDEA ABOUT ANY OF THAT, and that's pretty much the entire game.

Also, the interface needs some work. The game is WAY too pixel-hunt-y, which is likely to force you to use a walkthrough. The game absolutely refused to let me use one item until I found the exact place to click, which had me reading a walktrhough telling me to do the exact thing I thought I had been doing the whole time.

Basically, what the game lacked was words. It needed WAY more words in it to flesh out the story. The framework here was very promising, but this game isn't actually finished yet until there are enough words in the game to have some clue about what's going on.

Fantastic game. Absolutely loved it. If you're a fan of point & click adventure games and walking simulators, you're probably going to love this. A detective story that plays a bit like the Tex Murphy games (the 3D portions of them anyway).

Only thing I would say is that the very end abruptly shifts gears into a pure chase sequence where, suddenly, you absolutely CAN die. This is a big no-no for genre purists, and I'll admit that I died twice and got quite mad about it. But once you finally realize what the final destination must be, the actual difficulty of this sequence is low enough that even purists like myself will likely forgive its being there.

Very much hoping the developers make many more games just like this one in the near future!