The Neverhood is a flawed gem, one of those fantastic point&click adventure games that have some of that moon-logic malaise so common in Sierra games, up to an absurd point.
Yet every other aspect of the game is polished and fantastic enough I would recommend it with enough warning.
I would definitely not call it mediocre, it is anything but that, it is also in retrospective a worse “game” than some contemporary titles like Broken Sword or ToonStruck.
That’s just it - the writing, animation, music, the art direction, the voices - all stunning. But, the gameplay lets it down. What makes a mediocre game for me is, if watching someone else play a thing is a preferable experience, it’s not such a good game - speaking strictly of the “gameplay” aspects of the work.
I could catch a lot of flak from this opinion but I wonder if Cyberpunk 2077 could fit in this category: I have probably something around 100 hours in that game just because I like going around in the city and there’s some great writing, both for the main questline and even some random side-quests.
But as much freedom I have from choosing how I want to deal with a mission, neither combat nor hacking is fun IMO.
Hacking feels more like an overpowered magic ability that if you put enough points into it, it lets you cheat the game, and fighting is mostly a big mess, be it physical or shooting.
The Neverhood is a flawed gem, one of those fantastic point&click adventure games that have some of that moon-logic malaise so common in Sierra games, up to an absurd point.
Yet every other aspect of the game is polished and fantastic enough I would recommend it with enough warning.
I would definitely not call it mediocre, it is anything but that, it is also in retrospective a worse “game” than some contemporary titles like Broken Sword or ToonStruck.
That’s just it - the writing, animation, music, the art direction, the voices - all stunning. But, the gameplay lets it down. What makes a mediocre game for me is, if watching someone else play a thing is a preferable experience, it’s not such a good game - speaking strictly of the “gameplay” aspects of the work.
I could catch a lot of flak from this opinion but I wonder if Cyberpunk 2077 could fit in this category: I have probably something around 100 hours in that game just because I like going around in the city and there’s some great writing, both for the main questline and even some random side-quests. But as much freedom I have from choosing how I want to deal with a mission, neither combat nor hacking is fun IMO. Hacking feels more like an overpowered magic ability that if you put enough points into it, it lets you cheat the game, and fighting is mostly a big mess, be it physical or shooting.
I should give it a go sometime, or at least listen to the OST.