Recent reviews by NeverwinterMoon

I had incredibly high hopes for this game. The art looked amazing and it looked like the game featured a rich and deep story and world setting. I was hoping for something like Disco Elysium, which is one of the best story-driven games I've ever played.

Yep, it was naive of me to think that. Aether & Iron suffers from incredibly bad writing. It has a lot of text (all beautifully narrated) but the content is bad. It's trope upon trope, cliché upon cliché. There is not a single thought-provoking, interesting, or funny line in the game, at least for someone who read a few books and watched a few movies in their life. The world itself feels unoriginal - something that has been done before many times. I would give a specific example, but the whole point is that anything and everything in the game is the example. While Disco Elysium captured me from the very first moment and I was so captivated by the world and the writing (I've spent 60 hours in the game even before it had full voiceovers, so I was reading all of that stuff), this game... it has a lot of words saying pretty much nothing. Disco Elysium also had a lot of text, but the writing was original. It was funny, it was crazy, and it gave food for thought. The whole thing here reminded me of some work-related documents I've seen recently - generated by ChatGPT - pages of words for something that could have been told better in a few sentences.

None of the characters are original, none of the story elements are surprising or captivating. It's a scream of mediocrity, really. Which is a shame. I did enjoy the visuals, and I did enjoy the voiceovers. I've spent about 10 hours in the game, and am somewhere midway towards the end. I find it hard to return to it, as there is nothing to return to. It's a lot of words for almost nothing of interest. And, as the main gameplay is the story (with very few combat segments, which are also highly unoriginal and don't offer much satisfaction), I am not sure I'll be able to finish this one. There are so many much more creative games, old and new, out there.

What a pleasant surprise, what a breath of fresh air.

I finished REANIMAL recently and walked away disappointed - not because it was terrible, but because it was so mediocre: it offered no real challenge, whether in action/platforming or puzzles. Even the atmosphere felt off, at least when compared to the original Little Nightmares. Then I played this demo... and it’s honestly more impressive than any part of REANIMAL was for me.

It’s a surprisingly substantial demo, too - it shows a lot, and what it shows is fantastic: gorgeous visuals, gameplay that feels sharp and exciting, and storytelling that feels interesting - a story inside a story, which immediately gave me the vibes of an absolutely brilliant movie The Fall (2006).

Now I’m counting the days until the full game. I have a decent list of games to play while I am waiting, but now I am afraid everything else I've planned would feel like a letdown by comparison.

No meaningless metadata to care about (achievements), no modern "improvements" (which 9 out of 10 times means simplifying everything to appeal to the masses), there are a couple of minor bugs here and there, but nothing serious. Basically, entertainment in its purest form. A highly addictive adventure.

I was pretty sure there wasn’t going to be another great point-and-click adventure released this year. I mean, I’d already been extremely satisfied with Elroy and the Aliens, The Drifter, The Biggleboss Incident, and Slender Threads (and extremely disappointed with Rosewater, which I’d been waiting for for years). But man, I was in for a surprise. I knew absolutely nothing about Foolish Mortals and bought it simply because it was a point-and-clicker.

I launched the game just to check it out briefly and couldn't stop playing it for two days. At first, I felt strong Gabriel Knight vibes; eventually it settled somewhere between Broken Sword and Monkey Island.

The story is not the most mind-blowingly original, but the game is packed with interesting and funny dialogue. What really got me hooked, though, were the puzzles. None of the modern point-and-click games I've played this year offered such great puzzle design, so close to the genre’s classics from the 90s. There are plenty of items to collect and very logical ways of using them to solve puzzles. Furthermore, the game has an incredibly cool puzzle design where you often have to reuse already-used inventory or environment items in a slightly different way later on.

Oh, and the way the game world unfolds is brilliant, too. First you get to explore different locations on the island, then you’re confined to a huge manor with plenty of rooms and characters to interact with, and finally both the manor and the island are unlocked together, with added locations and changes to the existing ones. Honestly, I haven't seen anything done this nicely for ages.

Finally, the game has incredibly cool animations that I don't see today even in many big-budget games. For instance, when you fill a water bottle with water from the tide, you can literally see the character tilt the bottle and hold it, waiting for the moving tide to come closer and gradually fill that bottle.

I’ve experienced one repeatable bug later in the game (where the game would lock and it was only possible to Alt+F4). Luckily, the place where it would trigger was no longer necessary to progress the story. Otherwise, the game is an absolute masterpiece. I really hope Inklingwood Studios makes more games in the genre.

Hell, the previous game that I've played, enjoyed, and completed was a AAA - Ghost of Yōtei - and I can easily say that I enjoyed Foolish Mortals much more than that. What an absolute treat!

Nope. Like The Medium and the Silent Hill 2 remake, this one ships with atrocious optimization. I can’t hold 120 FPS even with DLSS on and ray tracing off on an RTX 5090. The game doesn’t look special, and the levels are tiny and narrow, so there’s no excuse. Hell Is Us uses the same engine, has huge open areas, and ran silky-smooth on the same hardware.

I really hope this game doesn’t get overshadowed by launching the same day as Silksong. Like everyone and their grandmother, I was waiting for Silksong. I bought both at the same time, installed both, picked Hell Is Us first, and now I’m hooked. Haven’t even started Silksong yet.

Hell Is Us is fantastic. It blends a lot of ideas and, unlike most big new releases, there’s no hand-holding - which is so refreshing. I’m fully immersed: hunting for clues, collecting items, solving puzzles, and unraveling the world’s lore.

On the technical side, it’s almost flawless - max settings, no hitches on my system. I do have one big gripe. The devs recommend a controller, but I prefer mouse and keyboard. There’s mouse smoothing with no in-game toggle, and it makes camera rotation nauseating. It’s probably easy to disable via UE5 configs, but shipping without a setting for it - or with smoothing on by default - feels atrocious. Aside from that, the controls and every other technical aspect of the game are excellent.

Otherwise, it’s a blast. I can’t remember the last non-budget, high-polish game that felt this bold and creative. In a way, it goes back to older design, where games trusted you to explore on your own. Lately, almost nobody - even in the indie space - dares to challenge players like this.

I hope it does well financially and the developer keeps making work this good.

Released: February 11, 2025

Purchased: July 20, 2025 for EUR 16.99

Verdict: Not recommended

I certainly didn't get my money's worth with this one. The game lacks voiceovers, which would have been acceptable at a lower price point. Furthermore, it has numerous small and large issues that make me force myself to keep playing.

Interface Issues

The main selling point for this game is its use of "classic commands." I've been playing adventure games since the late 80s, with my favorites from the 90s and early 2000s. While many developers tried to "advance" the genre with various changes - not all beneficial - dropping verb commands was generally a good evolution. Full Throttle introduced the interactive menu (though they may not have been the first), and it was hard to look back after that.

That said, let's assume the command interface is appealing. After all, Day of the Tentacle remains one of my favorites and used a similar system. However, The Brilliant Coup implements it poorly. First, unlike classic games, there's no keyboard support for verb commands. Second, in older games with "classic commands," the right mouse button wasn't always just for looking - right-clicking a door would typically open it. Here, right-click is always "look," which feels limiting and frustrating.

Inventory Problems

The game boasts having 100 items, but it handles inventory puzzles terribly. You'll carry most items throughout the entire game, with many serving no purpose (you keep pretty much everything after using it). This either represents terrible design (classic adventure games maintained manageable inventories) or a cheap attempt to artificially increase difficulty. The challenge often comes purely from inventory clutter - since you can only see a few items at once, you'll constantly scroll up and down like mad.

Puzzle Design

While adventure games are known for occasional nonsensical puzzles, this game features extremely convoluted ones. For example, your character has a fully equipped apartment with a proper kitchen containing plenty of items (bowls are displayed from the start - exactly two, the number needed for a future puzzle). Yet when he needs to remove transparent film from a bar menu, he can't use scissors or knives that would certainly be found in any kitchen. Remember, this is a slightly grounded game set in England, not a fantasy island.

Instead, you must find an empty bottle at one location. The character immediately notes the bottle's thick glass (hinting it won't break easily). To break it, you need to find a hammer in a completely different location, smash the bottle to pieces, then use a glass shard to cut the film wrapping the menu. I honestly can't remember a puzzle this poorly designed.

Setting Inconsistencies

The game is set in England in 1987, with the main plot revolving around the protagonist being broke and unable to afford his apartment rent (it's the whole motivation for what is about to be the main plot). Yet his desk features a personal computer, printer, and scanner. The cost of such hardware in 1987 England could have covered approximately two years of rent. This lazy design raises obvious questions: Why choose 1987? Why make the character broke while owning expensive, cutting-edge technology?

Final Thoughts

I genuinely liked the bank robbery concept. Everything else falls short. Some dialogue is slightly funny, but most is poorly written. The puzzles are horrendous. There are no voiceovers. While I generally love pixel art, this game's visuals are overly simplistic - most other indie games in the genre look better while costing less or the same.

Better Alternatives

For comparison, here are the last two adventure games I played:

The Drifter (July 17, 2025) - EUR 19.50 full price, EUR 16.57 introductory price. Fully voiced in English with some of the best voice acting I've heard in modern adventure games. It's somewhat over-the-top but works perfectly for the game's tone. The plot is incredible, keeping you engaged and wanting to know what happens next. Also genuinely funny at times.

Unusual Findings (October 12, 2022) - EUR 19.99 full price, purchased for EUR 14.99 on January 5, 2023. Fully voiced in two languages, both excellent. Extremely similar to Day of the Tentacle with amazing quality. Puzzles make sense, dialogue is great, and the setting is perfectly crafted.

Skip The Brilliant Coup and play either of these instead.

This, hands down, is the best point-and-click adventure I’ve played in years. It nails every aspect of the genre - there’s tons of dialogue, plenty of inventory items, and some really neat puzzles.

Oh, but there’s more: incredibly cool and stylish art, pleasant music, and some of the best voice acting I’ve heard in a point-and-click game since the golden days of LucasArts. I could listen to Herman Merman all day long! And even that’s not all - the setting is superb, the game is genuinely hilarious, and it’s got an interesting plot to boot.

The way the story is told is simply delicious. It unfolds through the statements of three different characters aboard the train. All three stories intertwine, and it’s amazing to follow.

Honestly, saying it’s the best point-and-click game I’ve played in years doesn’t even do it justice. I play games across all sorts of genres, big and small - and this one hooked me the most, hands down. I really, really hope Robust Games will cook up more games like this.

Simply amazing. I’m playing this game right after Rosewater - a point-and-click adventure I had been waiting for for six years. And what a disappointment that was: disjointed storytelling, an extremely cliché main plot, and characters I just couldn’t care about due to shallow backstories and weak motivations.

Now, Elroy and the Aliens is a breath of fresh air! True to its roots, it plays and feels like one of the genre’s classics. Furthermore, it references a multitude of LucasArts games - including my favorite game of all time, Grim Fandango. The story is captivating, the art is delicious, the dialogue is funny, and the characters are interesting and appropriate.

If I had to nitpick, I’d say the game is a bit too easy. Everything’s in place, but the puzzles are just too obvious. I do miss the days of trying insane combinations just to figure out the solution.

OK, the game is amazing. It's easily my second favorite AC game. I was extremely hesitant to buy it after the total fiasco that was Star Wars Outlaws - easily, the least creative game to come from Ubisoft, and I've played most of their games. I had no idea it was possible to make a Star Wars game that boring and featuring zero interesting gameplay elements.

In AC: Shadows, literally everything is perfect - I love the setting, I love the performance, I love the visuals, I am vibing with the music, I am hooked on the story. But... the game has a very good amount of cutscenes, and I am loving that. Yet, Ubisoft have decided to lock these cutscenes to 30 FPS. I was more or less fine with it in Far Cry 6, as the cutscenes were almost irrelevant and few there, but here... It's atrocious. It's 2025, the game runs on my rig at over 120 FPS with all settings on ultra but is interlaced with sluggish, painful to watch cutscenes running at 30 FPS. Yes, the cutscenes are more detailed than the rest of the game, but they also have a locked camera movement. No, 30 FPS is not cinematic, this is a game and not a movie. When the action jumps from 120 FPS to 30 FPS - it's nauseating.

I know there is a convoluted third-party workaround that unlocks the framerate in the cutscenes, but I want to see this addressed and fixed by Ubisoft. Yes, fixed, because it's a fixable problem. If the company thinks that someone likes their cutscenes at 30 FPS, make it an option.

As soon as the cutscenes are unlocked, I will put change this review to positive. Please, please, please, do it. You have almost redeemed yourself, Ubisoft. So close!