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Review
I played the 1998 version.
I didn't enjoy the game, personally. You might say I mostly suffered through playing it. I thought the backstory and the writing were absolutely brilliant, but the puzzles were way too difficult for me. I honestly tried to advance as much as possible without reading hints but I was stuck for a very long time, on the very first puzzle, and then got stuck on almost all the other non-trivial puzzles later, despite writing down everything and drawing very detailed maps with many comments.
I finally gave up and just followed the invisiclues to save my time and my sanity, since I had become somewhat invested in the story and wanted to see it to its end.
I think I would have enjoyed the game so much more if it had an "easy" mode for slow, methodical folks like me, who lack the intuition apparently needed for these sort of games. This wouldn't have been too difficult, just a couple more details included in the descriptions for various objects. Examples (NOTE: following contain spoilers for all the game):
(Spoiler - click to show) - Describe that there is something special about a specific garbage can in the alley - at least in the current version there doesn't seem to be any clue, there's no "can" mentioned in any of the alley descriptions, just general "cans".(Spoiler - click to show) - Extra description hinting that the wedding ring has a writing inside, when it's examined.
(Spoiler - click to show) - Extra description hinting that it's possible to hide inside the bones in the well.
(Spoiler - click to show) - An extra description hinting that something is blocking the keyhole of the door in the alley and needs to be pushed.
(Spoiler - click to show) - A hint that most things / locations in town are unnecessary for day 1 and even for day 2. This would have saved me at least 8 hours of gameplay of poking around at things, afraid that I've neglected to read something or missed some object while looking for the solution for the first puzzle.
To make matters worse, the one time I decided not to read the clues and try to make progress on my own I found myself 3 hours later in an unwinnable state, which I felt wasn't telegraphed in any form when I entered it. Not fun. But then again I usually suck at puzzle fests, so I'm not the target audience. I also don't like horror or Lovecraft, so again, not the target audience.
