First Things First

There is quite a lot to like about the game: it's very well implemented, a great premise, challenging but fair and well hinted puzzles... and yet! I found it's cruelty a bit much. I regularly had to reload saves after finding myself in an unwinnable situation— in at least one case, well after making the fateful decision (if you read the clubfloyd transcript, they never finished the game hitting the same snag as I did). My advice to players is (Spoiler - click to show)don't buy anything until you've got a bank account, and you will need to use each of the sellable items exactly once. Reloading wouldn't be such a big deal but there are tedious sequences (Spoiler - click to show)such as portaging the jugs, or remembering to get on the platform before pushing the button that were a chore to repeat repeatedly. Approached from a more old school mindset, I'm sure that the game as a whole is more forgiving than older Infocom stuff, but from where I'm standing I didn't think my play-time to enjoyment ratio was always as high as I'd ideally like it to be.

It's a rare game where after slogging around a lot in the middle, I had a great time in the final sequences which involve more drastic timeline change and changing lives. Nevertheless, I felt the low-stakes conceit (you're just trying to get into your house...) was a bit of a wasted opportunity, though I recognise it's a genre norm. People compare the game to Day of the Tentacle, but in that game there's much more of a plot with villains, a stronger over-arching goal, many distinct characters etc. The writing, while elevated and atmospheric in places (Spoiler - click to show)(I especially enjoyed exploring the house when it was wrecked), is primarily functional. The protagonist is a blank slate, and there are only perhaps only two who are more fleshed out— though this is somewhat made up by having good development of those two characters.

So 5 stars for being an inventive, robustly implemented long game with fair puzzles, but dock 1 for making me replay the whole first third of the game, and dock another 1 for the underdeveloped setting/characterisation. Still, I very much recommend it overall for fans of long puzzle-centric games with a distinct core mechanic.