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cytoSiN

Platinum Member
Jul 11, 2002
2,262
7
81
Krater has some REALLY mixed reviews. Anyone play it long enough to reach their own verdict?
 

Druidx

Platinum Member
Jul 16, 2002
2,971
0
76
BUY SCRATCHES. Quite possibly the scariest adventure game I've ever played. And for $2.49 it's a no-brainer.


Anything like Amnesia? I played it in a dark room with headphones on. Great atmosphere which pulls you in, it actually made me jump several times.
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
Anything like Amnesia? I played it in a dark room with headphones on. Great atmosphere which pulls you in, it actually made me jump several times.

Not really. Scratches is a point-and-click, and extremely difficult to boot.

But goddamn is it nightmare-fuel. In my personal, humble opinion, it's actually scarier than Amnesia. Unfortunately it's also less accessible than Amnesia. The puzzles will stump anyone who isn't an adventure game master, and it's only scary if you take the time to read all the text and listen to all the dialog.

The horror is a lot more subtle in Scratches than Amnesia. Less "BOO I'm A MONSTER", and more "Woah... did that really just happen?" That sort of thing. But once it gets going, it really gets under your skin.

I know you might be thinking my description is at odds with itself. "How can a point-and-click adventure game possibly be scarier than Amnesia?"

Trust me, it just is.
 

AlexAL

Senior member
Jan 23, 2008
643
0
76
Are Fallout 1, 2, and Fallout Tactics worth 9.99? This or Fallout Vegas: Ultimate also for 9.99?
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
How is a point and click difficult? What do you mean?

I take it you've never played a real point-and-click adventure game before.

Scratches is difficult, because - like other adventure games - it's gameplay is based on solving complex puzzles that involve real-world objects, with little to no hints on what to do or where to go.

For example: You're in a house, and you need to enter a special room on the second floor. The room is locked from the inside and there's no one in it. On top of that, the door is heavily reinforced by a wall of bricks. How do you get inside the room? Did you think to
grab a rope from the storage cabinet, tie it to a light fixture on the wall, open a nearby window, thread the rope over the window sill, climb out, shimmy across the house, and break through the window of the locked room?

Those are the kinds of puzzles involved in adventure games. You might think "That doesn't seem to hard. It makes a lot of sense actually," but keep in mind that the game gives you absolutely no hints on how to do this. You generally have to figure out these things on your own.
 

byteman99

Member
Jan 10, 2009
118
1
76

I wouldn't call them dated as much as I would just call it different. Theres not much FO:NV does anything better than FO 1&2. In fact there are some things the originals do better than the newer titles. Though with that being said, they are all fun games.
 

JamesV

Platinum Member
Jul 9, 2011
2,002
2
76
Just got the STALKER bundle (loved the first, haven't played expansions)... but it's nearly 26GB?

My 128GB SSD is hurting, and although I move games to a HDD for room, I'll find it difficult to free up 30GB+ of space.

The games show up with the 'Install' button on my list. I take it I can just leave them like that, and don't have to install within a certain time frame after buying?
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
Just got the STALKER bundle (loved the first, haven't played expansions)... but it's nearly 26GB?

My 128GB SSD is hurting, and although I move games to a HDD for room, I'll find it difficult to free up 30GB+ of space.

The games show up with the 'Install' button on my list. I take it I can just leave them like that, and don't have to install within a certain time frame after buying?

Nope. You could technically never install the game, ever. Doesn't matter, the game is permanently added to your Steam account.
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,804
46
91
Krater has some REALLY mixed reviews. Anyone play it long enough to reach their own verdict?

I got it today and just finished playing it for 34 minutes. did the tutorial and a few beginning quests. so far I like it.

It kind of reminds me of Fallout 1/2 in a way, but everything is in real time, not turn based. It also has elements of other RPGs and games, like Final Fantasy and Diablo and WoW.

Final fantasy because there are random enemy encounters as you walk between towns, etc.

Diablo and WoW because you have skill hotbars and you click right click to move.

You can also pick up/buy/craft weapons and change them. No armor that I can see, but you do get implants to adjust skills/stats. It looks like you unlock more skills and implant slots as you level up.

You can control 1 character at a time or all 3.

You have a party of 3, starting out with 1 tank/fighter type class called a smasher (if I remember correctly), 1 healer/ranged class called a medikus, and 1 crowd control/dps/ranged class(?) called a regulator. It looks like you can recruit other playable characters to change up your party.

Starting out each character has 2 skills. These are dependent on the class, like the healer has a mass heal and a charge heal, the tank has a taunt skill and a attack skill, and the crowd control guy has a slow skill and a stun skill.

There are 6 slots per hotbar. you can use any of the skills on the hot bar and the character associated with that skill will use it. some skills require you to click on a target, some just auto-execute, and there are some like AOE so you have to place it.

The smasher uses a melee weapon and the other 2 use ranged weapons. there are class specific weapons.

You get items from defeated enemies or chests and it can be weapons, implants, or crafting items. Haven't tried crafting yet. You need blueprints and then it will tell you what items you need and how much it costs.

You can buy weapons, implants, and blueprints. Not sure if you can buy crafting items (didn't get that far into yet).

For combat, you right click on an enemy or if you get close enough, it seems like the characters auto attack. they do have a regular autoattack so you don't need to constantly click the skills. some skills do have cool down timers.

If you want to use a skill click it and it works or you might have to target something.

Combat has been pretty fast and easy so far.

There are 3 difficulty modes

easy - it mentions something about a certain amount of injuries (not really sure what this is yet) and no permadeath

normal - same amount of injuries as easy but your characters can die permanently

hardcore - not sure on the details here as i didn't click on it to see.


Graphics are ok, nothing special. They are colorful and quirky though. character designs are pretty neat and unique.
Music is pretty cool.
NPCs have some voice acting, but not for everything they say, so you do have to read text quite a bit. Some just repeat a phrase or set of phrases randomly.

But yeah, it seems pretty interesting and fun so far.
 
Last edited:

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,448
262
126
BUY SCRATCHES. Quite possibly the scariest adventure game I've ever played. And for $2.49 it's a no-brainer.

This got me to look it up. It is a Myst styled game (that might clue some people to the type of game) and looks really good. Reminds me of Frankenstein that I played back in the day.

I'll prob pick this up, thanks.
 

rivethead

Platinum Member
Jan 16, 2005
2,635
106
106
Nope. You could technically never install the game, ever. Doesn't matter, the game is permanently added to your Steam account.

Yes, it will stay in your Steam library forever.....or until Valve ever goes out of business which is highly unlikely.

This is not always a good thing, though. I've still got some Half-Life multi-player games I'll NEVER play (I'm still not sure how I got them) in my Library. I can't delete them. They're stuck there. Just cluttering up the place (I've moved them to a "Crap" category, but still they remain).

I heard you can contact Steam and they'll remove a game for you. I've never tried that though.
 

sygyzy

Lifer
Oct 21, 2000
14,001
4
76
I take it you've never played a real point-and-click adventure game before.

Scratches is difficult, because - like other adventure games - it's gameplay is based on solving complex puzzles that involve real-world objects, with little to no hints on what to do or where to go.

For example: You're in a house, and you need to enter a special room on the second floor. The room is locked from the inside and there's no one in it. On top of that, the door is heavily reinforced by a wall of bricks. How do you get inside the room? Did you think to
grab a rope from the storage cabinet, tie it to a light fixture on the wall, open a nearby window, thread the rope over the window sill, climb out, shimmy across the house, and break through the window of the locked room?

Those are the kinds of puzzles involved in adventure games. You might think "That doesn't seem to hard. It makes a lot of sense actually," but keep in mind that the game gives you absolutely no hints on how to do this. You generally have to figure out these things on your own.

Thanks for that great explanation. I have been playing Walking Dead which is a click story and for some reason I confused that with a click adventure where you have to solve puzzles. I see what you mean now.
 

cytoSiN

Platinum Member
Jul 11, 2002
2,262
7
81
I got it today and just finished playing it for 34 minutes. did the tutorial and a few beginning quests. so far I like it. <SNIP>

Thanks for the detailed impressions. Lots of people bash it for being repetitive and that it gets boring fast due to a lack of depth, but it seems like there's a lot going on and that the combat is pretty fast paced, so I'll probably bite.
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
Thanks for that great explanation. I have been playing Walking Dead which is a click story and for some reason I confused that with a click adventure where you have to solve puzzles. I see what you mean now.

Ah, I understand. The Walking Dead is fantastic, but it's not a traditional point-and-click adventure. It's definitely easier than the more oldschool-style adventure games.
 
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