The Hand of Glory: 7.5/10. Difficulty: 6.5/10

~12h Broken Sword-like.

I was surprised by this game. I had no expectations and thought it would be one of those cute, little indie games. However, I quickly realized that it's a great game that is unfortunately held down by a myriad of little things.

But first, the pros:
- The puzzles are great—the real highlight of the game. They are challenging but logical. There is a fair variety of them, with many hotspots, items, and locations, so brute-forcing solutions is not a viable way to solve them. There are also many helpful little hints to ease the frustration. For example, when you try to use a tool on a powered-up object, you don't get a generic "I can't do it," but rather, "First, I need insulation to avoid electrocution."
- The characters are likeable and have unexpected depth.
- The intriguing detective story has some supernatural elements.
- It's a lengthy game. Even though it's in two parts, each part could easily take six or more hours.

The nitpicks:
- The graphics are bland but not without charm. The characters look especially flat, and the backgrounds are better but also nothing to write home about.
- The only good thing I can say about the music is that it isn't annoying.
- The voice-over is uneven. Fortunately, the MC has good-quality VO, but some characters sound like they're talking through a pipe, and others have different volumes of speech in the same sentence.
- I admit that I'm not good at remembering names (of locations and people). So, when the game throws a bunch of them at me — many of which are Italian — I get a little confused at times.
- It didn't bother me much, but there is a linear way to do things. You can't take items before doing other things or talking to a specific person. It gets to the point where MC blatantly tells you, "I don't need it now. I'll steal it later." As I said, it doesn't bother me much since it increases the difficulty of the puzzles, but I feel it's a little arbitrary which items you can take immediately and which you can't.
- In some places, lines of text are unreadable. The fonts are often the same color as the background, to the point that I thought it was a deliberate move by the developers.
While there are technically two MCs, you can rarely play as Alice. It's a shame, since she has her own little fun gimmick.

Anyway, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to scratch that Broken Sword itch.
There should be a sequel soon(ish): Roots in the Sky — The Hand of Glory 2. This time, I have high hopes for it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/96101..._of_Glory/

I was surprised by this one too. More than the sum of its parts?

I understand the developer is Italian and unfortunately I think that hasn't helped them. If a little more effort went into PR and advertising for the game (the title looks particularly amateurish) the sequel could have been getting a lot of hype right now in the AG community.

The sequel is supposed to be released this summer. If they manage to make it better than the first one, I think it could be a strong contender for the best adventure game of the year.

The sequel is supposed to be released this summer. If they manage to make it better than the first one, I think it could be a strong contender for the best adventure game of the year.

I was excited for it but the demo didn’t exactly entertain me personally. It literally had me do chores. Clean up my room and was my clothes before I could start my adventure. Not in a fun, puzzle way either. I was disappointed. 

Hopefully the game brings more “adventure” than the demo. 

Note: I played it two years ago. - Joshua

Follow the meaning: 6/10. Difficulty: 3/10

~ 90 minute game about a detective who must get into a hospital to uncover the secrets of three eyed people.

Standard gameplay: click on hotspots to obtain items or unlock access to other hotspots. Occasionally, there’s a puzzle that requires basic pattern recognition.

The art style has low saturation; it looks as if it were drawn with colored pencils or crayons. The overall look is nice, aside from the fact that everything is very far away, so the details are small. A zoom-in option would be useful.

The plot is minimalist and borders on the meta. You can guess some of the twists ahead of time. The whole story revolves around people with three eyes, their belief in a creator, and how others treat them.

There’s nothing particularly unique about this game, but there’s nothing bad about it either. If you’re looking for some relaxing entertainment for a short while, this game might be for you.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/27202...e_meaning/