Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Jan 31, 2023

  This is a well-written, thought out interactive story. It's not quite a point & click adventure & not quite a VN. It's kind of in between both those genres. Simple interactions where you're mostly guiding the little girl around the fantasy or adult world full of monsters. This is a heart-breaking story. It's about family & alcohol. It's not for the feint of heart. This story hits hard. It's shows that games can be art. It took me one hour to complete. If you grew up in a tough household, you may want to pass on this one. Otherwise, I highly recommend this title. Rate 8.5/10. p.s. If the dev had shown his or her family photos at the end, it would have ripped me to pieces.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 5, 2017

  [h1]One of the most memorable game experiences I've had[/h1] I am a point and click fan, and my expectations were pretty much a point and click game with quite little gameplay, which didn't pose a problem as the writing was definitely something else. This is one of the games which have been circulating in the local game scene, and one which I have been holding high expectations about. They were certainly met, but I didn't realize how high the bar would be set in terms of game writing. Games which have a message quite often lack credibility, and at worst, are tacky and preachy. It is all in the control of the subtleties, really. The art of implication as opposed to heavy handed delivery. I felt genuinely like shit while playing this and I say this with the highest possible regard. My cynicism as an avid player of story driven games for nearly 30 years was broken with grace. And grace is, which makes this game one of the greats, in terms of story delivery.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 5, 2017

  [h1]Summary[/h1] Platonic Partnership's début game [b]Lydia[/b] is a short, 1h+ adventure story tackling an unpleasant subject matter. [h1]In detail[/h1] The reason I decided to pick up and play this particular game was mostly due to having read the books of one of writers of the game. Especially one book about the history of adventure games and their design evolution through the years was an interesting read. Hearing he'd be making an adventure game of his own my initial thoughts were that the game should be coming from someone who has a love for adventure games and knowledge about designing them despite not having previous game-making experience. Are they able to harness that knowledge and incorporate it in Lydia's design was the question. There's not much in terms of actual gameplay, classic adventure game puzzles or challenge for that matter; You're mostly just reading dialogue and moving the character to the next point of interaction. Actual dialogue choices are implemented as selecting "a mood" for the response, which isn't a new thing but can work a lot better than having a word-to-word list of phrases to pick from. I don't know how much (if at all) the choices affect the progress or outcome of the story as I only played through the game once, but at least there's some variance. Where I think the game shines the most is in its hand-drawn background and character art. The backgrounds aren't always ultra detailed but the surreal perspectives, overall dark tone and use of graphical filters is consistent throughout. Most of the audio stuff was also surprisingly good, but I wasn't particularly fond of the "pseudo-language" voice acting the game has. It affected my ability to imagine the voices of the characters myself and I would've much preferred to be able to toggle that off. As final technical notes: The game didn't properly capture mouse cursor inside the window in full screen mode which made it a bit annoying to play in multi-monitor setup. Some people have also experienced issues with saving/loading the game, but as I played through the game in one sitting that didn't affect me. I also played the 1.0 version so these issues will probably be addressed in the future patches. [h1]Recommendation[/h1] All things considered, it is not flawless but the point of the story comes across and the style makes it worthy of checking out. I'll probably do another playthrough after a few patches to see if there are different paths to the story.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 5, 2017

  I have to say that I didn't expect this game to affect me quite as much, even though I had to deal with similar childhood issues. In that sense I have to say they really did great on capturing some of the less well known effects on someones psyche, which is the judgement, the anxiety, the hopelessness and the extreme unfairness that comes from growing up in such a situation, but because they did it so well and it hit me so unexpectedly, I also have to give out a bit of a warning. If you had a childhood where parents or caregivers were having any form of alcoholism or addiction, you might want to be careful with this game, because for me it has triggered quite heavy thoughts. Which in my opinion, is just a sign that they did it really well.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 25, 2017

  i am impressed and touched by this short "game" because of many reasons, two of them are very personal - but i guess thats what "user reviews" are all about: to get as much subjective (!) opinions about something you're interested in as possible to help you decide if it is something for you or not... the personal reasons: i got a father myself quite recently (my little boy is almost 8 months old), so you have to understand that i judge (any) media regarding children now very differently (i guess, you know what i mean if you have children yourself). in my opinion lydia is a powerful reminder of how much influence and responsibility parents have and how important it is to be aware of that. the other personal reason is [SPOILER]that my parents are divorced too[/SPOILER], so i know a little bit about that. i love the small but great ideas in lydia, which distinguish the "game" from others of the same kind. i really enjoyed the mixture between humour, the overall pacing (the game is short, but the way how it unfolds is very well done imho) and the childish, naive tone in which the makers approach important, very serious and dark adult themes in a fresh way. bravo for that! i also love the artwork. the backgrounds are very atmospheric, the character design very creative and spot on and the animations are perfectly fitting for what lydia wants to be. dialogues made me smile, think, suffer and wonder, clicking anxious to reveal the next one, which is a lot of praise in times where aaa-production chats beween characters can't make me feel anything anymore. its a great mixture between exaggerated cliches, realistic lifelike extracts and dreamlike inbetweens. the sound and music was very well placed too and i really enjoyed that you did not have tutorial boxes and information about where to click and what to do anywhere - lydia forces you to find out - playfully, which is a good thing. the "game" plays with your expectations, keeps suprising and i am glad that i had the opportunity to "play" it. so, thank you platonic partnership, can't wait to see more from you guys in the future. for generations to come.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 27, 2017

  I rarely write Steam reviews and even though this game is made by people I'm personally acquainted with, I couldn't resist. The initial impression almost makes the game a disservice. During the first minutes I saw a rough-around-the-edges game with a homely visual style and some clunkiness. I actually had to force myself to continue on another day after trying it for a couple of minutes at first. The story and tone, which are the most important aspects of the game are heavy and personal. I came to realize the sound design and visuals were a very good choice. The story is abstract enough to not be patronizing, yet clear enough to be understood what it's really about. Having experienced alcoholism or similar illness of a relative or a friend makes this game a heart-wrenching and personal experience unlike many others. It's also not a feel-good game. This game will make you sad and angry for all the right reasons. If you go in expecting fun escapism, you're in for a miserable time. The game is also quite short, but it's most likely a good thing. I'm not sure if I could've taken more. At the end I was talking out loud to my computer screen and cursing at the story and characters. This is not something that a run-of-the-mill game or story does to me. My fullest recommendations
• gamedeal user

  Aug 17, 2017

  [u]This review was written in English and Russian in purpose to save your money and time.[/u] [i]«You pass by a little child, you pass by, spiteful, with ugly words, with wrathful heart; you may not have noticed the child, but he has seen you, and your image, unseemly and ignoble, may remain in his defenseless heart. You don't know it, but you may have sown an evil seed in him and it may grow, and all because you were not careful before the child, because you did not foster in yourself a careful, actively benevolent love» /Fyodor Dostoyevsky/[/i] Lydia is a story-driven game about substance abuse from a perspective of a small child developed by a Finnish indie development team. A feeling of pure hopelessness surrounds this poor girl's story, and as she delves deeper into a surreal journey with her pink Teddy bear, players discover the increasing severity of her fractured world. It's a mournful experience, for sure, but it's also emotionally draining and incredibly dark so if you're looking for pure escapism don't play Lydia. [i]“A beast can never be as cruel as a human being, so artistically, so picturesquely cruel.” /Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov/[/i] Lydia is not a traditional adventure game that involves in-depth puzzle-solving or inventory management you'll only interact with whatever's available at the moment in every chapter which consists of no more than three side-scrolling screens. Instead of dialog trees you select Lydia’s emotional state but I think your choice doesn’t affect the story. The gameplay itself consists of clicking environmental objects and through dialogs which need to trigger some specific actions. There’s only one mini game in Lydia (very simple one) so getting stuck or stumped is impossible. The game skillfully shows different parts of Lydia’s life in several chapters. We see how she’s searching “a monster” from a child to an adult daughter of a manipulative alcoholic. The ending of the game is particularly poignant. [i]«And the more I drink the more I feel it. That's why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink.... I drink so that I may suffer twice as much!» /Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment/[/i] While the story remains strong there’re some problems. First, you can see some mistakes throughout the subtitles, ranging from simple grammatical issues to full-blown misspellings. Second, the use of foul language almost seems forced and out of place. [i]«Love children especially, for they too are sinless like the angels; they live to soften and purify our hearts and, as it were, to guide us. Woe to the man who offends a small child» /Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov/[/i] Having completed the game in less than two hours I have mixed feelings about Lydia. It did not feel like an adventure. It is rather a very short interactive story besides not very fun. Even if you would like the game you don’t enjoy it. I recommend the game only to those people who like a gameplay-lite adventures that deals with real-world problems particularly those of a darker nature like Lidia. I was impressed by this depressing story about wrecking a family because of alcohol addiction and emotional abuse but it’ so incredibly short so I do suggest you ought to wait a discount. [i]«Grown-up people do not know that a child can give exceedingly good advice even in the most difficult case» /Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot/[/i] Love and care for your family. _____________________________________________________________________ [i]«Вы проходите мимо маленького ребенка, вы проходите мимо, злобно, с уродливыми словами, с гневным сердцем; вы, возможно, не заметили ребенка, но он вас видел, и ваш образ, неприличный и неблагородный, может оставаться в его беззащитном сердце. Вы этого не знаете, но вы, возможно, посеяли в нем злобное семя, и оно может расти, и все потому, что вы не были осторожны перед ребенком, потому что вы не воспитывали в себе осторожную, активно доброжелательную любовь» /Ф.М. Достоевский/[/i] Лидия - это разработанная финской инди-командой игра о злоупотреблении психоактивными веществами, рассказанная с точки зрения маленького ребенка. Чувство чистой безнадежности окружает историю этой бедной девочки, и, когда она погружается глубже в сюрреалистическое путешествие со своим розовым плюшевым мишкой, игроки обнаруживают возрастающую тяжесть ее раздробленного мира. Конечно, это скорбный опыт, а также эмоционально опустошающий и невероятно мрачный, поэтому если вы ищете чистого эскапизма, не играйте в Лидию. [i]«Зверь никогда не может быть так жесток, как человек, так артистически, так художественно жесток» /Ф.М. Достоевский «Братья Карамазовы»/[/i] Лидия - это не традиционная приключенческая игра, которая включает в себя решение головоломок или управление инвентарем, вы будете взаимодействовать только с тем, что доступно на данный момент в каждой главе, которая состоит из трех экранов (не более). Вместо деревьев диалога вы выбираете эмоциональное состояние Лидии, но я думаю, что ваш выбор не влияет на историю. Что до геймплея, то вы кликаете на объекты и в диалогах, что должно вызывать определенные действия. В Лидии есть только одна мини-игра (очень простая), поэтому застрять и зайти в тупик невозможно. Игра умело показывает разные части жизни Лидии в нескольких главах. Мы видим, как она ищет «чудовище» от ребенка до взрослой дочери алкоголички-манипуляторши. Конец игры оставляет гнетущее впечатление. [i]«И чем более пью, тем более и чувствую. Для того и пью, что в питии сем сострадания и чувства ищу... Пью, ибо сугубо страдать хочу!» /Ф.М. Достоевский «Преступление и наказание»/[/i] Хотя история оставляет сильное впечатление, существуют несколько проблем. Во-первых, вы можете увидеть несколько ошибок в субтитрах, начиная от простых грамматических описок и заканчивая действительными орфографическими ошибками. Это относится не только к англоязычной версии игры, но и к русскоязычной. Во-вторых, использование мата кажется почти надуманным и неуместным. [i]«Деток любите особенно, ибо они тоже безгрешны, яко ангелы, и живут для умиления нашего, для очищения сердец наших и как некое указание нам. Горе оскорбившему младенца» /Ф.М. Достоевский «Братья Карамазовы»/[/i] По завершении игры менее чем за два часа у меня возникли смешанные чувства к Лидии. Это не приключенческая игра. Это скорее очень короткая интерактивная история, кроме того, не очень-то и веселая. Даже если вам понравится игра, вы не получите удовольствие. Я рекомендую эту игру только тем людям, которые любят не отягощенные геймплеем приключения, которые касаются реальных проблем, особенно тех, что являются мрачными по своей природе. Я был впечатлен этой депрессивной историей о разрушении семьи из-за алкогольной зависимости и эмоционального насилия, но она настолько невероятно коротка, что я настоятельно предлагаю вам подождать скидку. [i]«Взрослые не знают, что ребенок даже в самом трудном деле может дать чрезвычайно важный совет» /Ф.М. Достоевский «Идиот»/[/i] Любите и заботьтесь о своей семье.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 30, 2017

  Short but intense... (A playthrough only takes about 1 hour.) Not suited for children or people having a background with abusive parents :S
• gamedeal user

  Nov 21, 2017

  Lydia is a short, point and click adventure that addresses some dark themes from a child’s perspective. You play as the protagonist at various stages of her adolescence, observing the long-term effects of the monster for which she searches. The game utilises a mix of somewhat impressionist and cartoon art styles, dulled tones and grayscales with contrasting colours used well to effectively maintain the childlike POV whilst not undermining the serious nature of the subject matter – neglect, alcoholism and substance abuse. The stark themes are made more poignant when you realise that the game is based on the personal experiences of two of the developers at Platonic Games. A fact they share freely on the game’s Steam store page. Overall, the dialogue was well written, however, at times I found it to be bit stiff. There is no discernable speech in the game but unlike in other titles where this is done well (e.g. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons), it lacks finesse; the random intonation and repetitive nature means that it sometimes detracts from the experience rather than adding to it. That being said, there is some lovely (and fitting) music and the sound effects are used with creepy effect and create a beautifully dark atmosphere. Currently on sale, the game cost me less than it’s usual price of £3.99 and I’d recommend it, as long as you know what you’re getting. Lydia is short; I completed it in just under 2 hours, including its one achievement which you get for finishing the game, it is pretty linear and as far as I can see has little to no replayability. Nevertheless, if you’re after a short, melancholy experience this will meet those caveats and the exploration of adult problems from a child’s perspective makes it a little different, adding interest and accentuating the heavy themes. If you enjoyed this and would like to see my game reviews (and a bunch of other ramblings) in their natural habitat please visit my [url=www.rachaelbreartonwrites.com]blog[/url]
• gamedeal user

  Dec 7, 2017

  is