評論

• gamedeal user

  Mar 30, 2016

  [b]“Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means...” ― Umberto Eco, [i]The Name of the Rose[/i][/b] [i]The Abbey[/i] is the perfect example of encountering a marvelous story where you least expected it. If I remember correctly, I got this game in one of those weekly sales on a ridiculous price like 2 or 3 dollars. Quickly checking up cartoony, a bit cheap looking animations and somewhat grim art work I wasn't expecting much. Looking for a little filler in my life, I decided to give it a try yesterday evening. It was 5 in the morning when I finished the game without a break! Our story is set during the Middle Ages. Esteemed monk Leonardo del Toledo - an Italian and scholastic Sherlock Holmes, nonetheless - arrives to the Nuestra Senora de la Natividad Abbey to drop off his young novice, Bruno for his study with the local monks. During their journey though, they are assaulted by a hooded figure trying to crush them under a huge boulder in the steep mountain path. After their narrow escape and arrival, the Abbot asks Leonardo to investigate an odd accident that occurred at the abbey the other day, costing a brother of the order his life. The Abbot suspects that the Devil was at work! Wise Leonardo, knowing that there'd be no need for a devil when men's work is at hand in this earth starts his investigation alongside his personal toothache: a genuine idiot of a young boy and his novice: Bruno. The story is heavily inspired by Umberto Eco's [i]The Name of the Rose[/i], a classic murder mystery concerning the Medieval Scholastic Thought, the oppression of the church, the wrath of inquisition and the nature of knowledge. The lore presented within the game to establish the Medieval European setting is way more successful than I'd imagine it to be. Books that characters talk about, historical and religious references they use and the narrative terminology are spot on authentic. Small nuances in the written script - like using the word "ignoramus" rather than "ignorant" as the norm of the era for the educated in Latin - establish a certain dark mood in spite of the cartoony animations, suitable for the setting. What would surprise me most is that the limited selection of characters residing in this secluded abbey - including our main hero - are wondrously well-written with deep personalities, moral and ethical dilemmas, opinions on philosophical subjects, scars of personal experiences and rich backgrounds! It is a philosophical and theological joy to read their dialogues narrating certain realities of the era with both subtle and blatant remarks. The story itself - and the mystery revolving around it - is well worth experiencing. The plotline and the involving parties' actions are well weaved and complicated; quite satisfactory for a mystery reader. Graphics are no prize winner, it is possible to observe that much even checking some screenshots. Character animations are odd, plastic figures with cheap animations, moving with a certain crude form. With better animations, this game could have been much, much more. There is no sync between the animations and the voice acting whatsoever; but the voice acting itself is marvelously good! This must be a game of extremes, with things really good and really bad scattered around. Gameplay isn't complicated at all. You collect certain items, combine some, use them in proper places and talk to people to gather information and bring a conduct to events. Our everyday P&C adventure game. You are welcome to check Leonardo's thoughts and notes in your inventory to get an overlook on the affairs anytime. Bruno will follow you everywhere like a detrimental infection and as the teenager idiot he is, he will worsen things a lot more than he will ease... still, we are a loving, patient and wise monk bringing God's love to any who'd listen, right? [i]The Abbey[/i] is an unexpectedly good purchase for you to consider, especially if it's on sale. I recall Sean Connery's portrayal of William of Baskerville, the monk in [i]The Name of the Rose[/i] as soon as I heard Leonardo talking. It's an unmissable experience for any adventure gamer and the lover of a good old theological argument. Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ladystoryteller#curation]here[/url] - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!
• gamedeal user

  Nov 8, 2014

  Overall, I enjoyed this game. It is apparently based on a book called "The Name of the Rose". It takes place in a monastery, and is about a monk and his novice investigating a series of murders. As one might expect in a game about murders in a monastery, there are some monks of dubious character. There are also several monks who are very decent people. The game is a simple point-and-click, with one slider puzzle. Objects can be a bit hard to find and involve some backtracking around. A couple tips to help with the gameplay- the characters walk slowly, but double-clicking on the next area will take you there right away. Moving the cursor to the top of the screen opens the inventory, moving it to the bottom closes it, and pressing m when in an open area will bring up an interactive map. I wouldn't pay full price for this game, but it was an enjoyable play.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 18, 2014

  I'm really suprised that this isn't more well known as a quality point and click adventure. It has a very good plot, mostly good voice acting, sensible puzzles and well done sound and visuals. The best point of this game is the plot quality. It has a really interesting story featuring characters with depth. Your character, a Catholic monk, arrives at a remote monastery with his young acolyte and is asked to help solve a potential murder. Things get complicated quickly but the story never loses credibility. Good scripting (with a few minor mistranslations in the English version) and very solid voice acting make this a great story to experience. Other good points: Understated but well composed music. Very nicely drawn background art. Good puzzle quality Things to make you think twice before buying: It is a bit too expensive given its length (10 hours gameplay at a guess). I don't feel ripped off but try to get it in a sale. The style of character artwork is a bad choice. The game's material has moments that are quite dark but the character faces are Disney cartoon. Character walking speed can be slow although double clicking to quick-travel between screens makes this much less of a problem. In short this is a good story well told with challenging puzzles. Maybe a little too expensive at £15.
• gamedeal user

  May 11, 2015

  I really wish I could recommend this game. It has a neat setting and at certain points it really nails a nice atmosphere. Certain parts of the game are fun and some of the game's problem-resolutions are pretty clever once you figure them out. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to the end of the game because the developers decided to put a difficult sliding tile puzzle in, and evidently I'm not the only one who couldn't get through it. I just find it extremely annoying when adventure game developers put these types of obnoxious actual puzzles in their games, let alone at crucial moments in the game once you've already invested a lot of time in it. People can do those kinds of puzzles online if they wanted to- throwing one in in a game like this just misses the point and adds game time in an extremely lazy way. I think I had read something about that puzzle in the reviews before getting the game, but didn't pay much attention to it. I wish I had listened to them. Also, it's hard to tell from the screenshots, but the animation seems somewhat low-budget. Maybe it is an indie developer, so that is okay, but just to let you know going in... it looks like well-detailed, nice 2d backgrounds with simple, low-budget 3d character animations just sort of superimposed on it. Sometimes you can't notice, but other times it just looks kind of cheap.
• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2015

  A decent core story is buried under ragged delivery, questionably cartoonish presentation, technical flaws and god awful sliding tile puzzle. The Abbey finds a way to break the immersion almost every time you finally manage to start enjoying yourself. First challenge arises even before the opening cinematic, for most simply starting a game will be an adventure of its own. Steam doesn't recognize unique spanish letters so you'll have to endure errors and crashes to find out just what files you have to edit and how. The visuals are good enough (though sadly not as good as the screenshots imply, in motion 3D-models are a lot less pleasant to look at) with backgrounds being one of the stronger points of the game. Still, during the vital moments the cartoony style seems like an odd stylistic choice, conflicting with the seriousness of murder and religious rituals, destroying the atmosphere that could have been with a more fitting approach. In the game itself most things exist to irritate you: from the astoundingly low position of the subtitles and MC's frustratingly slow movements to the existence of Bruno. On the bright side, dialogue and voice acting are mostly passable (except, well, the good old Bruno, one of the most useless sidekicks ever created), some characters even have more or less interesting back-stories to tell and there are several clumsily delivered but still decent twists to the main scenario. The story is almost compelling at times, but even this last pillar is mostly ruined by a rushed ending, which exposes everything in a massive info dump by the characters without any player input and confuses the poor player with plotholes and the out-of-nowhere deductions from Leonardo. Few real puzzles are put into this project, but you may still find yourself stuck from time to time as objects that has always been there like to suddenly become grabbable and be a key to the stalemate. But my main problem lies with that inverted sliding tile gimmick, few people play adventure games for these kinds of challenge and, if you are not a master of the Mystic Square, it also downright kills the flow of the best and most dynamic act of the game. It's not a plain horrible game without its moments, but I strongly feel that Abbey's downsides are outweighing any fun it could offer. [b]2/5[/b]
• gamedeal user

  Jul 12, 2017

  I bought this game at 75% off. There were a lot of mixed reviews but I thought I'd try it anyway. I liked it. It's much like other point and click games. The story was interesting, the graphics were good and it wasn't short. Without giving away anything, the only thing I was disappointed about was that someone else in the game that deserved justice, didn't get it. It's a fun game if you like point and clicks. I'd recommend giving it a try if it's on sale.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 6, 2017

  A great little game. For sure, the pace is slow, but I felt this was appropriate. The story is very much about the characters, not random objects. I enjoyed the setting and atmosphere. At the end, I could happily have played another game featuring Leonardo. Something about the period really appeals.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 4, 2016

  Wasted my time.. At first i loved the game.. played till almost chapter 2 but had to stop to run an errand outside so i saved the game. But when returned and tried to load it back its gone.. Ruined the fun for me to having to start all the way back to beginning.. Dont know if happens to other people but maybe just me i dunno and i dont care.. cant refund anymore since its passed 2 weeks of purchase.. so yay what the F*** ever.. Uninstalled.. Whoever about to buy this.. do be cautious.. You may have to play beginning till finish without having to save.. You could do so if you dont have a life.. :)
• gamedeal user

  Jan 18, 2015

  Have you ever seen the movie "THE NAME OF THE ROSE" with Sean Connery and Christian Slater? Or better, have you ever read the book (Il Nome della Rosa, author: Umberto Eco) from which it was inspired? If the answer is: YES, you already know the plot of this game, generally speaking! If not, here is a summary of it: Medieval Age, two monks arrive at an ancient and famous Abbey where are happening strange things: bloody incindent, murdered people and. apparently, even a ghost that haunted the library of the Abbey. So the task to solve these mysteries is put in the hand of the two monks: Leonardo (guess who is that gave the inspiration) de Toledo and his disciple Bruno (a young dumb irritating boy). They find, obviously, difficulties, silence and boycott, especially when they try to investigate deeper in the library, the very heart of the Abbey, and it seems the very heart even of this murdered. Who is behind these terrible deeds, who is the architect of these ferocius foul playes, a devil or a human being? And above all, why is this library important? What is the misterious secret concealed inside it that needed to be guarded so thightly to drive someone to kill to protect it ?... You want to know? Play the game Pro&Con: 1) the plot was interesting and amusing 2) the dialogues are good and well speaked 3) the graphics are in cartoon style (so pretty at eye) 4) the gameplay is not excellent, there is not tutorial, and even if this game is a point&click adventure, not all is so obvious: for example, the inventory is showed, when you move the cursor on top of the screen, as a sort of curtain) 5) the main menu is in spanish language (that's ok), but I can't figure out a way to name my saving, so there was no name of the saving, no timing, only a series of "?????". So, fix in your mind what was the last scene in which your characters were, otherwise you will be stuck in the search of the right savegame 6) there isn't a Map, so no way to move fast: you need get through all the location one by one every time you need to move (and you have to move a lot through the various locations) 7) the pace of game is slow That is why my rating for the game is 7/10
• gamedeal user

  Oct 8, 2016

  Visuals, story, characters and voice acting are all very good, game is certanly memorable in that regard, but two fings are stopping me from recomending it: 1. Missing assets bug, game will crash at certain spots and you will be forced to manualy rename incorrectly named files. 2. Puzzles are mostly fine, but often they are solved by visiting all locations to see if something changed since your last visit or talking to all characters for new dialog option. It becomes tedious realy fast (especialy if you now game can crash on you at any point and force you to repeat all that one again) My advice: if you are interested in this game - just watch a walkthrough on youtube, you'll get everything that's good about this game and save yourself a lot of frustration