Adam - Lost Memories

Graphics 8/10 Horror 6/10 Story 9/10 This game was horrifically good! While the horror parts were mainly in the first section of the game, it was more puzzle solving like in the end of the game. The story was very intriguing as one wanted to know what really happened to Adam. I was actually too scared to play this game but my stream viewers wanted me to finish it. We really enjoyed solving the puzzles together. I hope there are more games to come from Adam!

ok, so this review will be a positive, but negative one. but all in all i can't recommend the game. i streamed this game for over 4 hours, it was great. ran smoothly, looked amazing and had some tense/creepy moments that made my heart skip and breath held. BUT after the allotted play time i experienced a game ending bug where nothing i do, i cannot progress. without spoiling anything, all i will say is a metal door in the 4th chapter in the vent is stuck shut which stops any progress. absolutely GUTTED that i was getting close to the end and i cannot beat it. im not wasting my time to try and get to this point again on another playthrough in case it happens again, fool me once, shame on me. if the game had multiple saves you could have, this wouldve fixed the issue as i always make sure to have 2 saves. if this gets fixed or something, i would easily give this game a thumbs up.

Adam: Lost Memories is a pretentious buggy walking simulator that feels like it was thrown together from bought assets. It is not that terrible optimization wise, but in 5-ish hours i encountered these problems: [list] [*] The game refused to launch, had to look up a fix on forums. [*] Crashed 4 times, twice in the prologue section, two more times later. [*] Once i got stuck on the password screen for a door, had to exit the game to fix it. [*] Occasionally got stuck on slight elevation levels, like the stairs in the prologue. [*] Motion blur is at max by default, no separated sound levels. You can move at double speed by moving diagonally. There's only one save slot and no chapter selection. [/list] Multiple threads on forums also complain about softlocks, but i didn't encounter any. Launching the game for the first time you're presented with a Rorschach test, i don't know if it does anything. The game claims that it is about "how it feels to grow up in abusive household", which feels tacked on. Vast majority of gameplay is spent going through dark industrial environments, collecting random items with no clear purpose, so you could unlock ways to more items for more locked rooms with items. Occasionally, you'll have a surreal episode that imples abuse, but leads nowhere. The rest of passive horror is crawling through near darkness with noises here and there and occasional glimpses of harmless humanoid monsters. Did you see that skinny bum going behind the corner? Go after them. There're only 3 actual monster sections that last no more than 5 min each (and i somehow managed to completely miss the second one). The monsters themselves are indistinct naked humanoids that you could pick out from any zombie outbreak or alien game. The multifaced statue on the cover? Not in the game. Interacting with most objects has the "hold and drag" principle, but the objects themselves lack weight and physicality usually present in Frictional's games. A big metal barrel has the same physics as a tiny cardboard box. There're a few puzzles involving movable objects, but that's about it. The one thing that pissed me off is that most of the drawers and cabinets are always closed, but in one section where they aren't... there's nothing useful in them. The game has no story, period. You sometimes find terminals with a single message from someone talking about a "signal" and "anomalies", but never actually meet anyone. There're some scenes where abuse is implied, but the stand in for a child is an alien with a cone head. There're photos of what i assume to be real house where the abuse happened, but in-game model is a massive mansion that looks nothing like it. You have a folder for documents but you only find 2 notes, both of which are just scraps with password codes. The whole game is an endless string of fetch quests to reach an elevator to leave the facility. The game has 4 chapters, but the last one is easily worth 3, and is also where it gives up on being a horror. If abuse is meant to be a "waste of time with chores", then sure, Adam: Lost Memories did feel like abuse. Don't waste your time on it.

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I accidentally got an item to early in chapter 2 and now the game wont let me progress,

An atmospheric horror walking sim with striking environments and sound, with a surprising mix of polish and jank. Light on gameplay, and occasionally feeling a bit aimless, I'd say it's still worth experiencing for the price. [h2]ATMOSPHERE[/h2] This game has fantastic visuals and sounds. This is an excellent example of smart asset-pack use. Everything feels coherent and fits together well. The levels all have the same oppressive and isolated feel, but there is a good amount of variation so it never feels too visually samey as you progress. The lighting is particularly good. The use of colour, harsh shadows, contrast, etc. is all very high quality. It's the main reason the environments look as good as they do. This guy knows how to light a scene. The sound is also very well done. Footsteps and ambient noise feel visceral and immerse you in the scenes, distant movement or screams add tension. Most of the horror in this game comes from smart use of SFX. [h2]HORROR[/h2] Not the scariest game, but it can certainly be scary. Like I said before, SFX are the main source of terror here. But you quickly learn you are very rarely in danger, and walking back and forth between rooms collecting items doesn't feel tense for most of the game. There are a few monster encounters. They are brief and not particularly challenging, but do add a lot. After the first time, knowing the game [i]does[/i] in fact have enemy encounters, the dark hallways and spooky sounds feel a lot more threatening. For a while at least. The scary-ness did peter out for me by the end, mostly because the game never really lets up on the atmosphere and you get used to it's tricks. There are a few small flashback sections that sort of function like breaks, but they only do so much. Despite a good amount of variation in the look of the levels, they do all 'feel' very much the same. It's always walking through rusted hallways pressing buttons and finding items. There is little challenge to be found, and though I wouldn't say I got bored, things were getting little dull towards the end. [h2]JANK AND ISSUES[/h2] Performance is not great. It ran fine for me, but still had performance drops in several areas despite a pretty powerful setup. I imagine on mid-range PCs these problems can get pretty extreme. Numbered control panels were very awkward to use, the mouse movement is laggy and can get stuck on the edges. The interface in general is a big weakpoint. Use of inventory is awkward and clunky. There is a dedicated documents tab that is only ever utilised twice in the game, as well as a camera photos section that is only needed [i]once.[/i] The HUD updates to show interaction icons at a longer range than you can actually interact, which is a baffling choice that caused a lot of minor frustrations. If the reticle changes to 'push button' I tend to assume that means I can push the button, but no. You always need to be a few steps closer and there is no further change in the UI to indicate when you are [i]actually[/i] in interact range. I did also hit progression blocking bugs twice in the game. One was fixed by exiting and re-opening, the other was a permanent soft lock where I was stuck inside a wall. Luckily I found a save file online, so I only had to replay a little bit instead of the entire game. Also, the achievements seem to have bugged out because I fully finished the game and only got one of the progression achievements. A little annoying but I'm not a huge achievement hunter or anything so it's whatever. [h2]WORLD AND THEMES[/h2] The game is very explicitly concerned with childhood abuse and trauma, (Though there are no direct depictions of it, in case you were worried). Some of the ways it handles this theme are very obvious, some are more subtle, but the setting is weirdly detached. Outside of a few sections where you find yourself in modern real world environments, the game mostly takes place in an industrial nightmare. I understand the developer was trying to replicate his own feelings as a survivor of abuse, but most of the time it just feels like you're in a standard sci-fi horror. It's a shame then that the levels have no internal fiction to hold them together, which I feel still could've been done without sacrificing the theme. There is no story or lore here, aside from the overall theme. I get what it's going for, but it made much of these levels feel a little aimless to me. There is never a narrative reason to progress other than "I need to open this door to continue the game". Even many of the puzzles feel only barely related to the overall theme. Some are very blatant, like slicing open your own body to find a children's toy, but others are just "restore power to this sci-fi equipment", which doesn't feel very rewarding when there's no story wrapping it. There is some text at the end that ties a bunch of things together, and it mostly works. But not perfectly. It's like the game had the choice between having a fictional story as an allegory for abuse, or going extremely direct with the developers actual experiences. It aimed more for the latter, but didn't fully commit and ended up in this weird middle ground. I certainly don't think the game made me 'view abuse differently' as the developer claimed. It's not bad, I just think committing fully to either of those two approaches would've yielded a stronger result. [h2]OVERALL[/h2] This is an incredibly impressive feat for a solo developer, and IMO worth the price. Despite my complaints about the setting and theme not always jelling, It's still powerful that the developer used his own real experiences with abuse and poured it into the game. The dedication at the end was genuinely moving. If it sounds like the kinda game you're even a little interested in, give it a go. I'm very interested to see what the developer makes next.

quente!