Crushed In Time

This didn't match up to the (lofty) standards set by its predecessor, There Is No Game. The gameplay and puzzles felt less creative or engaging - it at the same time was simpler and forced me to consult hints more often. The humor, as well, I feel was not as on point. The pacing was also on the slow side as significant sections of this played out more like a slightly interactive movie than a game. However, this was still an enjoyable enough time. Draw Me A Pixel knows how to make very meta adventures and include lots of humor, and they did both here. And the story is fully fleshed-out if a bit all over the place. I had a good time and have no regrets.

It pains me to write a negative review, and if there was a neutral option I would likely go for that one. But unfortunately, despite the fact that the game looks nice and the premise is great, the puzzles are not pulling their weight. And for a P&C adventure game, that is a priority. While the main gimmick of the game is pretty fun when you just start out, it starts to become a bit of a drag as you figure out what you can and cannot do. Puzzles often rely on moon logic and don't always seem to make sense. There is a puzzle where- roughly speaking- you have to catch a flying object with a specific character, and no other character can catch this thing for no discernable reason. So you might spend some time whittling away at this puzzle, only to look up a guide and realize you had the right idea all along- you just weren't using the right character. Several puzzles in the game feel like this- you know the [italic]solution[/italic] to the problem, but you don't know how to [italic]execute[/italic] the solution. Some puzzles are also timing-related, which does not always mesh well with the stretch-based control scheme. The game also did not always communicate clearly which items were interactable, and which were not. [spoiler]In one puzzle, you're stuck in a Game&Watch-esque game where you have to dodge numbers on your left and right side. The game has three different "alarm" settings. At some point you're blocked on both the left and right side simultaneously. The solution is to... Specifically use the "bell" icon (rather than the other two alarms) when you're blocked? What?[/spoiler] The hint system was not always a help in this regard- oftentimes it simply chronologically walks you through the steps of figuring out what you need to do with vague "nods" in the right direction, but if you're already past the point of the hints, you're still stuck (especially because, as I mentioned, the crux of the problem is often in the execution of the solution, rather than the solution itself. Some of the gags also dragged on for far too long, especially in the latter half of the game. There's a section in the game entirely dedicated to parodying quick time events and dialogue trees. For the dialogue tree, there is a section that requires you to pick dialogue options basically at random and hope you're right- if you're not, you need to navigate through the dialogue menu again while all dialogue plays again. The game turns into a long-winded platformer at some point, and constantly screams at you in the ninth chapter (literally). Story-wise I liked the premise, but I had hoped for a bit more character development, especially on Holmes' side. His apathy and attempts to logically explain the absurd events of the story are amusing, but the constant berating of Watson is something that grows old. It's unfortunate, I really liked the premise, but the puzzles did not win me over.