Wayward Manor

Il est resté très longtemps dans la rubrique "bientôt" de Steam. Trop longtemps. Au moment de la sortie, je me suis pressé pour le prendre surtout parce qu'il avait un petit prix. Mais voilà : Le jeu est fonctionnel mais il nous hurle : "J'ai été sorti trop vite !!!". Quelqu'un aura dû perdre patience. Des menus jusqu'au gameplay tout est plutôt brut. Vous "explorez" un manoir, mais votre rôle se borne à cliquer des éléments au bon moment, c'est très limité. Cliquez tel objet quand le bonhomme est à portée pour lui faire peur. Les niveaux proposent une certaine diversité, les pièces sont basées sur un thème : grenier, salle de jeux, chambre, etc. Les éléments découlent du type de pièce : un coffre à bonbon, une armure décorative poussiéreuse. L'agencement de chaque pièce n'est pas non plus fantastique, franchement ça ressemble à ce qu'un moteur de génération procédural pourrait sortir. Le look des personnages me plaisait, mais une fois en jeu on peut découvrir des modèles peu travaillés, des versions de travail qui donne une idée générale plus qu'un style que l'on peut aimer. Et ce n'est pas comme si on pouvait pousser les options graphiques pour en tirer plus que ce qu'il affiche par défaut. Pour ce qui est du nom mis en avant, à savoir celui de "Neil Gaiman", et bien je n'ai rien à en dire et ce n'est pas faute d'avoir cherché, d'avoir fait un effort pour être sensible à l'univers et à l'impression qu'il peut laisser. J'ai pourtant vu Coraline et j'apprécie en général les variations à la Tim Burton. Je doute que les amateurs ou les fans y trouvent quelque chose à savourer. Voila, c'est répétitif, brut, sans finesse ou identité forte. Peut-être que je le jeu amusera quelques heures un enfant, même s'il n'y pas de VF, il n'y a rien de capital à décrypter depuis l'anglais. Au regard de la durée de vie, et bien il y a un peu moins de 10 ailes, avec 5 pièces par aile, ce qui est tout à fait honorable, surtout si l'on cherche à accomplir les petits défis spécifiques de chaque aile.

To put it simply: I love this game. It's very charming. It's extremely quirky. But what makes me love this game the most is that it's...fun. Yes, it's fun. Simple, but fun. As I'm writing this, I'm only through the first chapter, but I can say this with certainty: Wayward Manor has an interesting story, cute characters, and a unique direction of art. Put all of those things together into the gameplay style (Point & Click, Puzzler) and voilà: You have a fun game! (In my opinion)

Wayward Manor is a puzzle game, where you play as a ghost of sorts and try to chase the inhabitants out of their gothic manor. It is also very much a mobile style game: you need to get six "scares" per level, and you get more options to interact with the room as you scare the person or persons more times. Each level also has three optional objectives to get. There is therefore replay value if you want a perfect run. The characters each have a distinct personality which makes them unique, and what ties the individual levels together is a short story written for this game by none other than Neil Gaiman. As for the graphical style: it is based on drawings from the Victorian age, such as used in the original publications of Alice in Wonderland. This means superdeformed yet "cute". The game is easy to get through, but can be really challenging if you want to perfect it. It's not a perfect game, I encountered a few minor glitches, but none of those really detract from playing. But my overall experience is a very positive one.

A game of ever-increasing complex puzzles, with clever characters that make me laugh. The learning curve is quick, the controls intuitive, and it's a pleasure to control with only the mouse (no keyboard). I do wish there was more history, background, and a longer game. Overall, happy and reccomend you buy it!

I'd love to recommend this, being a big Neil Gaiman fan, as well as a gothic comedy/horror fan, but this just doesn't do Neil justice. The plotting is there, and the idea is great but it feels like a mobile click-fest you can just snore through. I think Neil would've been better colaborating with Double Fine or Ron Gilbert. There's an ufortunate 'cheapness' that whiffs off this game in several areas. Example: A butler walking around lighting candles with an animated flame, which are clearly already lit with a static flame graphic. I was honestly expecting more. I thought we were going to have a house to explore, as the enemies ran from room to room of their own accord in various combinations. This is like the 3G mobile version of what the game should've been. Sad for Neil, sad I backed it.

its a very good game its simple and fun to play, the characters are funny and the music complements the game. i recommend this game, all the people in the family can played and its fun wathc how diferent everybody find the solution.

Like other Neil Gaiman fans, I was excited to hear he was taking his story-telling talents to a new medium with this game. I was personally not disappointed. All I expected was that I'd like it. I'd learned that you can't expect much other than good story-telling from Neil; he mixes it all up too much. Between Neverwhere, Sandman, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, his picture books, Fortunately the Milk, the Graveyard Book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (all of which I have read or seen), no two are alike. While I think it would be great to have more to the game, especially a longer story, I was pleased with Neil's work. I would love to see this as an illustrated novella of sorts. That being said, I do have certain expectations about games, though keep in mind, this is from a very casual game-player. I expect them to run. I expect them to work. I expect a finished and released game to be complete and fully-functional. I expect them to entertain. I expect them to be worth the money. I expect them to be worth my time. It worked for me and all (I don't think I had any bugs, but I could be wrong), but I also expect narration to be coupled with text, particularly if audio is unavailable or undesirable (even if it is the wonderful Mr. Gaiman narrating). And I expect some sort of tutorial, even if it can be disabled, and there was none. I think an option to return to the menu between levels or chapters could be added; I had no idea I was almost done until the plot twist came. Do keep in mind: a patch/update was released within a day of initial release, so any issues may have been fixed. The designers made some slight adjustments, too (i.e., there wasn't the magnifying glass when you couldn't click things before). In all, I liked the game. I did not have ideas about what it would look like or what it would be about (save for the pre-release description), so on this I had no disappointments. Nor was I disappointed by the story, though as I said I wish there was more. The puzzles could mostly be solved multiple ways, which means you can play them differently several different times, and people who are great at these types of puzzles and those with less experience can all enjoy. Some were more challenging than others, but mostly, this is a casual puzzle-solving story. The background art was nice, though the moving pieces were rather square and jagged, as some others have complained (I don't put as much emphasis on graphics as most people seem to). The music had a nice haunting (but not quite scary) tone, which was pretty cool, too. Bottom line: It was a cute, casual puzzle game, and I wish there was more. Also, make up your own mind about it. Was it worth my time? Yes. Was it worth my money? I'm not sure, based on the length, depth, etc., but I don't mind supporting a favorite author and an indie company.