Reviews for Awe - Beckoning Halloween

[jell0garden]

Could be awesome...

I loved the atmosphere of this game and the art was awesome. But it really seemed to fall apart after that. I played it several times and each time I was thinking, "what the fuck am I supposed to do?" I finally figured out that I was supposed to find the items and give them to the ghosts.

The only problem here is that the items are extremely arbitrary and hard to find. I love a good point-and-click puzzler and I have noticed that unreasonable relationships between item and task is a key problem in bad puzzlers like this one.

Oh and let me point something out... "sudden unfair death" has most certainly NOT been removed. The time limit for playing this game is way too short and really took away from the experience.

Overall the ambiance was creepy and weird and that was spot on, maybe make the ghost's face a little more skeleton-ish and you'll have a really scary game. But the scripting, frantic arbitrary item search, and time limit really ruined an otherwise good game.

dawnland responds:

Thanks for the review and kind words on the atmosphere and art!
Earlier the "unfair death" was only determined on if you have the bad luck to run into the wrong rooms. Now, it´s wrong rooms + time that make you die... Perhaps I should expand the time limit, but it's hard to find the balance (written that before...) between a too easy and too hard game...

/Daniel

[Dayweed]

Scary and good atmosphere

Creepy as hell. Liked the atmosphere and ambient sound. The logo and menu are awesome. A little to easy to complete the game, but I loved it in all. Could be even better with some fixes that other people mentioned. So you'll get a high score from the start.

dawnland responds:

Thanks for the review, and the high score! Nice that you mentioned the logo and the menu ;)
Well - the complaints are right, but the problem is to find the balance - some like it as it is, others don't.
Glad you like it, and thanks again!
/Daniel

[Domriso]

Good in theory, bad in practice

I'm being kind of harsh, but I feel like this game had a lot of potential and just fell flat. In all, this kind of game usually goes one of two ways: you make it creepy and confusing, but ultimately logical, or you mess up somewhere along the way and annoy people. This one falls in the latter.

The problems I can see:

No real plot. It's been said before and it'll be said again, but without much of a reason for any of this to be going on, it's just a spooky house.

The items aren't well explained. While I like the fact that the placement of the items change places, I never figured out what to do with the ring or scissors, and I only found all three in the game once.

The time limit is annoying. Considering that the game has no instructions whatsoever, the time limit makes this game particularly infuriating at points. I was rather spooked by my first death, where the hands appeared around my "neck" and then a face flashed, but the others were just boring. The ghost's face was a tad too cartoony for me.

It was very short. You mentioned in another review that you like short games, but this is the short of game where a time limit somewhat ruins the gameplay. You kind of need time to let things soak in.

In all, I feel like this game just needs more. Better music, better effects, better scripting for some things (I never saw bloody hand prints on the piano, and I played the game half a dozen times while trying to beat it, which I never did), and an actual story. I feel like you could do a hell of a lot with a game like this, you just have to add more to it.

dawnland responds:

Thanks for the long and detailed review! Well - most of the complaints has been on the navigation. Other complain on the lack of plot and explanation of what happened, and the time limit. All this I understand. Problem is to find the balance - some like it as it is, others don't.

I gather the feedback for improvement on the next release. Will make more deaths like the "hands death" then... (It will take a while thou since I don't have any more time to put on this game for now.)
/Daniel

[soravsxemnas1]

scary as shit

omg good game but did it have to be that scary or its just because im playing in complete darkness in the middle of the night but that makes the atmosphere better right?

dawnland responds:

Thanks for the review, and the high score!
Well -playing in complete darkness with headphones or good speakers is recommended for the best scare!

/Daniel

[Bastardzik]

Nice house

Game indeed boring... but still, nice house dude ;P

dawnland responds:

Thanks for the review!
An update has been uploaded a few minutes ago and should be live within 24 hours...
(Don't think it will make you like the game better thou)

/Daniel