Developer: Out of the Blue | Released: 2020 | Genre: Adventure, First Person
A lovely first person adventure game made in the Unreal Engine. I was in control of Norah in 1934 looking for her lost husband Harry on an exotic island. It didn’t take long before it delved deep into an epic fantasy story with light Myst-like puzzles. Norah was carrying a notebook with her and drew important clues into it, so it was rarely necessary for me to write down my own notes. There was no inventory either.
The puzzles were not too difficult yet not a walk in the park either. The wonderful fantasy settings involving ancient alien temples and even diving under water as as sea creature kept the story intriguing all the way through. The voice actor for Norah was great, and she was commenting on everything I found. There must have been thousands of lines of dialog just for her.
If you like first person adventure games, this one is definitely recommended.
Pros
- Beautiful and varied fantasy settings with alien temples and underwater diving.
- The excellent notebook automatically collects useful visual clues for puzzle solving.
- A good voice actor for Norah comments on pretty much everything you find.
- Puzzles are well balanced – not too hard but also not too easy.
- Two different endings and you can save and choose as you like.
Cons
- Only four save games slots so you have to overwrite them regularly.
- There’s one audial “Simon Says” puzzle – I found it okay, but it might be annoying to some.
- Although Norah can sprint, sometimes it’s not quite enough when distances are great.
- The transition from chapter 2 to chapter 3 makes very little sense.