I finished "So Blonde" this weekend and I want to share my thoughts about it here. To be clear, I played the German version, as far as I know there is no English version yet. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

The story.

You play the role of a 17 year old girl stranded on the shore of a mysterious island. Progressing into the game you learn about the history of the island, it's inhabitants and of it's curse. Of course you're the one person to correct all the bad things that happen on the island! The story is good and really involving.

The looks.

The graphics look great, a lot of small details and little puns. BUT, there's a bad side to them. A lot of the views are so big and the hotspots so very small, be prepared to hunt for pixels many times. The loading time between screens is often annoyingly long and to repetitive. Movement can be accelerated by double clicking but the panoramic views slow down the gameplay anyway. This wouldn't be a problem if you don't have to pass these areas too often. The awful fact is you have to do so many times!

The sounds.

Remember I played the German version! The voice acting was pretty good except for the main character, another bad example of an adult trying to similate the voice of a juvenile. I hope the English version will be better. The background music is appropriate to the scenes but sometimes it got lost somehow, could be my PC set up though,

The game play.

The puzzles are sometimes very easy and sometimes very illogical. There are many mini games that you can skip (thankfully!). After finishing the complete game you can find them in the Bonus option in the main menu, if you want to play them later(?) The worst thing is when you want to get new clues from the other characters you often have to talk to many others before you can do so. A lot of running around is the outcome, combine it with the long loading times between the scenes and you understand the frustration I felt.

The conclusion.

A great story, lots of humour but it's spoiled by bad programming, not very original puzzles and a lot of running around all over the place. It's one of those games that could have been so much better if the developers had more time to polish it into a sparkling gem. Should you buy it? Don't judge on my opinion alone, I'm a collector,I try to get all the AG's I can get my hands on but I also am critical about them. Never base your judgement on one review.


Bernard

Thanks for the review, Bernard. Are the majority of the puzzles inventory-based?

Yes Rushes, most of them are and some are based on the interaction with the other characters.


Bernard

Thanks for the review Bernard... Sounds like fun!

Thanks for the review, Bernard. Looking forward for the English version.

Thanks for review Bernard

Love Maria

Hi Bernard

Appreciate the review !!

Cheers.

Mad

Thanks to Bernard for this fine mini-review of So Blonde.

As someone whi have only played the German demo, I agree with what Bernard said. Especially about the loading screens. Every time you go from one screen to another there you will spent about 15-20 seconds (or more) waiting for the next screen to load. Maybe this will better on some more modern systems than my 5 year old computer...

I also agree with Bernard about the voice acting - the main character's voice can be somewhat -ehm- annoying for the exact reasons that Bernard said.

The dialogues, to me, at least, tries to hard to funny...but, to me, they often end up being -cough- juvenile - at least some of the time...

Remember that I only played the German demo for this game so maybe the rest of the game is better...

I have small question about the game. You say that there's a lot of running back and forth, so I wanted to ask - does the entire game take place in one big area, or do you progress through several different areas, and once you're done with an area you don't go back to it.

You have to run back and forth all over the island until the end of the game, Shany.
Karsten, I have a fast computer and still the loading times are long.


Bernard

Thanks Bernard, now I think I'll avoid this game.

Thanks Bernard for the review.

Shany/ hopefully (usually) by the time the English version is released, the bugs will be fixed. At least I'm hoping so - I've been waiting for this game!

Thanks for the mini review Bernard. Sounds a little disappointing but with that in mind I will probably buy it anyway when it is released in English. Seems like something I would enjoy & it's good to start with expectations not too high.

Good for you chrissie, I never care what is said in reviews. I like to make up my own opinion.


Bernard