I just finished this game and am about to start on the Bonus Game (CE). It is the usual "mad scientist" plot, where a respected elder goes against every part of his cultural upbringing in order to revive a dangerous, ancient power that he hopes will restore to life his lost children.
It follows the typical playing pattern of entering each scene, finding out all the stuff that is broken, what is missing parts, what is dangerous and what new Inventory items can be collected. You
do need to take notes because there is quiet a bit of backtracking, which I think adds to any game. A game is boring wherein you enter each scene, do everything in it, move on to the next scene and repeat. Not in
Skyland, boys and girls.
The game has its pros and cons. "Pros" are a creative story line, non-linear development and a complexity of scenes and task lines. You start off thinking one guy is the evil villain and gradually realize you've been misled and the real villain is someone else. The artwork is good enough and not overdone (no super-saturated clouds of color).
"Cons" are pop-ups in every scene (no option to turn them off), overdone voice acting (actually, so bad it is humorous), too many timed combat "puzzles" and variations on the old 60's "Simon" game of
repeat-the-colored-lights-in-sequence for my taste. (I was glad I chose to retain the option to Skip when I selected my difficulty level). Aside from these quibbles, I found most of the puzzles not to be puzzles at all. I also felt that quite of few of the items in the HO scenes were graphically obscure. You are searching for an "Hourglass" and it turns out you need to select the little one-minute egg timer, or you are searching for a "Pen" and it turns out you need to click on a feather that apparently is a quill. Oh well. No game is perfect.
I might give this game a year and replay it. It is a satisfying long game and the Pros did outweigh the Cons.
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