Thank you for the detailed review, Flotsam.
I'd heard that the inventory was inconvenient, but I hadn't heard about this
Things are even worse if you find yourself inside one of the timed elements without the necessary item, and there is rarely any indication that such an event is coming.
Nor had I heard about the camera angles that turn "up" into "down" between one scene and the next.
Or this...
If you don’t save the victim, you cannot restore and try again. All earlier save games will only ever generate the “wrong” ending.
Your one single chance is also timed, and whilst there are a few paths to success, and none are terribly long, it will likely infuriate anyone who fails and cannot try again.
I wonder who thought
that would be a good idea.
I'll bet 99.9% of players will never discover this on their own...
What you aren’t told (and it isn’t in the manual) is that you can get a second chance by going back to the main menu, clicking a not previously available menu item, and then solving an additional puzzle. I can’t tell you how that works because I didn’t know about it.
And apparently you can't rely on the autosave because
...there are several involving traps which will likely kill you before you realise you are even in one. Victoria does get a “life,” meaning she can survive one “attack” and then be healed with medicine which you can find. The game autosaves before the timed sequences, but not the traps. So save often.
Long and frequent load screens don't help matters.
I can't see paying full price for a game with so many aggravations.