The Inheritance of Crimson Manor

This game has potential but it should not have been released in such a buggy state. Asking people to pay money to be your beta testers is not a good way to build a reputation. Truly, though, even without the bugs I would still find it hard to give it more than a reluctant thumbs up. Play it if you, like me, really enjoy these kinds of puzzle games, but expect a lot of frustration. Maybe it's best to wait for the dev's next game in the hope that they learned lessons from their mistakes in making and publishing this one.

Let's start with the good: the manor is nicely designed and indeed quite pretty. The story is interesting and the ending excellent. But the actual gameplay is a mess, with puzzles veering from silly trial-and-error busywork, annoying backtracking (you find lots of keys for the other side of the house), and just really clunky. Several times they were "difficult" because the UI and affordances were terrible. I was stuck on one for a long time because I didn't realize you could turn one part of the puzzle around. There was no indication that it was possible. And also sometimes the relevant items were so, so tiny and easy to miss. I want to be challenged by puzzles, not by a game's poor presentation.

Bugs, so many bugs! One puzzle completely broke for me and I had to skip it (luckily it was possible in that case). Most baffling is the wacky hint system, which seems to be linked to where you are rather than what you have. Hints like "this item can go there", even if you don't even have that item. It became so funny that I pressed "hint" all the time just to see what would come up, and it was invariably wrong. And sometimes ... it would just tell you the answer to a puzzle! Nice "hint". Hilarious design.

There's also a lack of polish with the editing. There are spelling mistakes, for one, and—this might sound petty—a lot of talk about "genes" and "genomes" ... but the game takes place in the wrong century for that discovery. Simple historical research or just more pairs of eyes looking at the script and game could have avoided this and other embarrassments.

Finally, I played with a controller, which was a big mistake. It made many puzzles quite finicky indeed, and weirdly the walking speed was all over the place. Sometimes I moved quickly, sometimes slowly, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out on what it depended.

Devs, a game isn't ready to ship when you finish making it. It's ready when you've tested it and can stand behind its quality.