Review: Tales of the Neon Sea

Goutham Jayaraman

Ravencrow Game Review #4

 

Tales of the Neon Sea

https://store.steampowered.com/app/828740/Tales_of_the_Neon_Sea/

Genre	Point and Click
Platform	PC
Developer	Thermite Games
Publisher	Thermite Games
Playtime	13.2 hours
Date Completed	4/5/2021
Date Reviewed	9/5/2021
Overall Grade	A+

 

Tales of the Neonsea is a point-and-click adventure set in a futuristic cyberpunk world where robots have established themselves as sentient beings and live among human society as people (What’s really scary about this is that robots may actually end up getting personhood before animals do, which would say quite a lot about the integrity of the human species).

Unlike a traditional point-and-click game where you play with the mouse and manage a seemingly unending inventory, Tales of the Neonsea relies on the keyboard and does not feature inventory mechanics, instead prompting instances where items need to be used.

When I first started playing this game, the fact that it used keyboard controls did irritate me, but I was quickly drawn in to the game’s cyberpunk world and its investigative plot that revolved around solving murders and tracking down a serial killer. This plot kept me engaged and going throughout the game, although its quality did start to taper off and puzzle sequences became increasingly tedious and unlikeable.

What I liked

-          The game world was beautifully rendered and well fleshed out with tons of backstory

-          The story started off strong and interesting and remained decent till the end of the game

-          Playing as a detective was exciting especially at the beginning of the game where you had to piece together clues and derive conclusions

-          Puzzles were mostly fun to solve

-          More casual nature of the game made for a relaxing game experience that could focus on the story, though having inventory mechanics would have still been better.

-          The sequences where you could play as William the cat.

-          Characters were designed well enough

-          Having pieces of lore to collect and view

-          Optional sidequests gave the game more life.

 

What I disliked

-          Controls were not the most enjoyable, especially for a point-and-click game

-          Plenty of aimless backtracking to solve certain puzzles

-          Simplified inventory felt rather empty

-          Investigative mechanics were only largely present at the beginning of the game

-          Story was not consistent, starting off strong but becoming increasingly dull and obscure towards the end of the game

Gameplay 16/20	+ Puzzles were mostly fun to solve + Investigation mode was interesting but not used enough + Playing as multiple characters - Too much time spent aimlessly wandering about - Lack of inventory mechanics (not always an issue, but in this case really made the inventory feel empty and pointless) - Awkward controls
Game Design 15/20	+ Puzzles were mostly cleverly designed - But some puzzles felt tedious or meaningless, to the point of causing disconnect and detracting from the game experience
Graphics 19/20	+ Gorgeous game world featuring lovingly crafted pixel art graphics + Characters are well-designed and animated. - Not enough emphasis given to the inventory
Audio 18/20	+ Good soundtrack but not something I paid attention to. + Mostly ambient, giving the game an edgy detective feel. - Lack of voice acting
Story 18/20	+ Interesting and original story + Gripping narrative revolving around a mysterious serial killer - Poor pacing brings it down somewhat though
Lore 19/20	+ The game world and its characters contain deep backstories and lore which can be collected and viewed in your journal. + Additional side quests to solve - Low interactivity
Value 16/20	+ Good game length, slightly less than price + Some replayability value in finding missing collectibles - But too much time is spent on pointless tasks.
Overall Grade 16/20	A+
Score	85

 

Overall, Tales of the Neon Sea is an excellent game that is worth buying and playing. It has an interesting story that will keep you hooked from start to finish, and certainly features its fair share of creative puzzle design.

I think playing as William also gives the game additional value, as it adds to the gameplay experience and puzzle quality.

The biggest problem with the game really is the tediousness of some of its puzzles, which can potentially detract heavily from the overall experience, as it did for me on at least a few occasions. Perhaps speeding up the process by giving players an overview mode where they could work on the puzzles without having to move the lumbering detective back and forth would have made for a more streamlined experience and avoided the lower gameplay and game design scores.

Still, I would certainly recommend this game primarily for its story, lore and aesthetics, and your experience is likely to be more positive should you play with two hands instead of one as I did.