Has anyone played Downfall? If so, what did you think? I really liked The Cat Lady and have considered picking it up from the weekend sale based on that.
I got Downfall (accidentally) for free this morning, due to a VERY brief glitch in GOG's system. Having played it on and off for a good 5-6 hours today, here's my opinion of it, from the moderate amount of time I've spent with it:
First off, remember that Downfall was the developer's first game. Bearing that in mind, my opinion of Downfall was that it was his "dry run" into the psychological-thriller/horror adventure genre, for which The Cat Lady made him famous. That being said, Downfall is NOT in any way a bad game.
In fact, it's far from it! It has a very similar "edge" to it as does The Cat Lady, in that they're both emotionally intense, disturbing, and graphically thematic. To say one is "more intense" than the other wouldn't be quite fair to either of them, as they
each seem to strike much different nerves amongst the gamers that have played both of them... Google this topic if you're interest in the psychology of it, as some newspaper columnist (I believe it was one from SF Chronicle) wrote on his personal blog about how he conducted an "experiment" (for lack of a better word) where both games affected/traumatised his friends in strikingly different manners.
Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent now, but my main point here is that some people who have played The Cat Lady and
then played Downfall are "unimpressed" with certain mechanics of the latter. The first thing that you'll notice (basically from the start if the game) is that unlike The Cat Lady, Downfall is NOT voice acted. This actually doesn't bother me at all, however it might irk other people (If you MUST have voice acting, then stop reading right now, as this isn't your game.).
The second thing you'll notice is that the puzzles are not
necessarily lackluster, per se; just not of the same degree of ingenuity as those in The Cat Lady. The final point that stood out to me (but only a few times throughout my partial playthrough) is that there are a few VERY minor bugs—none of which impeded gameplay too much, and none of which I could even replicate after restarting the game. That being said, a restart is NOT required to remedy the bugs (the "bugs" are actually more along the lines of interface glitches than anything). The only reason I did so is just because my former game developer "instincts" habitually make me restart and regression test any game or software after encountering even the
slightest of bugs or glitches.
So, generally, as I said, I think Downfall is an absolutely fantastic game WHEN STANDING ON IT'S OWN. However, if you've played The Cat Lady previous to playing Downfall, you most likely won't enjoy it as much as you did the former. Overall, while Downfall lacks
just that final layer of polish that Michalski applied to his second (and far more well know game), the omissions are
still not very noticeable, unless you pride yourself on being a critic.
My word of advice is if you haven't played Downfall OR The Cat Lady, then DEFINITELY play Downfall first, BEFORE you play The Cat Lady. Not only will you barely—if at all—notice the minor drawbacks of Michalski's first game, but when you do play The Cat Lady, you'll
also appreciate everything The Cat Lady doesright much, MUCH more.
EDIT: Should I post this over on the GOG reviews, or is my writing quality not even worse being arsed about? :???:
