The debut of Dreampainters in the big market of the videogames is excellent. Anna is a great horror adventure game. The sawmill evolves with the plot and the three final contained in the game increase the longevity, between 5 and 10 hours. It's a winner bet for the italian development team!
Anna hit me like a thunder when it came out. Complex story, hidden in every little detail, splendid and picturesque view outside, mysterious interior of the house make it a game worth playing. Yes, hard puzzles made me irritated and disturbed sometimes at least because some of them were illogical. However, in the end I got used to the thought that it has to be a part of the plot too. Mostly as a binding ribbon that literally says "Everything is not that easy as you may have thought." This game held me frightened, terribly intrigued for such a long time that now I can proudly say it deserves 9 of 10.
I absolutely loved this game. Yes, sometimes the slow walking was a little annoying, but it was crucial to the game play, as more things happen to drive your character into madness as time went by. It had a different sense of "creepiness" than your standard horror games. This was a very creative and fun game. I will admit, I needed a walk-through to get through some parts. It's definitely not your standard "any **** can figure it out" kind of game. It makes you think. If you buy this game, keep in mind that some things must be combined that you'd never think of combining in your inventory. I love the mindset behind this game. There's no guessing the ending in this game. You cannot see what's coming. The music is beautiful and kinda eases the nerves at times. This is not an 'action packed, shoot em up' type of game. It's more of a ' what the hell is going on, this is really creeping me out' type of game. :) Very original. Keep in mind, it is a independent made game. Not like Blizzard made it or anything. Doesn't cater to everyone.
Even debutants could have done a better job, but still Dreampainters' game is engrossing and does so without much trouble – if you become annoyed by a puzzle and leave the game for a while, soon enough you will find yourself trying again. Anna has a great, scary atmosphere – and there are no cheap jump scares, the game slowly makes you have goosebumps. Unfortunately, there are flaws: occasional lack of logic or a fairly short story.
I wanted to scare myself a little and chose Anna to do so, a first-person point & click game. But one may not really say that Anna's scary, and given that the story remains obnoxiously obscure, as do many puzzles, one does progress kind of blindfolded. Not really a success.
As much as I want to like Anna for being a horror point-and-click, with such extensive translation issues, I can't in good conscious recommend it to anyone. It has a few good scares and some startling imagery, but otherwise just can't deliver the well-crafted intrigue of its peers.
Muszę przyznać, że włoskie studio Dreampainters mile mnie zaskoczyło, jak na ich pierwszą produkcję gra prezentuje się całkiem dobrze. Anna nie jest może kamieniem milowym w rozwoju przygodówek. Jest to gra raptem na jeden wieczór, jest w niej jednak coś, co nie pozwala odejść od monitora. Mimo, że nie obyło się bez kilku mniej lub bardziej irytujących fragmentów, jednak dzięki klimatowi rozgrywki w ogólnym rozrachunku, produkcji należy się wielki plus - fani przygodówek powinni się nią zainteresować.
Pełna recenzja dostępna jest na blogu ****
Anna Extended Edition
And unsettling Adventure
In Anna you play a character who decides to visit a home they constantly see in their dreams in hopes of finding his love Anna.. or at least what happened to her
And wouldn’t you know, the house is a bit haunted.
This is a point and click horror adventure game…
And by point and click game I mean monkey island style in a first person 3d setting…
Its all about picking up items, finding items and figuring out how they all go together…
It literally took me 40 minutes just to get inside the house because these combinations are so obscure..
Every solution seemingly needs a chain of events rather than being self contained…
So I decided to just restart the game and play with a guide…
much less frustrating experience that way…. Im not an add a toaster to the water kind of guy..
if you are.. youre going to really enjoy this game.. even more than I ultimately did
it takes place in 1 house and took me 2 hours to complete with a guide…
As you explore the house youll come across books and items that give a back story.. you can even combine different intuitions to get the full picture of what happened and why you keep dreaming of this house..
There are no jump scares here.. the horror is more psychological…
the game does a great job with its sounds and placements of items to make the journey to the end as disturbing and unsettling as possible…
You can even choose to just leave any time you want…
The game has 8 endings and you can get to one of them in literally less than 5 minutes…
But I wanted to full story so I stuck it out…
And it ended up being a great horror experience with a compelling story..
One I figured out before it ended..
but even at the end I couldn’t believe that it was exactly as I thought…
Anna is definitely worth experiencing for horror fans as well as adventure fans…
But its definitely one of those games you should play with a guide handy
Because the puzzles triggers and combination of items even with a guide made no sense most of the time.
I Give Anna Extended Edition
a 6.5/10
I really like this game. Yes, it is quite short and yes, you may want to wait until it is for sale and not pay the full price. Other than that, it has received a major makeover with a new optional hint-system that helps you out where the solution is too obscure. I find all solutions logical, especially since you have only a few items in your inventory and objects to interact with - so even try and error gets you progress easily. Sadly, the developers implemented an obligatory registration via email for the game to be started at all. The game manages to build up a lot of tension and atmosphere with only a few rooms to explore. The soundtrack and triggered events are well implemented into the game-play. The controls are smooth, the graphics beautiful and if you take your time to explore and recap what you have seen and found, you will find the solution on your own. I have only one issue with it and that is that there is a possible ending within 20 minutes of the game. If you do not know that this is a speed run alternative ending, you may get frustrated. Simply waiting a few minutes before unlocking the final step for the quick ending will solve this problem. There are three endings to unlock and I was encouraged enough by the game and the storytelling to find them all. In total, this will still be a quick play-through with about 3 to 4 hours if you take your time. For me, the experience was worth the price but I guess you really have to like this kind of puzzle game. If you are not a fan of both subtle horror and puzzle adventure and if you do not want to spend time just enjoying the ambiance, this game is probably not for you.
This isn't a game, it is an interactive music video. There is a blatant agenda, by some clever and arguably talented composers, to exploit a popular genre of game via high-traffic distributors like steam in effort to sell music which otherwise had little to no hope at all of being marketed by a major record label. I have played the game to completion, if anyone is wondering. I gave it a very generous 3, because at 2 hours long, the game never pretended to be anything other than what it blatantly is, a desperate attempt to get people interested in some hippie music.
This game is way to short. Took me 1 hour to complete.... The only thing that I liked was the music. But wasn't this game supposed to be a Horror? There is nothing scary