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- Application Systems Heidelberg
- Application Systems Heidelberg
- Application Systems Heidelberg
- Application Systems Heidelberg
Lamplight City
Released On: Sep 13, 2018
72
7.7
All Platforms
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
72
56% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
44% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
72
56% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
44% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Do you want to feel like a detective? Do other games keep giving you ‘all-seeing vision’? Do you wish you could actually solve problems on your own (more-or-less)? Look no further.
Lamplight City offers an intriguing set of mysteries and stands as a great throwback to titles like Monkey Island and Sierra's Gabriel Knight series. The cases aren't especially taxing, but the well-realized setting and characters add plenty of flavor and help the game feel like something more than the sum of its parts.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 User Ratings
7.7
65% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
23% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
12% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 User Ratings
7.7
65% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
23% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
12% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Guys, this is just the one great game here!
I have never enjoyed point and click quests that much in last 10 years. Even though I have played some. This game is great. Maybe sometimes it seems simple, easy, maybe there could be more twists with the investigations, but it's still amazing.
Recommend!
Report
PC
I am glad I discovered this game! It looks a bit retro but as soon as you play it you dive into a world with excellent voice acting and you feel at home in a Victorian city full of intrigue and mysteries.
You collect your clues, suspects and documentsin a casebook and you can always remember where you've been when you start the game again and look at your objectives list in the casebook.
Puzzles aren't too hard but the focus really is on a well told story. I like it a lot!
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PC
Lamplight City is neither as good, nor as bold as Unavowed’s mix of adventure and RPG but certain ways it reforms the genre do pleasantly surprise. Gonzalez’s marriage of a crime story with a period drama piece came out better than ever before. [13/2018, p.66]
What it lacks in originality, it makes up in its unmitigated resolve to stick to realism, in the purity of its characters and the charm of its wonderful pixel drawn vistas.
Lamplight City is a successful point-and-click graphic adventure in terms of storytelling and with a convincing and pleasant retro – pixel art style. The almost total absence of enigmas, together with the lack of interactivity, prevent him, however, to aspire to the top of the genre.
With stunning visuals, solid sound and music, and nuanced worldbuilding that many adventure games would kill for, it’s unfortunate that Lamplight City is lacking in the one area that distinguishes games over other storytelling media: interactivity.
Lamplight City is a steampunk detective adventure with great voice acting and unique worldbuilding—but the gameplay is full of unrealized potential.
I have been a fan of the good old Wadjet Eye games forever. Lamplight City clearly stands in that tradition and was done by Francisco Gonzalez who did Shardlight and A Golden Wake with Wadjet Eye.
I have bought this immediately, started playing and couldn't stop. I will be very tired for work today. ;-)
This is an amazing experience. It is not your absurd inventory puzzle game like "put **** on cat" or whatever. This is strictly logical investigation, collecting clues and find suspects to accuse.
AND: You may get it wrong change your career as a detective and move on. Go get it, you will not regret that you did it!
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PC
This is a good pixel-art quest in a Victorian entourage. Text, music, voice acting, arts here is very fine. There's some nonlinear elements, for example you'd can't properly finish the case if you insult an important character. Here more dialogue than pixel hunting (however it's elements attends).
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PC
While it is hit and miss in places this game is much more **** game emulating the detective experience than for example the Sherlock Holmes ones. In my mind that is what probably solves a case, going back and forth and talking to all people. And the fact that you can say something wrong keeps the tension, the rest of the experience is pretty streamlined so it doesn't get in the way of the story. I think they did a pretty good compromise.
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PC
tl;dr: I found the game rather enjoyable, despite being aware of its shortcomings. I would've probably given the game an 8 if it wasn't for one absolutely infuriating bit that was partly a mechanical choice on the devs' part. There is a brief prologue and four proper cases to investigate, they took me a little under 13 hours to complete - but that's including my problems discussed in the final paragraph of the review.
More details:
The game is not particularly complex or demanding, nor very impressive in any aspect. Yet, I found it charming and accessible enough to make me charitable and forgiving of its shortcomings (in both technical aspects and unremarkable writing).
One design choice frustrated me to no end, however. Like in Aviary Attorney, it is possible to make a mistake in the investigation and botch the case as a result. While in Aviary Attorney the mistake would likely have to do with limited time management, in Lamplight City you can render a witness/contact uncooperative, cutting yourself off of the chance to follow up on whatever information they could provide you. Usually it's about pushing certain subjects or admitting that you're an investigator to a character who isn't fond of authority figures of busybodies. While I prefer games that let you fail at interpreting and acting on information rather than failing to collect information in the first place, I didn't have a problem with the concept ...until case 3.
I'll try to keep things vague to minimize potential spoilers. In case 3, you can lock yourself out of the final crucial threads of the investigation ...within a minute or two of starting the case. You do that by engaging in that adventure game staple of going through every dialogue option, and with a character that's not a party in the case, at that. You won't know until a couple of hours later, when, hopelessly lost and having exhausted all interactions, you'll finally check a walkthrough and despair.
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PC
Summary A steampunk-ish detective adventure from the creator of A Golden Wake and Shardlight. Can private investigator Miles Fordham find justice for his clients and track down his partner's killer before his entire world comes apart?
Platforms:
- PC
- Nintendo Switch
- iOS (iPhone/iPad)
Initial Release Date: Sep 13, 2018
Developer:
- Grundislav Games
Publisher: Application Systems Heidelberg
Genres:
