JK@DW

So, I just finished this game, and here's a no-spoiler review.

I had this game in Steam Library from a while, i decided to start it somewhat of a mont ago and this is one of the games that made me go "noooo why it's finished" when I got to the end.

Granted, Quern will take up quite a bit of work to get to the end, given the lenght and the many, many puzzles! And it's one of the aspects that reminds Myst... more precisely, Riven, given the aesthetics and what's it's gained from the story. Speaking about Myst, there's a rather blatant easter egg near the end :D

To Myst, Quern is a really great and heartfelt homage without being a simple copy: the atmosphere, the various puzzles, the fact that you need to write down stuff to get to the solutions... and the added mechanics: some of the puzzles needed revisiting to proceed, and there's an inventory of various objects that sometimes has to be combined or reused, and such.

Also, the underlining story -- while I admit it didn't drag me in as i.e. Riven's did -- it left me curious nonetheless, and in the end I was thinking at about some of the details scattered around the game and how some of the details I was shown might be interpreted. Starting from the more general setting and wanting to knowing more.

And there's a Linux version too!

The cons are few and on the technical side: one is the fact that the default configuration might give a bit of dizziness on people who has these kind of problems (like yours truly) -- but it is possible to change FOV and effects and such to avoid this. The other is about a few of the puzzles: on two I resorted to a guide (and I still didn't get why they had that particular solution), while other two are based on audio inputs -- so they might be unsolvable to people with hearing impairment.

The game went in production through a kickstarter, and now I wonder if the producers might be thinking of a sequel...

Whoever knows me knows I'm a sucker for these kind of puzzles. Must be the Myst imprinting. The steampunk ahestetic and that particular flavour of techno-magic and "beware of summoning an ancient doom" are also in my liking too. The player has to unlock a lot of puzzles in this mysterious manor, following the documents and the arcane machinery left by a mysterious Craftsman.

This one is the third of a series I bought on a past Steam sale, so I noticed a discount on the mobile version and I got it (but it's available on Steam too, and in better rendering quality). The puzzles were engaging and satisfying, but not overly difficult -- but remember my touchstone about puzzle difficulty is the Myst series, so my value of "difficult" is attuned as such ;)

And now, a bunch of spoilery blathers :D
( SPOILERS about the game! )
Just as a note for Italian fellows: the very first puzzle is based on a wordplay in English which doesn't translate at all in Italian, and this is why I switched the game to English language... but anyway, it's possible (and easy) to bruteforce this one. And anyway, it's not like I'm such an expert to be able to judge the translation, ehm.

Technicalities: my phone is new and buff enough to make this game run without sputtering (it really hits on the battery, too) and I'm nearsighted, so to me looking at things on a smallish screen is not a problem, but I think playing it on a tablet or with the PC version might be a much better experience for people who have difficulty in reading on smaller screens. Also, the PC version on Steam has a better rendering.

Anyway, I got a lot of fun out of this one and I recommend it to anyone might like this theme and type of game.

Ah, by the way, if you want to add me on Steam, I'm here too!