Yep, for sure! I just finished it up and it was delightful. I didn't time myself but I'd say maybe two and a half hours? I did get stuck for a while on what I think is the only somewhat unfair puzzle in the game. Spoiler The chervil. I'd already searched the bookcase and found nothing of interest, so it seems a little unfair to change that area after I receive the spice puzzle. Especially since the solution is somewhat adventure game logic-y to begin with -- oh, look, the book about herbs just happens to have pressed herbs in it! Not a huge deal, but in a game that was generally very fair about puzzles, it stood out. Anyway, first impressions held up. Really polished. Great graphics. Fun, flexible puzzles. Loved the dialogue, which was witty without trying too hard. And the voice acting, which is often so hit-and-miss with indy games, was terrific. It would be a shame if this got lost in the deluge of shiny new releases this week. It's one of the best adventure games I've played on iOS. Bring on part two!
Just fired this one up on the 4S and man does it remind me of Curse of monkey Island on the PC which was my favorite on the Monkey Island Series. Awesome point and click adventure game right here, and I love the style that your finger becomes some sort of radar that detects all interact-able object in close proximity. Very polished, and has some funny scripting too. I wish they get all episodes out soon, coz im definitely buying all of these.
Thanks, guys. Hey all, My name is Theo, I'm one of the devs behind "The Journey Down". I just wanted to thank everyone here for the kind words about the game and also thank you for supporting our development by purchasing a copy. We love you for it! Don't miss the fact that you can follow the development of chapter two over on our dev blog. Thanks again! Fingers crossed for some coverage of the game here on TA. We desperately need it to be seen over the noise. Peace, theo
This game is really awesome. I have already played a lot of adventure games, but this one is at the top of my list. It's on par with or even better than the games from telltale! Seriously guys, play this game, you won't regret it one bit!
Agreed! This is high quality and a really nice experience. Great work on the UI conversion to touchscreen. Completed the episode in about 5 or 6 hours I think, and really excited for the next episodes! How many will there be?
Hi Theo can you confirm that this plays well on the iPod touch 4th gen. I know the description says it does but I've been burned many times before by that.... The telltale games spring to mind in particular while you can theoretically play them they crash far too much and are too laggy to make them enjoyable. That's the only reason I haven't bought this because it looks ace
woutibara: Thanks a ton, it's an honor to be compared with industry veterans such as telltale! Baracus: Thanks, we put a lot of hard work into making sure the UI was just as intuitive with touchscreen as with a mouse. I'm glad to hear people agree with me that it turned out rather awesome. As for episodes, there are four chapters planned, but we are toying with the idea of combining three and four into one big episode, so we might just do three chapters. We'll see. orangecan: I haven't played it on iPod touch 4th gen, so I don't want to vouch for it running flawlessly. But I'm pretty confident that we have had people betatest it on that device and they have told us that it indeed runs on it. I guess it's a bit of a gamble. Wish I could give you a more direct answer, sorry that I can't. We are a tiny development studio with very little means of being able to test things ourselves, so have relied heavily on external testing. The whole game was developed with one borrowed first gen iPad and one iPhone. And emulators, of course. So we haven't really had access to any wide array of hardware.
On the whole, I liked this first outing with its spin on Grim Fandango's stylistic approach, but one thing I'd like to see far less of in the following episodes is the obvious padding designed to artificially lengthen the play time. In this first chapter, far too many puzzles require you to go from one end of the game world to the other and back again repeatedly, to the point where you literally spend more time walking back and forward through the same few screens than you do actually solving the puzzles. While the preferred solution would be a bigger world with more tightly-designed puzzles, if you want to keep the same heavy emphasis on trudging back and forth, at least provide the standard fast travel option many latter-day point and click adventures use.
Wow really great game. Having a blast playing this and enjoy the trip back to memory lane when grim fandango was just out. Nearly overlooked the game so luckily the TA review popped up today . Instantly bought it. Heads up for the devs !
Oh man! I love dis adventure! Especially the characters and setting are great. I so laughed my ass of at the scene where Bwana climbed over to the Yacht and lets himself drop into the pool, lol. Can't wait for more!
I had just added this to my wish list yesterday. Can't wait to play a game that has a protagonist of the same heritage as me! This looks like a must have for free
It is amazing how great this game is, compared to the first part of Broken Age that came out last januari, which is Tim Schafer's legendary Kickstarter project. In The Journey Down, puzzle design is a lot better and to my taste the artwork, too. I like how well the suggestion of a bigger, sinister world is being made. That gives this one the feeling of a classic.
Actually, this adventure game is as good as the great classics, like Steel Sky, Broken Sword series and even Grim Fandango. I think the reviewer puts a bit too much emphasis on the one-dimensional way it deals with stereotypes, because the storytelling and dialogues are still original, spirited and witty. And the atmosphere, graphics and puzzle design are no less than perfect. Every point and click adventurer should play this. I'm looking forward to the next episode!
