When a washed-up actor hangs himself on location, a spotlight is cast on the backwater Florida town of Cypress Knee. Your screen becomes a stage on which you investigate this mysterious death as three distinct characters.
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Y | Y | Y |
Originally played the game in Nov 2016 and it took me 3 1/2 hours to beat.
Replaying for review purposes.
I like the game, I think it's fun. After close to 10 years, and the fact it took me 3 1/2 hours to beat, I don't think the game is worth 20$. But I do recommend it, I had fun then and it's still fun now.
Replaying on Windows 11 with an upgraded PC and I had absolutely no problems running it though optimization isn't the best, but again it's an almost 10 year old game and the devs aren't around.
[b]People have complained there are game breaking bugs, I don't remember running into any in 2016 and I didn't run into any now.[/b] Some stuff was a bit wonky but no real trouble.
The downfall is if anyone does run into bugs, the devs aren't around and haven't been around for 5+ years.
Knee Deep is a bit of a weird and wonky/bizarre game, it's just out there a bit, but it's also kind of unique. Took me about 3 1/2 hours to beat so depending on how you play and such it really doesn't necessarily take long, or it can take longer.
Game takes place on a theater stage where the acts are set up in theater fashion. It's just uniquely and well done.
It's episodic and choices matter, especially with the choices you make it will depend on how other characters react to you.
This is a murder mystery game and honestly it's quite fun, at least I had fun with it.
The voice acting is really good too.
The art direction I will say isn't the best, but I really liked the story and gameplay.
You can choose how your character replies and reacts to stuff- sometimes it's really dumb and sometimes it can be quite humorous. For a murder mystery game, I had way more fun and like it alot more than I genuinely thought I would.
Looks quite interesting, but just not my thing. The constant breaking of the 4th wall also breaks immersion for me, and I find it quite jarring.
Good stuff. The reason why you want to get a VR headset.
Game is old and not a particularly flashy game in VR terms but who doesn't like some good Twin Peaks -tier stuff on VR even if it's a bit janky or cheesy. I enjoyed this far more than i could ever have imagined early on when i decided to try it.
I think the best word to describe this game is "bizarre." What's going on? Why is it set as a theater play? Why does Remy speak in the third person? Why does the councilman not know words? Why would anyone think feeding an alligator chicken in a diaper is a good idea? Everything is weird, but in the best way possible. There is also pie. Excellent game.
So glad I picked up this title again, after playing just 1-2 hours long time ago in the throes of the pandemic...those claustrophobic VR systems always made it tough to play longer than 40 minutes at a time. So here we are, five years later, completing the title in non VR mode without any issues. Loved the original stage set-up and the story holds well-recommended! It is sad this developer did not follow up with more titles
Twin Peaks x Rat Movie
A rare detective mystery genre game. You could see that alot of efford was put into it, especially when this game barely holds up due to bugs and minimalistic approach :D It may seem too linear, but for me there's enought choices and the game gave you enought information and twists so you could follow a "murder mistery". As a detective narrative it holds up. Interesting project that worth checking out
A very interesting, interactive, choice-based game worthy of checking out. The conceit, of setting the story as a stage-play, was very intriguing and well done. Visually, it's fine, the writing is very well done, with interesting characters and interactions. The mystery is solid, although mainly as a mechanism to advance the story.
Is it worth the full price? Maybe. It's quite short at just under 5 hours (for me), but an different and engaging experience. Personally, I'd recommend it more at a sale price, but if you are a rich, eccentric mogul, I'd say go for it any time.
Definitely a different experience, dripping with creativity.
Not worth it.
Does not work with Valve index controllers.
Story is nothing great, weird and just meh
Very Entertaining! Great characters (especially Munroe). I would love to see a sequel!!
Had great time with this story. The game itself have some small (at least for me) bugs and cheap animation, but they're not crucial to enjoy gameplay experience. Would recommend to anyone who's into interactive stories reminding them chaotic and cozy atmosphere of Twin Peaks or (even more likely) goofy episodes of X-files. Had to write this review because Knee Deep surely deserves more attention.
Sad it wasn't longer.
It's been over 2 years since I touched this game, but every once in a while I will try to describe the sense of nostalgia I get for it. I'm not sure how any of the vr support works as I played it normal mouse and keyboard. But the story really worked and has stuck with me for this time.
Plenty weird game. Quality and coherence let off a bit in Act 2 and especially in Act 3. But if you're down with the unspecified virus like me and you spend a lot of time in bed, then this an enjoyable way to kill some time (about 4ish hours). Gameplay requires minimal effort as you mostly press just one button. Get it on sale.
This was a relaxing story to play along with, there is only one time where you have to make a quick choice decision but outside of that you could take your time on how to responded to the characters and situations. Presenting the story as a play gave an interesting environment and it was fun to get bizarre with your choices.
[spoiler] Ladybird drives a bulldozer [/spoiler]
[h1] Genre [/h1] Ein Story Driven Adventure
[h1] Story [/h1] Das Spiel ist aufgebaut wie eine Theatervorstellung. In der Kleinstadt "Cypress Knee" in Florida hat sich ein abgetakelter Schauspieler selbst erhangen. Wir spielen 3 verschiedene Protagonisten um den Fall genauer zu Untersuchen. Einmal die junge Bloggerin "Romana "Phaedra" Teague, die nicht gerade auf den Mund gefallen ist. Einen Journalisten mit nicht so guter Vergangenheit namens "Jack Bellet" & einen Detektiv namens "K.C. Gaddis" der eigentlich sein Leben schon selbst beenden wollte, dann aber diesen Fall animmt. Was steckt hinter diesen Mysteriösen Selbstmord? Das müssen unsere 3 Protagonisten herausfinden
[h1] Gameplay [/h1] Das Gameplay selbst ist relativ simpel. Es gibt 3 Akte. Man spielt abwechselnd die 3 verschiedenen Protagonisten und sehen die Geschichte aus deren Sicht. Die Charaktere bewegen sich automatisch von Szene zu Szene und reden mit verschiedenen Personen. Wir müssen im Prinzip immer 1 von 3 oder manchmal auch 4 verschiedenen Antwort Möglichkeiten auswählen. Diese Auswahl hat auch Leichte Konsequenzen, wie NPCs im weiteren Spielverlauf auf die Protagonisten reagieren. Es gibt auch ein paar Rätsel zu lösen, diese sind aber sehr einfach & simpel gehalten. Man kann in seinem "Journal" auch jederzeit Informationen zu Personen, Themen & Orte nachlesen die sich nach und nach freischalten. Leider gibt es auch ein paar Bugs, diese sind aber nicht weiter wild oder Gamebreaking. z.B. sind manchmal Personen unsichtbar oder drehen bzw. laufen immer im Kreis herum während sie mit uns reden. In den Minispielen/Rätsel setzt sich manchmal ein Puzzleteil fest und man kann kein anderes mehr Auswählen (raus tappen aus dem Spiel und dann wieder rein gehen hilft aber dabei). Das Voice Acting ist sehr gut gelungen und die Charaktere sind interessant
[h1] Achievements [/h1] Es gibt insgesamt 43 Erfolge. Einige sind Story basierend. Die meisten sind Entscheidungsbedingt und man muss das Spiel mindestens 3 mal durchspielen (zumindest fast) um alle Erfolge zu bekommen. Z.B. muss man mit allen 3 Protagonisten immer die Spezielle Antwort Auswählen oder wenn man über ein Thema schreibt muss man auch hier immer im selben Stil schreiben. Es gibt aber auch einen sehr guten Guide in der Community dazu
[h1] Pro/Contra [/h1]
+ Sehr Gute Story
+ Spannend
+ Gute & Interessante Charaktere
+ Man kann viel über die Lore nachlesen
+ Gutes Voice Acting
+ Nette kleine Rätsel/Minispiele
+ Achievements
+ Sammelkarten
+ XBox 360 Controller Support
- Ein paar kleinere Bugs wie z.B. Unsichtbare Charaktere oder Fehler bei den Minispielen sodass sich Puzzleteile festsetzten (aus dem Spiel rein & raus tappen hilft)
[h1] Fazit [/h1] Ein wirklich schönes Hidden Gem im Adventure Genre. Es hat mir sehr gut gefallen und es war mal was anderes durch eine Theatervorstellung eine Murder Mystery aufzuklären, einfach mal eine nette Idee. Auch die kleinen Rätsel/Minispiele haben mir sehr gut gefallen. Den Größten Lob verdienen hier aber die Voice Actor, die machen hier einen wirklich fantastischen Job. Ich kann es jedem Adventure Fan sehr ans Herz legen. Eindeutige Kauf Empfehlung, es lohnt sich sehr
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I think if you could concentrate the feeling of wanting to roll your eyes, turn that into a potion, then drink it, that's what it's like to play this game.
I liked the original idea that the game takes place in a theater stage however implementation needs a bit more work. The story should be a lot better if we are watching/playing the theater. Voice acting was good but it could've been better. Overall for a couple of hours, it is an enjoyable game.
PS: The game is not optimized at all. My computer made sounds like a jet rocket while playing it. It is curious because the game should not require much graphics processing.
Maybe not my type of game, but it was very boring to read all the texts...
Delightful and cool way to present a murder mystery story. Reminded me a lot of the old "Choose your own Adventure" books, but with a twist...
The game is presented as if you where watching a play in a theater, quickly moving from set to set, where the different parts of the story take place.
You control the responses of the 3 main characters, each one arriving at the story because of different reasons and motivations and back stories (which you help build).
The character you control goes to different locations at each one talking or discovering something new, as far as interactivity goes, you only select their responses from a list.
After a little while you are required to choose between the stuff youve discovered and report/publish the one you consider the best one, and with what tone your report is written.
The game feels really unique in the sense that all the conversations and reports have consequences, like if you decide to publish an article bad mouthing the police you might have difficulty accessing a location, or if you insult someones beliefs he wont be as forthcoming with information... but reporting a tamer article wont help you with your boss that wants clicks... Its awesome to feel that almost every response impacts how the game story is presented to me, i close a door, but open a window kinda stuff... seems really well thought off.
Voice acting is great, performance was acceptable, music is really good totally fits and helps the environment.
The story is interesting and although it starts a bit slow it quickly picks up and putting together the different stories and figuring how it all fits together held my attention for more time than i expected.
I havent finished the game, but what ive played has been quite good.
Recommended for anyone wanting to experience an original murder mystery story with permanent choices that affect the storyline. Much like a choose your own adventure book.
- Bad writing with weird racist/sexist comments.
- The premise is that it's a play but it seems like the designers have never actually seen a theater.
- Visuals range from "pretty" (mostly the sky) to "ostensibly black character looks suspiciously white".
Knee Deep is one hell of a ride I must say. This game is a bit slowed paced on Act I. But when you get into Act. II, man things start getting wild. And finally Act. III is going to be one hell of a mind-bender I must say (I'm not going to spoil it. You have to play it yourself to see what I mean). Knee Deep is honestly a great indie game to me. It's a bit slow paced but it flows well the further on. I recommend this indie game.
Knee Deep is a positively odd choice-based mystery game dressed up in a unique way. Each of its locations and "scenes" are presented as part of a staged play.
We are shown the cardboard-like nature of the game's stages, props and set pieces during each transition from one scene to another.
Yet, the characters "perform" just like usual game characters. There's no fourth-wall breaking or acknowledgement of them acting out a script etc., despite the aforementioned style of visual representation.
There are three main characters whom you can control: a traditional journalist, a social media journalist/blogger and a private investigator. Each of them investigate the same unusual case of an actor who died in the small town of Cypress Knee, Florida. The people you meet vary from quirky local personalities and politicians to movie crew and a leader of a peculiar religious group. Needless to say every people have their own agendas and secrets. So do the main characters. You get to make their dialogue - and other - choices for them and define their morals by doing so.
Knee deep is a nice ride. It's well written, very original and interesting. Much recommended for those not afraid of trying a different type of story/mystery/investigation game.
Graphic: Reminds me of late 1990s
Music: Bgm? What bgm?
Plot: Between so-so and okay until it turns into a supernatual Sci-Fic in Act 3
Gameplay: Nearly non-existent. Just an interactive visual novel where 99% of your choices do not make a difference, with several mini puzzle games which are only suitable for pre-school kids. And there's no fast-forward or skip buttom.
This is a unique game, with an interesting story.
It should be a great little sleeper, but the developer's abandoned the game with game-breaking bugs intact. Check the discussions before risking a purchase.
If you're a theatre lover, this is the game for you. What a fun way to spend a few hours in quarantine!
Low play time thoughts: Surprisingly good in VR. It went from an ok-ish visual novel with no VR to an interesting play, where you get a front seat. VR really does add to this one. It'll probably be the closest thing to a VR visual novel for a minute.
[i]This review contains[/i] [b]no[/b] [i]spoilers, but does contain a brief synopsis that conveys the plot which you learn within minutes after you start playing[/i].
Knee Deep is an entertaining 'choices matter' game with 3 protagonists where you play out an act on a moving stage with an audience. I highly recommend it if you want a very different and unique but still great mystery-adventure game.
[h1]Story synopsis[/h1]
I wont talk too much about the story, but here is the synopsis: You play through the game as 3 different protagonists, 1 blogger/journalist, 1 journalist and 1 detective. All 3, through different circumstances, are investigating a suicide in Cypress Knee, but they quickly learn that there's more to the incident than meets the eye, and soon more questions and mysteries are revealed than answers.
That's all I can really say about the story as I do not want to spoil anything.
[h1]Voice acting, sound effects, music[/h1]
The voice actors in this game are absolutely brilliant, they all do a fantastic job, the accents, how they bring the characters alive, it's all amazing.
The soundtrack is very good, it helps so much with the atmosphere, each scene has a soundtrack that perfectly explains what's currently happening on stage.
The game has amazing ambiance and sound effects, it was very calming and just amazing throughout the game: ambient water sound, crickets, frogs, faint wind, and lets not forget the audience.
The audience was the cherry on top that I didn't expect. They gasp, laugh and cheer at certain scenes, in-between each scene you can hear them cough, clear their throats, re-position in their seats, chat a bit, etc. It helped so much with the atmosphere and it sounds very good.
[h1]The gameplay[/h1]
The gameplay in and of itself is fairly simple, and I absolutely recommend you play it laid back with a controller. All you do is move the thumb-stick a bit and press A, B, X or Y to select a decision.
Each dialog has several different dialog-choices that impact the story with good and bad consequences, whether that be immediately or long-term or that can bite a character in the back much later into the game.
When playing a game like this where you're playing/acting out a literal play it is important to remember that you're not looking to make the "correct" choices. You can pretend you're the director or writer or something, you're in part making a story as you go. The choices you make aren't right or wrong, the choices you make is just that and nothing else, choices; playing out the scenes as you go, don't sit around trying to find which dialog option to pick to get a "good ending" or something. Pick what [b]you[/b] want to pick, chose the option that creates a better story or scene for you.
Something I'd like to mention is that Act 3(the last act) was head and shoulders above Act 1 and 2.
This is not to say that Act 1 and 2 were bad, it just means that Act 3 was very good, so while playing if you're starting to lose interest a bit I encourage you to stick around for the last act.
[i]Of course you may disagree, it is merely my opinion and you may have a different experience.[/i]
[h1]Ending words[/h1]
I absolutely recommend it. It is a very enjoyable adventure game, it's very unique and sets itself apart from the rest in a great way.
The game takes about 5 hours to complete, and it has a lot of re-play ability because choices in this game actually do make a difference.
[h1]Curator page[/h1]
[i]If you liked this review or otherwise found it helpful in deciding whether or not to buy this game, feel free to follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/29162366/]my Curator page[/url].[/i]
Knee Deep was a pretty neat "your choice matters" kind of game. Story was actually pretty good and the choices you make usually effects character feelings and some very slight ending differences. There are some bugs in-game however: some achievements didn't trigger properly and required more runs than necessary; and the other annoying bug was in one major choice in-game that sometimes didn't register properly. Overall, I'd definitely recommend if you pick it up on sale, pretty good game.
Interesting - the concept, the setting, the story. The game's lighting was terrible, so bad in fact I am not sure if it was intentional - most of the game was played in shadow, despite setting "brightness" all the way up. A few minor bugs (like the continue button getting cut off and needing to use the keyboard for a scene) were bothersome.
The best part were the strange/belligerent/cynical response options from each of the playable characters.
[h1]Additional Details[/h1]
[table]
[tr]
[td]Operating System[/td]
[td]Ubuntu Linux 18.04 x64[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]CPU[/td]
[td]Ryzen 5 1500x[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]GPU[/td]
[td]GTX 1050, nvidia-410.78[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Game Saves[/td]
[td]Automatically[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Technical Notes[/td]
[td]Unity game engine, no major issues[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
Where does one even start with a game where the writing so proudly plays out, both literally and figuratively, in a putrid swamp? I'm not going to post any spoilers here, mostly because spoilers might require some form of logical progression of events that this game so utterly lacks.
The dialogue is okay, but the plot is unbelievably bad. Dumpster fire bad. So bad that at one point they they have a character starting an exposition pointing out how nonsensical the central conspiracy is, but rather than doing something clever with it, the writers just leave it hanging there like: "Yeah, we now this sucks but... *crickets*"
Now, when I say the plot is bad, I don't mean the fact that you're presented with options that pretend to affect the course of the story but really don't (e.g. choose to save the life of character A and the game pretends you chose to rescue character B like you were supposed to). No, that's the kind of disappointment we're all used to from the genre.
What I mean is that the plot leaves me asking a lot of questions. Questions such as: "why did I keep punishing myself after Act 1?" and "how on Earth does this game have 82% positive reviews?!" Questions that, I fear, may never receive an answer.
The developers chose to turn the game into a theater stage. This is fine, but has little effect other than creating unnecessarily long cut scenes. More generally, the fact that you can't save the game at all outside of randomly sprinkled autosave points puts you at great risk of having to play through sections again, which is even more boring than the first time around. If, however, you for some reason *do* want to go back and replay a section, well, you're just ♥♥♥♥ out of luck and have to replay the entire Act.
And let's not even consider trying to get all the achievements, which would require us to sit for hours to click through the entire game, not once, not twice, but a minimum three FULL playthroughs from start to finish.
Silver lining: "Give a strange answer" for every dialogue choice as Romana.
TLDR; Do not buy this game.
Echt tolles Spiel!
Well, that was one wild ride. From a zany cast of characters you get to choose their decisions, while watching from the audience but still forgetting it's a play... all a murder mystery!
Pros:
Great voice acting, characters were well thought-out, the sets (environment) were awesome, the minor plots and characters were cool, easy to play (good for casual gamers), great soundtrack, really super interesting plot with some great and weird twists... would make a cool movie! Choices matter. Seems to have good replay value.
Cons:
There are some bugs that were never fixed but if you check the forum there's some ways around them so they aren't game ending. The ending kinda just... ends. I would have liked an epilogue. You'll need to play it a good 4 or 5 times to get all the achievements and make all the choices which can get a bit much. The mini games were the easiest I have ever played- would have been nice if there were some difficult ones.
I thought I knew what I was getting into with Knee Deep and on some levels I was right and others I was very wrong. What I expected was a point and click adventure game with a "swamp noir" sensibility that was presented as a stage play. What I got was the swamp noir and the stage play aesthetic, but also so much more. Unlike a lot of other adventure games, the focus is on characters and the story and not on puzzles.
It reminds me a lot of Telltale Games titles especially with the way it presents dialogue choices and the way that it tells you how characters react to your choices, but it doesn't feel like it's merely a clone of those games. I like that you don't have to click around to make characters move around and interact, so the progression is relatively automatic. You can just focus on the important things.
The stage play stylings help set it apart and make it unique. The visual style and animations in general feels a bit unpolished, but in a way that fits the setting and aesthetic. The characters are quirky and interesting and the fact that you switch between several of them as you progress is a nice touch. The story was much different than I expected, but in a good way. When I got to the end, I was feeling satisfied and curious about some of the options that I didn't make.
Overall, a really enjoyable adventure game experience that was different enough from the usual ones I play and I can't recommend it enough. If you enjoy Telltale Games titles, this one should definitely be played and if you enjoy adventure games for their story and not for the puzzles, this is also a great choice.
Very nice game, different from the most adventures, nice pace and good music. Act 3 is a bit off but quite good too. Too small for the retail price. I recommend buying this only in sales.
Knee Deep is an extremely boring on rails, choose the dialogue game. The game has terrible voice acting, boring characters, boring story and subpar graphics. It's as entertaining as watching paint dry. Not Recommended
Really enjoyed this game and recommend it. Very atmospheric and the way the game moved between scenes was something I enjoyed. Choices matter in this game and there were plenty of opportunities to make decisions. Time wise it took about three hours for me to complete the first playthrough of the game.
I liked it. It was different, but in a way that kept my attention. I wish there were more puzzles, but that is my only complaint. It is very interesting and strange, but worth a try.
I should be the person this game was made for. I love narrative-based games and adventure games, and I frankly don't even mind when they're light on the "adventure" part. I'll dabble in visual novels. I even play one of those ridiculous "Choices" games on my cell phone.
So when I read about Knee Deep, a narrative mystery game with a noir vibe, multiple storylines, and choosing dialogue as a central gameplay mechanism, I was on board.
Where it went right: The overall mood of the piece was spot-on. Florida swamps, private investigators, a flop actor suicide, dramatic lighting--all of this combined to create a look and feel that I very much enjoyed. The story is actually presented as a play on an impossibly enormous stage, which... kind of worked, and kind of didn't. More on that later. Additionally, you can formulate reports and articles from your findings throughout the game--another feature I liked in concept, but not execution.
[b]Where it went wrong: Everywhere else.[/b]
[list]
[*][b]Dialogue in General[/b]: I had to mention this first because dialogue is pretty much the main point of this game. Since you can't move your characters, explore scenes, or do much of anything besides choose what your characters say, the dialogue needed to be perfect. And it wasn't. It was clunky and unnatural, even if you factor in that the story is wrapped in a play wrapped in a game.
[*][b]Dialogue Option Clarity[/b]: Firstly, each of the listed options are shorthand (for the sake of brevity), but that makes it unclear what you're choosing when you select and option. It reminded me a little of [i]Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy[/i], for those of you who have played that. For example, your dialogue option might just be the word "gone," so you'll select it, thinking you're asking "Where did the guy go?" and instead, your character will say "Get out of here, you jerk!" There's no indication whether your response will be incendiary or friendly, so you just have to hope for the best. Again, since the whole game is about what your characters say, this needed to be refined.
[*][b]Dialogue Writing[/b]: Alongside dialogue options that are misleading and can come off as abrupt, the game fails to provide authentic-sounding dialogue. As another reviewer cleverly noted, perhaps this is a meta thing where the dialogue is supposed to be bad because the entire story is being put on as a play, but even if that were the case, it took me out of it.
[*][b]Character-specific dialogue quirks[/b]: If you're not sure what to say (which I never really was, courtesy of the difficult-to-decipher options mentioned above), you can make your character say their trademark dialogue "thing." The blogger gives a "strange" response (usually some odd non-sequitur), the reporter gives a "belligerent" response (something I hesitated to use in case it influenced the story in a negative way), and the P.I. gives a "cynical" response (which, again, I hesitated to use in case it prevented me from getting actual answers that might help unravel the mystery). These could be funny, but they felt like filler that gave you an illusion of control over the story direction, but nothing else.
[*][b]Sound[/b]: While the music was fine (even atmospheric), every single character ("actor") recording sounded like they had reverb on for the entire game. I think this was supposed to simulate the acoustics of speaking on stage. I see a lot of theater, and all this effect did was make it sound like the characters were talking in a bathroom or a cave, not in a big theater house.
[*][b]Puzzles[/b]: There should never have been puzzles in this game. Or there should have been more puzzles. Or harder ones. Puzzles don't fit with the meta "we're in a play" concept in the first place, and the puzzles they did include were simple but time-wasting. Either beef up the puzzles or cut them out entirely--and I'd suggest the latter. This game should stop pretending to be an adventure game.
[*][b]The stage[/b]: Oh, boy. The stage. At first, the idea of all the action being performed as a play appealed to me. I love theater, and I'm into metanarratives. But the stage in the game is ENORMOUS. When the game's camera zooms out to approximately where the front of the stage would be, the actual houses/characters/action are so far away that, in real life, you probably couldn't even see them with opera glasses. To move the characters from place to place, the game has them get on a weird metal contraption that jerks and slides them around like some part in a factory assembly line until it finally delivers them to the next scene. This was unnecessary, and it make scene switches take longer than the scenes themselves. Why do the whole "theater" concept if the game is intent on constantly taking you out of the plausibility zone?
[*][b]The... Greek Chorus?[/b]: Especially in acts 2 and 3, the game repeatedly employs minor townspeople to perform a series of rhyming couplets to deliver foreboding messages to the audience. I assume this was to put them in the role of a Greek Chorus, but wow, it did not work. If they wanted to fit with the noir vibe, why not have a couple of shady characters tail the action and end each act with them commenting to each other on what had gone on? Why have all the townspeople recite poetry? Not good.
[*][b]The Reports[/b]: Having your characters write reports and articles should have been the best part of the game, but it fell flat. Each time something big happens, you're supposed to write up a summary by selecting a piece of information and a "spin" on it. Depending on how harsh you are, you can make friends or enemies with your commentary, and you can disappoint/delight your boss. This feature really wasn't quite rich enough, and although I only played the game through once, I wonder how much of an effect your report choices [i]truly[/i] have on the overall story.
[*][b]The Plot[/b]: Much like the stage, the plot became too big for its own good. I don't really want to reveal plot points in case anyone decides to play, but what could have been a simple, cool story grows into something totally absurd, with too many un-followable connections and too many characters doing things that don't make any sense. The twist at the end of the game was the part that finally threw me over the edge: [spoiler]Local woman/church member tries to chop off her son's arm to give to a church/cult leader who recently had his corpse reanimated. Yep. Sudden zombie.[/spoiler]. At that point, any hope I'd had for this game having merit was completely gone. And I even like [spoiler]supernatural[/spoiler] elements!
[/list]
Anyway--I have no idea what happened with this game. Others seemed to like it, so maybe I'm being harsh, but this was definitely the weirdest thing I've played in a while.
Tags: Adventure - P&C - Point&Click
Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library
TLDR: Dialogue wheel. Odd setting. Short duration. Feels disjointed. Lacks immersion. On rails progression. Poor puzzles. Best avoided.
This is a simple game in which NPCS go from hotspot to hotspot, engage in conversation, then you can tweet about what you heard as if you were some kind of blogger/journalist.
Seems whoemever made this had an affinity for for millenials and their mindset, and had some interest in cults and hollywood. It has some strong points. The camera work, and the character moving about a theatre set were not altogether bad ideas.
The mechanic of choosing which topic to publish and how edgy to be was not very good, and I often kind of lost track of what I was even trying to investigate.
Eventually I ended up triggering one of the game's rare puzzles, and it would not allow me to skip or cancel it, leaving me stuck. I am honestly not all that thrilled due to the lack of immersion. Removing permanently for declutter.
I was lured by the overall positive reviews but very soon I realised the game was weird in a bad way. It's set up on a huge stage in a theatre where you are the audience. The story is divided between 3 characters in the first 2 acts.
The good:
+ an ok story - it's really interesting in act 1
+ original approach to story telling - the stage
The bad:
- Dialogues and monologues are very very confusing - very often you don't know which one to chose because none of them make any sense - just look at the screenshots.
- Rhyming monologues here and there - totally unnecessary and not essential for the story - seems like a way to make it look more theatrical, nothing more
- Puzzles - no effort whatsoever - insulting
- Boring mini-stage animations when the character goes on a mini-stage that transfers them to a new scene - why?
- Act 2 feels rushed and act 3 is full of cliches. We've seen it all before...
- I didn't feel any of the choices greatly mattered, maybe 3 at most. All of them in act 3 by the way.
It's like one of those Telltale games but 10x less engaging.
Think it's the first time I've played this kind of game, not what I expected, allthough I'm not sure what I expected. It did keep my interest as I had to keep going to see what would happen next. So I guess i'd say - A nice little game to spend a few hours on :)
I don't remember how much I payed for it or if I bought it on sale. But, now that I've played it I would today not pay over maybe 5-6 EUR as it is what it is: a drama adventure where you sort of direct the path of the game by choosing a textline.
One minus: It crashed once for me, so I had to play some scenes again, but it wasn't that bad.
I recommend it but I don't think it's worth purchasing for more than 5 or 6 Euros.
72/100
The difference between this and Twin Peaks (one of the many) is that Twin Peaks had likeable characters. I knew when I saw that comparisson in the trailers that is would be inaccurate, but it looked like the game may have been worth a shot anyway. The characters, both plaable and NPC, are completely unlikeable. The story isn't engaging. The voice acting and writing are mediocre. The gameplay is non-existant. I thought I was almost done and it turned out I had only completed act 1 of 3. I haven't been this disappointed in how something unfolded since my buritto came undone on the grill.
+ Unusual concept for a game
- Terrible acting. The whole thing is on 'rails' both figuratively and literally. Really boring.
Click...listen to some dreadful acting....click....make some dialogue choice...click...listen to some more dreadful acting...click 'Continue' to get a 'Continue' button....click the 'Continue' button...etc
The idea of it being a play is original and fun. But it doesn't really work for me and the novelty soon wore off. And bad acting in games ruins the experience for me. At least if the acting had been good I could've just enjoyed this as a sort of movie/play, but seriously, lines are delivered as if the actor has no idea what what they are saying or what the words mean, with inlection in all the wrong places. If I was being kind I'd say that it's a stage play so the actors are deliberately bad within the fiction. But that wouldn't make it any more enjoyable.
I must admit I didn't play to the end so maybe it gets better and I'm missing out, but it didn't pull me in so my review is based on the 5 hours that I played.
Something fun and different but it does take a while to get use to what you are doing (asking questions and writing reports)
Also I used my htc controllers for 99% of the work (selecting of questions and posting reports) and you need to use both of them to make it work. One allows you to select questions to ask, and the other allows you to move through the reports you can write. I only used the mouse to rotate pieces for the mini hacking game.
My main gripe is the constant motion of the character from scene to scene. Instead of cutting to each they glide. They glide a lot !!!!!!!! After 20 minutes I have motion sickness.
With all this said it is a fun game of who dunnit
UPDATE - played it twice now. Once with characters as good, one with them as arseholes. Some dialog changes but main story line follows through.
Note it does not matter who you save from the falling H they play a vanilla character which pretty much does the same thing through the story.
Pěkná hra. Detektivka z pohledu divadelního diváka. Divadelní kulisy, 3 hlavní postavy, povedený soundtrack, napínavý a děsivý příběh s mnoha obskurními postavami. Občas morbidní sranda. Prostě maloměsto uprostřed bažiny.
I really would like to recommend this game. This game definitely takes storytelling to another level.
It's visually stunning, pleasantly surprising and the neo-noir stage universe really draws you in.
The game is hard-boiled, gritty, almost surreal, and at other times chilling. The choices for the characters are intriguing enough to make the player want to learn more about their backstories and why they speak the way they do.
The saddest part here is that while the story keeps you wanting more, the game itself does not allow you to continue due to a huge number of bugs that make the game unplayable. It starts with an optional cult personality test that causes the game to crash, which leads the player to completely forsake that portion of the story in order to move on, despite what it could've built in terms of conflict development or motivation.
Despite the overwhelming amount of bug reports from the community, the lack of response from the development team makes me realize that I can never see through the end of the game without watching playthroughs (when I would rather make the choices myself).
It's really sad. I would've loved to see this game to the end. I enjoyed it, really, but it's just unplayable.
WOW! I just finished this game in one sitting, all three acts are tremendously written, the concept is fresh and addictive, I simply need more of this in my life! It's instantly one of the greatest games I've ever played, it's briliant on a deep technical level. Innovative masterpiece is what this game should be considered! I just can't believe how rich and engaging the plot was and the characters are so real and memorable. It's really hard to find something to compare it to. I was left with many questions in the end, but I was left completely satisfied. Was that the last we saw of Chichester is he chose not to enter the building? What about Jumper on the loose at the end? Who was that Rabbit figure who spoke with Bob? This has so much potential to expand so much further into the future! Knee Deep MUST LIVE ON!!!
buggy animations.
vg plot.
nice setting and atmosphere.
great voice acting and script.
captivating soundtrack.
8.4/10
Before buying, check if they decide to fix very basic bugs dating from Dec 2015 (like horrendous unconfigurable internationalization). If not, well, do not hope a smooth ride.
Too bad, it looked cool otherwise.
I wish there were more VR experiences like this. The production quality and voice acting are superb. I made sure to get comfortable on my couch with a side of popcorn and soda and enjoyed an amazing play from my living room. I love the the VR games that are more experience/cinematic than an actual game where you're constantly shooting waves or physically having to move a lot, the only interacting with a console controller was simply deciding the response of 1 of the 3 main characters which most of the time dictated the direction of the play and what happens, all the while eating popcorn and sipping soda as if im actually at the theatre. This is worth every penny and a must have for VR experience!
It's fine, nothing special. It has a different way of telling a story but overall kinda bored me. The decisions matter but i doubt that much to make me want to play it again. WAY too expensive at $20, i got it in a bundle somehwere and that's probably the only way i could recommend this.
This game has a wonderful sense of style. I love the aesthetic. The stage play angle is great... buuuuut, the novelty and flash can only last so long before gameplay and story have to carry it, which this game doesn't do. Once you strip away all the visual flair, it's just a basic and boring point and click (with slightly below average voice acting).
I could forgive it if it wasn't just so damned boring. I mean, your milage may vary, obviously. I just couldn't force myself to stick with the story.
[u]I played this on the Oculus Rift with Xbox controller.[/u] I did notice a bug if you stop playing and save the game and then reload from the main menu without quitting the game that all the dialogue options disappear. You fix this bug by simply restarting the game.
I was definitely on the fence when I saw this on sale for $9.99, especially with some of the bad reviews. The first two chapters are certainly well done and had me thinking that the negative reviews were way off. But then the 3rd Act came and I was stunned at how truly off the rails the story went. They really jumped the shark on Act 3, from a dog driving a tractor to a zombie priest trying to get the arm of a little boy to regenerate and his mom being a willing accomplice seemingly from nowhere. So when a good story has a bad third act, it really makes you question whether you enjoyed the experience or not. I still am not sure.
Most of the experience is picking from 1 to 4 dialogue choices and from choosing from 1 of several stories to report to the blog, print, or your boss. This game mechanic is completely forgotten in Act Three because they are all unemployed by then (seriously). There's a few puzzles thrown in, but they are very easy. What makes this a good game is the writing (it's really strong throughout minus some questionable plot choices in the 3rd Act and some repeating gags that weren't all that funny). This is a mostly good story with lots of details on all the characters, giving the story life. ACG gave this a wait for sale and mentioned no voice acting, but in fact there is voice acting now. It's not the best voice actors, but they get the job done or at least I've heard worse. Obviously, the animations are not the best when the actors are reading the lines. And in the Final Act, the animations got even worse. The zombie guy I couldn't even see. So he wasn't really a zombie, more like the invisible man.
I think VR definitely made this game interesting for me. It's fun seeing all the sets and you feel like you are part of the audience. I don't think I would have enjoyed this game without VR. Just don't expect the best visuals, they are passable but with VR it just makes it more immersive. I wish TellTale wold make their games VR as that would make those games a lot better experiences as well.
Anyways, I do recommend this game on sale for 50% off. I spent over 6 hours to finish this tale of murder, conspiracy, and investigative journalism/blogging/PI/gators. It was just such a let down at the end that it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Rating 5.5/10
[b]Updated on 10/3/2017 after finishing the game to reflect complete experience [/b]
A unqiue experience. It's a little rough around the edges, but has potential.
On paper, this game is the sort of thing I would enjoy. However, after playing for an hour I had to stop. It's worth pointing out that in over 30 years of gaming, this is the first game I've ever requested a refund for because I knew I would I never give it another go.
The premise of the story itself is an interesting one and the idea of everything playing out as some kind of stage production is unique and clever idea. This soon becomes incredibly boring and moving from one scene to the next breaks up the flow of the story and detracts from the narrative. The story shifts from one scene to the next with such a frequency (and also back and forwards in time as the characters are interviewed after the events) that it's difficult follow what's going on and remain interested.
There is also no real gameplay as such. It's simply clicking on a choice of what to ask or what to reply with in a conversation. You also get to choose what sort of spin you publish your blog/article/report.
I feel that this game is better suited for mobile devices where you can just pick it up when you have some time to kill, touch the choices on the sceen and move on to the next part of the story. Sitting in front of my PC trying to stay engrossed in this was difficult.
I'm sure this type of game will appeal to some, but for those that like a point-and-click, use item on..., puzzle solving type adventure will be dissappointed. I really wanted to like this and I gave it my best shot. But this is just my opinion and with all games it depends on the player. Take advantage of Steam's refund policy and give anything you think you might like a go, as you can always get your money back if you don't like it and don't play for too long.
Really really liked this game. Not much gameplay aside choosing between different answers and the choices don't seem to matter that much. But the story and atmosphere are really worth giving the game a chance.
its boring
First and formost, let's get the obvious out of the way. Visually, this game is a bit of a travesty. Exactly half a step up from the N64. (I'm not critisizing the art direction itself. Just the actual assets.) Every character looks like a slightly melted plastic doll and I tried fiddling with lighting options but it still came off as way too dark way too often.
HOWEVER! I like looking at this game as more of a book than anything else, with the characters and events being nothing more than a visual representation. The "play" aesthetic helped build on that. Every setpiece both felt real when flushed out and wonderfully fake like when actually watching something move on broadway.
The story itself keeps growing in a really great way. The start is slow, but since we never stop ramping things up I always want to know what happens next to the characters or to the town or to the side characters.
My involvement in the story actually felt genuine. Like I was the one making things happen in this performance and the performance then had to cater to my decision and keep the story going from there.
I would reccomend this game, I would. I doubt a higher end computer than my own would make it run better. Though, there's a scene where everyone is running and the frame rate actually felt like it went higher than 20 for that. So that's good.
This game is more for people who like a good story than having a game to play. You won't get a lot out of this game if you spend too much time looking at things or expect a lot of action. This is a plot first and a game second.
Knee Deep is a game that starts off very strong. It's fast-paced, the writing is witty and the overarching story is intriguing enough for you to go "so what's really happening here?", but that veneer quickly devolves into absurdity for the sake of absurdity. What was fast-paced becomes jarring, some scenes in Act 2 and 3 last less than 30 seconds and doesn't progress the story at all, and is essentialy a punchline. This might not sound too bad but since Knee Deep presents itself as a play, there's the curtains drawing to fade in and out, which ends up being longer than the actual scene. It's hard to describe just how unnatural this feels but it really screws with the progression and pacing of the story.
Act 1 is a little bizarre but there's enough loose ends to go "this can end in a satisfying way by answering my questions" but Knee Deep answers questions by just killing off characters for the sake of being weird. Did you ever write stories when you were really young and you'd have all these cool ideas but you'd blow your load all at once because of how exciting it was to get those ideas out there and it ends up being this mess of excitment, confusion and ♥♥♥. That's the best way I can describe Knee Deep. It's a big confusing mess of a story that feels really incomplete and rushed from its middle to end. I can't really recommend this to anyone... Maybe if you really like David Lynch but don't want any of the foreshadowing and artistic integrity that comes with most Lynch stories.
It's a 5/10 for me. Pretty much all the positives are in the first act, for creating enough intrigue that I wanted to play more. It's unfortunate that it goes nowhere.
I really loved this game!
A couple of things to note:
In many ways, it's more like interactive storytelling than the sort of point-and-click adventure one might expect. But that doesn't make it any less good. Rather than interacting with objects, it's all about the dialogue, picking one of a few options to progress.
The premise is quite interesting - presented as a play in three parts, where the story itself is played by 'actors'. The story is obviously unrealistic, but it's a play anyway, so not really meant to be. It's quite wacky, but it's also very funny - especially if you select the three main character's specific options (weird, belligerent, cynical).
Very enjoyable. Doesn't require too much thinking, and you can't get stuck. The mini-games are easy, too.
There are two graphical bugs in Act 3, and possibly a story bug (a character I thought was dead seemed to not be dead?), but other than that it's all smooth.
Short and entertaining, would definitely recommend.
Reminds me a lot of "Heavy Rain" just no Action Type Interaction. This isnt really a bad thing, just different. All in all I think its fun, a cool idea to be watching a play and being in control of the dialouge. If your looking for something fun, dfferent and you enjoy dialouge options (which I do, everything from Telltall to BioWare), give it go. If you dont like it, hay Steam will refund the game for play time under an hour and it only takes about 15 minutes to see if this games mechanic is right for you.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy trash story and no real gameplay. If the screenshots look like a point & click adventure to you - don't worry, it's not. Picking meaningless answers and solving an occasional bad puzzle is all the action you're gonna get. Then just sit back and watch weird ♥♥♥♥ hit the fan.
Might be worth a playthrough just for giggles, if you've got nothing better to do with your time (just like me). Some of the achievement-related "strange" / "belligerent" / "cynical" responses are even fun.
After struggling with my Xbox controller and keyboard, both of which should work in game, I picked up both my Vive controllers - which aren't supposed to work - and it was smooth sailing from then on. I don't know why those aren't officially supported. You do need to use two though.
Interesting game. I'm having a little trouble remembering who is who, but then I am old and with memory issues. Its more like a VR play with easy puzzle elements. The content has been well described elsewhere though - I mostly just wanted to give a heads up to those having trouble navigating.
This game is something else. Imma say right now, if you want a realistic, serious storyline, this is not the game for you. The intrinsic weirdness of the small town setting and its inhabitants is very reminiscent of Twin Peaks or Deadly Premonition (sans the horror elements, of course), and even Life is Strange, albeit in a far more unsubtle version. This is set up from the beginning - the entire story is told as a stage play, in which you, the player, are a spectator, checking your phone or munching on cookies during the interludes. And the plot reflects the initial off-ness and strangeness of the entire set up. It begins weird, but it ends CRAZY. I repeat again - if this is not the kind of game you want to play, don't bother. The fourth wall is broken, the graphics and animations have an artificial, even somewhat low-budget quality to them (which, in my humble opinion, works great with the game and shouldn't be any different), but the game rocks its artificiality and low-budget look, and makes it not a flaw but a badge of honour. The stage effects - a platform pulling our protagonist out of a scene as the backdrop spins and changes to the next scene - run right with it. It's beautiful, if you can appreciate it for what it is. But don't go in expecting something completely different.
Now - the storyline is ludicrous and comes to a fitting ridiculous finale. Which, again, is beautiful. It has everything! Too much of everything, in fact. But that is exactly the point: it's over the top, the plot twists are ridiculous, and every time you think that's it, it can't get more ridiculous, it does. Don't try to fight it - just sit back and enjoy the ride! It's hard to debate details of the story without spoiling anything, so I won't, because it's worth going in blind. Suffice to say the mismatched team of a controversial young blogger, a washed up local newspaper journalist, and a bitter, failed detective is matched by the strange cast of characters in the town. From a Collectivist cult to a swamp hermit, a Native American protester and his spirit friend to a disgraced professor-turned-janitor, a cast of b-list movie actors to a gator-keeper high on his own supply, there is everything. And yes, all these characters have motivations beyond what meets the eye. Who's your friend and who's your foe? You'll have to trust your gut. More than likely, you'll be wrong. Which is cool.
In between dealing with the strange and often difficult locals, you'll be busy investigating a suicide (murder? insurance scam? conspiracy?), establish your own relationship, past and present, with the characters off and on stage, filing your individual reports on the occurances, complete with choosing what spin and source to use on them, and completing a handful of minigames. I had a special appreciation for the minigames since while they are hardly unique, they hit the sweet spot of occasionally giving you a break from the usual gameplay, without being so numerous or lengthy as to become tedious. They are hardly challenging, but they shake things up just enough. The reports, on the other hand, depend on the character you play - blog posts, article, or detective report. In each case, however, your options will depend on what you've learned from the NPCs you've interacted with. And without fail, almost all of them will try to rope you into a conversation about yourself and/or them, instead. It's hard not to get distracted by answering their questions and engaging in regular conversations with them sometimes, but you can usually steer the conversation back to your investigation if you so choose. On the other hand, that means missing out on a few lines of dialogue that help you decide who you - as the protagonists, this time, not the audience - are, both to yourself and in context to the town, your past, and your family. Deciding on a spin can be tricky, too. Do you choose a careful approach to the blog post you're writing, and risk a reputation as "boring" and your publisher's annoyance? Or do you go all out and write an inflammatory piece, risking the anger of the locals affected by it, who very well follow your posts? Do you choose to report on the famous actor's suicide as the higher ups at your newspaper demand? Or do you defy them and post a much more promising story on corruption in the local government? Choosing your sources and spin may not be a complete game changer towards endgame, but it's certainly fun and makes for tricky choices. There will be more choices of different sorts that may have a bigger impact as well later on, particularly critical choices with huge effects are announced beforehand and specifically marked.
What can I say about the characters? They toe the line - particularly the three protagonists - between tropes, archetypes that are almost stereotypes because we've seen them so many times, and the complete reversal of exactly that. The gruff detective isn't the cynical middle aged white guy we are trained to recognise. He's gruff and cynical all right, likely middled aged given his shared school years with the definitely middle aged newspaper writer, but he's a more complicated character than that. An African American man and one of the very few people of colour from the predominantly white small town of Cypress Knee, his youth in the town was marked by watching Klansmen burn crosses on his lawn - men that still live in the city and are active in politics now - and being blamed and subsequently expelled when drugs were discovered in his high school. Similarly, the blogger and newspaper reporter have dark pasts of their own that are linked to the town, and each other, as you can discover over the course of the story. A lot of the dialogue with NPCs and between the protagonists allows you to fill the gaps and decide who your protagonists are.
Premise and gameplay tickles your fancy? I'll have to be fair, the game isn't perfect. My experience was a little marred by a few bugs, though none of them were game-breaking: dead bodies spawning standing up, NPCs helplessly walking in circles around them trying to get to the spot they are meant to stand on, lines of (thankfully voiced) dialogue not appearing, empty dialogue prompts that seemed redundant and only accidentally left in. More of the side of immersion breaking annoyances, though, than game-affecting. I remember one instance where a choice made previously didn't seem flagged correctly in a single line of dialogue, and to be honest, that annoyed me more than it should, though it turned out to not really make a difference on the storyline. The chapter length as well was a bit disappointing after the fairly lengthy first act. But as your choices do make differences, there is a certain replay value. The game itself is a bit on the brief side, but well worth the 10-20 € you'll have to pay for it.
Overall? If you have a taste for the strange, can appreciate a game that plays with its own artificiality, and like Telltale-style interactive narrative games (albeit without Telltale's quicktime events), this is the right game for you. However, you really have to be able to sit back and enjoy the ride. The story IS ridiculous, as are the characters, and the graphics and animations aren't those of an AAA game. I still say it works, and in fact shouldn't be any different, but it IS a matter of taste. Don't go in expecting seriousness and realism. While quite dark in some places, the story has the tongue-in-cheek nature of many stage plays, complete with lyrical (and intentionally poor) recap/commentary interludes by the town's inhabitants and instances of the characters and commentator addressing the player/audience directly. This is a game that you can love, but you have to understand what it is going in, and you have to be into that kind of thing.
Me? I am. I couldn't put it down once I started and finished it in one go in just under 5 hours. So this gets a full thumbs up from me. 10/10 would recommend.
Doesn't feel like a game, more like a click your way through a story.
I genuinely enjoyed this game - but God, it feels unfinished. Maybe it's because I haven't played through all possible options? A lot of little questions left unanswered, and this is a weird enough world where I'd like to stay until I know it all. Still, clever setup and snappy writing. Worth it.
An interesting premise and unique design are about the only two positives I can say about this game. Things start out okay but the story soon becomes farcically bad and unrealistic with poor writing and bad puzzle design. The graphics, voice acting and music are all sub-par. The characters have a very simian quality and their animation and mouth movements are terrible, almost as if the creators used "The Movies" engine for the entire game. The voice acting makes me believe the creators went to a small town community theatre to cast their characters. The writing is trying to be clever but I found it annoying (especially the idiotic Gary Buckingham character) and, most of the time, groan-inducing.
[i]Knee Deep[/i] is a point and click adventure game revolving around a murder mystery. Set in a small backwater town called Cypress Knee in Florida, you control the three main characters as they investigate an actor’s murder, digging deep into a world of political corruption, blackmail, intrigue and even a bit of sci fi weirdness. The story is accompanied by nice graphics, atmospheric music and a unique take on gameplay where the story takes place as if it was a theater play complete with moving sets and all. The game is available on PS4, XBox One, and PC via Steam, which is the version I played for this review.
The game shows the player that everything takes place in a theater. Despite having control over the character’s choices, we’re also in the audience. We’re told that the story takes place in a fictional Florida town named Cypress Knee and that an apparent suicide has taken place. Throughout the story you have control over three different characters: a young and self-important blogger named Romana Teague, a grumpy local reporter by the name of Jack Bellet, and K.C. Gaddis, a cynical private investigator returning home for the case. All the three characters offer a different perspective of the story at hand and interact with characters differently. While they don’t get along with each other at first, they end up working together to solve the mystery of the actor who committed suicide and find out what’s happening in the town around them.
The story calls itself a “swamp noir” and touches on themes of suicide, murder, political corruption and even cults. Everything starts off simply with the investigation of the suicide of a famous actor but soon it’s obvious more is going on. The story is told in three parts, like acts of a play. I was really into the mystery vibes at first, the two reporters and the private eye trying to solve the case while the cast of characters around them aren’t very helpful. Between the dirty politicians and the cultish church in town, the main characters are actively pushed away from the real story at hand every step of the way. Things go way off the deep end by act three, however. Sci fi elements are brought in, people are dying left and right and everything is just a mess. I was very disappointed that a story that started off pretty strong developed into a whole lot of incoherent nonsense. While there was resolution and questions got answers, I didn’t like the answers provided. Also, for a game that advertises that “choices matter” in the end the ending of the game is always the same.
While the choices you make do affect the dialogue and how other characters react to you, overall they don’t have any lasting consequences. You will still find the information you need and everything still ends up the same, even if you’re rude to everyone or the nicest person on Earth. A major example of this was at a certain point of the game you have the option to save yourself or one of three other characters from dying. Either way, one of the three will survive so picking yourself won’t kill them all. But, no matter who you pick they play the exact same role later in the game. Saving character A instead of character B doesn’t change how the game plays or ends, just certain dialogue. While for the most part I did enjoy the story, this gameplay aspect really hurt any desire to replay the game which you have to do if you want all of the achievements.
Despite my issues with the “choices matter” system, overall the game plays very well. You can play with a mouse or a controller and it even supports VR. You don’t have to move your characters around in the game, they automatically go where they need to so I found just using the mouse to make choices the best option while playing on the PC. While a huge bulk of the game play consists of reading and then making dialogue choices for the main characters as well as other side characters from time to time, there are also a few mini games sprinkled in. I found the games to be relatively easy and for most part useless to the story and gameplay. It was nice to change things up a bit but the game would not suffer if they weren’t there.
The game has decent graphics, the character models are smooth and the animation for the most part is rather seamless. I saw some glitches, like characters walking in circles for no reason and once, a character who has just died, was still standing on the screen for no reason. I did not run into many of these hiccups very often, however. The game is rather dark for me -literally- it was important for atmosphere but my eyes aren’t the best so this was an issue for me. While it didn’t affect gameplay at all or the story, it did make me squint more than I would have liked. The game has full voice acting which is very well done and a great soundtrack that is also available for purchase. The actors helped bring the well-written script to life and handled all of the quirky lines wonderfully. Even if the story faltered at some points, the acting never did.
While for the most part I did enjoy playing [i]Knee Deep[/i], I feel it’s a game that people will generally enjoy or not with very little room to meet in between. The stylistic choice of setting everything like a play in a theater may turn people off or fill them intrigue. The sheer volume of choices you have to make do create for an interesting game, even if they don’t change the ending, because there are a lot of humorous moments in the game. While it’s advertised as an adventure game I would honestly say it has a lot more in common with a visual novel as mostly everything is text based and the main purpose of the game is to tell a story. I played the PC version on Steam, it has trading cards and a lot of achievements to obtain but you will have to play the game at least twice and the first chapter a whole three times to gain them all. I do recommend adding this title to your library, though I might suggest waiting for a sale.
[code]This review is exclusively written for [url=http://www.popculthq.com/]Pop Culture HQ[/url].[/code]
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I recieved this game as a part of being apart owning a Tobii EyeX, and at first, I admit, I thought that it was a Telltales wanna-be, so I didn't get too far into the game.
However, fast forward to my 3D Game Art & Engines course where we're building fictional cities that are to appear as if they're on a stage. The schedule has a day for some of the immersive technologies we can use to present our projects (Vive, Occulus, Tobii Eyetracking, etc), and I'm trying to decide on the game to show off the eye-tracking. That's when it hits me: Knee Deep.
I remembered the game's theater quality and how it was perfect for the project. Replaying it, I found myself realizing that while Telltales leaned on action, Knee Deep preferred the power of words and mystery and played to that advantage. I went from showing it to a friend in class to doing a full-run through of the game in one night just for how the story sucked me in and didn't let go.
Knee Deep to niezależna gra przygodowa utrzymana w klimacie noir, w której gracz dostaje do dyspozycji trzy główne postacie. Kierowane osobistymi motywami, starają się one rozwiązać zagadkę samobójstwa w tajemniczym miasteczku - Cypress Knee we Florydzie.
Niesamowite wrażenie wywarła na mnie sama koncepcja przebiegu rozgrywki. Graczom przyjdzie podjąć się dwóch odmiennych ról: widza spektaklu teatralnego i aktora grającego w przedstawieniu. Tak - "Knee Deep" przyjmuje formę wielkiego widowiska kulturowego. Postacie przedstawione w tytule mocno się od siebie różnią - każda z nich podąża własną ścieżką i prowadzi śledztwo w unikalny, silnie uzależniony od profesji, sposób. Poza trójką głównych bohaterów, gracz dostanie do chwilowej dyspozycji wiele postaci pobocznych. Przebieg całego przedstawienia jest zależny od podjętych wyborów. Mechanika w "Knee Deep" jest nieskomplikowana, ale też bardzo nieszablonowa - polega na wybieraniu kwestii aktorów, które owocują delikatnymi zmianami scenariusza i ogólnym odbiorem dzieła przez widownię. Ścieżka dźwiękowa spisuje się naprawdę dobrze. Profesjonalny dubbing i wybitnie skomponowana muzyka były dla mnie pozytywnym zaskoczeniem.
Komu polecam tę grę? Zdecydowanie fanom powieści kryminalnych oraz osobom, które lubią niekonwencjonalne podejście do rozgrywki i mechaniki w produkcjach niezależnych. Cena tytułu jest wysoka, ale w tym przypadku przekłada się ona na jakość.
Ocena: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10
Knee Deep is a unique game where you feel like you are in the theatre. What I liked about the game was the story, some of the chars and how unique it was. What I didn't like was the minigames could have cut them out but oh well and some of the chars could have been more unique and not so cliche and it was too short so buy it on sale! Buy this game if you like point and click games.
[h1] DISCLAIMER: This is a full review, and NOT a first impressions review like all my other reviews, if you want a better full review, then please read better reviews then mine [/h1]
Knee Deep is an adventure game developed and published by Prologue Games
Knee Deep is a highly entertaining and unique adventure game, set on theatre stage, with three acts which play out in a typical theatre fashion
You can pick from a wide variety of dialog choices and can have large consequences down the line. The voice acting is a great addition and the actors give life to the character's through their high-quality voice work
Music in this game are some of the best and most atmospheric I have heard, in many AAA games on the market. The graphics are great and have unique art style that really adds to the atmosphere
Each of the character's have unique personality and personal story lines. There is a unique blogging mechanic where you can post blog articles that will affect the attitudes of characters that you've dealt with along the way
Knee Deep has a unique setting and atmosphere with a high-quality soundtrack and fully voice acted. Which offers multi choice dialog and an interesting blog mechanic and a unique art style
Knee Deep is a very different adventure game!
[h1] RECOMMENDED :) [/h1]
This game has both positives and negatives, as is the case with all games, and going into it after seeing all the positive reviews had me really exited. However, after finishing the game I'm able to say that the negatives VASTLY outnumber the positives. So let's start the with the positives shall we?
- Great soundtrack
- Interesting setting and art style
- Puzzles are ok, though not really diverse. They're all pretty much the same, but challenging enough for it not to ruin the experience.
- Act 2 and 3 are better than Act 1 (This is barely a positive; 2 and 3 are both pretty mediocre and confusing still)
- Some of the jokes are funny
And that's about it really. The game has a lot of potential considering the unique setting of being played out like an actual theatric play, but it throws away that potential, which I will explain as we move on the negatives:
- Story is messy and makes no sense
- Heaps of loose threads at the end of the game
- Terrible dialogue. The characters will just change the subject in the middle of a conversation or simply go quiet and walk away without reaching any conclusion to the actual convo.
- Choices are vague. When you decide what to say in a conversation the choices don't give you much to go on. They usually only contain one or two words, which often leads to your character saying something that you didn't mean or want at all. For some reason the creators also made it so you have three main characters instead of one. And on top of the main characters you sometime pick the dialogue options for an additional 3-4 characters. The problem with that is that the game doesn't clarify which character you're picking a choice for - meaning that if you're currently watching a group of people and get to pick a dialogue option, you don't know which character is gonna say what you pick. The fact that there are three main characters also makes it so that you often go through the same exact dialogue with a person three times, since all three characters basically do the same things.
- Act 1 is dreary and repetitive to no end, and it goes on for way too long. While Act 1 took me around three hours to play (mind you I took some breaks because I simply wasn't enjoying myself) act 2 and 3 took 2 hours COMBINED.
- Jokes get so overused, it's ridiculous. There's one specific joke about a character saying the wrong words while talking and not understanding that he's doing it. It was slightly funny the first time, but they use the same joke every single time he says a sentence. Safe to say it gets really annoying after a while.
Luckily I picked this game up during a sale, so I'm not too bummed about it not living up to my expectations, but I would NOT recommend getting this at full price. It's simply not worth it.
Strange and impressive. You will like it!
舞台剧的效果的确很震撼，剧情选择方面前期不错但是后期感觉一下子少了不少，总体文本量实在感人
好评~~~
VR review: If you like storry heavy games than just get it. Its a full game. Works very well in vr. You just have to know:
It is now like the lukas arts kind of games were you collect and combine stuff. This one is focused completely on the storry. The only influence you have is what you say and how you reply to others. This changes the storry. If you dont mind that you get a good crime storry with unique setting, theme and persentation. Film noir style.
Attenzione: non tradotto ed inglese difficile da capire
Non mi piace. Ho finito il primo atto e mi è rimasta un'impressione come di "ok, la storia c'è ma sembra tutto molto lineare" che bene non fa. Si, hai delle scelte e si, puoi influenzare lo svolgimento delle indagini ma a me non mi ha preso per nulla.
A very peculiar experience that defies convention and ultimately succeeds. There are multiple interesting and original devices used to tell the story of series of crimes in a Florida swamp. Using a play as the setting is a great idea and works well. Technically, the game is adequate. The visuals range from impressive to sufficient. There are clipping issues throughout and the movement of the characters is somewhat stilted. But it doesn't really matter as the writing and acting really carry the day. It is a well told story with enough branching to warrant a replay.
If you like interactive story games and want something that takes a different approach, this is worth checking out.
I didn't like this at all and after 20 mins had the impression that randomly mashing the trackpad would probably complete the game :/ add to that pretty sparse graphics and shadowy non descript characters I could only see the outline off, it soon became very tedious.
Bought this game as I like multiple choice!
I'll get cons out the way first:
-Bit glitchy
-Couldn't always follow the narrative
Pros:
-Extremely unique game
-Really different way of telling a story
-Lots of detail
-Made low graphics look super pretty!
This game ticks 3 important boxes that make it an instant purchase for me...
1. It is not Early Acess
2. It is Story Driven- not another wave shooter..
3. It´s pretty cheap...
The VR Version is really nice.. It´s like an interactive TV- Show ... Awesome get this now if you are even remotly interested in Adventure Games...
Honestly did not expect to like it as much as I did, but into the second act I was already addicted! I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a choice based murder mystery game. The setting in the game was quite unique. I've never played a game set on a stage before so it definitely makes the game stand out more. I also have to give a big thumbs up to the soundtrack.
Excellent story. Puzzles are kinda lame. And really not enough of them to keep engaged.
Posting of reports in act 1 is a great mechanic but there should be more consequences for what you post.
Monroe saving the day by drive the tractor - STUPID.
A big thanks to the developers for granting me a free copy. I've always wanted this game and I finally got my hands on it a short while ago, I love these kinds of games, adventure games where you're the leader and get to choose how the story progresses, the dialogue is amazing and well detailed, the story is beautiful and full of suspense, I would recommend this game to anyone who's into this genre, even if you're not, this game can get you into it!
I adore this game! Your choices won't radically change the story, but each important decision (even unimportant ones) decide how others act toward you, minor conversation topics, and on some occasions you pick who lives and who dies. Aside from that, the story is interesting and the fact that it's all set out as a play adds a nice unique quality to it. I've always been a fan of noir and I'd say Knee Deep captured it well in a more modern way.
欲罢不能。强烈推荐这款游戏，从来没有玩过这么爽的游戏。首先，用戏剧方式的表现手法加上剧情的多样化，使人真的耳目一新。优点一：避免的无谓的走动。很多游戏需要解谜还要角色自己去找啊，走啊，再找啊，很无聊，这个游戏完全就是按照剧情，你可以选择自己的台词行为而变更结局，但完全不需要控制人物走动。优点二：虽然英文非常的难懂，是那种纯正的土话地区方言用语很多，但是还是凑合着玩完了，里面很多莎士比亚式的或者说戏剧式的演出台词，非常有趣好听。优点三：人物动作，画面的移动特别的优美，流畅，像是真的看完了一部舞台剧一样，很喜欢这种风格。
This game is innovative, dashing in its theatrical art direction, superbly voice acted, and carefully crafted. So why the thumbs down?
First, because the gameplay is stilted. You cannot wander around and explore: it's just one dialog choice after another. Which could be OK if not for the pretense--suggested by the dialog choices--that you control these characters in some way. So do you or do you not? It's frustrating that when you finish a dialog you feel like you really want to go back and question another witness again. But that's not the way the game's belligerently linear path takes you. The beautifully crafted setting screams for exploration, but there is none.
And let's examine the dialog choices: only some affect the story, and of those few seem to allow you to control the personality of the characters, but then they're all over the place. You can make a character nice, callous, weird, or kind in any given encounter, and switch whenever you like. It's completely schizophrenic, except that there's no penalty for being inconsistent. Nor is there a reward for consistency. It simply doesn't matter what you choose, and soon enough you will stop caring. This is [I]not[/I] a role-playing game. It's not even a choose-your-own-adventure game. All you really need to care about is making sure you don't choose something that will cause you to miss out on some of the story. That's a pathetic amount of investment.
So, how's the story? It gets too convoluted too quickly, but also predictably so. You just know that there will be plot twists. And since you can't control anything about the game, your role is just to be patient and wait for the next, yawn, surprise. The script is often preposterous: people get murdered while bystanders stand by and make sarcastic comments; strangers confess deep personal secrets and then move on to talk about real estate projects; [I]everybody[/I] seems to be obsessed about their moms. There's so much snark packed into this game that I feel encouraged to be snarky about the game itself. But ain't nobody got time for eye-rollings: negative reviews are the way to go!
Finally, this game is unoriginal: it's a lot like Kentucky Route Zero, just placed in a different southern state and with a different visual concept. The mood is copied, as is the idea of switching between characters, and even the surrealist vibe. It's disappointing that a team as creative as this one seems to be unable to come up with their own concept. (Offensive, even: there might be a case for plagiarism. Even though there's what I think is a homage to KR0 in the end.) It's also strategically bad to copy, because it begs the games to be compared, and KR0 comes out so much more mature, captivating, and exploratory. Where KR0 is poetic, Knee Deep is art-school pretentious.
This is all a bit harsh, perhaps. I did enjoy the game, to an extent, as a bit of poorly written but nicely produced theater. But I was very annoyed by the game's flaws, and believe that others will be annoyed, too. I just can't recommend it to anyone I care about unless they really ran out of things to play.
Also: thank you, devs, for supporting Linux! Except that you didn't allow for v-sync and the tearing is abominable.
Very interesting game. I love the overall concept. People tend to compare it with the latest Telltale series and yes, that's somewhat justified. However, I am by far not as carried away as compared to e.g. Telltale's Game of Thrones or Square Enix's Life is Strange. Maybe it's the lack of quick time events, not sure.
Nevertheless, a great experience and certainly recommended to fans of the genre.
When reading reviews, I always keep an eye on the amount of time people played a game, so want to add that I am a comparably slow player and just finished the first act in about 2.5 hours.
Also, great to see that such beautiful games run flawlessly on Linux!!
A unique experience. A choose-your-own-adventure play. Pretty good writing and passable voice acting. Overall worthwhile and interesting.
More and more videogames are following the "interactive story" model that's been popularized by Telltale, and among these, it's good to find that lower-budget productions, such as this one, can still manage to bring something new to the formula.
Gameplay-wise, Knee Deep keeps to the basics (low interaction with the environment, high amount of choices pertaining to character development), but what sets it apart, besides its Twin Peaks-esque setting, is its extremely theatrical direction. The characters wander from stage to stage, while buildings open and close like pop-up books to make way for them. They proclaim their lines (often in rhymes), self-conscious of being actors in a play, sometimes breaking the fourth wall, and the other three as well. I haven't seen this kind of staging in any other game, ever. A lot of current videogames take their inspirations from cinema, but this one works like a theatric play, and I hope I'll see more games going down that route.
+ Extremely original direction
+ Twin Peaks-like atmosphere with weird characters
+ Replayability through dialog choices
+ Some dialog choices make the game feel like a VtM:Bloodlines Malkavian playthrough
- Slowdowns now and then, particularly during minigames
- Somewhat low production values (though I find it contributes to the atmosphere)
- Kinda short for its price (but I got it in a bundle, so I won't complain)
- Act 3 feels a bit rushed
9/10 Rough around the edges, and lacking a bit of polish, but culturally significant for the evolution of videogames as a storytelling medium.
I love the conceit, but the actual game is lacking. $22 for 3 hours of game - and it *really* should have been five acts. As it is, what should play as a tense, interesting drama instead feels like Rocky Horror. Needed more character writing, more mystery, more everything. The "noir" only lasts as long as the first episode.
I'm a big fan of good stories (and this one's great) but I have my problems with visual novels since my role as "player" is too passive so I still prefer a book instead - in this case I had a blast following the story because the interaction with choices (which rly matter) and a few puzzles seems just perfectly balanced while following the plot - the idea of using a theatre-setting is "just" the cherry on the cake ... and it's a damn good cake indeed^^
Great game. Found the story entertaining and amusing. Some of the answers you get are awesome... Definitely didn't expect some of the responses characters would give! Made it all the better!
Not your typical game, I will admit. Wasn't sure what I was going to expect when I jumped in, but was pleasantly surprised.
Highly recommend if you're looking for a great story driven game.
Interesting idea but poorly tehnical execution. The Eye tracking support is just in the main menus - i cannot seem to select choices while in the actual game. Very very bad put together game: bad animations, slow menu selecting and game crashed when i tried to exit it..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU21EnHGyD0
