Heaven’s Hope Review

<p>Let me just start by saying that I love point-and-click adventure games &&num;8211&semi; when they&&num;8217&semi;re done right&period; I can deal with the rough ones&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;ll still play them&comma; but if there was one genre that shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t suffer from frustrating game design&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s this genre&period; The majority of the games in this genre suffer from the same mistakes and when you have a manual out there for what not to do and it has been written time and time again&comma; there is just no excuse to not read it&comma; learn it&comma; and follow it&period; All you&&num;8217&semi;re doing by ignoring that manual is frustrating your fans because they&&num;8217&semi;ve been down that road before&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll say it again&colon; I love Point-and-Click Adventure games &&num;8211&semi; when they&&num;8217&semi;re done right and I so badly wanted to love this game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Heaven&&num;8217&semi;s Hope<&sol;em> has an interesting premise&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m obviously not going to spoil too much of it because good story and immersion are the bread&comma; butter&comma; potatoes&comma; and meat of these games&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t want you to just have a salad and a glass of milk&period; I want you to get the full enjoyment out of this game &&num;8230&semi; whatever that amount may be for you&period; You play an angel who has fallen from Heaven and you must get back your halo and get back to where you belong&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re not a bad angel at all&semi; you were just tricked and that led you to fall to Earth&period; The story and the atmosphere of this world is where this game shines and while there might not be a lot of that in this game&comma; this is where it does so the best&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-112472" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;02141725&sol;Screenshot-1381&period;jpg" width&equals;"691" height&equals;"379" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The atmosphere of this game is top notch&period; I almost wish it was a Netflix series with Tim Burton at the helm&period; I want to dive into this world&period; I really do&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s interesting and the music is reminiscent of the <em>Medievil<&sol;em> games and <em>Fable<&sol;em> and I love both of those series&period; The beautifully crafted backgrounds and interesting character design also serve well to add to this game&&num;8217&semi;s atmosphere&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a lot going on in this department and the hard work is evident&period; My only issue with this is that I don&&num;8217&semi;t enjoy going through what it takes to get through it&period; This is honestly a game where I would be tempted to just buy it &lpar;to support the developer&rpar; and then watch a Let&&num;8217&semi;s Play of it&period; I say that because when narratives are the main focus of the game I feel it is morally wrong to just watch a Let&&num;8217&semi;s Play of it&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s a conversation for a different time though&period; In all honesty&comma; if I hadn&&num;8217&semi;t completed this game for my review but had read about its flaws then that is what I would have done&period;  I want to go through this world&period; I want to explore it&period; I just want to have fun the entire time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Heaven&&num;8217&semi;s Hope<&sol;em> tries so hard&comma; but it just falls short in so many areas&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s nothing new really&period; In fact&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;ve played a lot of Point-and-Click games then you&&num;8217&semi;ll know exactly what I&&num;8217&semi;m talking about&period; There are just too many times that I&&num;8217&semi;m sitting here and moving my mouse around the screen and just <em>waiting<&sol;em> for <strong>something<&sol;strong> &&num;8230&semi; ANYTHING to change&period; I have no idea what I&&num;8217&semi;m looking for and I have no idea where I&&num;8217&semi;m supposed to go&period; The things that seem logical are almost never the correct answer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-112474" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;02141827&sol;heavenshope&period;jpg" width&equals;"691" height&equals;"379" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Let me give you an actual example of what I&&num;8217&semi;m referring to&period; In the beginning&comma; you need to get to your halo and it&&num;8217&semi;s on a roof in the background&period; If you try to click on it then angels that are helping you will ramble for two minutes about time and space and dimensions&period; Yeah&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;ll explain how it&&num;8217&semi;s in the background and that you have to be closer to it to reach it&period; Okay&comma; now maybe this is different than their version of Heaven&comma; but this serves than nothing more than to try to spoon feed me dialogue that the developer thinks is funny&period; After that is all finished&comma; you <em>still<&sol;em> don&&num;8217&semi;t know how to get there&period; You would think that walking down this path to your right is the correct way since it&&num;8217&semi;s the only way you can go&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s where I thought I was supposed to go and&comma; in the end&comma; yeah&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s where you go&period; Here&&num;8217&semi;s the issue though&colon; You can&&num;8217&semi;t go that way because it&&num;8217&semi;s too dark&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t worry&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;re wondering if they will explain that&comma; they will&period; The angels who are helping you provide some not-very-funny dialogue and explain how you can&&num;8217&semi;t create your own light on Earth&period; They all provide some meaningless dialogue that really isn&&num;8217&semi;t funny while you sit there going &&num;8220&semi;Yup &&num;8230&semi; Okay&period; Got it&period; Can&&num;8217&semi;t go that&period; Okay&period; Yup&period; Got it&period; Okay &&num;8230&semi; Okay &&num;8230&semi; Okay&&num;8221&semi; and I have no issue with humor but when it isn&&num;8217&semi;t funny&comma; happens too often and reflects poor game design I am less okay with it&period; After hearing about how dark this route is&comma; you will eventually &lpar;after clicking on everything&rpar; click on a picnic basket and be frightened by a crow&period; After a few more minutes of clicking on everything&comma; you will click on the crow again and scare him away&period; This will enable to get the bread out of the picnic basket and &&num;8211&semi; you&&num;8217&semi;re going to love this &&num;8211&semi; put some glowing insects on it so you can create a light&period; Yeah&comma; your bread has bugs stuck to it that will now hover about it and it glows&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll let that sink in for a moment &&num;8230&semi; Okay&comma; THIS is what is wrong with point-and-click games and why they have been maimed and appear less frequently&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Many of you will tell me that &&num;8220&semi;This is how Point-and-Click games are&&num;8230&semi;&&num;8221&semi; or &&num;8220&semi;You just need to roll with it&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s part of the genre&period;&&num;8221&semi; No&period; I refuse to because just because bad game design and poorly designed mechanics are common in a genre does not make them okay&period; There is a manual out there that exists that shows people what NOT to do in these games&period; The manual consists of the dozens of terrible and&sol;or mediocre Point-and-Click games out there&period; There is absolutely no excuse for this&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s great if people want to overlook this and still play it&period; Other than these major flaws&comma; the game is great but these are big flaws&period; These are flaws with the DESIGN of the game and how it is played&period; Bad game design is just that and I think we are doing a disservice to the development and evolution of this genre by giving them a pass on these major flaws&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-112475" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;02142728&sol;heavens-hope-pc-review-4&period;jpg" width&equals;"691" height&equals;"389" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; this game is rough&comma; but if you can overlook the flawed game design and the nonsensical methods to complete areas then you will enjoy this game&period; I did other than these flaws but it needs to be understood that this game had so much potential and could have been so much better&period; The graphical style is interesting&period; I love the music and sound effects&period; They do more justice to this game than the actual game play&period; The world and story feel like something out of a Tim Burton movie&period; I love it&period; I truly do but I cannot in good conscience give this game a pass on what it does wrong&period; Point-and-Click games are great but they need to stop making the same mistakes&period; We know what they are and we know how to get around them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a good story and some great atmosphere then check this game out&comma; but be fully aware of the issues in its game design and have an online guide ready &&num;8211&semi; or Rogaine&comma; because you&&num;8217&semi;re going to be pulling a lot of hair out&period; If you can tolerate the issues though&comma; you will have a fun time&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just unfortunate that the same mistakes that so many of these Point-and-Click games make had to happen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"><strong>A PC code was sent by Mosaic Mask Studios for review&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;