Hadean Lands

by Andrew Plotkin profile

Fantasy
2014

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Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(53)
4 star:
(4)
3 star:
(2)
2 star:
(3)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 62
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- felix, November 2, 2019

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A bit sad, September 29, 2019

I had so high expectations of this game, but in the end I found it very unsatisfying. I mean, the implementation is super. However, the ending is unsatisfactory. It takes a lot of work to finish the game, as it's big. You spend a lot of time learning the various rituals and managing the ingredients, and the reward for all this work is extremely terse. The difference between the better ending and the worse ending is 3 words. It feels... stingy! The author could have given us a slightly more expansive description of the ending as a reward.

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- alex19EP (Moscow, Russia), August 29, 2019

- florzinha, July 12, 2019

- Steffan LW Sitka (Los Angeles), March 3, 2019

- caitirilt, November 19, 2018

- kevan, September 23, 2018

- Squidi, June 22, 2018

- dgtziea, May 9, 2018

- becdot, March 26, 2018

- Guenni (At home), January 23, 2018

- mjw1007, January 15, 2018

- Tross, November 18, 2017

- karlnp (Vancouver, BC), August 23, 2017

- jamesb (San Antonio, Texas), August 12, 2017

- Targor (Germany), May 19, 2017

- Billy Mays, September 6, 2016

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
It just gets better and better, September 5, 2016

I went on a spending spree. I bought this and Worldsmith and No Man's Sky all about the same time.

Two hours of playing No Man's sky which cost me a small fortune and was developed by a big team and has been in production for years and I'm bored. Two weeks later playing Hadean Lands and Worldsmith - probably developed by a single person in their bedroom and buyable for a fifth the price - and I'm still entranced. A review for Worldsmith next.

But first: Hadean Lands.

Straight up: This is a great game. Perhaps one of the best text games I've ever played. I remember loving Planetfall and Trinity. And I love this just as much or maybe more.

I'm pretty late to the party, so a description of what it's about is probably redundant. Suffice it to say : Alchemy in a spaceship? Genius.

The only time I found myself tutting in annoyance was during the late-middle of the game when I had about a billion things and wasn't entirely sure what to do next. Even with the super-cool reset and single command redo ability I felt like I was smushing stuff together at random to see if it worked. I hit online hints up pretty hard.

And I was a bit irritated by the ending. Say what? I like an open ended story, but after all that effort in getting there I wanted a bit more of a reward.

There's too much greatness here to be picky and let such minor quibbles ruin a superb game. Five stars!

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Adventure Gamers

"This game is undoubtedly one of the best works of IF in the Infocom tradition. Its puzzles are all based on a system of admirably complicated alchemy that naturally emerges from the world and its story. The result is an engrossing, fun gameplay experience that has a kind of consistency and momentum comparable to games like Portal 2 that also have a strong central puzzle mechanic. And it takes place in a world rich with detail and fascinating to explore, conveyed through distinctive writing. It all adds up to an intensely immersive experience that will easily last you 20 hours, if not significantly more. The bottom line is that Hadean Lands makes great strides towards perfecting the classic adventure game – not just the text adventure."

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- gobbldygook, June 28, 2016

- kala (Finland), April 12, 2016

- Sobol (Russia), November 23, 2015

- CasualGamer33356, October 14, 2015

- AngelKurisu, April 27, 2015

- prevtenet (Texas), April 26, 2015


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