How I Buy Petrol? Flawed design - but actually entertaining in parts
There's a number of design problems that really stood out and kind of crippled the experience until I figured out how to get around them. Things like how walking through a door involves stepping up in front of the door. Clicking on the door doesn't work and it's possible to come at the door from the side, forcing you to have to go back for a sort of a run up. Another problem was that you couldn't change direction mid walk, but had to wait for the character to reach the point before you could reselect a walk destination. If there's anything to be learned from The Getaway it is that walking should not be a chore. Though it's in the title, the objective could have been more clearly stated. Also the puzzles were far too simple. Finding a petrol can in - where else - the garage is just too mundane and simple. A good puzzle should surprise and require advanced reasoning. And yet, the music was just damn charming and there were some entertaining lines of text. The mini game to actually get the petrol was a nice parody and was an example of the controls working well and clearly explaining the situation and the objective. Actually, you probably should have just ended the game there, because there's not much afterward. The final part of the game should be the most exciting part of the game, making the player feel like the achieved something. Having to work home and go to the computer only to be led to a brief cutscene only leads you to expect a big finale - when it's already happened. Still, the music and small touches like the away the characters arms would limply trail as they walked were enough to see this game through to the end.