Sorry I'm so late, but I was playing through SoA the other day and wanted to leave my impressions.
Disclaimer - I never finished the demo and since there was 0 out of 0 puzzle points, I have no idea if I was even close to the end. My guess was I wasn't. I made it as far as I could without looking into the game's code.
Things I loved:
- Music - The music was really well done. It was understated and I felt it worked really well in not "getting in the way." I also thought the way it transitioned from the first room to the cutscene where the elder of the Sect gives you your marching orders blended really well.
- The Abilities - The Nudge, Cool, Heat, Sense, and Recall abilities are a really cool gameplay mechanic.
- The Hint System - I love having this as an option as I found the difficulty of this game to be fairly high, and the hint system was very nice. It's great you can toggle it on and off as well.
- The First Room in Llieven - Having a simple room with something to do to familiarize the player with the abilities was nice.
Small things I noticed while playing:
- The opening room has 2 items - the Psiblade and Reader. These were both fairly arcane objects and I didn't know what to do with them, if anything. Having my first inventory items strange things I didn't know what to do with I found a little disorienting.
- The opening room also had a drawer, which the game says is the only drawer he used for his meager possessions. When opened, I coudln't quite make out what was inside the drawer, and when I typed "look in drawer" it said something like, "It's already open." I left the room without taking anything from the drawer (and I don't think there was anything in there I needed!). I felt like I was missing something because the game dismissed two drawers, but made the top one feel important, so when I left without taking anything from it, it felt like I was doing something wrong.
- The first time I played, I left the first room in Llieven not knowing what to do about the bag and the ice, if anything. I didn't really understand the abilities, so I didn't try them. I didn't know if I needed to come back later with an item or what. I wonder if it would be good to somehow trap the player in the first room and the only way to get out would be to nudge something, and hint fairly obviously at that. That way the first room would teach them to use the abilities, which then might in turn click their aha! button to use those abilities on the bag and ice.
- I found the machine with the controls, spider release, and buttons a little confusing.
- At some point a transport appeared and when I looked in I got the idea that there was a code I was supposed to get, but I couldn't figure out how.
- I remember getting something with the coin...it must've been a tool of some kind, but after getting the coin, unlocking the bathroom, washing hands, and buying the tool, I don't think I got any farther. I never discovered what I was supposed to do in the food area or with the transport.
Even with the hint system I ended up getting stuck. That being said, I am VERY bad at adventure games in general, so treat me like an 8-year old when it comes to adventure game puzzles. I don't think I've ever beaten a single one with outside help.
