Reader reviews for A Golden Wake

To start with the positive: A Golden Wake has a lot of the things that makes the rest of the Wadjet Eye games memorable: a pixel art, a soundtrack and dialogue that together really set a great mood for a game. So I definitely enjoyed being in A Golden Wake. Playing it? Well, that really depends on what you want from a game.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked the “selling” dialogue puzzles, and the fact that you only got one shot at getting them right. And sure, the occasional HOG (!), logic puzzle and action-ish scene all work, but after one playthrough it just seems to little and too easy.

A lot of it has to do with the pacing of the overall game. Most of the scenes are quite short, so you never really get to dwell in or get to know any of the locations. I’m not saying I love backtracking - but being able to do it actually is what gives you the illusion of being in control of the character.

Also, there is a big problem with the MAIN PLOT TWIST coming way too sudden. There are definitely surprising things in life you would do if you felt you had no choice. Here, instead, you are given the illusion that you have one.

Verdict: Some work on dramaturgy and making at least one of the acts longer could have made (to avoid any wordplay involving ‘gold’) good to great.

Playtime: 4,5 hours.

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Time Played: 2-5 hours
Difficulty: Easy

I really love Wadjet Eyes games, and I like Grundaslavs Ben Jordan games ( especially the last 3 in the series ). However this games left me disappointed. I was really looking forward to this game, but it did not feel as polished as Wadjet eyes later releases. Puzzles very pretty average and too easy, story was not really interesting, characters were pretty flat, pretty flat pixelated graphics, static Character portraits, and voice acting was not as good as we have been expecting from the voice cast at Wadjet Eye. Overall it would have been a pretty OK game if it was a non commercial release, but being a commercial game it is very average.

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Time Played: 2-5 hours
Difficulty: Very Easy

Finished the game (took about 6 hours), it was a good game. It sets the stage well and it captures the roaring 20s well. A lot of work has been done on locations and it really sets the ambiance. The jazzy soundtrack fits very well. Overall puzzles were logical and a bit on the easy side (just the way I like it). So all in all it was a fun game to spend the evening with.

There’s only really one thing I disliked a bit, the game jumps quite fast from year to year and it doesn’t linger very long in any time period. The upside is that the story moves fast but the downside is that I feel that character development is lacking a bit between those time periods especially during the later parts of the game. I felt that Alfie made some life-altering decisions a bit too quickly and the part of the context for those decisions were off camera due to the jumping between years. The later part of the game also really flies a bit too fast and I felt that I didn’t really have time to appreciate what was happening.

The ending is certainly no cliffhanger but personally I tend to prefer more uplifting conclusions.

Overall I’d give it a 3.5/5. I think with Resonance (I hated the plot twist from Resonance, it destroyed the enjoyment of the game for me) , it’s the weakest game published by Wadjet Eyes.

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Time Played: 5-10 hours