Corto Maltese - Secrets of Venice

In spite of the *many* things I like about this game, there enough deal-breaking bugs for me not to recommend this -- at least not in English. (More details below.) [u]The Good[/u]: Truly exceptional world-building! It's a fun mix of Dan Brown, Assassin's Creed, and Tintin. There's a nice balance of occult history, Venice travelogue, Judeo-Christian mysticism, and political thriller elements. The narrative hits all the right notes for me. I don't even mind that the present-day sequences don't use the art style from the original comics, because I wasn't very familiar with Corto Maltese before playing this game (other than a few tangential references in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). Many of the puzzles are genuinely fun, even if they seem a bit ridiculous in the context of the story. In fact, I wish I had thought of the explorer/Age of Discovery puzzle myself. (I run a brainteaser-oriented game night in Manila.) I like how the Compass mechanic works, in general. It's a neat...

Recommended with remarks. I've changed my first analysis. Game's atmosphere is nice and, if you are a lover of Corto Maltese comics, it seems appealing enough. The aim of the game is to quest by yourself, outside the game (Internet), to answer the riddles that the game offers to you. This makes this game unique and, enhances the detectivesque feeling, since you are yourself who should investigate outside the game, browsing wikipedia or google maps or whatever other source of info that could help you to get the answer. This is one of the hardest click & point adventure games I've ever played (and, played a bunch). Sometimes, the tips or clues aren't that clear and can lead you to absurd paths. The bad thing is that there is NO guide or walkthrough anywhere (there is just a single one covering the very first steps), by today. I was really stuck for several days with just one riddle and, I was going to give up the game, until a forum mate was giving me the last piece of the puzzle to ge...

Game won't load. I bought this game today, and it turns out the game wont load. I am not the only one with this problem. I don't know why it wont load, but I would not recomend bying the game until the problem is fixed.

When I play a game, I expect an immersive experience. Having to leave the game to do research on the web is very disruptive. I did not enjoy this game.

So here's the deal... This would have been a great concept. I like the idea of looking up the answers to the puzzles. It was super cool and kind of a throwback to playing Carmen Sandiego on the Apple IIe. But this game messed up a lot of things. Half of the puzzles were either worded very poorly, or they were designed so that it would be impossible to solve by means other than looking up a walkthrough or by random guessing. One puzzle required to place things in chronological order. Not only is the layout of the actual puzzle different than the instructions for that puzzle, but they wanted it done in REVERSE chronological order, which was not stated in those instructions. Cool aesthetic, terrible design.

This is the only game that I will ever play. It has so many cultural references! Just like Hugo Pratt's writings. Highly recommended for all true Corto Maltese fans.

OMG, this is ogly game for last years... I have one habit is a finish all of that I try to start. I have been finishing this game for 1.5 years cause I set up and deleted this game again and again. Luckily I've done it - I have finished this game. If you cant create something special and amazing please dont do anything... I regret for spending time with the game.

Unfortunately the game features a broken puzzle that will stop the player in his tracks about70% through. This puzzle entails mixing a medicine and it won`t work (having chekced walkthroughs and youtube I can attest to this) - hence fair warning to a prospective buyers. All of this is a shame, as the game atmosphere is quite good even if you are not a Venice lover or familiar with Hugo Pratt.

absolutely variably difficult,re italian words etc even the walkthru was difficult to follow,, though there were some historically intresting aspects.....