Violett

Violett
by Forever Entertainment - December, 2013

Available at:
Big Fish
Steam



Set in a world full of wonders, quirks and things from beyond our reality, Violett is a remarkable adventure game that will push your brain to the limits and engross you completely.

Dragged by her parents, a young and rebellious teenage girl – Violett, moves to an old spooky house in the middle of nowhere. Forced away from her friends and life in the city; she imagines how boring life in countryside will be: spending day after day, bored in her room with absolutely nothing to do. But what she cannot imagine, is that in just few moments, she'll have the adventure of her life.

A spark of light from the nearby mouse hole catches her attention, she reaches inside and in a blink of an eye she's in a completely different place. So familiar, yet so distant. So magnificent, and yet dangerous. A place where frogs singing operas are daily occurrence, garden gnomes are emissaries from another dimension and power of telekinesis is not freaking anyone out. Now only your wit and luck can help her unite with her parents.

Rack your brain on intricate puzzles that will allow you to move forward. Use the power of telekinesis to get you out of your troubles. Fight the evil spider queen that wants to make you her new trophy. Use your touch to roam the beautiful and psychedelic world, inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Dali and other great works. Immerse yourself in the soothing sound track

- Fantastic 2,5D point-and-click adventure game
- Unique world inside the 'rabbit-hole'
- Multitude of puzzles and riddles
- A spooky atmosphere of mystery and uneasiness
- Evil Spider Queen who's trying to prevent you from ever coming back
- Paranormal forces to manipulate objects
- Beautiful hand-painted graphics full of quirkiness and style
- Full parallel reality inspired by Alice in the Wonderland and other great works
- Violett Full Walkthrough | Level Up Guides

The Weirdest Little Game!***

BASED ON DEMO

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
A story told by comic book images alone, a heroine with purple hair and a surly attitude, (good) Dali graphics, strange eerie noises and no help anywhere. No goals, no task lists, no puzzle parameters. No map, no cute companion. Even the diary is not accessible within the game! What am I doing here? I have absolutely no idea.

The only reason I have any notion as to story is because I read the advertising blurb before playing the demo. This game is so totally out there, I cannot hope to do more than give you some impressions.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
Liked the graphics. Very good anime-style (I am old and behind the times, so forgive me if that is the wrong term for it), fantastical, but clear, delicately drawn and detailed. The sounds include no voiceovers, no narrators, no character comments beyond a “nyup” and a shaking of the head. The music is pleasant enough, although a tad repetitious, and there are some cool sound effects.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
Well, I was hoping you’d tell me! Holidays seem to be boring to our cute little purple heroine, until she spots a shiny object in a mouse hole. Now, me, I’d not be rushing to stick my hand into a rodent hole, but she’s young enough to feel no fear – which is just as well, because the minute she grabs hold of the amulet she is sucked into some kind of vortex that lands her in a surreal world in which she is the same size as a toothbrush. I don’t know what adventures lay in store for her, because I couldn’t play well enough to find out more than a few bits and pieces.

GAMEPLAY
This is where I come undone. I just haven’t got the knack for these sort of games, but I have some friends more advanced in adventure gameplay than me (yes, you know who you are, don't you GGGirls!) who I am sure would tell me this is not an overly-difficult adventure game, just a little quirky. Forget looking for any kind of structured puzzles, mini-games or HOPs. The puzzle is every step you take, the mini-game is the movements you must make with your cursor to make the objects you need available. It’s this last that gets me. I just can’t make my cursor swing back and forth or whatever in the correct way to achieve anything. Another minor (*says with an almost straight face*) difficulty for me is I don’t think outside the square very well, and this game doesn’t have a square!

Each location (I only managed to get to 3) has exactly 4 hints available in the form of mini-drawings of what you need to do next, and that’s about it. No skip of any kind of course, because there’s ‘no’ puzzles. And that little shake of the head when you do something wrong.

COMBINED IMPACT
A quirky little game for seasoned full-fledged adventure players. Perhaps too, for those expert and even intermediate HOPA players desperate for something truly new. But I can’t play it, I don’t have the skills or the patience, and as I think my tastes are fairly mainstream, this game will not appeal to many fishies. Probably a very good game of its type, that I cannot recommend, unless you fit one of the above categories.

Oh, and somebody? Anybody! Would you please get me out of the bathroom, it’s creepy in here! I can’t find the soap, and I’m starting to feel like lunch!

Lol, love your review, JTF, and I'm absolutely sure I'd be no help.  Won't even trial it, would be a massive waste of time and energy for me.

It's a really cool little game, I wish I could play it, but talk about pathetic!! lol   

But actually, getting to the bathroom (3rd location) seems to have been something of an achievement! Haven't heard anyone claim to have gotten further yet!   

Oh my goodness!   Violett is out at Big Fish!

I loved your comment in pink, Justie, made me laugh out loud   I must try it, it's been on my wishlist at Steam for a while now!

Now I'm intriguied by this.  Gonna download the trial version at BFG 

Thanks for another excellent review   

From what the more broadly adventurous players are saying, they think it is designed for a small touch screen or console device where the cursor movements would be more natural.

Well it certainly is a strange one.  I like it though.    
Gorgous animations!  Gameplay is similar to Machinarium, or Samarost, which I like.    

But I seem to be stuck at the same place as you, Justie.  I can't find the soap.    

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

I am glad you like it. I thought it seemed a lovely little game with a great Indie Adventure kind of feel to it, and I hoped that a few of you more adventurous types might fancy it.

I will be trying it (hopefully!) this evening!

Justie

Spoiler:

Pity my trial-hour is up.


Genki
Please let us know how far you get.

Incredible, isn't it? To use up a whole hour on so little advancement! Definitely the toughest game I've played in the casual games category, and up there even against RPGs and first person shooters, which at least you know will get easier with practise!

It felt like I just blinked, and the hour was up.  Quickest hour I've seen.   

Justie, when I read your review I laughed out loud and thought, I MUST try this at some point.   
And here it is on Big Fish! It sound so interestingly, confusingly quirky I'm *almost* ready to buy it sight unseen...but I'll demo it first, even though I'm so in the mood for "something completely different".

Yuck, I'm downloading the demo but Big Fish is installing a new 'Games Manager', blurgh.

ETA - Well I don't know what that was about b/c the GM looked the same to me, but I guess it updated somehow.
Violett is interesting. I haven't finished the demo yet but so far I'm stuck at the same general place, with those darn beavershark-things.    I like the game!

I like it a lot!  It's rather like The Tiny Bang Story, only without the teeny tiny items to find.  Love the graphics, the "keep experimenting until you figure something out" game mechanic is interesting and pretty intuitive, and if you get stuck, there's a gradated hint available in the bottom right corner (four picture hints, which sometimes will morph to other pictures if you keep watching.)

What I DON'T know is why we're collecting colored orbs.  No clue! lol~

There are 10 minutes left on my trial, and I'm in the bathroom, like everyone else
The game will be MINE shortly!

Just bought it! What can I say, the quirkiness called out to me. Fingers crossed it doesn't end 2 scenes after the demo.

If it ends two scenes after the demo, that would be really bad, cuz that would mean only 5 more hours of gameplay!!   

Glad you all liked it, knew you would! I pm'd the only person in bfg who recommended this game and thanked her for giving it moral support till the real adventure gamers woke up lol  

I'll be buying it on Monday, so I can get that bonus punch.   

Good. Can't wait to find out where the soap is! (and what the shiny marble thingies are for!)

JustTheFacts wrote:If it ends two scenes after the demo, that would be really bad, cuz that would mean only 5 more hours of gameplay!!  

LOL I know! What was I worried about?    
I won't be able to continue playing til Friday since we're crazed preparing for the children's big Spring Show with costumes etc to work on in my off hours, but by noon on Friday I'm off for 11 days so YAAAAYYY!!!!!!!!!  

Hmm, 11 days, a bottle of vodka and some LSD for inspiration, and even I might be able to finish the darn thing   

Nah, who am I kidding? Even that would not get my brain and hands to make the necessary connections!

So I will be relying on you ladies to tell me what happens - scene by scene, cuz, I am really very curious about this very curious game!   

JustTheFacts wrote:Good. Can't wait to find out where the soap is! (and what the shiny marble thingies are for!)

Maybe the marbles are to

Spoiler:

 

rofl - I think you are going to have to find another way.   

Well, from the screenshots, it looks like a very interesting game!

Though I'm not sure how long my endurance level would last.



ETA: RMom, I got the new Game Manager when I d/l'ed the soft-released Solitaire game yesterday. Yep, still looks the same to me, too!