User Reviews (1 - 11 of 15)

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You Have to Know What You're Doing

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: September 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Don't let the person who gave this game one star sway you. The game will be very boring if you don't even try to solve one of the puzzles, which he obviously did. Yes, you can wander around the house for an hour and have nothing happen if you do just that; wander around the house doing nothing. And (to address another of his complaints) on a normal computer it will install in a few moments, just like any other computer game. My computer is a mediocre one from four years ago, nothing special at all, and I was able to install both discs in well under five minutes with no confusion at all.
If this is your first attempt with an adventure/puzzle game you might end up bored and frustrated as it might be a little too much for you. But don't let that stop you from trying! If you get stuck and feel yourself getting upset just go to Google and search for one of the many helpful Scratches walkthroughs and look up what you're supposed to be doing next. No harm in that and then you can move on to the next part of the game.
You eventually have to go to sleep (after you're done exploring) before anything creepy starts to happen, so that is probably why that other reviewer thought nothing ever happens.
Good game overall if you know what you're doing.

A haunting vacation you'll never forget...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: September 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

In the independently developed Scratches, you play as Michael Arthate, a British horror writer who's hard-pressed to finish his sophomore novel. In an attempt to seek inspiration, you arrange to stay at a dilapidated Victorian manner in the English countryside. The next three days will change your life forever. If I had to sum up Scratches in one word, it would be dark. Dark ambiance, dark motivations, dark secrets await you.

The game is set in the year 1976, and during the course of your investigations you'll revisit the shocking past of Blackwood Manor. Feverish dreams (or are they reality?) keep you from sleeping, and there are sounds that can't be explained away by creaky old houses. You are drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery of James Blackwood and his misfortunes. The only sound in the manor is the grandfather clock, the squeak of ancient stairs, and your lonely footsteps...until night falls.

The game's Argentinian creators Agustín Cordes and Alejandro Graziani are horror fanatics, and their devotion to their craft shows in loving homage to Lovecraft and Easter Eggs that poke fun at other adventure games. Scratches truly shines in creating a foreboding (dare I say downright evil??) atmosphere without gore. At times, the horrifying music by Cellar of Rats makes your hair stand on end when you realize that you're not alone. Every small nuance has been seen to, from the reflection of light in cut crystal to the trinkets that line the house. Blackwood Manor is almost an art museum, what with the numerous reproductions of famous paintings. Although the prerendered environments are lush and lifelike, the animations left a lot to be desired, but hey, this is an independent developer's first game, so I'm not going to fault them on that. Like many horror games, there are "standard" areas to explore, like a crypt, chapel, greenhouse, cellar and garage (after playing Scratches, you might avoid going into your basement for a while). You may also recognize a familiar name in the credits: Jonathan Boakes, famed creator of Dark Fall: The Journal and Dark Fall: Lights Out.

Although some reviewers complain that the first third of the game moves very slowly (you are mainly exploring the manor at this point), I found the pacing to be brilliant. Little clues gradually emerge as you scour the house looking for candles on your first night...stacks of old newspapers and faded scraps of paper start to raise questions. You're able to phone several outside sources for help as the game progresses: your friend Jerry, your secretary Barbara, and two other surprise guests that are directly involved in Blackwood Manor's shady past.

The puzzles are largely intuitive and inventory-driven (no combination locks or devilish slider puzzles, thank goodness). The inventory management is adequate, but you do acquire a bloated inventory by game's end, with no way to get rid of extra objects.

Scratches: Director's Cut features a patch, but I still found mouse performance to be severely laggy on an above-minimum-specs laptop, and a very frustrating lag on opening any doors that resulted in minute-long lockups every time I tried to enter or exit a room. Otherwise, I didn't run into any crashes or other bugs.

This is the Director's Cut, which features improved resolution on the prerendered graphics, an alternate ending, and an additional brief chapter called The Final Visit, where you visit Blackwood Manor in the present day shortly before it's to be demolished. If you don't already own Scratches, this is the version to get.

Fans of horror and adventure will enjoy Scratches. If you like Scratches, also check out indie Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle. Nucleosys is to be commended on a job well done!

Made every game design mistake in the book

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: February 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Like other gamers, I really wanted to like this game. I love adventure games, especially the spooky kind, and the challenge and slow pace of them is something I relish. But this game made so many obnoxious design mistakes, I gave up halfway through and used a walkthrough just to see what would happen. Things that in my book are unforgiveable design sins:

1. Red herrings. It's very annoying to have the game point something out to you, especially something that looks like it should open, or move or otherwise function, and then never enable you to DO anything with it. If you're like me, you waste a ton of time revisiting it, trying in vain to make it do something.

2. Ignoring established game logic. Early on in a game, you figure out the logic of the game world - what sorts of things are interactive, which aren't, how you can move, etc. When a designer changes these rules late in the game, it creates confusion. This example is the annoying flip side of the above issue. I'm thinking here of a specific instance in the game wherein I tried to interact with something no less than 8 times with no result. (the player voiceover even said something along the lines of, "I don't EVER want to have anything to do with that!") Being totally stuck later on in the game, I looked for a hint and the hint was to - you guessed it - interact with the thing that up till then, had done nothing.

3. Ignoring common sense. All I can say here is "who the hell willingly climbs into a crematorium-sized furnace?" Or if a person is investigating a mystery and finds a trove of informational papers but is only allowed to read one of them, would s/he think it's possible to come back and read more later? (see game world logic)

4. Ignoring established player motivation: Having had the player character insist multiple times that he refused to leave the house until the mystery was solved, a puzzle solution shouldn't then be contingent upon him leaving.

5. And lastly...persnickety/redundant puzzle solutions. If you already have a rag in your inventory, you shouldn't have to find an equivalent but DIFFERENT rag to complete a puzzle.

The designers often seemed not to take the time to consider what they to might actually do in the situation and instead invented contrived circumstantial puzzles that were just irritating to figure out. All told, this game was an exercise in frustration and I was severely disappointed.

What happened to the 'End of the Story'???

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It was a very difficult game to get anywhere. It hung up all the time and then you had to start over. Every once in a while you would stumble over something and think, "Great, now we're getting somewhere!" alas, then it went back to boring and repetitive. I will say that it was 'spooky'. And I really wanted to know the ending. I did finish it and then sat there and wondered how it ended. It just seemed to run out of steam and a lot of the things that seemed so interesting were just dropped. Never explained or 'wrapped up'. It was like taking on a complicated jigsaw puzzle and getting to the very end only to find that too many pieces are missing to complete it satisfactorily.
Maybe I'm too critical or expect too much but I thought the ending would be a WOW rather than something so mundane.

Awesome!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: June 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Boy,do I love this game!!!!it was really good & scary!!!! it was also challenging without being fustarting! get this game!!

This game is so boring.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have to agree with the reviewer Mystery Maven. I have played many adventure games and Scratches has to be one of the most boring ever. The first day of this game is painfully boring. It's like torture with nothing happening. It's just searching through rooms in a dull house, examining everything again and again, opening every drawer in the house, placing a few phone calls, mailing a letter...etc. I had to force myself to stay interested and keep going. It's hard to stay awake playing this game. Yes, it picks up a little on the second day but the first day is so excruciatingly dull that by the time the second day finally rolled around I was not into it anymore. The first day is really that bad. It ruins the game for me.

You also have to do certain things to trigger the game so you can continue.. like searching every inch of the house looking for candles before you are allowed to make a phone call to progress. Also, each of the many doors that you open has a cutscene and sometimes these cutscenes will get stuck. I had the game freeze up during some of these and I had to control alt delete and restart the game. You will also be opening the same doors over and over and over again. This gets old after a while.

I just got through playing one of the best adventure games ever, "Darkness Within, In Pursuit of Loath Nolder". Scratches seriously pales in comparison.

You'll die of boredom, not of fright

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 16
Date: July 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have enjoyed playing adventure games, like those by Dreamcather. But the mystery in this game is when does something happen? I wandered the house for over an HOUR and nothing happened!

My first clue should have been that it took an incredibly long time to install (it's a single CD). It sat there and (loaded into memory?) for several minutes that I thought it had hung up--there was no progress bar or indication that it was doing something prior to installing. And if they were re-vamping the game to give it an alternate ending, why didn't they fix such an obvious error as having the 'hotspot' for the doorknob on the wrong side of the front door!? They also talk about updated music, but it's not like it plays, except sporadically, so it's not setting any sort of mood. There was very little voice acting except at the beginning and during a phone call.

I realize this is a point-and-click adventure, not an FPS, but I expected something at least mildly interesting or spooky to happen. Something to forward the story--a clue--anything! But it was a lot of clicking to wander the place, open drawers, examine contents. I think I found one item to collect and another one (a lantern) I couldn't use because I hadn't found any oil.

When you're playing an adventure, all you have is the plot to keep you engaged. This game apparently has none and I don't see myself going back to waste more time on this. What's really scary is that they've actually added additional content--who wants more bad content?

I loved the adrenaline rush

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This was a great game though if you're not big on being scared then this probubly isn't the game for you. Another thing about it is the ending is a little confusing and you don't completly understand what happened. You also don't get an answer like you do to murder mysteries (there's always a killer), but here there's no resolve, but maybe you disagree. I loved the game and you should find out your self weather or not you like it. Me, I loved the adrenaline rush.

Be Aware of the Game Requirements

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Be aware of the technical requirements for Scratches Director's Cut. The game requires a graphics card that supports Open GL. Not all graphics cards do. In fact, I know of very few that do. Without an appropriate video card, the game is virtually unplayable. I did not find the tech specs here on Amazon, so I only saw them once the box arrived. Nucleosys has posted several workarounds on their site. They may word for you, they didn't for me.

The Open GL requirement only exists, as far as I know, for the Director's Cut version of the game. The original should play well on almost any card. But you won't get the bonus material.

Loved It!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. If you just wander through the house, nothing is going to happen. Look at everything! The only problem I had, was a little lag when going through doors. I even got a little spooked. Fortunately, I don't have a basement. The Last Visit was too short, but pretty cool as well.

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