City of Fools

Fucking incredible, seriously. I don't think another game can come even close.

Silly, funny, quite chilled and relaxing but also challenging memory and recalling connections

wow, i don't even know where to start, this game is just breathtaking, the visuals and cinematics are out of this world. the massive open world game-play has me playing this game for hours. boss fights that are fun and engaging with intense lore, would recommend, 10/10

its fun if you have time to waste, the game is hard to navigate, however it my be more fun for children.

cool fools!! :-)
a lot of humor, a lot of fun

Best game i have played since half life 2. I hope i get to hang myself with a rope after completing this masterpiece.

I absolutely adore this game! Love love love the quirky art style. I really wish to find more games like this.

Point&click adventure game with some hidden object and other minigames. Story is ridiculous and basically has no ending (on purpose to open the gates for a sequel probalby) which is frustrating and unsatisfying. Game basically is a giant puzzle of getting tasks and fulfilling them by searching for the items and using them (sometimes combined with other inventory items) with a reward of either money or another item. Lot of walking around and definitely will give you a lot of playing time for your money. I would however suggest to only buy it on sale or as part of a bundle becauese it's not worth spending a lot of money on.

Yes. Yes, it is a city of fools.

The graphics are unusual, the story is thin, and you'll need a piece of paper and a pen. I played for almost seven hours, and I'm still not 100% sure I did everything there was to do. It's a big game. It's not a Hidden Object game, and it's not exactly a horror game, either. Bizarre and twisted? Yes. Horror? No.

Pros:

+ long, if you play the whole thing (see spoiler tag, below).
+ there's a map of the city.
+ you can flag places on the map, and the game guides you there.
+ the 'voices' are kinda fun. think: the adults in 'Peanuts' cartoons.
+ mostly intuitive puzzles.
+ that satisfying feeling ofopening someone else's train locker.
+ the tiny chihuahua.
+ playable in windowed mode.
+ there is a LOT to do.but you don't have to do everything to reach the end game.
+ shopping! dopamine rush!
+ PICK UP EVERYTHING. except that. you don't want -- oops, you picked that up. (see: Meh)
+ achievements.
+ trading cards.

Cons:

- like, three hidden object puzzles? maybe four.
- themaze at the end.there is no logic here.
- the bobby who keeps interrupting you as you wander aimlessly.
- no replayability.
- you're basically a FedEx messenger. (some people might find this a con. just sayin'.)
- so. much. inventory.

Meh:

~ using a pen and paper to keep track of things. (how very old school!)
~ oops, you picked up -- yeah, now you're covered in it.
~the bobby WILL fine you if you wander around town covered in dog poo.
~not being able to shower IN THE SHOWER.
~having no clue how to clean off all that poo.
~you clean off the dog poo by finding running water. you will need this information.

Ephy Rating: 7/10

Summary: If you enjoy HOGs... this isn't it. If you enjoy FedEx quests, this is totally your game. The puzzles are logical, and once you have enough in-game money to buy ALL THE THINGS, then you'll be set. There's a lot of running back and forth, though, so YMMV. (No pun intended.) I got City of Fools on sale, and I enjoyed it.

Basically the game is one giant fetch-quest, very monotonous. The ending is very anti-climactic and not worth the tedium of scouring the map for items.
Try the free trial from http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/7109/city-of-fools/ to see if it's your thing.

13 minutes in and I'm bored enough not to play it ever again!

It looks like a good game but i spent nearly 2 hours trying to move around town with the map with no success. Not for me seeking refund

Fun point and click with quite a few parts that made me laugh!

World Record Speed run by
http://www.twitch.tv/charliewinsmore

I played this game for approximately 5 min and wanted to commit suicide by drinking a gallon of bleach.

This was a really entertaining game. It's a sort of point-and-click "adventure" combined with minigames, but if you're someone that normally plays H.O. style games, it has a very different feel to it.

The plot is very simple: you're a journalist and you want to interview the mayor, but you find he's on his private island when you arrive to the town. The rest of the game is essentially questing around to help the townspeople in order to 1) get authorization to travel to the island and 2) make enough money to buy the plane ticket.

Although the plot isn't that detailed, the gameplay and puzzles were a lot of fun, and much more intuitive than some games (while I like having to think about things, I don't like having to twist my brain into a pretzel to make the logic work). As a good, casual game, it really pays off.

As another benefit, you don't actually have to complete all 122 tasks that are available to do. While some reward items that will help you progress, most of the time it's a monetary reward that gets you closer to your plane ticket. As a result, as soon as you have enough for the ticket, you can dispense with all of the other quests (if you want to) and proceed to the end. This adds some replayability if you chose to bulldoze through the first time and want to go back and see the rest of the game later.

I won't say that it's perfect; I found the navigation perplexing especially at first, but the waypoint system on the map helped a great deal if I knew where I wanted to go and just needed directions. The ending felt a little lacking as well. However, I was entertained enough by the game as a whole that I would still heartily recommend it even with those minor issues.

Pick it up on sale if you're unsure, but I felt that the full price was reasonable.

If Rube Goldberg had been a game designer he would have easily fit in with the developers of Absolutist Ltd. (How to build a better mousetrap, anyone?) This game is a convoluted, hodge podge of absurdly "normal" (yet quite obsessed) characters who for various reasons all want something from somewhere else before the gamer can obtain the one thing they really need. At least the characters pay well, in most cases. Take notes my friends, you will need them, and SAVE YOUR GAME. This game does not automatically save when the gamer quits.

Story: Your newspaper editor has sent you to Tundel to interview the mayor about a possible UFO cover-up. Seems a simple enough assignment until you get to Trundel. You discover the mayor is on his private island. Finding the airport is simple enough and getting to the island seems easy until you learn the "plane" ticket costs $1264. Now you just have to earn the money to get there. This begins the convoluted "adventure" of finding items located somewhere in Tundel.

Gameplay: Defintely point and click with unusual puzzles and odd Hidden Object scenes in an open, do as you please, world. Nothing usual or standard fare in this game in any of those genres. Earning enough money for the plane ticket is the whole point of the game, but there is so much more that can be done. Depending on the gamer's play style or interest about 80% of this game is NOT in the direct storyline. Money is earned through running errands (mostly through running errands, all over town (warning: take good notes)), gambling, a shooting gallery (using a rubber band slingshot through your fingers), opening lockers (I found/guessed 7 combinations), putting together an orchestra, the pot plant and collecting bottles and empty cigarette packs. The gamer does not have to do all of those things if they do not want to, except the running errands to earn cash. There is also one maze (no money) which random clicking will more or less get you through, though there is an actual path but no map.

In each scene there are arrows to indicate possible direction of travel which include up and down. In the apartment buildings there are generally two floors. NOTE: There are two places where there are no arrows to indicate the gamer can go there, one is the construction site (This area is indicated by pink arrows but one can still get in.) and the other is the hospital. Both areas are on the map but getting inside requires a bit of lateral and intuitive thinking. AUTHOR SUGGESTION: Everyone who plays this game should ride the "subway" at least once. It made me laugh but then again my humor runs toward the irreverent and absurd. In some scenes, especially in the apartments, there are side rooms where puzzles, hidden object scenes, and point and click items can be found. Do not forget this is a point and click game so look around and into things, so one does not miss, at times, vital items needed. Look carefully around any inside area and outside in the town areas as well. One hint here: Look for a blue car (not necessary for direct storyline play).

Another hint: Make sure you know where the water sources are. (No spoilers)

The map of Tundel is easy follow and has a flag which can be placed anywhere as a destination. When leaving the map two white arrows appear to indicate the direction the gamer needs to go to reach their flagged destination. Makes traveling around town so much easier since in first person view one can easily get "lost". The map also gives street names and house numbers so when taking notes (which I highly recommend) one can keep track of where one has been, who has what, and where one needs to return to.

Achievements: There are only six and easy to get (depending on play style). Three are achieved through gameplay and the other three require buying all the stock out of the shops (which requires lots of money.) Most of the items in the shops are not required or needed for direct gameplay.

One final note: Again: SAVE YOUR GAME. This game does not automatically save your game when you quit. So save your game before leaving or hours of work and playtime may be lost.

Okay if you are bored and have nothing else to do but it is nothing more than just a big circle jerk. Apt title for all of us who purchased it.

I enjoyed this one

Fun inventory puzzle point & click "adventure" game

The map of this game shows over 50 houses, and each one has one, sometimes two quest givers. They're all fairly weird people with strange requests: some of these involve going into the next room and fetching some stuff (the hidden object part), but most require you to fetch something from somewhere else in the city. If you've seen the item at the pharmacy or at the store, it's easy; but if you don't, well, you'll be sure to run across it later. If you do, and realize "this is what the guy from earlier wanted", that's usually followed by the realization that you have no clue where you found him. Well, you'll be sure to run across him (or her) again later...

So, yeah, it says "hidden objects", but that's not the main thing you're doing: you'll be running all over town doing these quests (there are 122). There's a journal that helps you keep track of all of the tasks, and the map, and on it there's a pin you can use to mark a place of interest - maybe I should've used it. Or maybe I shouldn't have chosen the hardest difficulty (who needs hints). Oh well. In fact, you can switch the difficulty back to "casual" at any time, and then you can use the button that adds hints to your journal. There is a main plot/goal, but it hardly matters. (That's why I put "adventure" in quotes above.)

There's one slight annoyance: the locations are static, i.e. the player clicks on a arrow and moves to the next position, and each position only has a single camera angle, which means that half the game you're going backwards: you'll need to have a good memory and sense of orientation or use your map a lot. Also, some of the translations are slightly off: a wrench might be called a key (but still look like a wrench, so that's ok). I didn't have any real problems with either, and at the end, I was zipping around the town like a pro.

The graphics may not look like much (it runs at 1024x768 windowed and 1366x768 fullscreen with black sidebars), but the game has various kinds of subtle and not so subtle humor that appeal to me, and that extends to the impeccable sound effects. (Please realize that one of the first tasks is helping someone in the train station toilet with their diarrhea - and they didn't just do the trains perfectly). You just have to release your inner child a bit to enjoy this game - don't be serious! Also, I'm a sucker for open world games, and I've never seen one made like this.

It's 50% off this week, and I can safely say I already got my money's worth.

P.S.: There are mobile versions of this game, but while they start out free, you have to purchase the full game, and there's additional monetization to get in-game cash; the Steam version has no monetization, and none is needed. There are no drag gestures, the game simply feels like a point&click.