Разработчик: Hybriona Technologies LLP
Описание
Just Updated
About the Game
DISCLAIMER
* This Game is not suited for all Gamers. Extensive use of Google search (Google-fu) and other forms of Internet research are required. Google-fu is an integral part of the gameplay!* The Game does not yet accommodate Color-blindness. Also, it may present some difficulties for those who are hearing-impaired.
Note
* PART II is completed and released. The Game is officially complete.Do you want to feel like REAL Explorer and Mystery Solver?
EXPERIENCE this Story-Driven Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that blends Your Real Life with Science Fiction as it explores the Dark Limits of Conspiracy, Alternate History, The Supernatural and Fringe Science.To solve the devilishly difficult mysteries of The Temporal Invasion, you must use every available resource to solve the challenges set before you. Though the game provides you with many in-game sandbox exploration tools, including a sandbox Computer loaded with the latest in Custom Investigative Software and a suite of potent Investigative Gadgets, you must also use every Real Life mystery-solving tool at your disposal: The Internet, The Library, Professors, Friends, and maybe even your Grandma and Grandpa!
We are constantly working hard to improve your experience.
Thank you for all the amazing feedback!
STORY
A young man has spent his life suffering from a mysterious memory problem wherein his recollections of the past are not consistent with reality. Throughout his existence, he has suffered the ridicule of his teachers and classmates because of his strange problem.His path takes a turn when he is contacted by an enigmatic figure who maintains that the young man is, in fact, possessed of a secret and incredible destiny.
The figure, who calls himself Dr. Quantum, says that his memory problem is not a problem at all, but rather is an immunity... a special power pertaining to the very fabric of time itself. He enlists the young man to take part in a great adventure against a deadly adversary, and to use his powers and intellect to solve some of the most dangerous conspiracies, puzzles and mysteries in our history. Mysteries that will, when solved, unlock some of the most fundamental and fascinating Truths of the Universe itself!
GAMEPLAY
The game is a streamlined, modern take on the Alternate Reality Game (ARG) genre. Each puzzle is presented as a titillating combination of text, images, sound, video, CCTV footage and 3D objects. The puzzles lead you on through the storyline, integrating and building upon the mysteries you've already uncovered, and revealing deeper and more complex enigmas that will amaze, thrill, and even scare you. Be warned: the solutions to the puzzles are not easy to discover, and may be hidden in history, obscured by cryptograms, embedded within steganographic images, concealed within riddles, shrouded in history, or guarded by any number of other dark concealments.The game intends to connect you with reality, so you are encouraged to use any real-world resources available to you: Internet, Books, Library, Encyclopedias, ANYTHING! Well, except Spoilers, for obvious reasons :P
You are only limited by your imagination.
Think laterally, think outside the box, home in on information like a librarian with a neural net co-processor... do whatever you must to Move Forward and Solve the Mysteries!
Come, Take a Stand! Find the Truth. Reveal the Secrets of the Universe and Repel The Temporal Invasion!
Поддерживаемые языки: english
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP SP2 and Later
- Processor: Dual Core 1.75 GHz and Later
- Memory: 2048 MB RAM
- Graphics: Video Card with 512 MB or VRAM
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Sound Card: Stereo Sound Required
- Additional Notes: One Tool (and so some chapters) needs Internet access
Mac
- OS: Mac OS X 10.8 and Later
- Memory: 2048 MB RAM
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Sound Card: Stereo Sound Required
- Additional Notes: One Tool (and so some chapters) needs Internet access
Linux
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04+
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Sound Card: Stereo Sound Required
- Additional Notes: One Tool (and so some chapters) needs Internet access
Отзывы пользователей
I enjoyed the first two puzzles but then it didn't seem to increase in difficulty and became repetitive very fast. I might have stuck around if I enjoyed the writing or story but found it personally very lacking in both areas.
I suppose maybe this could be for a lower age group though because the conspiracy story paired very beginner level arg puzzles feels odd.
The Temporal invasion is an extremely extensive ARG, in the form of an internet scavenger hunt.
When new, I would have recommended this game. However, after almost 8 years, it's becoming very difficult. Many custom webpages that were set up for it are no longer easy to find, and some news stories have been forced far enough down it's gotten much tougher. Also, I had a huge problem with the video sections being too grainy for me to be able to properly interpret them.
In a game that requires exact answers to be submitted and a capital letter where it doesn't belong will result in a negative result, supplying answers with incorrect capitalization so that when we write it down EXACTLY and give it back to the game in order to progress only to have the game tell us we're wrong feels REAL bad.
I was quite into that game until Part 2. Sure, the scenario and the writing come straight out from the worst Z movies, but I started appreciating them. There's an honesty and a self-awareness in these tin-foiled-hat-level conspiracy theories, you can't help yourself but to love them.
The puzzles quickly started getting repetitive, and felt more like busy work than meaningful riddles. But still, some were quite inventive, and there was often that "HAHA, GOTCHA" moment, and that's enough to keep me engaged.
Honestly, if the game we had was just the first third of what we actually got, my review would have been positive. But the quality and inventivity of the puzzles and the story quickly dropped, and there are way too many bad design occurences in this game: for example, I spent one hour on a puzzle of the second part... only to realize that puzzles of the second part are "just" clues, and the answer you need to enter is entirely somethings else: at no point this change in the way the game works is made clear, and I had to look at the forums to be aware of what should have been clear in-game.
I'm really sad to leave a negative review for this game, but there are just too many infuriating things that prevent me to recommand playing past the first three chapters. I hope the dev's next game will fix these issues. :(
I really liked TTI when I first started playing, the two hours I spent on the intro and first chapter were amazing. But, then I got into the rest of the game. Turns out there's a reason so few owners have completed the achievements on this one, let alone even done 25% of them.
Temporal Invasion opens with another take on the JFK Assassination, and sees you make use of several in-game tools and real-world searching to find clues. It's mostly doable with a bit of thinking, and leaves you pretty satisfied. It also puts you right near or maybe a bit over that two hour refund mark, funny that. The rest of the game delves into weird topics and entirely overdone tropes such as Slender Man, and the formerly easy or challenging puzzles instead oscillate between stupidly obvious and so hard you'll need a guide to complete them. Add to the above that this is an older Alternate Reality Game, so some of the web sites needed no longer exist or have moved. Things can get interesting lol. The Temporal Invasion was originally released half-finished, the second half of the game has an entirely different play style from the first and feels rushed. Some puzzle solutions are recycled from the first half, and many of the rest are so "out there" you'll only find the answers in a handful of hugely long topics on the game hub.
I would only suggest buying this if you want a fairly quick 100% added to your finished games count, as making use of the guides one could easily complete this in about an hour. If you're looking for a fun game, forget it. This had the bones of a really neat experience, but lost itself along the way.
The Temporal Invasion is a pretty decent arg. Puzzles hold sufficient challenge (you get cryptograms, morse codes, even looking at gmaps among others) and the story is pretty interesting as it does get real history involved. Beware for you could easily get stuck in wiki-land. Alas the game UI could be better, however if you can handle some annoyingly extra clicking, you really can't go wrong for this price.
Be aware. This game is only half-finished and was sold without any notice on that point. And it's not in early access either ! I don't get this policy. I feel mislead since I've just experienced a great deception : at some point (half-way) the game tells you "yeah you're on the right path but be patient, we'll come back.. blabla".. and from what I've just read it's been like that for ages (well, several months at least). A plague for achievements hunters..
The background storyline feels unrealistic and is fuelled by conspiracy theories to a certain extent. I don't know if it's some propaganda or if the writers are just making fun of these craps :?
Besides, each riddle of the game is a real challenge and is quite fun to solve. You really have to look everywhere. It sometimes feels a bit repetitive and sometimes too tedious (exact spelling is really important whereas the game's grammar isn't always correct). It lacks some tools to be really enjoyable (like an intern search engine for example and a more reactive and interactive intern mailing software).
Above all it lacks its second half !!
I'd say the whole underlying idea is very good but the production could be better. For the time being I can't say I recommand this, unless on sales. The innovative gaming concept was very promising, and still is, but some progress must be done.
I'd recommend if you love puzzels, like reseaching, and have a lot of time to kill. The story isn't anything super unique and I personally find it hard to take seriously, but I enjoy the puzzles and research involved. Overall, a good bit of fun and entertainment.
I finished first 2 of 10 chapters but I won't be coming back. This game should be right in my alley but I did not like it for several reasons.
First problem was the clunky UI. It is competently made and looks good but there are several things that make the experience lacking. For instance you receive notifications for messages you've already read making you go back and forth between the screens. As the transition is not instant you are clicking around a lot for no reason. Adding sliders in image app for zoom instead of buttons would help. What I am missing the most is 'reply' button since the mailing app does not remember your email contacts. 'Copy to clipboard' button would not hurt either, especially since for some of the UV solutions you need to flip the image or copy a link.
Biggest issue I had with puzzles where you have to respond with a string is the pattern matching. Without spoiling the concrete puzzles: for instance Louie and Louis are considered different even though it is supposed to be a test challenge and could as well be accepted. I assumed since that puzzle that the verification is pedantic but that was wrong. Case in point being that in other puzzle I tried several entries and variations on a middle name (initial, initial with dot, full middle name) but it turned out the correct answer was a name without the middle one. In some puzzles abbreviation is accepted but not the full writeout or the name of the place/location (school). Similarily name of a place was not enough in other puzzle, location and country was wrong as well, in the end the correct answer was name of a place and 'dessert' behind it.
This issue is magnified by the fact that the verification of your input is not instant and you don't know if what you sent was correct so you just try a bunch of versions every time you send something. Match verification makes sense when you enter codes or passwords but all locations and names should have fuzzy match instead.
Some of the UV light puzzles don't make sense - for instance when the UV is usable on the photo that was supposedly taken by the quest giver. I can live with that. In some of the puzzles it's not a problem to find a solution but rather figure out where to send it. New email contacts could just automatically be added to your email client - it feels like unnecessary busywork to type stuff out all the time.
In a puzzle where password hint is in catalan (?) the answer is not the words in English which would make sense within the game. Not even in Catalan which would make sense in context of the puzzle. Not even in cyrrilics which would make sense in context of the answer. The answer is English transcription of Russian words. Odd. By that point I knew I just have to try all versions because I can't infer the solution from the game.
In a puzzle where I was supposed to look on a website of an island that does not exist I went off to look around the site not knowing I have a new message in the game client. The problem is that if you want to run the game on one screen and search on the other you have to play with a borderless window but you don't have the option to have the game client take your whole screen so the game was minimized while I was trying to call a number on said website.
Somehow all contact exist on the same domain even though naratively it does not make sense. The narrative was overall strange and could use some update. I would love to go on wiki binge across various subjects but the game did not feel like any of the tasks were thematically matching.
Overall - good puzzle game should let you have the 'a-ha' moments. After you figure a solution you should be able to finish a puzzle in a straightforward way. With TTI I had to try bunch of different variation of each solution and that takes the moment from you. Naratively it makes sense that the email is delayed but when the IM is introduced it should be possible to send solutions through it where possible and get an instant reply.
I suspect this was not playtested on an audience because these things would come up pretty fast.
The price of 5EUR is fair if you manage to stick with the game but I had more fun with The Black Watchmen.
THIS GAME IS NOT FINISHED
The game was marketed as finished game. The store page said nothing about being only half a game - at least not when I bought it in July 2016. Halfway through I hit a wall that just said something to the effect of "to be continued".
It is no episodic game. It is not on Early Access. The game is just unfinished. The developer promised to finish the game by August. It is now December and still no part 2 in sight.
As for what it is: It is a decent puzzle game, where many solutions have to be googled. Try the MIT Mystery Hunt puzzle archives for puzzles in a similar style, but far more refined and complex.
Very enjoyable ARG.
Too bad that it ends quite abruptly at the moment. Still waiting for the second half of the game. It is worth every cent.
Puzzles range from quite easy to rather challenging.
Best played if you have a smartphone and pen and paper at hand.
Had trouble putting it down while playing due to the fact that I had so much fun solving the puzzles.
Great game! This game challenges you to use every resource you have from translators to QR scanners to image recognition. If you're not up for a challenge don't buy this game because that's what you get! It took both my mum ond me 13 hours to complete the first half of the game and we can't wait for the second!
Fun and varied puzzles, interesting concepts and a good way to test your google-fu.
However, the grammar is a bit off (that's being worked on), there are a few red herrings (which are because of the grammar) and the second half of the game is still being translated.
Definitely worth the low price, though!
Overview
Do you remember Majestic? It was game from 2001 by EA, back when EA was still a decent publisher that didn’t pump out repetitive trash. It was basically an augmented reality game. It lasted maybe a year, as it was commercially a failure. But it utilized the real world to solve problems. You could work with other players. There were phone numbers you could call, and you could receive phone calls with clues. There were videos to watch, and full websites made specifically for the game. It wound up being pretty fun, and I had a blast with it.
The Temporal Invasion reminds me of Majestic. It’s far less interactive, in that you search for already existing information, and it utilizes a sandbox email and internet system (so no actual access is required), but it has all the makings of a pretty fun, albeit exceptionally hard, game.
I’ve never had to use my brain as much as I did this one, nor have I had to confer and talk with people and work together as much as I have on this (not including obvious multiplayer games).
The game starts you off easy enough, with a couple of very easy riddles that everyone will get, even if one of the events took place half a decade ago. But the difficulty ramps up quickly, requiring you to change the coloring of an image to find hidden symbols, which might be from a cipher last used in the Roman era, to then convert to English which will reveal the coordinates of a location, having you use Google Maps (or some other subpar mapping service) to find the location, to then finally provide the answer to Dr. Quantum, who is your main contact throughout the game.
Puzzles, as partially explained above, will consist of: using a UV light, manipulating pictures, scrubbing audio, watching videos, translating ciphers (both real and fictional), figuring out non-typical alphabet systems, Wiki’ing, and more. Unless you’re a genius with an intimate knowledge of history, geography, cryptography, and television shows, you will be frustrated, but that frustration will pay off.
Pros
- Fun puzzle game
- Easy puzzles still seem like you’ve overcome something, while hard puzzles will seem very rewarding
- A story that makes no sense, but in a good way, and encompasses many aspects (science, time travel, alternate history and more)
- A fair amount of content for the price
- For those who are into them: trading cards and easy achievements
Cons
- Filled with many grammatical errors, which has actually prevented the game from telling you you’re correct, as it expects an answer that’s misspelled (the dev has acknowledged this and that the game will be updated)
- Some puzzles are just exceptionally difficult, with one relying on a cipher that has been unsolved for over a century, and some that are very, very obscure
[*]Story begins to unravel near the end of part one, and the last quarter of the game seems to be hard riddles just for the sake of being hard riddles
Summary
The Temporal Invasion is a unique game. It gives you clues you need to find in the real world, to present to the game in hopes of figuring out just what is going on. The difficulty ramps up to the extreme not too far into it, and requires you to be either very knowledgeable in every subject the game touches on, or has you talking with people to figure out the clues.
Even if not on sale, there is a decent amount of content for the price, part two is actively being worked on (as of this review), and the developer has said corrections are coming to the grammar to make it both easier to understand the clues, and less trial and error for accurate answers (also being worked on as of this review).
It’s well worth your time. It is also a very small game, and one that should have no issue sitting on your drive should you take a break from it and revisit it a few days later, a week, or a month down the line.
(I have not actually edited this review, but am simply updating it for the Steam Game Awards badge requirement)
The Temporal Ivasion is not a game for everyone. When playing the game I had flashbacks to solving riddles on Not Pron. However, while enjoyable for a bit, Temporal Invasion's cracks begin to show. Constant grammatical errors and story mcguffins make it hard to play. The presentation of the game is kind of clunky at times. I often wondered why Dr. Quantum, couldn't use q-chat to send me clues.
I wish I could recommend this game. I love the idea, It just needed more polish, both in narritive and UI.
Definitely the best puzzle-solving game I ever played. I really loved the plot and the difficulty of the challanges, but some dialogues and texts were not grammatically, conducting to a "very good but not excellent" gameplay.
Time to 100%: 29h
Graphics: 8/10
Soundtrack: 10/10
Cutscenes: 10/10
Controls: 10/10
Plot: 10/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Achievements: 10/10
Price-game relation: 10/10
Rating: 9.5/10
I really want to be a detective and every time I play this game I feel like I'm Sherlock Holmes! Yes, Sherlock Holmes! Each mystery has a story to be unlocked. Magnifying glass, ultraviolet light and other useful tools for a mystery cracker is there. The best part is that I can visit my mind palace while playing the game. HAHAHA! I strongly recommend this game!
Temporal Invasion certainly is worth getting if you are into sleuth, riddle-solving, and mind-boggling puzzles; as long as you can bear with the overly present grammar errors--which is ironic given that the game is text-driven, you would think that the studio would have allotted more resources to this aspect of the game. While the concept and premise of the game is great, it falls short on delivery. The game provides a nagging vibe of being an upgraded--or simpy ported--flash game with mediocre interactable interface, poor story line delivery, and a confusing plot which just happens to be all over the place.
Pros and Cons:
Intriguing but badly narrated plot riddled with grammatical errors
Challenging puzzles, albeit partly due to the language used
Multi-dimensional riddles (combination of decryption, word analysis, math, and tons of googling and wikis) but bad recognition filter for solutions (e.g. Abraham Lincoln will not be considered for Abe Lincoln)
Low resolution images for clues (some of which were grabbed directly from the internet - hope no rights were infringed there)
But if you got $2 and countless hours to spare, do get this game. (2/5)
REVISED REVIEW:
This game is GREAT for exactly what it is, and totally worth the price. The developers have been very attentive and have refined the game a bit since release, when I first played it. It was already very good, and the minor tweaks have made it even better. This game is VERY tricky, and it is not for the unintelligent, as it is honestly rather large, and it relies on some honed mental skills at times.
It is a complete blast to play with friends, as you can spend a few hours or a day coming up with an answer to some of the harder cases. It's fun, educational, weird, and well thought out. Honestly, I admire the developers for such a mental game that they have created. In a sea of action genres, it is like an oasis. A beautiful, masochistic oasis...
NO SPOILERS: (Original review)
Okay, I was really amped for this game, then I got a bit skeptical with the delays, and I started playing it once it released. At first I thought "Okay, cool concept, but this probably wont be too hard for someone like me." The first few puzzles were a bit of a Tutorial, and implements some things you will be doing like research and photo examination. Not too impressive yet. Then the first real research hit, and I was impressed a little. By the 5th puzzle, I was very intrigued with some of the level of research I could see before me, and as the game progressed. Admittedly, there is probably not much replayability after you are finished, but I guarantee you will have learned quite a few things before it is all over. I am not very far into the game yet, but for the pricepoint, this is a recommend for people that want to figure things out on their own. If you just crib the answers, then this game will be a waste, but if you do the work yourself, it is very unique and enjoyable. Kudos to the developers, if you pump out new chapters on down the road, for a fair price, then I can see this game having some legs to stand on.
This is by far one of the best riddle solving games out there. There's lots of Googling to be done, lots of thinking to undergo and you learn a bunch of interesting things in the process. Best 3 Euros I ever spent on a puzzle game. I'm hoping for sequels!
Worth getting this game if you like:
- Decrypting the codes
- Googling a lot
[*] Staring at the same screen for a while trying to find a key for a puzzle
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Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Hybriona Technologies LLP |
| Платформы | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 24.01.2025 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 68% положительных (65) |