Lifestream - A Haunting Text Adventure

Very nice and cozy game, highly polished and featuring nice plot and decent, albeit simple, puzzles. Great "easy listening" fun.

This one is a mix of an older Infocom game with point and click inventory management. I quite like it.

It's amazing how well the text adventure controls work. And there's an excellent balance between the puzzles and it's intriguing story. Everything works together really well, it's a wonderful game

Highly recommended for text based adventure fans.

This is a very polished product. The most important aspect is the writing and this does not disappoint. If you have any interest in paranormal stories, then this is a treat. The graphical style appears a bit dated, but they add a nice touch. The interface is also well done and glues everything together. Also, for the price, length and level of involvement (puzzles and choices), I can only really say good things about this offering.

Like a well done paperback mystery novel. Very comfortable.

This reminded me of some old text adventures I used to play on the Vic-20 (Voodoo Castle comes to mind!) Very enjoyable!

Lifestream, Shady Brook and The Filmmaker are the first three episodes (in this order) of a planned long series, whose fourth episode is Stonewall Penitentiary and the upcoming fifth one is Summit of the Wolf. These episodes are (seemingly) very loosely connected, so each of them can be played on their own, but it is easy to see the connections and the slowly emerging overarching themes.

The first three episodes have a certain kind of choose-your-adventure-style interface, but the author still manages to integrate meaningful puzzles, which are mostly inventory-based. The main draw of these games however are the stories. All the stories are very different and their mood ranges from dark to extremely dark. :) But for lovers of good stories they are very much recommended.

UPDATE: The developer fixed my save file and I was able to finish the game.
The story is good, the ending a bit of a surprise.
Probably not something I would play again, as I felt too constricted, and I prefer more freedom.
I am changing my recommendation to yes, though, as it is still a good game.



Only made it to the start of chapter 2, where I encountered what appears to be a game breaking bug, but here is what I think so far.

It's not what I expected, and I don't like the changing of which character I am, or the very linear gameplay.
The story seems fine so far, accept for all the "surprise" at how someone who's been missing for 2 weeks hasn't been keeping up with their gardening, yard work, etc.

The music was nice, til it changed to a more suspenseful tone, then I turned it off.


If the problem gets fixed I'll update.

This is the second text-adventure I played on Steam (the other one from a different developer), but the plot in this one completely sucked me in.

The game tells a supernatural story about a son investigating his father's disappearance, with each chapter switching between son and father, present and past perspectives. The story starts slow, but the mystery and suspense gradually build up, culminating in a completely unexpected ending.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading and likes adventure/detective games.

Now I am going to check out the other text-adventures of this developer, hoping they will be as good as this one.

A Well made Text-Adventure redone from scratch by Unimatrix Productions using the story of their original first-person Graphic Adventure of the same title released in 2004 (Storywise it make sense as what one of the protagonists say at the end about the dates kinda don't add up to the year of the steam release, but in a way I think add instead a unique charm to the game and made me appreciate more the effort spent by the creators in trying to keep their stories alive and after the release of Stonewall Penitentiary I really hope to see more to come from this little company. As In my opinion they get so much hidden potential to show) with a new Engine (Storycentric Worlds) that charm your way in to a good story, it make less of a game and more of a grasping supernatural mystery novel but the kind you would want in your library (the visual is limited in static images and even if I find them pretty helpful to feel the story (especially the characters portraits) and wouldn't change a thing for today standard (spoiled brats) they could be considered "bland".

The text is what as I already mentioned the best part of the game. You want to spent 8+ hours reading? if you're not inclined to do so try this game and would rethink it. Puzzles are easy to figure it out but fun (mostly are memory based as you get all the notes and just had to put them together) Only the one about cooking the herbs got me stucked for a moment but reassured myself after seeing there is an archievement for that .

About this Engine I expecially liked the automapping as there is a little backtracking to do in your movements and with the map and compass given to you is thankfully extremely hard to get lost and after some hours you end up to feel pretty much "at home" in each scenario. instead of a parser is used a click button with multiple choices to select given to you (even if there is a lot of red herring choices and rarily make a difference as the story got his own flow and I'm sure any reader could easily tell they are lured by the nose but don't get me wrong the choices given to the player do their best to make you feel the characters roles (One of them a priest) and allow to define their motivation as Ethical discussion on the kind of protagonist you play is debatable by the end. (But Human). so not "Choices" but "Discovery" is the key word i would choose to describe this game.

Other things this Game successfully deliver are:

- A Good soundtrack as it is really charming and pleasant to hear or creepy and disturbing at the right points of the story.
- Good Protagonists Characters: : John (Loved), Randolph (It's a love it /hate it with This guy by the end let me question
my religion)
- Good Side Characters: Old Lady (Anne), The Couple (Lucy and her husband),
- Good Villain: ??? (no spoiler but a HINT: Creepy dude)
- Inventory (refreshing to see just in words and not as bunch of icons, and for me it works more easily in combining things
just like popular graphic adventures)
- Classic Point System. I love to see it again as it allow to keep track how much you completed the game.

Few points of suggestions that consist the bad points of the game in my opinion are: The Journal it could end up pretty messy by the end and as you have to read it more than once in at least 2 cases a way to order his entries by not just order but also for argument would be sweet to see in next games.
Wish you could add few rpg element (I mean stats like health bar and such) in there even if the story don't need it (.

With a semi cheesy story that never winks and nods about it, it manages to charm you even with its semi ugly 3D stills. Combine that with a solid interface and an actual ending with no sequel hook nonsense like a lot of recent indie titles, I can recommend this.

A nice interactive novel which goes back to standard text based adventure games of ye olde days. A pretty nice game, finished it in about 3,5 hours. The story is - although not fantastic - pretty entertaining, the puzzles (apart from one in my case - you'll know which one) do not require grinding to solve.

The one thing that stands out in the"con" section is that the inventory - divided into pages - seems clunky at times. Apart from that it's a game worth getting especially if it's on sale.

Recommended for the ones who : like point- and- click adventure genre, are curious about the story and into reading text.

I suck at completing games, it happens very rarely. I suck even worse at writing reviews (I write them even more rarely). However, this game's story was captivating enough to keep me interested enough to complete it in two days AND to write a review. The review may suck, but the game didn't.

GUI-driven text adventure starts slow but good value for the money

It starts a little slow - kind of seems like a text Catholic Priest simulator at first - but then the story opens up and you're swept along with the intrigue. I didn't realize how much I've missed text adventures like this. I really hope this developer releases many more similar text adventures - hopefully some in the light fantasy vein of the original Infocom classics - like ZORK and the ENCHANTER series. It has a definite Gabriel Knight feel to it - which isn't bad - but I can definitely see this format is ripe for many different genres of storytelling; i.e. murder mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, time travel and so forth. I used to write dozens of games like this myself when I was a teenager in the 1980's and playing Lifestream really made me nostalgic for those days of thinking up unique locations and devising interesting puzzles. I like it and want many more.

I am surprised that there are so few reviews for this VG text hybrid adventure game (mostly visual novel). For achievement hunters it’s a really good game to get 100% on and in one playthrough!

I am used to other type of VNs on steam which requires tons of playthroughs to get every weird combination for achievements, thankfully not here. If you look at the achievements first they are very easy to figure out in game, for a couple you do have to find in game clues first before triggering said activity to be able to get them.

I haven’t played the original lifestream, but this ended up being really engaging with not only the story but with traditional aspects of point n click adventure gaming re using items in inventory and reading journal/items you pick up for clues. Also in remembering when you are moving to different places what is at each place, so you can go back to it later (there is a map which helps but it’s not a transporter map.)

There are two different modes of play – easy and normal. So you can have the option of help -objectives, hints and even a tutorial or none at all which should please everyone. There is even a w/t which the devs have posted in forum if you get stuck at any part.

It does take a while to get used to how everything works and while most things you get the hang of things quickly, using inventory items is a bit awkward. Sometimes I didn’t think I could use an item only to realise I wasn’t at the exact text page it wanted me to be at.

If you only like straight text games and hate adventure games then I would suggest you try the demo for this which I saw at the publisher’s website as it may just surprise you!

Now I am used to the interface, I much prefer this style of game compared to straight VNs and being an adventure player I enjoy the journal/inventory side and trying to get max points like old school type adventure games. Thankfully you don’t have to get max points for achievement purposes!

I think I picked this game up in a bundle but at such a low price I’d have been very happy paying full price, with trading cards, achievements, good engaging story, decent length, I am happy to recommend this game.

Can’t wait for Shady brook to be greenlighted as I’ll be buying that.

Ah, the classic text adventure. At first, I wasn't sure what to make of this, but at under $3 I decided to take the plunge. Having played the original point-n-click LifeStream - which I loved - from over 10 years ago by the same developer, I kind of felt that the developer was taking a step backwards releasing it as a text adventure.

Within a few minutes of playing, however, my concerns vanished. The interface is solid and no worries about trying to type in the correct actions because you don't have to worry about that since you click on the options you want to do. From a purist standpoint, I think it lacks some of the creativity that came with playing a classic text adventure because you only have the choices that are laid out before you. You can't try something weird to see if the parser comes back with a witty response, for example.

That can be a blessing or a curse, but the benefit is that the game does move forward at a pretty good pace. No need to worry about being stuck at a spot for hours or days.

The story will suck you in and keep you going. Overall I have to give it a thumbs up and recommendation. It's a steal at $3, the graphics look good, the interface is smooth, great sound. Defintely a relaxing, yet intriguing experience. The only con I have with it - assuming I didn't miss some hotkey, is that I wish you could quick jump around the map.

I wasn't completely sure what to expect when I picked up this game, having never really played a text adventure of any kind before. But, now that I've completed it, I can safely say that pciking it up was a very smart move.

If you're not used to this type of game then it might take you a few moments to get used to the controls and especially the navigation, but after 10 minutes or so, you'll be whizzing around the place without any issue at all. It's very intuitive and very simple, and there is a map screen if you suddenly find yourself a little lost.

Graphically, the game is beautiful. The interface, the icons, the in-game images, all look very nice and professional.

In terms of sound, the game presents a perfect mix of peaceful, melancholic and dramatic background music, all inserted at just the right moments, as well as enough sound effects to make sure you're always satisfied that things are being selected correctly, and that things are generally getting done the way they should be.

Storywise, the game is excellent. It's a mystery at heart, incorporating themes of loss, desire, heartache, faith, religion, and the never ending search for peace and happiness. I was gripped right up until the very end, and this being a text adventure, where story is paramount, I'd say that is a very big plus.

The only negative thing to say about this game, for me personally, is when it comes to the overall game design. I had to consult a walkthrough on 3 occassions, simply because I just would never have thought to do a certain thing, and on another occasion just because I forgot that I could access a certain area because I hadn't been there since the very start. This is a trivial complaint though, and something that practically all adventure games suffer from, so I don't hold it against the game at all.

So, if you like a good mystery, and a good character driven yarn, all wrapped in a great looking, and sounding, package, I definitely, without a doubt, recommend you pickup LIfestream. It took me just over 5 hours to complete, and so for the price, I'd say it's a real bargain. :)

Wow. What can i say. I didn`t expect that much from the game, but it totally flashed me.
This game is a text adventure where you have to solve puzzles in order to continue. The interface is great and i also enjoy the music in the background. The tutorial is short and there are no enerving long explanations. It`s all pretty simple. But i definitely like the mechanichs.
Well, i haven`t played long now, but i`m already excited to continue.