Draugen: Style over Substance
Style over substance. That's my impression after finishing the game. Draugen has everything to be a great walking simulator - stunning graphics, excellent voice acting, solid writing quality, and a mysterious setting of a secluded Norwegian coastal village - BUT, there's one gigantic problem: the story is just not good. I'm sorry but it's not. It started very promising, but ended in such an unsatisfying way. A lot of suspensions are created in early game, but almost none of them is answered in the end. Imagine reading a detective novel, and you finally have all the clues at hand, and right before that exciting moment of revelation, the book just ends there. That's how it feels. All the mysteries in Graavik are just sort of brushed away, unsolved. Well, I guess you can say that's one of the messages the game is trying to convey, that some mysteries we came across in our life will just remain unknown forever. That's fair I guess. But still, I don't see how the two story lines - one about your sister, one about Graavik - can be connected in an organic way.
I still want to recommend it though, because I do like the style, and some moments of the story are done really well. My favourite part is the bits in the church and graveyard, so intense and emotional. But, as I said, the end game is such a bummer. Btw, this game is also 20 bucks and lasts 3 hours long. I don't know... get it in sales perhaps?
