Scratches - PC

It's the ending that is disappointing. I had lots of fun and chills all the way through until I got to the end. Then, I was left hanging. Many, many unanswered questions. The ending made no real sense. Granted it's only a video game, I'd like a little bit of sense in the end. It's like watching a really low-budget horror movie whose only motive is sensationalism and viewer terror. You walk through this game asking a lot of questions, and making logical assumptions about what the climax will probably be. Then, TA-TA!!!!--screams and horror with no intellectual value. If you like horror films that are simply scary with nothing else to offer, this is the game for you! Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb--TA-TA!!!!

Since Amazon has an incredibly bad habit of lumping all reviews for many like items together, I want to make this first point loud and clear--this review is NOT about Scratches Director's Cut. It's about the original game. I haven't played the Director's Cut of this game, which, from my understanding has longer gameplay and an alternate ending. Playability of the original game and disc: So, here I am in 2021 playing the original version of Scratches. I first played this game when it was first released back in 2006. It doesn't matter that I bought a used copy this time around. Then game actually plays on my Windows 10. I've had older PC games in the past that wouldn't play on previous versions of Windows, but there's no problem here. About the game: This is an excellent point-and-click horror adventure, for those who don't know what this game's about. You are a writer who has inherited an old mansion steeped in mystery. As you move through the house, you discover things about its previous occupants and their past. And you constantly hear scratches somewhere in the house. For Lovecraft fans, there are several references about him and some of his work. The game has a dark, brooding atmosphere and a haunting score. Investigation--slow and patient investigation--is the key here. When I first popped the disc in, I moved quickly through the house and the surrounding property, hoping that I'd just find what was necessary, missing quite a few things. Then I remembered that you have to be a sleuth. That is how one will get the most out of the game, by keeping in mind that this is point-and-click and that you can't just blast your way through things like you can in a survival horror game. Scratches can be challenging. And it doesn't have a "hint" option like many current point-and-click games have nowadays--such as the ones you can purchase on the Nintendo Switch. Puzzles appear in the form of discovering clues or inventory items for something like a locked door and trying to figure out how to open it if a key doesn't work, or trying to find a specific key but not knowing where to look. Or trying to activate the fuse box instead of solving an actual puzzle. Looking around is done in a 360 rotation or in slideshow mode (whichever you prefer) and the whole game is beautifully rendered. Much of the environment is interactive, meaning you actually open drawers and cabinets, pick up papers or books, and other things. Like what would happen if you were in a real house. Whether you find something useful or not depends on where you find them or how you use the information. Please note that I have a Windows 10 PC and that the game plays just fine. It has not crashed, nor did the game even freeze up. I installed it in a way that I have to put the disc in every time I want to play. I believe you don't have to install it that way. But this was my preferred way, which might seem backwards to many of you, but I don't like having a lot of my hard drive space taken up by "things". Back in 2006, the game received a pretty good reception. I loved the game back then, and I'm enjoying it now.

Without doubt the worst, most tedious, uneventful game of it's genre ever.

Firstly, let me emphasize I am a rabid adventure fan- and I'm totally in it for the puzzles. Also, this may be deemed spoilery- I'ma try to keep it not-so, but everyone's definition of spoilery is different, so.. The story is interesting at its core. The pacing though.. oof. I confess to being painfully bored most of the time, and taking forever to finish this thing, because I just can't muster the effort to care. The level of pointless clicking and calling does a great deal to make the game tedious. And this is the real problem. I keep seeing praise for the puzzles, and yet, I cannot for the life of me imagine why. Some are decent.. but the majority are utterly idiotic. Not to spoil which puzzle specifically- but at one point you have to click a few things. A few very specific things. There's nothing at all to find there; you just have to click there. And then you call your pal Jerry. There's no reason you should realize you've ticked the games internal tickybox for progress, mind you. You just have to blunder around until you clumsily do what you're supposed to, and do nothing else in the meantime (nonlinear this game is NOT). There's no.. elegance to the approach, I suppose, is my main gripe here. No opportunity to use one's massive brains to streamline the tedium. Others just utterly lack any hint whatsoever- as another viewer cited: too much realism, not enough fun. The first Sunday puzzle is incredibly obnoxious, in that you have no clue you even have this puzzle waiting about, impeding your progress... which, fair enough, fine and well, having to find it and all, except the solution is a complete waste of potentially REAL sleuthery! GAH. Letdown. The navigation is obnoxious, and the door animations (oh, the many.. many, many door animations.. X.x) are not skippable, when there's absolutely no reason they shouldn't be. The soundtrack is amazing; nothing but props there. Cellar of Rats: you guys are amazing. A+. The voice acting.. I've experienced much, much worse in adventure games (Hey Sanitarium! *wave*) but the phrasing, syntax, and honestly, the main character's strange and inexplicably erratic accent hurts immersion considerably. Most of the main actor's'scenes' feel purely masturbatory, in fact; he seems to actually ever say very little, aside from being generally unlikable and an utter arse, and possibly one of the most unrelentingly stupid, and unprepared protagonists..ever. I found myself genuinely astonished this man got dressed without grievously overlooking something. Like pants. Though we never see our protagonist, so perhaps that's unfair. We really have no way of knowing he's actually managed pants. /rant tl;dr version: It's a fun little story. It's not that scary (in my opinion anyway, YMMV), but the atmosphere is top-notch, and the music is wonderful. Good way to kill an afternoon, just don't go into it expecting too much, and get ready to bask in those sweet, sweet door animations.

Scrathes is fairly good overall. The immersing first-person effect is like Myst, except the puzzles are not involving weird machines or contraptions! Basically you are staying at an old Victorian house in a remote area that has been abandoned for a long time. You will gradually gather that the house is more towards 'haunted' or 'you're not alone' due to the weird noises and evil presences. The creepy effect is really good. I usually don't like horror but it was thrilling to play this late at night with the lights off. The last couple of nights playing it I had to play with lights on because I had been getting very frightened to go to bed at night. This game is utterly spooky! Most of the game is a feeling of being 'on edge' as you walk around in daylight in this mansion. But there are some very scary times that make you jump, especially the nighttime scenes. Horror effect is A+. The story is well done and thoughtout. You will gather more and more info gradually as to what happened, and what you must do. You are mostly tracking events that happened while the previous owners were still around, and figuring out how that relates to your situation in the house today. Story and background are A+. The puzzles are the worst part of the game. Now some of the puzzles I really liked, and I felt especially good about getting something that was a little tricky. But some puzzles are just unfair. At a certain point, I just used the UHS hints site for everything because I was tired of trying to guess if this was a 'fair' or 'unfair' puzzle. (I am entitled to get help with 'unfair' puzzles.) For example, on Sunday morning you must locate something in the house to progress. There is absolutely no indication that you must go about finding this thing at this time. There is no clue to its existence. I had searched the room it was in 5 times thoroughly, but no! to hard to find! Also the puzzles are notorious for making you do a whole bunch of extra stuff to get your reward. You have to do *a lot* for some puzzles to progress in the game. I think the game designers were trying to make it feel like you were really there and how would you really solve the puzzle, but tediously searching every inch of the house and missing what you needed is not fun, it's torture. Some other reviewers said that some things work only when the game lets them or at a later time but not earlier and that's true. An example is knowing I needed to combine the inventory items, the character says 'That's not useful.' Then at the point where the game let me combine them, I was stuck because I'd already tried that and failed. I didn't know it was suddenly available! My advice is please play Scratches with your favourite hint website, and enjoy the horror and story. Enjoy some of the puzzles, but some are just nasty.

I've played a lot of adventure games and this was one of the worst. There were things about the storyline that didn't make sense. Warning: Spoilers ahead. - If Catherine wasn't in the coffin, who was? - If the maid took a photo through her bedroom window (as it says in the newspaper), then why was the body on the other side of the house? - How did the main character just "know" how to assemble the amulet. There were no clues. I mean, if I was going to rid a house of evil spirits, it wouldn't occur to me to grind up someone's tooth. - Who was dropping food down the grate for the demon thing? I have more questions, but you get the idea. There was just too much that didn't make sense. Pixel hunting is always annoying. Have fun with it in this game. There's an option to turn off the background music. I tried to turn it off, but it stayed on. So I was forced to listen to that one piano note over and over again. Basically, you walk through a house 30,000 times trying to figure out what to do next. There could have been shortcuts put in. For example, it would have been easier to be able to walk from outside the front of the house to the backdoor, but nope. You gotta walk through a bunch of rooms and listen to the doors creak each time. It's best to save your game in different locations so you don't have to walk from one end of the house to the other to explore one room. The ending was anti-climactic, rushed, and downright laughable. "...And then I became a great writer." What?! That's it?

If you enjoy spooky walkthrough games, and you like a good storyline, this is a great pick. There is a lot of detail to pay attention to, but to me, that's what made this game so enjoyable. Plenty of notes, newspaper articles, and other details that give hint to help you progress through the game. And the end... whew! Talk about an adrenaline rush. I could play this game every night!

I was never able to load the game. Instructions on the internet, did not solve the problem. No help was available.