A magnificent adventure game set in a fantasy universe

Memoria is a point and click adventure game emphasizing beautiful scenery and atmosphere rather than action. The game takes place in a fantasy universe, with a carefully detailed history and lots of puzzles to challenge you.

An amazing story line especially for fans of fantasy

Memoria is a follow-up to the highly successful Chains of Satinav released in 2012. There we find the hero Geron, a clever young man devoted to untangling impossible situations, in order to save his sweetheart who is trapped by a terrible curse. In order to do this, he has to look into Princess Sadja’s life and past.

The transition between the characters is subtle and always fits perfectly with the narrative. This is a captivating story, which, if not conspicuous for its originality, has the virtue of being effective and eye-catching.

Easily accessible but awkward gameplay

Shifting between the two characters allows you to take advantage of the unique powers of each and thus solve different types of puzzles. As always in a point and click game like Memoria, the puzzles and dialogs are the heart of the game and what makes it interesting. The puzzles are quite successful, even if we sometimes feel like tearing our hair out in frustration over some of the more difficult ones. Memoria puts forward a very well-thought out system of indexes that will (sometimes) put you on the right path to solving difficult puzzles, but often the help provided won’t be enough. The solution of the puzzles is not always logical, which is unfortunate in a game of this kind.

Regarding gameplay, it’s a shame that Memoria’s developer, Daedalic Entertainment, has not redesigned the game more extensively since Chains of Satinav. The menus are still sluggish and unpleasant, and the mouse pointer is very frustrating because it has to be positioned almost precisely, to the pixel, on the object to be activated. One negative point for Memoria, like so many other point and click games, is that it neglects gameplay for the scenario.

Beautiful scenery but technical aspects are lacking.

When playing Memoria for the first time most players have the same reaction.  They are impressed by the beauty of the scenery and the quality of the storytelling. The game is fully dubbed by professional actors and it looks simply gorgeous, even if some will find it a little dull. Memoria’s main technical defect is its glaring lack of life. The decor is frozen, and the character animation is simply grotesque (a problem we saw in Chains of Satinav but which has not been improved). It’s a pity that Memoria once again sacrifices technical aspects for the benefit of storytelling. 

A great game for fans of convoluted puzzles

Memoria is undoubtedly a good point and click game. The narration is very detailed and the dubbing and decor are simply splendid. You quickly get sucked into the story, wanting to know more about the fantastic quest our two heroes are undertaking. In addition to its technical shortcomings, however, Memoria suffers from a lack of personality and originality which will further take away from its ability to stand out against the profusion of adventure games from Germany.