(06-06-2026, 07:40 PM)Joe Wrote: The Hand of Glory: 7.5/10. Difficulty: 6.5/10

~12h Broken Sword-like.

I was surprised by this game. I had no expectations and thought it would be one of those cute, little indie games. However, I quickly realized that it's a great game that is unfortunately held down by a myriad of little things.

But first, the pros:
- The puzzles are great—the real highlight of the game. They are challenging but logical. There is a fair variety of them, with many hotspots, items, and locations, so brute-forcing solutions is not a viable way to solve them. There are also many helpful little hints to ease the frustration. For example, when you try to use a tool on a powered-up object, you don't get a generic "I can't do it," but rather, "First, I need insulation to avoid electrocution."
- The characters are likeable and have unexpected depth.
- The intriguing detective story has some supernatural elements.
- It's a lengthy game. Even though it's in two parts, each part could easily take six or more hours.

The nitpicks:
- The graphics are bland but not without charm. The characters look especially flat, and the backgrounds are better but also nothing to write home about.
- The only good thing I can say about the music is that it isn't annoying.
- The voice-over is uneven. Fortunately, the MC has good-quality VO, but some characters sound like they're talking through a pipe, and others have different volumes of speech in the same sentence.
- I admit that I'm not good at remembering names (of locations and people). So, when the game throws a bunch of them at me — many of which are Italian — I get a little confused at times.
- It didn't bother me much, but there is a linear way to do things. You can't take items before doing other things or talking to a specific person. It gets to the point where MC blatantly tells you, "I don't need it now. I'll steal it later." As I said, it doesn't bother me much since it increases the difficulty of the puzzles, but I feel it's a little arbitrary which items you can take immediately and which you can't.
- In some places, lines of text are unreadable. The fonts are often the same color as the background, to the point that I thought it was a deliberate move by the developers.
While there are technically two MCs, you can rarely play as Alice. It's a shame, since she has her own little fun gimmick.

Anyway, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to scratch that Broken Sword itch.
There should be a sequel soon(ish): Roots in the Sky — The Hand of Glory 2. This time, I have high hopes for it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/961010/The_Hand_of_Glory/

(07-06-2026, 10:31 AM)Joe Wrote: The sequel is supposed to be released this summer. If they manage to make it better than the first one, I think it could be a strong contender for the best adventure game of the year.