Note : Please take these game reviews with a good chunk of salt.
They are about my personal experience with a game ; yours might be very different.
Also, I have a professional interest in figuring out what works in a game and what doesn't.
I know from experience how hard they are to make !
"Leaves" is a beautiful game. At first, it reminded me of the Amanita games,
but as far as gameplay is concerned, "Leaves" is a very different kind of game.
Puzzles are a pleasant mix of item collecting, pattern recognition, observation, and logic.
I actually quite enjoyed playing this game.
The team : Eve Nohl (idea, concept, design, artwork, photography, editing), Moritz Krohn (programming and animation), and Gary Marlowe & Daniel Hoffknech (music).
The good :
This game is -beautiful- :
There's also a whimsical aspect to the game which, strangely, I enjoyed a lot.
Almost everywhere in the game strange creatures can be found :
And even the puzzles are gorgeous in this game :
The not so good :
Unfortunately, "Leaves" does have some shortcomings as well.
Technical problems : as mentioned in the forum, the game doesn't cap the fps.
With my (older) laptop, this meant frequently 1600+ fps and a -very- hot computer!
(Steam makes it easy to display fps for games.)
I tried imposing vsynch through my NVIDIA Control Panel, but that didn't seem to have
any effect ...
Another technical problem I encountered was that navigation arrows randomly disappeared from the screen as I was playing the game. A bit annoying, but not a huge problem since the navigation hotspots were still clickable.
And finally, not so much a problem as perhaps a design decision that didn't quite work out : the help system :
In summary : "Leaves : The Journey" is a beautiful & fun 2d point&click game.
A definite 'recommend' if you appreciate beauty, and enjoy pattern recognition games &
observation puzzles in general.