overall 8/10
as point and click adventure 8/10

+ nice art style
+ interesting story told well

- easy puzzles
- could be shorter and less repetitive

Yesterday is a great point and click adventure from the developers who brought you Runaway. Things are not what they seem in this great story of deceit and mystery. You start out as Henry White and his friend cooper who works for a charitable company that helps the homeless. Well at your first stop you find two crazy guys doing some weird ritual and they end up trying to kill you. You win out and the game flashes forward some time.

Now you take over our main protagonist John Yesterday who has amnesia and is trying to figure out who he really is and about his past. You work for Henry White doing research for him when you start remembering things and realize all is not what it seems. This all leads up to a choice of four different endings and will give you some replay value to see them all.

The art style is fantastic and really fits with the game. Gameplay is what you would get from point and click adventures with some tough challenging puzzles but nothing too hard to accomplish. There’s also a hint button you can use to help you out if you’re stuck which recharges over time after every use. This way you do actually have to try. I did really like when you would click on something the characters wouldn’t take forever to walk to the item. The characters would appear next the object which is a big plus as sometimes it can seem forever to search areas on other games of this genre.

Pendulo Studios have done another great job at bringing us a great story with romance, humor, and mystery which deserves to be noticed. Only thing I wish is the game was a little longer to enjoy. If you like point and click adventure games, puzzles, and a great story than I highly recommend you check this game out.

Bear Rating: 8/10

Surprisingly short. The end is very abrupt and very anti-climatic. The story has a lot of potential, and has some interesting twists, but peters out and ends right when it starts getting good.

It's not worth the asking price at $19.99.

Note: It shows "30 hours" in the review because the game crashed and steam thought we were still playing it. The game is less than 4 hours total.

Interesting story with a unique art style. I looked forward to playing it. My only real con is that the game was too short (it can be completed in 2-4 hours). I also would have liked if the other characters were playable for a bit longer or at different points in the story.
Wouldn't recommend buying it at full price (currently $19.99), but highly recommend getting it when it is on sale.

GAMEPLAY: As a classic Sierra/LucasArts-style adventure game, Yesterday tries very hard to smooth over the inherent tedium of the genre. There is very limited walking animation, as the player most often warps directly to the focal point of a click. There is a built-in hint system that nudges rather than spoilers with a timer that attempts to keep the player from exploiting it (the timer is very short however, so if you're stuck, you'll get your answer soon enough). On the plus side, this keeps the game moving; there is some question, however, whether or not this diminishes the investment one might put into solving the puzzles and the sense of accomplishment that acts as the only game-y reward in this style of game. The puzzles are reasonable. The few leaps of logic are easy to work with given the hint system and the simple fact that madly clicking all over the screen will often yield progress. It is also worth noting that it is entirely impossible to fail at this game. There are no scenarios that actually present a failure state despite the narrative suggesting the imminence of danger to the player character.

STORY/PLOT: Classic adventure games are all about story and puzzles. The overwhelming sense is that Pendulo wanted to make a 20 hour game but only had the time/budget/skill for 4 hours. As a result, there are poorly developed characters with inexplicable motivation, rushed exposition, an abrupt ending, and (perhaps most jarringly) an over-reliance on hackneyed hero tropes (looking at you Buddhist Vodoo sensei). The game's narrative approach is best executed in the very beginning. Without giving too much away, if you find yourself strongly disliking the initial player character, rest assured that it is one of the few well-executed narrative devices the game offers.

STYLE: The graphical style appears to be suggestive of a comic book style with text pop-ups and concurrent frames of action. The character models are generally horrible. The presentation of the characters is also not done any favors from the Fallout 1/2 style dialogue windows where characters look directly at the camera while speaking with very little facial animation or proper lip synching. Given the limitations of the game's production, I am inclined to forgive this forray into the Uncanny Valley, but it does have the effect of rendering what limited characterization and drama that does exist flat and often laughable. It would have been much more effective to merely voice the dialogue in the regular gameplay field. As to the voice acting itself, I am pleased that it is far from the game's greatest failing. It is certainly a far stretch from exemplary, but it convey's its meaning ably enough to not be the biggest distraction in the unfolding of the game's ambitious plot.

BOTTOM LINE: I cannot recommend this game unless you are dying for a semi-3D adventure and have played literally everything else. The plot is disjointed. The characters are shallow. The puzzles are uninspired and require little to no cleverness or ingenuity. Perhaps the 70's grindhouse Satanic cult theme will entice you, but much like the afore mentioned efforts, that too does little to honor the glory of the dark master. Avoid Yesterday like yesterday's sushi.