Buy Corto Maltese - Secrets of Venice

This is a fair warning to all Corto Maltese and point-and-click genre fans rather than a review of this game.

Why? The game simply won't work. What you get for a full game price is a Corto Maltese screensaver because it gets stuck on a loading screen and refuses to go any further than that. It's been at least one full week since the issue has been known and except for two humble "we're aware and working on it" replies on Steam forums there is no clarification on what could possibly be the problem. There is no official warning (in a form of a stickied discussion or a news post) and the Steam store page won't let you know of this unless you go into game's Community hub to investigate on your own.

I feel bad for everyone who bought this for a full price since the Steam Winter sale is right around the corner and there are chances of this game being discounted at least for the sake of selling more copies of this unreasonably priced Corto Maltese screensaver.

Some might say "have some patience for god's sake, don't be a crybaby, they will fix it!", well, I am patient but I feel it's also my duty to let other people know that they will be buying a game that most likely won't run. I like Corto Maltese and I like crime solving games so I had high hopes when I got this, but now I know for sure that I will enjoy this game way less than I could because of this unpleasant experience. Wasn't the game tested before it's release? I couldn't come up with a single excuse or an argument in developer's defense even if I really wanted to.

In addition, I wouldn't be writing this for everyone to see if there was an official statement from developer/publisher. Again, a stickied discussion or a news post saying something like "yes, we screwed up, we are sorry, have a pretty concept art picture to look at while we fix it" because that's what I saw other developers do when they are delaying game's release or working on patches. It's called common courtesy in my book. I suppose with all these ways to communicate directly with your audience we have nowadays, a simple seller-consumer communication is too much to ask for.

Game won't load.

I bought this game today, and it turns out the game wont load. I am not the only one with this problem.
I don't know why it wont load, but I would not recomend bying the game until the problem is fixed.

Recommended with remarks. I've changed my first analysis.

Game's atmosphere is nice and, if you are a lover of Corto Maltese comics, it seems appealing enough.
The aim of the game is to quest by yourself, outside the game (Internet), to answer the riddles that the game offers to you. This makes this game unique and, enhances the detectivesque feeling, since you are yourself who should investigate outside the game, browsing wikipedia or google maps or whatever other source of info that could help you to get the answer.

This is one of the hardest click & point adventure games I've ever played (and, played a bunch). Sometimes, the tips or clues aren't that clear and can lead you to absurd paths. The bad thing is that there is NO guide or walkthrough anywhere (there is just a single one covering the very first steps), by today.
I was really stuck for several days with just one riddle and, I was going to give up the game, until a forum mate was giving me the last piece of the puzzle to get the answer.

After suffering lot of frustation, I've finally ended it and now, I feel more satisfied than with other easier point & click adventures.

So, you've been warned. If you love HARD point & click adventure games, try this one, even if the character of Corto Maltese isn't appealing to you. It worth the effort.