There's a truly solid foundation here, but a few too many things went wrong in the execution to call it a success. Although it remains a formula with tremendous potential, this is one experiment that needs to go back to the drawing board.
The Good: Revolutionary interface creates an unparalleled feeling of immersion; story and characters are well-written with lots of depth.
The Bad: Voice acting is simply bad; numerous glitches impede gameplay; extremely slow pace; non-ending retroactively kills the story; becomes increasingly unpolished the deeper you get.
Bottom Line: A terrific way to spend 6 hours but a mediocre way to spend 15. The interface is a strong first step towards a new way of playing adventure games, but only the most patient of gamers will be inclined to endure the game's other flaws and see it through to the end.
Gamesradar writes:
The concept is brilliant. The story flops between cliche and downright weird. And the execution is deeply wonky. As a novelty, it's intriguing. Anyone interested in gaming esoterica should get hold of a copy. But be warned - it's far from perfect.
You'll love
* Original premise
* Unique feeling of detachment
* Lots to explore
You'll hate
* Cluttered interface
* Getting lost in the ship
* Main character lacks personality
I played this game, it is wonderful at the beginning but gets really boring after a while. Didn't manage to finish it, never felt the need to try it again.
As intriguing as the concept is, the climax is not as nearly as exciting, and the weak ending makes the problem-plagued trip hardly worth the effort. There are moments of genuine discovery and surprise within The Experiment as you peel back the layers and find another mystery to solve, or find out what's behind the next door ... when the game worked, anyway.
As it is, The Experiment's hole-riddled plot and buggy gameplay bury some of the promise that could have filled the experience with the kind of giddy wonder that comes with peering into the unknown. This is one experiment that you may want to conduct at your own risk.
"All in all, I enjoyed playing The Experiment despite its flaws. I would have greatly appreciated an option to speed up the avatar, or perhaps have her "zip" to previously visited locations without having to prod her with the lights. I would also have appreciated more in-game hints and feedback, such as a glimmer that would signal where an important item might be located. I would recommend this game most highly to gamers who might be tired of the standard point-and-click adventures and would like to experiment with something radically different-though I might point out that a similar concept was already explored in the 1985 Activision classic game Hacker. Overall, though, the pros outweighed the cons in The Experiment, and I was glad to see the developer pushing the genre in unfamiliar directions." -- by Matt Barton.
