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Plattform: PC Veröffentlicht: 22.10.2015

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Preis Update 01.12.22

In the midst of the snowfields of Greenland lies Alpha Polaris, an American oil research station. High above, the ion storm of the century is gathering, bringing about a strange intermixing of reality and night terrors...

Alpha Polaris is an old-school adventure game focusing on character-driven horror and environmental themes. Previously released worldwide in retail, the game features professional voice-acted dialogues, hand-drawn dialogue portraits and an original soundtrack.

Alpha Polaris was developed by Turmoil Games, an indie game studio situated in Finnish Lapland, making the game an authentic Arctic production. Developed during two long and dark Finnish winters, inspiration for the game was drawn from such sources as inuit legends, Cthulhu mythos and the very real blight polar bears face today.

The Steam edition includes:

Expanded resolution support (MINIMUM RESOLUTION 1280x768)
Steam achievements & trading cards
Minor tweaks & bug fixes, tweaked dialogues
English voice acting, ingame texts available in English, Russian, German and Polish

Minimum
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CPU: Intel P4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor
GFX: Graphics card with DirectX 9 support
RAM: 1 GB RAM
Software: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10
HD: 1000 MB verfügbarer Speicherplatz
DX: Version 9.0
MISC: MINIMUM RESOLUTION 1280*768
LANG: Englisch

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Deutsch (4)
Englisch (29)

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325 Reviews

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246 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 12.10.21 20:17

Alpha Polaris: A Horror Aventure Game

Point & Click

Audio: englisch
Untertitel: deutsch

Rune ist als Forscher Teil einer Arktisexpedition, die nach Öl bohrt. Als sich ein Eisbär in die Nähe des Camps verirrt und Rune ihn zunächst betäuben muss, um dessen Wunden zu behandeln, beginnt sich die Routine zu verändern. Beim Heraufziehen eines elektromagnetischen Sturms noch in derselben Nacht scheinen auch die Bewohner sich zu verändern, zunächst wird nur einer der Kollegen von Alpträumen geplagt...

Als kostenloses Abenteuer ist das Spiel prima gemacht, es ist ein handwerklich fehlerfreies Point & Click mit guter Vertonung und einer Handlung, die als Szenario genau in die endlosen und kalten Weiten der Arktis passt. Wissenschaft wird mit Mythologie und moderner Technik vermengt und passend in Story und Rätsel eingebaut. Zudem darf man sich auf gute Zwischensequenzen freuen, die optisch sehr schön gelungen und ansehnlich sind - man darf sogar ein klein wenig Erotik genießen, wenn man denn die richtigen Entscheidungen trifft, Action fehlt auch nicht und blutige Szenen gibt es ebenfalls, es ist ja schließlich ein Horror-Abenteuer.

Für echte Horror-Fans hätte es natürlich blutiger und schockierender, ansonsten gerne etwas mysteriöser und verzweigter sein können, doch alles in allem gibt es nichts zu meckern - und dass die Handlung nicht die Tiefe eines hochpreisigen Adventures hat, kann man hier gerne verzeihen.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2626484351
Die zu lösenden Rätsel sind allesamt logisch, also keine an den Haaren herbeigezogenen Konstruktionen und Gegenstandskombinationen wie in manch anderen Spielen und daher mit etwas Nachdenken gut lösbar. Die Forschungsstation ist überschaubar klein und die Außeneinsätze recht kurz, was glücklicherweise kein ewiges Hin und Herrennen bedeutet. Manche Gegenstände passen zwar eigentlich gar nicht in die Tasche, die das Inventar beinhaltet, aber das ist ja oft das Problem - gut, dass sich diverse Sachen auch auf dem Rücken tragen lassen, man merkt, dass sich die Entwickler auch hierüber Gedanken gemacht haben.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2626484274
Fazit:

Mir hat das Spiel sehr gut gefallen und ich wundere mich noch jetzt, dass es kostenlos zu spielen war. Die Errungenschaften machen das Spielerlebnis etwas länger, aber sie sind dennoch nur etwas für die Sammler derselbigen.

Zitat:

Hat Dir diese Rezension gefallen ? Dann besuche mich doch mal auf Steam: Meine Kurationen in deutsch - über meinen Kurator findest Du weitere ausführliche Bewertungen und Empfehlungen. Jeder Besucher ist herzlich willkommen !

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394 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 04.11.17 19:14

Interessenskonflikte im kalten Norden

Die Wahl für mein Halloweenspiel dieses Jahr fiel auf das klassisches Point n’click-Adventure „Alpha Polaris“, das bereits 2011 als Boxversion verkauft wurde; die Entwickler erwarben jedoch die Rechte zurück und somit fand das Spiel 2015 seinen Weg auf Steam. Auch ich hatte damals die Demo gespielt und gute Erinnerungen daran…

Code Update: Das Spiel ist mittlerweile kostenlos zu haben, da das Entwicklerstudio unglücklicherweise seine Schotten dicht gemacht hat!

Akademiker vs. Ölsucher, oder wie man für seine Ideale den Feind mit ins Boot holt
Wir sind der Biologe Rune Knudsen, ein Norweger, der mithilfe eines Stipendiums der Uni und einer Ölfirma auf Ostgrönland seine Doktorarbeit vorantreibt, die sich mit dem Zusammenhang zwischen Eisschmelze und Jagdverhalten der Eisbären befasst. Zusammen mit drei Angestellten der Ölfirma, die die Station als Basis für die Suche nach neuen Erdölvorkommen nutzen, erlebt man 4 Tage und Nächte auf engstem Raum in der einsamen Eisödnis. Der Fund von Knochen und seltsamen Symbolen mitten in einer Gletscherspalte, in der natürlich auch noch Öl ist, führt bei allen Mitgliedern zu Albträumen, die Lage wird angespannter und die Interessenskonflikte zwischen allen Beteiligten spitzen sich zu: Der Forscher gegenüber dem Ölkonzern, die psychisch labilen gegenüber den Wissenschaftlern, die mit der Tradition der Inuit Vertrauten gegenüber den westlichen Zivilisten und nicht zuletzt die Werberei um die einzige Frau im Bunde…
Die Geschichte hat eine einmalige und spannende Ausgangssituation, die wunderbar die verschiedenen Ansichten zu bestimmten Themen darstellt. Auch die Einsamkeit und das Ausgeliefertsein der Natur und gewissen Phänomenen wird getroffen. Ein Mord bringt schließlich die Spannung herein, denn nun verdächtigt jeder jeden. Leider verheddert sich der Plot gegen Ende und findet keinen geeigneten Weg, Mystik und Realität zu vereinen, was zu einem recht crazy Abschluss führt. Der Weg bis dahin ist aber top.

Kalte Graphik, knirschender Sound und eisernes Gameplay
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1180589288
Für 2011 ist die Graphik durchaus annehmbar: Die fotorealistischen Hintergründe zeichnen ein stimmungsvolles Bild von der Landschaft und auch das Design der wenigen Außenbereiche überträgt die leere Weite gut ins Wohnzimmer. Bei Gesprächen werden die Teilnehmer frontal im Comiclook eingeblendet - gewöhnungsbedürftig, aber okay. Dagegen waren die Zwischensequenzen wohl bereits damals nicht auf dem neuesten Stand und auch die Animationen der Figuren sind etwas holprig.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1191481605
Gut gelungen sind Sound und Hintergrundmusik, die Atmosphäre und Anspannung mit E-Piano-Klängen verstärken oder durch das Knirschen des Schnees unter den Schuhen den Sound des Nordens transportieren.
Beim Spiel handelt es sich um klassisches Point n’click-Gameplay: Rechte Maustaste Untersuchen, linke Taste Nehmen und Agieren. Das Inventar ist Runes Tasche, in die genretypisch alles hineinpasst, was nicht größer als 2 Meter ist; allerdings funktionierte die Option des automatischen Schließens der Tasche (Optionsmenü) nicht.

Bibberndes Rätselraten
Die große Stärke des Spiels sind meiner Ansicht nach die Rätsel: Wirklich jedes davon war so gut in die Geschichte eingebunden, dass man das Gefühl hatte, dies nun lösen zu müssen, um voranzukommen. Keine erzwungenen unlogischen Rätsel, dafür abwechslungsreich und durchaus herausfordernd. So muss man Knochen untersuchen, einen Eisbären betäuben, die berühmte „Bombe Alaskas“ kochen sowie per Triangulierung einen bestimmten Punkt auf der Karte finden. Auch die manchmal benötigte Texteingabe in einen Parser geht recht gut von der Hand, auch wenn man auf Deutsch schon relativ genau das gesuchte Wort treffen muss. Weiß man einmal nicht, was man tun soll, hilft Rune weiter und auch eine Hotspotanzeige verhindert das verzweifelte Absuchen nach Hinweisen. Vom Schwierigkeitsgrad war das nicht ohne, aber angenehm zu meistern. Nur bei zwei Rätseln, bei denen man Informationen aus zwei Artikeln mit abgebildeten Zeichen der Inuit vergleichen musste, die aber nicht übereinstimmten, war bei mir die Obergrenze erreicht. Robert Langdon als unser allerliebster Symbolologe hätte wohl eher seinen Spaß daran gehabt.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1191481351
Der Wendigo lauert tief
Aber hält das Spiel seinen Zusatztitel „A Horror Adventure Game“? Dieser entsteht rein durch die Musikuntermalung und die Albträume der Protagonisten (abgesehen vom Ende), sterben kann man als Spieler nie. So erlebte ich eher einen Krimi im Norden als blanken Horror, denn dieser basierte auf dem Aberglauben der Inuit an den sog. Toonijuk und einen wilden, alten Stamm zu Beginn des 1. Jt. v. Chr., der von der Webbinsel nach Grönland kam und dort alles vernichtete, was existierte. Und von dem Glauben an Atcen oder den Wendigo, ein Wesen, das proportional zu dem wuchs, was er aß und somit nie satt wurde. Und was aß er? Natürlich: Menschen! Somit verarbeitete der Mythos den Kannibalismus.

Sonstiges
Obwohl die Boxversion 2011 eine deutsche Sprachausgabe besaß, hat man diese aufgrund der fehlenden Qualität gestrichen. Nun muss man Vorlieb nehmen mit der englischen, gut gemachten Vertonung und deutschen Untertiteln. Wichtige Dokumente innerhalb des Spiels sind ebenfalls auf Deutsch übersetzt.
Ich brauchte ungefähr 5 Stunden, um zum Ende zu gelangen. Dabei erhält man ca. die Hälfte der 18 Achievements, sodass man also entweder einen seiner 10 verfügbaren Speicherstände nutzen muss, oder sich eben zufrieden gibt. Dazu gibt’s 5 Trading-Karten für das Abzeichen.

Code Ein technisch angestaubtes Point n’click-Adventure, das mit seinen toll eingebundenen Rätseln, seiner Geschichte und seinem unverbrauchten Setting trotz des „crazy“ Endes einen atmosphärischen Krimi im Norden bietet, der von Lagerkoller, Mystik und dem Zwiespalt zwischen Naturtraditionen und modernem Kapitalismus handelt

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516 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 12.04.17 20:48

Ein ziemlich intressantes Point & Click Adventure mit einem Hauch von Horror/Mysterie!
Ich muss zugeben es ist auch das erste Spiel in dieser Genre was ziemlich knifflig ist, da es keinerlei Hilfe oder
Hinweise gibt. Man muss hier also viel Probieren und nochmals Probieren.

+ Erfolge
+ Sammelkarten
+ Story

- Die Audioeinstellung sprang bei mir immer wieder auf Maximum zurück :/
Aber das soll niemanden abschrecken! xD

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46 Reviews

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1136 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 21.03.17 08:12

Tolles Spiel !

Das Game verbreitet eine wirklich tolle Atmosphäre und hat wirklich Spaß gemacht.
Allerdings hätte Ich mir doch eine etwas glaubwürdigere Story gewünscht!
Auch Die Rätsel (Zeichendeutung) fand ich etwas Strange, aber natürlich passend zur Geschichte.

Warum auch immer Spiele / Filme die in der Arktis / Polar-Kreis spielen eine solch tolle Atmosphäre aufbauen können, es hat auch hier geklappt! Wahrscheinlich liegt es an der Einsamkeit und der Weite die solch eine Setting verbreitet.

Während des gesamten Spiels hat man immer ein bedrückendes Gefühl (Kein wirklicher Horror) einfach ein Unwohlsein, und die Vermutung das alle irgendwie seltsam sind und man keinem trauen kann. Für mich persönlich war die Story zwar sehr an den Haaren herbei gezogen, dies hat aber den Gesamteindruck während des Spielens kaum beeinflusst.

Die Dialoge waren gut, Grafik / Sound waren ebenfalls gut.

( WER AUF KLASSISCHE POINT & KLICK SPIELE STEHT, UND SICH GERNE LEICHT GRUSELT KAUFEN !! )

Wenn ich das Spiel auf einer Skala von 1-10 Bewerten müsste würde ich dem Spiel eine 7/10 geben.

MFG.

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76 Reviews

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336 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 18.01.22 02:31

Game was a tough one to finish. I like the gameplay and the look of the game. However, there are a few things that turned me off right out of the gate. Far too many things to click on. I know that sounds crazy for an adventure game (and Gabriel Knight made a joke out of having too many clickable items), but this aint Gabriel Knight. Most of the things you click on will not really be interacted with so it's kind of pointless to just have our hero tell us what a particular item is. Why have it clickable at all? It just feels like the devs were trying to drag out the game longer by having 60 things per room to click on. Also, the characters feel flat and not at all memorable. I also get slightly turned off by free games which I guess is weird. My mind just keeps telling me that if it were a decent game, it wouldn't be given away.
By far the biggest issue with this game is it takes way too long to get anywhere. It's billed as a psychological horror game and halfway in all we have are a few weird dreams, a dead polar bear, and a jerk of a boss showing up ordering everyone around. You can't call it a horror game if the horror only shows up at the very end. This game is way too low key to be scary and the main character sounds like he's trying out for a TMobile commercial. I saw it through just to see how it would end, but all the tedium of the first 3 chapters was not erased by the last bit.

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307 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 12.12.21 01:40

And they were never seen again...

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114 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 20.11.21 11:56

Alpha Polaris is a good Finnish-developed point n click adventure in the style of early to mid 00s 2.5D adventure games (think Syberia and the like). It has an interesting story with fun characters, and it's not over the top of with the horror parts of the game.

Gameplay is your classic point n click with solving puzzles and combining items you find. An addition that I haven't seen in many other games is the parser, where you type in words in certain situatons to solve puzzles. It adds some extra flavor to the puzzle solving.

I'd definitely say this game is worth playing and it's a shame the devs haven't released any other games since.

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4629 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 21.10.21 16:13

Alpha Polaris is a relatively short point-and-click game with some moderate supernatural and horror elements. It was originally a paid game, and from what I gather, the developers elected to give it away after moving on to other,
A cosmic horror adventure based on a foundation of Inuit myth and science fact -- the latter mostly in the realistic layout and operation of the ice station -- Alpha Polaris is an adventure worth a play,

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445 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 03.07.21 18:32

A cosmic horror adventure based on a foundation of Inuit myth and science fact -- the latter mostly in the realistic layout and operation of the ice station -- Alpha Polaris is an adventure worth a play, especially for the unbeatable price of free. The devs obviously did their research, and it makes the setting that much richer; before the ancient abomination makes hash of the chill vibe, the station feels like a genuinely real and even cozy place, one where you could make monstrous sandwiches under the tutelage of Al, trade dirty jokes (or skin mags) with the coarse-minded mechanic Tully, or chill on the couch watching crappy DVDs while trying to snake your arm across Nova's shoulder.

There is a barely detectable tinge of Engrish in a couple scenes, and some of the dialogue could have been delivered with a trifle more conviction; there's a game-crashing bug that occurs sometimes when you try to burn the ancient bones with the thermite -- the only thing I can think to do for this is perform actions in a slightly different order . . . or maybe play windowed? I'm not quite sure what did the trick for me. Despite these faults and an obviously low budget, Alpha Polaris mostly succeeds in what it aims at. I'd give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

(Would have made the game better if you played as porn-lovin' Irish-American Tully -- he's hands-down the most interesting character in the game. And what happened to the survivors after they got back to Thule? Been nice to have seen how the authorities and Euler Corp reacted to the events at the station.)

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317 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 02.07.21 22:37

nice story, acceptable art style. the puzzles range from baby easy to wtf hard but the runes can go and ... themselves. decifering them is beyond moon logic and if you are not ready to put a dictionary besides your keybord and try every word in it give this game a pass...

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310 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 25.04.21 18:31

Alpha polar bears attacking

Alpha Polaris is quite interesting point&click game. It offers some nice story with psychological horror elements. It involves supernatural themes.
You play as young man in a station somewhere in the middle of nowhere and shortly after introduction the mystery starts.
This game basically has only one strong side – it's the story. On your way you'll find out some interesting stuff and the game will shift towards horror at some points and you will want to figure everything out, this is what kept me going.

Gameplay is pretty standard for point&click games. Pick up the items, combine them, use them on something, go back, talk to someone, do something, well you know the drill.
It isn't perfect. Some puzzles are annoying, sometimes it's hard to click on an item or you barely can see it. Navigating the base can get tedious too. Overall i'd say it's average at best when it comes to gameplay.

Graphically this game is a disaster. The character models are ridiculously bad. I always say – go with 2D character models in point&click games, it ages well and looks good. These 3D characters are terrible.
When you interact with other people you get see 2D models of them and even that is done poorly.

Sound design isn't the best either. Like everything else it's passable but don't expect good voice acting, it sounds very amateur. There's some music playing but I don't remember it which means the music is there for the sake of music.

This game had potential due to its story but clearly lacked the budget and better designers. I still giving this a thumbs up just for the story and overall atmosphere and for being a bit weird. Worth playing for the fans of point&click games.

By the way this is free now so doesn't hurt to try.

Pros

Captivating story
Mystery and horror combined
Creepy atmosphere

Cons

Looks terrible
Sounds terrible
Some puzzles are annoying
Controls and navigation could be a pain

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57 Reviews

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497 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 20.04.21 04:01

At first I was loving this game. I loved the humor and funny achievements. I loved the atmosphere. And the puzzles were good, better than the usual run-of-the-mill puzzles in most of these games. However, the puzzles became either too arbitrary (like the key one) or too abstract (triangulation was easy once you got what it wanted, but initially there were several possibilities consistent with what was asked, and you had no way of knowing which one it was). The story got too dark, with several deaths, gore, and gruesome imagery. I was okay when it happened in dreams (I'm not spoiling anything, dreams are obvious and only cutscenes), but later on, it becomes way worse. The story was great, but it also derailed after a while, and the last few scenes were very unreasonable ( [spoiler]there's also a gratuitous sex scene right after you find out some of your friends died; doesn't seem like the right time to have sex, not even counting that it's with someone you just started dating... [/spoiler]). The lovecraftian atmosphere vanished in the second half of the game.
In other respects, the game is pretty polished, but there is a fairly easy to replicate crash; it's weird it wasn't fixed in the past. Loading times are slow, but I'm not at all bothered by that, tbh. Honestly, if I wasn't bothered by gore and violence, I might have liked it by the end, even though it's not great (I would have appreciated a warning about the content). I loved it in the beginning. But all things considered, sadly, I can't really recommend it.

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277 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 21.03.21 08:22

At times a bit clunky, could use a bit more polish. Still, it's a cool story and the puzzles are interesting. If you like point and click AND horror, this is pretty good.

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229 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 07.03.21 02:30

Alpha Polaris is a relatively short point-and-click game with some moderate supernatural and horror elements. It was originally a paid game, and from what I gather, the developers elected to give it away after moving on to other projects. For the low low price of FREE, there's really not much reason to check this out if you are at all interested in the adventure genre. It moves at a good clip and can be completed in about 2-3 hours. Please note this is not an all ages game, and does contain strong language, some nudity, and a small number of graphic gory images.

This game takes place across four days in a remote icy base known as Alpha Polaris. We follow a young wildlife researcher named Rune who conducts polar bear studies. He has a blossoming romance with his colleague, a young Iñupiat scientist named Nova, who is part of a corporate team searching for oil. One day, a member of Nova's team strikes it big and finds a ton of oil, and while investigating this find, also discovers a cave with strange ancient writing and loads of sacrificial human remains. He brings these things back to the base as though nothing will go wrong (he should have totally checked the genre tag of the game he was in before doing something so stupid). This triggers a whole host of problems for people in the base - wildlife going crazy, debilitating nightmares, strange geomagnetic storms. Rune is hip to the problem, and does his best to investigate and solve these issues.

Alpha Polaris doesn't quite stick the landing in some respects. All of the elements of a horror game are here, but it doesn't really do such a great job on the horror front. At no point did it do a great job of convincing me of the danger or gravity of the situation, even as the bad stuff goes down. There wasn't quite as much tension as was intended, due in part to the quick and uneven pace. There's a of hullabaloo about nightmares and how dangerous they are, and I finished the game without being quite sure why they are so dangerous. Perhaps this could have been fixed had they given the plot a little more space to breathe and had spent more time developing the characters early on; also, there's points where key information just drops into your lap without having to work for it. I also wish the game had leaned into the dark and frigid setting a little more.

Despite these things, there's a lot here to like as well! I love the icy snowy setting. The interface is solid and the puzzles are pretty good; I particularly liked how there are a handful of puzzles that introduce a text parser, and you need to think of and type the answer out, rather than just clicking about. That was great, and more games should do it more often. I also really liked the romance aspect with Nova, who is a good character and developed well. There's a whole sequence where you need to make her a Baked Alaska for her birthday, and while strangely out of place, I really liked the whole sequence. The game is voiced, and is well-acted. Finally, the art in the game is strong; the aurora animation in the sky was very nice to look at, and there are a number of quality cinematics.

All in all, this is a game at least worth checking out, and you can't beat the price!

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296 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 04.03.21 19:29

+Completed: 03/04/2021
+Alpha Polaris is worth $2 at most. Better off free though.
+Alpha Polaris 2 would be nice
+Story
+Free
+Aurora
+Achievements
+Save times are good
+Autosaves
+Puzzles
+Can make manual saves
+Music
+Voice cast
+Ending was interesting
+/- Some scary moments
-Pretty short game
-Autosaves overwrite the first save slot. So use the second save slot too be safe.
-Alpha Polaris is not detecting desktop resolution correctly
-Have to uncheck: Run game in desktop resolution to get fullscreen
-CTD issue after the cave cutscene
-Some buggy puzzles
-Load times are pretty bad for a game like this

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377 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 06.02.21 20:05

Alpha Polaris is an old-school adventure/point & click game focusing on character-driven horror and environmental themes. Inspired by Inuit legends and Cthulhu mythos, the game features great environment design, good voice acting, fitting music and pretty decent puzzles.

You play as Rune, biologist working at a research station (Alpha Polaris) on a project in Greenland. After a crack opens next to the station, you find human bones and scroll which seem like they were taken from a sacrificial site. The story unravels over the course of 4 days as things get darker and darker.

I got this game before it went free. And I have no idea why that happened. It is good enough to be priced. It is not long game but, I would say it was worth the money. Now, since it is free, there is not one thing stopping you from giving this game a try. Especially if you're fan of the genre. Recommended.

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276 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 06.12.20 20:00

Alpha Polaris is a very well done point and click horror game. The setting is the real star here in my opinion. It's very fleshed out, well detailed, and just large enough not to get too boring in the 4 to 5 hours it'll take to complete it. It taking place in an arctic research base will obviously draw comparisons to The Thing and while there are similarities it still does enough to distinguish itself and have its own story. The story itself is well told and intriguing but I'll leave that for you to discover for yourself. The characters are likable with no real standouts but they fill their roles well.

I'd recommend Alpha Polaris if you want a solid point and click horror game and I'd recommend it even more if you want a game to scratch that winter horror itch. Not a lot of those going around and I appreciate finding this, especially for free. It's a shame that this is the only game by the team who made this.

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532 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 16.11.20 07:45

if you like logical and horor games this is for you

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265 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 26.10.20 14:20

Alpha Polaris is a horror adventure game, with heavy inspirations from the Cthulhu mythos.

Story:

You play as Rune. He is a biologist and is working at a research station on a project in Greenland, with three other people. After a crack opens up next to the station, you find human bones and a sinister scroll which seem like they were taken from a sacrificial site. The game unravels over the course of 4 days as things get increasingly sinister.

The story of Alpha Polaris is pretty good, but sadly it doesn't reach it's full potential for a few reasons. One thing I have to say is that there's some incredibly shoddy writing in certain moments. A few of the characters do some incredibly stupid stuff near the end of the game, even after the entire station is aware of the sinister stuff going on outside it's walls.

The dialogue also ranges from decent, to incredibly stupid. This mostly goes to the character of Tully who is the asshole of the station. His dialogue is hilariously bad sometimes and it feels like everything that comes out of his mouth is actually comedic relief, instead of serious stuff.

Graphics:

The art style of Alpha Polaris is overall decent, but with some big issues. The environments and character portraits are great, but the character models and animations are varying degrees of bad. Let's first talk about the good.

The environments are actually pretty good. The station looks really good and it's fun to go through all of it, looking at all the little details in the world, not to mention going outside and watching the landscape. Not to mention when it turns into night, the aurora borealis lights up the skies and inside of the station, it's actually quite good.

The character portraits when the characters speak are actually incredibly detailed and have many variations when they speak depending on their emotions or what they're doing. It's actually pretty impressive, but this is where the good ends and bad begins.

The character models aren't that good, they look like they are made out of plastic and their facial expressions don't even change. Another thing is their animations, which are terrible. When characters move or just do anything they look like robots with their incredibly stiff motions.

Audio:

The music is really good and helps build and incredibly creepy atmosphere. At first it's usually normal tracks which are quite relaxing, but as soon as sinister stuff starts happening it switches to some creepy tracks which definitely will catch the player of guard.

The voice acting is overall pretty good for what it is. Most of the characters do a good job, yet some line delivery is pretty bad. I feel like the actors did well with the material they were given, but in some instances they should have done more takes or used slightly better ones.

Gameplay:

Alpha Polaris is a point and click adventure game and you already know how these games play out. Walk around the environments, pick up items, talk to people and solve puzzles. So let's talk about the puzzles first. They are overall pretty well designed and have a perfect amount of difficulty to them. I believe when the developers were working on the game they actually tested every puzzle in real life to see if it was possible to get the same outcome and it shows, because most of the puzzles have a very logical solution.

There's quite a few puzzles as well that made me scratch my head, which was very surprising. Another thing the game does is called Parser puzzles. These are rare and only happen once every so often in the game. The gist is basically you get a dialogue box pop up with a question and you have to type in the answer to advance. It's usually pretty easy and basically a throwaway mechanic (also there's a joke achievement for this mechanic) , but I thought this was pretty cool.

Verdict:

Alpha Polaris used to be a payed game, but sadly the developers shut down and before going out they made the game free for everyone and with that in mind, there's no reason to check this out. It's a great horror adventure, with some creatives puzzles and a pretty intriguing story (albeit kind of stupid in moments). It will take you roughly 4 to 5 hours to finish the entire thing and it's a great game to sit down one evening and creep yourself out.

Final Rating:
7/10

Pros:
+ Great puzzles
+ Intriguing storyline
+ Atmosphere is amazing

Cons:
- Story and dialogue sometimes get incredibly stupid
- Voice acting gets mediocre at moments
- Parser puzzles are underused

If you liked this review please consider joining https://steamcommunity.com/groups/completingthebacklog and https://steamcommunity.com/groups/ImperialReviews

661 Produkte im Account

433 Reviews

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255 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 12.09.20 03:17

Not the greatest of games but not bad to say the least. The plus side to Alpha Polaris is that it is free so you will never get mad at the fact that the game can be so frustrating to figure out at times. But the graphics aren't bad, the sound is decent and it is free! LOL, did I mention it was free? But all in all it is worth the play if you can stand the fact that is it is only a 1280 screen resolution. Enjoy

124 Produkte im Account

8 Reviews

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309 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 10.08.20 16:05

I am very much into point and click games. So naturally I was excited when I stumbled across Alpha Polaris, but unfortunately I was left very disappointed.

Firstly, the point and click aspect of this game was nothing memorable. Some places you could double click to move quickly while other spots you were stuck in a slow walk. Each room had one view with no option to zoom in, thus not being able to find all of the items to complete certain tasks. It became tedious and frustrating very quickly to the point where I looked up a walkthrough to help me.

Next, the story line as a whole was a missed opportunity. There was an interesting idea and they let it die. The dialog was straight up rubbish. The 'puzzles' were not very well thought through and sometimes did not make any sense. Not to mention finding the other tools for these puzzles which was a task all in themselves.

The overall game play was short and felt very rushed. It felt very much like a concept of a game and not the finished product. It was disappointing.

1383 Produkte im Account

3 Reviews

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370 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 06.08.20 04:39

What a good adventure! Puzzles are JUST challenging enough to make you feel smart, but not so tricky that you run to a walk-thru every 10 minutes. Unbelievable value for a FREE game!!

325 Produkte im Account

31 Reviews

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343 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 16.06.20 23:39

TL;DR: Journey to a remote polar base in Greenland and step into the shoes of Rune, a Norwegian biologist studying polar bears at an oil refinery base. Get engrossed in a creepy story about an evil lurking just beyond the northern lights in this point and click adventure.

PROS
I loved the story! The ambiance builds slowly - as the aurora brightens up the night sky, the crew has nightmares which cause paranoia and madness to set in.
Puzzles were logical and made sense. There's no time limit to finish them, so you can explore as much as you like.

NEUTRAL
The ending wasn't what I had hoped for, but I can see how it made logical sense given the story arc.
Some reviewers have mentioned poor graphics and choppy cut scenes. I experienced neither of those issues, and my windows PC is rather low end. Perhaps that was some of the issues fixed along the way?

CON
I had difficulty on a specific puzzle and I couldn't figure out how to move forward. When I had checked a guide, it turns out I had to click rather precisely on a certain area of the object.
It would have been nice to have an adjustable difficulty scale to the puzzles - so casual players can relax and hardcore puzzle veterans can be challenged.

235 Produkte im Account

181 Reviews

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185 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 31.05.20 13:19

pros

+ clear looking and well made background graphics
+ decent voice acting
+ moody ambient sounds and musics fits to atmosphere
+ tightly scripted and well written intriguing horror story
+ nicely drawn realistic characters
+ creepy and claustrophobic atmosphere
+ nice and clever puzzles. there are also inventory puzzles you can combine some items
+ when you press to space, hotspots highlighted so no need to pixel hunting.
+ there are steam achievements and cards
+ there is auto save

cons

- game is short
- stiff character animations. characters can't run
- blurry and dark cut scenes

Overall this is an pretty decent point and click adventure game.

1160 Produkte im Account

574 Reviews

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196 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 25.05.20 11:18

You can't really go wrong when you pick Lovecraft's Cthulhu as an inspiration for your story and you decide all will take place at a research station in Greenland. The protagonist, Rune, is at this station for an extended period of time as a biologist working on a project.

Overall, interactions will take place between Rune and 4 more residents. Things become interesting when a very deep crack is found not far as the company funding the station immediately takes interest - naturally, they think resources will be found there. Rune is more concerned about the environment, though.

The story of Alpha Polaris is told in just 4 days. While the days end with Rune going to bed we always have that extra scene where he is suddenly awoken at night only to find the others talking to themselves or behaving erratically. Paranoia gradually sets in and this is what makes the game really enjoyable.

It's a point-and-click game all right. It's a modern take on the genre in the sense that the majority of our decisions is the result of logical thinking, however, occassionally progress is made by using keywords as Rune has to draw conclusion from the clues available. This literally means typing words and here it's best to resort to using a guide to keep the rest of the game fluid.

I found the story interesting and the graphics / voice acting appropriate. The game only ran in a relatively low resolution (no full HD) - I'm wondering if this is related to the Wintermute Engine it uses. Polaris also has regular cutscenes, albeit they are a bit low quality.

Overall, it's a great adventure game and it is unfortunate I see nothing else from Turmoil Games here on Steam.

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62 Reviews

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367 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 18.05.20 17:44

Alpha Polaris is a fairly decent point and click adventure game. To be sure, it's B- or maybe even C-class game, but for it's type, it's fairly well done. The puzzles are decent. A few make you think, and a few are the kind that have you have an idea what you're supposed to do, but have trouble doing it the way the game wants you to.

The characters, and the voice actors, are not very exciting. They serve their purpose for the story. The story itself is not that unique, the graphics are not pretty but functional. It doesn't sound all that exciting, does it? Why am I recommending the game then? The atmosphere is a comfy academic exploration/horror medley. It won't keep you on the edge of your seat, but the mix of puzzle solving, that makes sense in the confines of the story (for the most part), and story exposition is decent.

Some reviews claim Alpha Polaris is dull and not much happens. It's true for the first hour or so. It takes a little while to get started, but once stuff starts happening, it kept me interested until the end. Or more like kept me enjoying the mood. The game has a slow pace, which some people might not like, but I appreciated it. The game is not heavy on substance, more on the ambiance as Picard would put it. The length of the game is just right. Any shorter and it would feel like a quick rip off, any longer and it would start to feel tedious.

109 Produkte im Account

18 Reviews

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809 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 16.05.20 23:13

Wendigo

[list]

Sound design is ok.

Story is imaginative.

Voice acting is pretty good and well acted.

Dated graphics

Puzzles are hard and sometimes the solution is not clear.

Getting lost on what to do next [Left-click ‘Rune’ for your current task(s)]

Conclusion

I wished there was a second entry for Alpha Polaris. Mixing Inuit legends and Cthulhu Mythos together made something interesting and original. Cthulhu/Folkist Horror story. Sadly, Turmoil Games no longer exist—see Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/3pmbq1/how_to_get_a_job_in_the_games_industry_the_hard/
I do hope one day that the developers come back. Creating more threads of their unique blend of Cosmic Horror.
Now, if you're interested in more Cthulhu/Folkist Horror. I recommended reading ‘That Which Should Not Be’ by Brett J. Talley.

1370 Produkte im Account

21 Reviews

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342 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 11.04.20 18:38

No tripple A but was entertaining
*6/10 - Good, but short, game!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
¤Does what it's suppose to very well
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
¤Short - An evenings entertainment, No real re-play value.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

-----------------------------------------------
¤ None really
-----------------------------------------------

{Bugs}
¤No Bugs or crashes.

52 Produkte im Account

10 Reviews

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236 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 12.03.20 05:19

Ok, so the basis of the game is kind of lacking. You really, really have to pay attention to the details. That's not what's so disappointing, it's those kind that push you into it and you are really like wait a minute. What is going on here? After, like twenty minutes of the game, you finally get to the plot of the whole thing. And yes, there are aggravating parts like the traingular points, which really, really did piss me off. The art, isn't the best, the cut scenes are like a marshmellow. It's pretty bad. Very choppy.
Why am I recommending this game? This game is for very specific people who really like to think about what they are doing. However, when you think about what you are doing, there's really not a reason to why it is happening.
This isn't a horror game. Like at all. I think that's what I found disappointing about it. There's no creepiness or a tone that's like oh, I got the shakes. Rather it's the tone of, what the fuck am I doing? Wait, where was this room again? Talk to Nova AGAIN? Kind of game. Maybe it was just me, but I had bugs, I had it to wear I would click something and it would disapprove of my actions, but when I clicked the same thing again, it would approve the action. It was kind of frustrating to the core at times. There was just no direction. When looking at the femur and wondering what the hell to do, you clicked on Rune and he would give you something, but it was like a middle finger. All it said for me was, look at the femur. Like, yes, I have done that and even tried to cut it more. What else did you want me to do? Oh put it in water? How was I supposed to know this, etc.
The voice acting was, well, alright. It wasn't the worst, and it, well wasn't the best. When there was an intense scene, it was bland. It didn't make me scared or spooked, just the casual run of the mill day like everyday kind of attitude. Nova was low key, kind of annoying. I didn't see any chemistry between her and Rune. Tully was an ass-hat, and Al, was just there. They threw in another guy, that came like fifteen minutes before the game ended. They made him an asshole from the start. A snobby little shit. So, I guess I didn't get why he was so rude to all of them. But, he was kind of thrown in as if to make the game longer, he didn't really change the plot. So, if he was there or not, I don't think would have changed the outcome of the game at all.
I would give this game a 4/10

Spoiler Alert:
There is a sex scene (because yes, that's exactly what you need when facing a monster)

45 Produkte im Account

4 Reviews

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272 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 26.01.20 01:20

this is a charming little point and click game, i enjoyed it !!
the horror elements are a cherry on top of the bombe alaska
few of the puzzles (the fuse box and the suggest ones) were a bit too abstract and i had to look the answers up

323 Produkte im Account

1 Reviews

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212 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 20.01.20 22:04

Normally, I wouldn't have recommended a game like this. It's... not pretty, the puzzles vary wildly in difficulty, and the voice acting... well, at least it doesn't make your ears bleed. Add to that a very annoying crash-to-desktop bug right before the end of the game, and the game would normally have been a golden candidate for the trashcan.

Yet there's something about the game that's captivating. The story is interesting, and the characters, if you can see past the VA, are actually decently written. Considering that the game's free now, I'd say check it out. If you don't like it, well, it's not like you lost anything but some time, time you'd most likely otherwise have spent on social media - and we all know what a dumpster fire that is.

258 Produkte im Account

55 Reviews

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296 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 18.01.20 10:17

Well, for a free game it's pretty good I suppose xD
-
Nova and romance with her. I just landed and they already give me a love interest. Barely know that woman.
Rushed ending and really bad execution of it with riding away into the sunset.
Annoying dull characters
Too short

+
Good puzzles which seemed slightly difficult and not too obvious (at least for me)
Nice ambient music
Scary myths
Good voice acting
Nostalgic graphics

2747 Produkte im Account

11 Reviews

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597 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 14.01.20 18:37

Its a well-made, little point and click that starts rather slow but then gets all dark and mysterious.