Sunday Gold

What's most frustrating about this game is that it has all of the makings of a revolutionary, genre-changing release. Sunday Gold does itself a disservice early on by rushing through tutorials and displaying new instructions at seemingly random times. Well into the game, it still feels like you were dropped into the story several gameplay hours after what most would consider to be appropriate context. The turn system is compelling, but like other mechanics, becomes much clearer later in the story than desired. Smaller challenges, like lock-picking, are difficult and unforgiving. Despite this, Sunday Gold's visuals are gorgeous. The art feels dynamically brand new, and the comic-book style of effects and dialogue makes it feel like every single click and movement is intentional (and was anticipated) by the developers. Moments like these are what make the end product confusing, because it appears that so much thought was put into the art and dialogue, but not nearly enough into the mechanics and plot.

Although Sunday Gold's playstyle is certainly a unique experience, with its combination of RPG (role-playing game), turn-based combat, and point-and-click investigation styles, it feels overwhelming, and would have been remarkably more engaging if it had stuck to one or two genres. There are fantastically unique aspects of this game that are relatively new to the industry, which will be exciting for any player. But at the end of the day, Sunday Gold unfortunately feels like it thought of twenty fantastic ideas and implemented them all, instead of focusing on their best five.