Anna: Extended Edition

I can't even remember how I came round to owning this game and I never played the original Anna, but I finally got round to playing the Extended Edition which was released this year.

The premise for Anna, from what I understand about it, is that you play as a university professor who dreams of a abandoned sawmill in the hills of Italy and as he makes his way through the haunted place while he uncovers the secret of some woman he may or may not have known called Anna.

This game is classic point and click adventure stuff, you move around the environment picking up all sorts of items and knick knacks using them on other bits of the environment to solve puzzles and progress.  On top of that you have to find all sorts of documents, books and letters that give hints for the games various puzzles, some of which run on complete moon logic but if you pay close attention to clues you'll still be able to work it out.

Not all the puzzles are created fair though.  There was one point in particular early on where I had to cut myself over a pool of water, but for this action to actually work you have to be standing in a specific part of the room.  The clues for this puzzle don't give any indication of where you have to stand, just that your blood needs to be in that pool of water.  So of course I assume I'm doing it wrong for about 2 hours before giving up and finding out online that I was actually doing it right but the hit box for the solution is fucking stupid.

I'm only going to mention that puzzle because it's an early puzzle that's easy to solve, but let's just say it's not the only one like that.  There are a few examples of stuff with solutions that aren't to difficult to figure out but actually executing the solution is a pain in the hole because the game wants to be a fussy arsehole.

The game also has this horror game vibe going through it with strange hauntings and and strange sounds that are supposed to freak you out.  These are cool at first but when you realise some of the cool shit has an effect on a sanity meter that will kill you if it runs out, they become more annoying than anything else.  There is one example of something that happens throughout the entire game completely at random and will drain your sanity but if I describe it, it might ruin something.  If you take too long solving puzzles then eventually you're going to have your sanity drained and with very few ways to restore it, eventually you're going to get killed.  It's a pain in the fucking arse and it shouldn't have been made so that it's basically impossible for one to restore the sanity meter.

Overall though, I like Anna: Extended Edition, the point and click adventure is a dying breed and it's nice to get one that reminds me of some of the obscure titles that I used to play during my youth.  Also if like me, you never played the original version of Anna, then the Extended Edition has that shit too so you can play both of them and see what's different and what you missed out on the first time round.

So if you liked Anna, then get Extended.  If you haven't played Anna, then go do it and try to beat it without a guide.  If you're wandering around for 3 hours without getting anywhere then by all means use the internet, but a great deal of the fun is from wandering for a bit, musing on a problem and then solving it under your own steam.  Like I said, these games are an endangered species, so savour them.