Scratches Critic Reviews

They have really pulled out all the stops with their first effort and created one classic piece of Adventure gaming. Just don’t get too used to that luxury called sleep.

A creepy and fun title, fans of the Myst series and with a love of horror will be right at home in this game.

Scratches won't appeal to everyone, but for fans of quaint English ghost stories/mysteries, it's to die for.

Scratches is a great adventure game that shouldn't be missed by anyone who enjoys a story well told within a scary, gothic presentation.

With an original concept and less cliché-mongering, we could be bearing witness to a rising star. For now, though, it flickers with dim promise on the horizon, catching our eye but not holding us long enough to do much more than raise a finger and point.

Both the story and the gameplay are substantial and the game is genuinely scary rather than gory. Proving once again that you don't need dripping blood and gore to be scary.

Scratches is not "F.E.A.R." – it is infinitely more subtle. It is not "Monkey Island" – it is far darker with less arbitrary puzzles. Scratches is a work of art in the horror genre, and if you aren't willing to appreciate it as such, you should not bother.

If you're an adventure gaming veteran, especially if you like the horror / creepy / gothic-type atmosphere, then Scratches is for you. It's a solid game although a bit on the short side as you may be able to get through it in less than a day.

It’s creepy and it’s involving, but it has some annoying technical problems (the game must have locked up on me over a dozen times while I was playing it), the engine isn’t very sophisticated, and the puzzles are hit and miss.

It's the standard point-and-click adventure/horror/mystery game that has been around for years. The ability to look around to several different areas of the same area is a welcomed feature but results in some problems in moving to different areas in the game.

This is one creepy, horror adventure game that not only features solid gameplay (the point and click style) but also an amazingly good storyline. It boasts good graphics, sound, and interesting puzzles that never become tedious or annoying.

Scratches would have been a runaway hit … 10 years ago. Today? It’s just fairly tedious. This one’s only for die-hard point-and-click fans; others will be bored stiff.

Scratches was developed by a two-man team: one designer and one artist. We have to admit that’s pretty impressive.

It's shame that the ending is so inadvisably abrupt, opting for a limp 'shock' finale rather than a satisfying closure that would have sat so much better with the game's slow-burning narrative.

It's got some nice touches, but in the end, it's too buggy, too cliched, and too uninteresting to come to the head of its class.

Unfortunately, getting there is a dull journey full of leaden exposition, mouse hovering and clicking, and inventory manipulation.

What starts out as a fantastic concept -- even though you have to slog through endless diaries to figure out what the heck is going on – never gathers steam.

Scratches is dull, ugly, a bit short, and a perfect example of exactly why traditional adventure games have fallen out of favor.