Serena

 PC
User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 55 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 55
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 55
  3. Negative: 8 out of 55

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  1. Lucathegreat
    Feb 1, 2014
    8
    Let me sum up this game:

    You walk around in a wooden cabin, examining stuff. Reading letters. Opening drawers. Not solving any puzzles. Hearing the comments of the main characters with a good voice acting. Unfolding the story, which gets creepier and creepier. I bet this sounds familiar to some of you... Anyway, graphics are very good, length is about 45min/1 hour if you    Let me sum up this game:

    You walk around in a wooden cabin, examining stuff.
    Reading letters.
    Opening drawers.
    Not solving any puzzles.
    Hearing the comments of the main characters with a good voice acting.
    Unfolding the story, which gets creepier and creepier.

    I bet this sounds familiar to some of you...

    Anyway, graphics are very good, length is about 45min/1 hour if you listen to everything, but never gets boring and it's pretty interesting how the mood (and thus the comments of the character and the graphical appearance of the cabin) changes during the course of the game and gets, like I said above, more and more creepier and darker.

    But the best thing about this is, you haven't paid 20$ for it.
    Or anything, since it's FREE.    … Expand
  2. Apoda
    Mar 2, 2014
    4
    First off: I think the concept of Serena is a good one. The graphics are suitable for a game like this and the fact that you can play the game for free is yet another reason to try it out for sure. Doing so I tried my best to enjoy playing Serena, or at least find it sufficiently entertaining. Alas, I found out pretty soon that I wouldn't make it to the end, even if that ending was just aFirst off: I think the concept of Serena is a good one. The graphics are suitable for a game like this and the fact that you can play the game for free is yet another reason to try it out for sure. Doing so I tried my best to enjoy playing Serena, or at least find it sufficiently entertaining. Alas, I found out pretty soon that I wouldn't make it to the end, even if that ending was just a small hour away.

    Why did I detach that quickly? Well, for starters because the voice acting was unbearable. Over acted in every sense of the word. The fact that you had to listen to the same lines over and over again didn't help either. Some voice recordings were not even filtered correctly, the mic buzz was noticeable.

    Much of the progress in the game was achieved without being notified about it in any way. This made the game feel very slow and stubborn. I've watched a walk-through on YouTube to see where the game would have taken me had I played it till the end: Good story, originally made up ending with a very nice surprise to it.

    Had the voice acting been (way) better, had the coding excluded the possibility of hearing the same spoken lines over and over again, then this would have been a great little horror experience. Good idea, bad implementation.    … Expand
  3. mrmihailavdeev
    May 24, 2014
    10
    Serena, по сути, не игра - это коротенькая интерактивная история. Здесь нет ни паззлов, ни выбора реплик - геймплейно это такая кастрированная поинт-энд-клик адвенчура с неспешным кликаньем на все предметы по многу раз. Единственное что от вас требуется - быть достаточно внимательным, чтобы собрать отдельные кусочки мазайки в единую картину.
    Однако, что касается сюжета, тут нет никаких    Serena, по сути, не игра - это коротенькая интерактивная история. Здесь нет ни паззлов, ни выбора реплик - геймплейно это такая кастрированная поинт-энд-клик адвенчура с неспешным кликаньем на все предметы по многу раз. Единственное что от вас требуется - быть достаточно внимательным, чтобы собрать отдельные кусочки мазайки в единую картину.
    Однако, что касается сюжета, тут нет никаких нареканий. История вышла вполне интересной и атмосферной, а неожиданная концовка лишь добавляет проекту шарма. Благодаря короткой продолжительности (прохождение займет у вас около получаса) однообразный игровой процесс не успевает надоесть, а бесплатность и низкие требования позволяют порекомендовать ее к прохождению любому владельцу ПК.    … Expand
  4. Sevvy88
    Aug 23, 2014
    4
    Extremely modern and pretentious. It borders on masturbatory. Even the genre on Metacritic begs my loathing "Modern". Yeah, alright.

    I'm the first to step up and say that video games need to start breaching more serious territory if they wish to be considered "art", but the main point of the medium should not be forgotten: to be a game. This game follows a trend of "artsy fartsy" games    Extremely modern and pretentious. It borders on masturbatory. Even the genre on Metacritic begs my loathing "Modern". Yeah, alright.

    I'm the first to step up and say that video games need to start breaching more serious territory if they wish to be considered "art", but the main point of the medium should not be forgotten: to be a game. This game follows a trend of "artsy fartsy" games on Steam that, frankly, would only entice the imagination of the clueless.

    The game is hardly a game at all, and what of its architecture that -IS- a game is horribly boring and dull.

    You cannot sacrifice your narrative for gameplay, a faux pas Blizzard constantly makes, but likewise, you cannot sacrifice your gameplay for narrative, especially when the narrative isn't a very good one. The voice acting of the main character is sometimes painfully awkward and feels artificial, like the actor is not really identifying with his scene.

    In the end the game tries way too hard and fails. The storytelling is boring, the graphics are offensively ugly, and the controls are pretty poor for a release on M/Kb in 2014.

    What potential the story could have had, and what level of "art" the game could have achieved is all but lost in a poor foundation for a game.

    Sorry, Serena!    … Expand
  5. wjomlex
    Jan 31, 2014
    4
    Why is there no menu? The balance between the dialogue volume and music volume is pretty bad. In a game that's all about ambience, it's important to have things tuned properly. Why doesn't hitting Esc give you a warning before quitting?

    Why can't I open the armoire earlier in the game? The narrator's reasons are weak and make it sound like the creators were hastily covering up something    Why is there no menu? The balance between the dialogue volume and music volume is pretty bad. In a game that's all about ambience, it's important to have things tuned properly. Why doesn't hitting Esc give you a warning before quitting?

    Why can't I open the armoire earlier in the game? The narrator's reasons are weak and make it sound like the creators were hastily covering up something missed during development.

    What kind of car uses a skeleton key like that?

    The voice acting is odd. Serena's lines are delivered awkwardly most of the time. Who refers to blood pressure as just "pressure"? The narrator's voice is all over the place. Sometimes his voice is perfect for the scene, and sometimes he expresses concern or anger for no apparent reason. And when he's legitimately angry, it's so over-the-top it's silly.

    The tone is all over the place. The books on the bookshelf are amusing, but they really ought not to be. Unless, of course, they changed with the mood like the poem on the wall... but they don't.

    There are some good ideas in here, but the execution really falls on its face. It just wasn't entertaining to play.    … Expand
  6. pppjjst
    Feb 5, 2014
    6
    this is game have endless imagination.
    But except that imagination,there is no entertainment.
    This is one of the major drawback of this game.
    sound:8 story:8 funny:3 grapic:5
  7. Xzenor
    Mar 4, 2020
    0
    This was terrible...
    H.P Lovecraft's story may have been great but this game just sucks. Good thing it's free but still a shame of the time I'll never get back.
  8. CaKeS
    Aug 20, 2018
    5
    While the story was moderately interesting it wasn't worth listening to the protagonist incessantly complain to experience it. All progress is found by randomly spam clicking objects and exhausting every complaint the protagonist had about every object in the room, one interesting discovery (which I won't mention as it's a spoiler) is the only moment I thought things were starting toWhile the story was moderately interesting it wasn't worth listening to the protagonist incessantly complain to experience it. All progress is found by randomly spam clicking objects and exhausting every complaint the protagonist had about every object in the room, one interesting discovery (which I won't mention as it's a spoiler) is the only moment I thought things were starting to happen, but alas 5 minutes later after more complaining the game ended. The ending twist was decent, and the idea of Serena in whole was alright, but the gameplay is atrocious, and the narration is annoying at best, which is the only stimulus you receive.

    Unfortunately I can't recommend this even if it's free, because it just plainly offers nothing interesting as an experience. This could've been made into an actual experience with a bit more effort and interaction, and this is coming from someone that really doesn't mind "artsy walking simulators"; this one just happened to be increasingly dull in the short 30 minutes it took.    … Expand
  9. Grismar
    Nov 16, 2014
    5
    Considering that it's free and takes about 30-60 minutes to complete, you can't say that it's a waste of either money or time. There are some nice ideas in it, visually it is very well done and the genre isn't overpopulated just yet, so there's room for titles like Serena.

    But if you like unsettling horror adventure games, both Gone Home and Dear Esther offer a better experience. The    Considering that it's free and takes about 30-60 minutes to complete, you can't say that it's a waste of either money or time. There are some nice ideas in it, visually it is very well done and the genre isn't overpopulated just yet, so there's room for titles like Serena.

    But if you like unsettling horror adventure games, both Gone Home and Dear Esther offer a better experience. The immersion in Serena just isn't there; too many goofy references to gaming history on the bookshelf that have no place in the game and clash with the atmosphere. The voice acting of the main character isn't the worst, but since it conveys half the story, it could have been far better.

    And as a game it fails because you feel yourself stumbling through the story more than finding your way, play Stanley's Parable for a game that shows you what can be done in that sense.

    There's a few nice moments in here and the price is right, but if you have a long backlog of unplayed adventure games, odds are most of them will be more rewarding.    … Expand
  10. LemmeC
    Mar 14, 2020
    9
    I finished this in one session just like you would rip through a great book you just can't put down. Highly recommended short but sweet game.
  11. gamebumper
    Feb 17, 2014
    7
    Serena é um jogo com um conceito muito básico, és um homem que esta numa cabana numa floresta e não te lembras da Serena, a tua mulher.

    Tropecei neste jogo por estar à procura de algo gratuito para jogar na steam e decidi experimentar, nunca tinha ouvido falar, não sabia do que se tratava, fiz download e joguei. É um jogo pequeno que demorei cerca de uma hora a terminar, onde andamos    Serena é um jogo com um conceito muito básico, és um homem que esta numa cabana numa floresta e não te lembras da Serena, a tua mulher.

    Tropecei neste jogo por estar à procura de algo gratuito para jogar na steam e decidi experimentar, nunca tinha ouvido falar, não sabia do que se tratava, fiz download e joguei. É um jogo pequeno que demorei cerca de uma hora a terminar, onde andamos por uma pequena cabana de madeira à procura de pistas para nos relembrarmos de Serena.

    Visualmente não é nada do outro mundo, é tudo muito estático e bonito com umas partículas a flutuar no ar e basicamente a única coisa que se move é o relógio, mas mesmo assim consegue criar um ambiente intimo e reservado para contar a sua historia, que é narrada cada vez que interagimos com um objecto sempre dando mais detalhes sobre o que se passou e quem era a Serena.

    É uma historia que muda de direcção algumas vezes durante a nossa estadia na cabana e que acaba de uma forma inesperada.

    Apesar de no principio andar perdido numa cabana com duas divisões e sem saber o que fazer, depois de começar a interagir com os objectos e a historia se começar a desenrolar não consegui resistir de jogar até ao fim. Aconselho a quem tenha uma horinha livre a ir passa-la para esta cabana e descobrir o que se passou com Serena.

    Esta Review também se encontra em
    http://gamebumper.blogspot.pt/2014/02/review-serena.html    … Expand
  12. PublicNuisance
    Jul 18, 2022
    5
    I really liked the story to Serena and thought it had some good twists but I really disliked the game play. It all takes place in one room and you basically find items you can click on that will reveal story details and allow you to click on other items. My issue is that after you are done all of them there will be subsequent details available from some of the other items but you neverI really liked the story to Serena and thought it had some good twists but I really disliked the game play. It all takes place in one room and you basically find items you can click on that will reveal story details and allow you to click on other items. My issue is that after you are done all of them there will be subsequent details available from some of the other items but you never know which one so you have to go clicking on them all to see what has new info. There are no clues given nor is there any real logical reason that these items now have new info as they aren’t referenced by any of the preceding dialogue. Once you have clicked on enough of them enough times the game allows you to open certain things like an armoire and a chest. One again there is no reason why you couldn’t open them before as none of the dialogue explains why you can suddenly do these things. There are no puzzles or conversation choices or anything else at all to do except click on random items and try to progress the story. I think the game would have worked out better as a kinetic visual novel than what we got. The voice acting is alright but nothing special. The graphics are much the same. I wouldn’t call them bad but they didn’t wow me at all even taking into account the release date of the game.

    I played Serena on Linux. It never crashed and I didn’t notice any bugs or glitches. I was really disappointed in the game when it came to the nitty gritty. There are no options at all, not for sound or graphics or controls or anything else. In fact unlike most games where pressing the “Esc” key brings up a menu screen where you can choose various options, in Serena pressing “Esc” closes the game. This is an even bigger issue when you realize there is no save option. This is a short game but the fact that pressing a key that in any other game would be normal will now exit your game without any option to save is just plain stupid design. Alt-Tab works. Performance was fantastic but given the visual quality I wasn’t shocked. The game has built in V-sync as it respected my 144 Hz monitor.

    Graphics Engine: Dagon Engine
    Graphics API: OpenGL
    Disk Space Used: 367 MB

    GPU Usage: 0-77 %
    VRAM Usage: 679-846 MB
    CPU Usage: 7-18 %
    RAM Usage: 2.6-2.8 GB
    Frame Rate: 143-144 FPS

    The great story and free price tag didn’t make up for the annoying game play or the terrible design choices. Overall there are much better out there even for free games. I finished Serena in forty three minutes.

    My score: 5.5/10

    My System:

    AMD FX-9590 | 16GB DDR3-2133 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 22.1.3 | Manjaro 21.3.4 | Mate 1.26.0 | Kernel 5.18.12-3-MANJARO | AOC G2460P 1920*1080 @ 144hz    … Expand
  13. CrazyWitch
    May 22, 2014
    8
    I like Serena. It isn't game. It's a short interactive story with interesting storyline and creepy atmosphere. All gameplay means only exploration. We are inspecting different items which keep the pieces of main character's memory. Cozy hut gets grimmer and more frightening as we are approaching to the end of the story. It is an expressive miniature from world of interactive entertainment.I like Serena. It isn't game. It's a short interactive story with interesting storyline and creepy atmosphere. All gameplay means only exploration. We are inspecting different items which keep the pieces of main character's memory. Cozy hut gets grimmer and more frightening as we are approaching to the end of the story. It is an expressive miniature from world of interactive entertainment. I think it's unusual game experience and good intriguing story. Horrifying secret is waiting you in a small wooden cabin lost in the heart of a dense forest. So if you like atmospheric creepy stories you should try to play it. It is a short game but after the finishing Serena it imprinted in my memory. Not many contemporary AAA-blockbusters is deserved so words.… Expand
  14. ThePCGamer101
    Jun 24, 2015
    6
    A very nice little short point-and-click adventure game, very nice story, very nice plot twist, good voice acting and nice graphics. I recommend people who like a good story or point-and-click games should get this game, and best of all it's free!
  15. jessicadennis
    Oct 17, 2014
    7
    Such mixed feelings about this game. Teasing out the story is interesting and engaging, and the voice acting and visuals are solid, but sometimes the "click on all the things until dialog is exhausted, then click on all the things again" gameplay sometimes felt like a bit of a drag. And I was caught by the utter lack of a menu or saving system: I stupidly hit the escape key and got dumpedSuch mixed feelings about this game. Teasing out the story is interesting and engaging, and the voice acting and visuals are solid, but sometimes the "click on all the things until dialog is exhausted, then click on all the things again" gameplay sometimes felt like a bit of a drag. And I was caught by the utter lack of a menu or saving system: I stupidly hit the escape key and got dumped out of the game, losing 63 minutes of progress (I was very close to the end, too). Irritating. Plus I found out from LP's that it's possible to trigger the ending without having experienced the entire story: disapprove. So, conditional recommend?… Expand
  16. Young_Nacho
    Oct 5, 2015
    8
    First off, for fans of dark storytelling games, Its DEFINITELY worth a play through, especially since its free and only takes about an hour. There isn't much on the gameplay side of it but the story makes up for it. It was very interesting and the plot twist was definitely not what I expected. Some of the dialogue was a little weird and I feel the gameplay (and the game as a whole) couldFirst off, for fans of dark storytelling games, Its DEFINITELY worth a play through, especially since its free and only takes about an hour. There isn't much on the gameplay side of it but the story makes up for it. It was very interesting and the plot twist was definitely not what I expected. Some of the dialogue was a little weird and I feel the gameplay (and the game as a whole) could have been better. The atmosphere was pretty good however and all in all a very dark interesting story that you should check out if you have an hour to spend.… Expand
  17. janosbiro
    Oct 27, 2015
    8
    Serena is a game about love, hate, obsession and the thin line between those. This game deals with this question with a simple mechanic: changing object descriptions while the character’s reaction changes by the act of examining and remembering. All you do in the game is to examine objects. There are no puzzles, except for a very simple one. The changes in the descriptions represent theSerena is a game about love, hate, obsession and the thin line between those. This game deals with this question with a simple mechanic: changing object descriptions while the character’s reaction changes by the act of examining and remembering. All you do in the game is to examine objects. There are no puzzles, except for a very simple one. The changes in the descriptions represent the passage through different psychological levels. Nothing around you really changes, but the comfortable cabin turns into an oppressive and scary limbo, because your mind changes. That’s the point the game is trying to convey.

    Games are the perfect platform to create this dramatic effect. In a movie, it is possible to show exactly the same scene and make it look completely different by using a different soundtrack, for example. But in a game you can do it much better, because the player feel attached to the character’s reactions, taking them as their own.

    Serena also plays with the idea of slowly sliding into insanity. Games are also very good at this, because players can experience this transition on their own pace.    … Expand
  18. Demon2017
    Sep 21, 2022
    0
    Дрянь. Неинтересное позорище с пиксель хантингом. Избегайте эту игру
  19. beeanadou
    May 19, 2019
    5
    Half and half. The beginning was fine but later developed so patchy; background music and narrator were fine, though.
  20. Kelen
    Sep 4, 2021
    6
    6/10 - Nice game.
    (after 1.2 hours of playing and completing the game)

    Very short, free, simple game. Lots of reading. It has a cool vibe
  21. apokalipto
    Aug 25, 2023
    8
    Very good game. I enjoyed playing this game a lot. I strongly recommend this.

Critic Reviews

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Critic score distribution:
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  3. Negative: 1 out of 1
  1. 4P.de
    Feb 12, 2014
    40
    The beginning is interesting, the storytelling experiment works well. But technical and design flaws make this tale terrifying for the wrong reasons.
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