Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love

 Xbox One
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6

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  1. Xbox_Alive
    Jun 30, 2019
    8
    Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka With Love oozes satire from every inch of this unique point and click adventure. With fun and innovative puzzles, and a satirical quip in almost every voice acted line, Irony Curtain delves into a world unaffected by our own history. You are Evan, Reporter, and your naivety stumbles you into a world of espionage, intrigue, and over the top satire aboutIrony Curtain: From Matryoshka With Love oozes satire from every inch of this unique point and click adventure. With fun and innovative puzzles, and a satirical quip in almost every voice acted line, Irony Curtain delves into a world unaffected by our own history. You are Evan, Reporter, and your naivety stumbles you into a world of espionage, intrigue, and over the top satire about communism. Using an inventory heavy combination system in a point and click world, you navigate different areas, figuring out the sequence of events needed to progress to the next scene. The humor ranges from dark undertones, to full Laugh-Out-Loud jokes, almost all at the expense of Government cliche, Mostly about Communist ideals and stereotypes. You get a feel for both the game's overtone and the game play mechanics really quick, then it's just figuring out what goes where. You can control the game completely point and click, or you can move Evan around to find most but not all of the clues and items. I enjoyed the jokes, and the game play was simple enough, though I felt some of the puzzles got a little carried away making a couple scenes feel a bit stretched. Otherwise I enjoyed the game, and for those of you that love a good point and click, here is one that will get you thinking. Just remember, it's designed as thick satire and very different from the traditional style of the other Artifex Mundi games available for the Xbox One. So as a fan of the Artifex Mundi software library I would strongly suggest it to fans of the genre.… Expand
  2. curzon_dax
    Sep 19, 2019
    6
    It could be much more. The adventure has the technical foundation to be great but it falls short at achieving anything more than an "ok, playable". The main problem with the game is that nothing is spectacular, except maybe the design of the art and the outline of the story. The puzzles are either extremely easy or uninteresting (and a couple are kinda nonsensical if the in-game helpIt could be much more. The adventure has the technical foundation to be great but it falls short at achieving anything more than an "ok, playable". The main problem with the game is that nothing is spectacular, except maybe the design of the art and the outline of the story. The puzzles are either extremely easy or uninteresting (and a couple are kinda nonsensical if the in-game help system isn't used), the characters are usually boring and banal with their dialogues and monologue being often extremely predictable and the details of the story not that great, for the most part at least.
    In general, all in all, the game is "just ok", nothing is totally terrible, nothing is totally great (expect maybe the aesthetics of the art and the big picture of the story) but for the most part it's mediocre for what a great adventure really needs: great story details, great characters, great puzzles, a captivating story.
    Would I recommend it? MAYBE to die-hard adventure game fans but it's definitely not a great game to introduce someone else to point and click games.    … Expand
  3. GamerGuysNGals
    Jul 20, 2019
    9
    "Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka With Love"
    Reviewed by: Carless Yen
    Publisher: Artifex Mundi Platforms: Xbox, PS4, Switch, PC We have been reviewing Artifex Mundi games for years now, and we have always enjoyed their hidden object/ puzzlers. We never thought we would see the date though when one grabbed a near perfect score. You just don't think point and click and iconic games. That    "Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka With Love"
    Reviewed by: Carless Yen
    Publisher: Artifex Mundi
    Platforms: Xbox, PS4, Switch, PC

    We have been reviewing Artifex Mundi games for years now, and we have always enjoyed their hidden object/ puzzlers. We never thought we would see the date though when one grabbed a near perfect score. You just don't think point and click and iconic games. That changes with "Irony Curtain" Irony Curtain is perfection from start to finish. From it's beautiful animation, hilarious story, or amazing voice acting Irony Curtain is a instant classic from start to finish. The puzzles are fun, and really test your mind. I have no problem saying this is Artifex Mundi's game best game to date. I really hope to see more like this from them in the future.
    You play as Evan a amateur journalist who gets sucked into a story of espionage and a cold war spy comedy. He and the rest of just prefect characters will have you laughing for hours. Everything is just so well written, with tons of nods to pop culture and cold war comedy. Very easy the most interesting and comical story I've experienced so far this year. I can see it taking home one of our game of the year awards in November.
    I loved the music and visuals as well. Some really great cut scenes between levels. I would enjoy this as a cartoon series as well or comic. Hopefully we can get that. If your reading this Artifex Mundi how about you get on that.I'm sure I'm not the only one who would enjoy that. I'm not going to bore you guys any more with paragraph and paragraph of just praising this game. I'm going to tell you its a very affordable game that you shouldn't miss out on. It's on every platform so do yourself a favor and add this to your collection. I'm hoping limited games or some one does a physical release of this one. I'd love to see it in the library.

    Pros: BEAUTIFUL Animation cutscenes
    Fun and Challenging puzzles
    Hilarious storytelling
    Amazing voice acting.

    Cons; NONE

    Overall: 9.5 The Artifex Mundi game you just can't miss. Do yourself a favor and grab yourself a copy of this hilarious spy story that will take you back to the days of classic "Leisure Suit Larry" type point and clicks.    … Expand
  4. osprey
    Apr 26, 2020
    3
    This is the first Artifex Mundi game that I haven't loved. The charm of most of the games they put out is the quirky European fairytale aspect and the hidden object puzzles. This game is just a typical point and click adventure with an annoying character and a tedious bunch of un fun puzzles. Really hated this game, so disappointed because I liked the premise. Do not recommend thisThis is the first Artifex Mundi game that I haven't loved. The charm of most of the games they put out is the quirky European fairytale aspect and the hidden object puzzles. This game is just a typical point and click adventure with an annoying character and a tedious bunch of un fun puzzles. Really hated this game, so disappointed because I liked the premise. Do not recommend this games to fans of the other games this team puts out.… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. XBLA Fans
    Aug 2, 2019
    80
    The point-and-click genre is not one I’ve personally been interested in. This one is excellent, both for people who love these types of games and those who don’t usually care about them. The story is one to remember, giving a somewhat educational yet funny look into how communism works. Being set in the Cold War era, it does everything right to keep things fairly accurate, even while being fictional. By accurate I’m talking about the music and culture. I only had an issue with certain interactions and wish there was a chapter select option. Otherwise, I advise anyone to pick this up and play through it.
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  2. Xbox Tavern
    Jul 1, 2019
    80
    Whilst Irony Curtain doesn’t stray too far from the expectations of its concept, it certainly excels as a fun, humorous, puzzle-filled adventure that balances its mechanics well. My only gripe with the game is that some solutions to the game’s many problems are perhaps a bit too outlandish for their own good, ultimately presenting moments of sporadic guesswork. Still, that one flaw does little to pull the game shy of well deserved greatness.
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  3. TheXboxHub
    Jun 25, 2019
    90
    The problem found in a vast amount of point and click games is the slow-paced storytelling, with puzzles taking forever and a silly amount of back-tracking, but in Irony Curtain on Xbox One the pacing is spot on and everything is more condensed for the better. In fact almost everything meets a high standard as far as the writing is concerned, the character design, the problems to overcome and the voiceovers.
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