The puzzles were 99% inventory based and I found them surprisingly easy. Even with my poor Russian, I was never left wondering what to do next. There were plenty of hints in the game and all puzzles were logical, at least as soon as I finally realized what the correct solution was. Hardcore puzzlers who prefer taking reams of notes and spending hours upon hours trying to figure out bizarre machinery would be disappointed with Dikanka. On the other hand, players who don't like being slowed down by puzzles too much should enjoy it. This leads to my biggest complaint about this game - it's too short. It took me only two evenings to finish the game, and that's when I only just understood the conversations.

I can safely say that I truly enjoyed Dikanka, more so than I expected. I had been only very lightly exposed to Gogol's works, but that didn't cause me any problems; the game's story is fully self-contained. Playing in a foreign language that I'm not very good at was an enjoyable challenge. Overall, Dikanka is a fresh and charming game, simple yet well designed and executed. It gets a B+ and the grade would be higher if the game was just a little longer.