“Already the third listen to the album manages to sound familiar and give direction of plaintive melodies that at first glance are somewhat flat. In the twelve pieces stand out "Shade", a piece quite going, but with dreamy atmospheres. The next "In the Hands of Death" is heavy, much doom and tenebrare which follows slightly funeral death metal. This song is longer than nine minutes, and "Dream of the Astronaut" has thirty seconds less. Are two pieces in some ways and not so ambitious for the length, but because of the extreme diversity of the parties characterize them. Maybe not all really successful, but overall the desire to enrich and inspire so much (sometimes maybe too much) by Adfail in their compositions. Few songs immediately wink, however many occasions scattered that are pleasant and even more, but we must take the proper time to understand and assimilate all that there is, in the form of sound, between these parts extremely appealing.”

“(Darknagar Records) Kaliningrad, historic Russian city lies on the shores of the Baltic Sea, is tinged with the melancholy notes of Adfail. The band quickly managed to publish two albums. The second is just "Is It a Game?" (In the album cover ellipsis at the end, while on the coast shows the exclamation), synthesis of sound between doom, gothic and death metal, just in the best tradition of albionica many years ago. Generally melancholy, full of sad melodies and decadent. Polyphony sounding solemn and gray. Rhythmic low but continuous, dynamic, rather then a growl that tends all'harsh, plus some clean vocals and other female mold, keyboards, some insert purple. Melancholy, loneliness, worrying situations seasoned texts. Arrangements overall well done. We would expect this from "Is It a Game": full adherence to tradition and respect for the codes of style, with a result after all achieved.”

“Undoubtedly, the Russian music scene & market is huge. The bands were left underground and far beyond the other groups of Europe… but it seems that the time to claim equal treatment as their colleagues in Europe and the US has finally come. Russia is a big music place, just like US, and it can, surely, give worth listening music. Adfail are from Russia… although I couldn’t guess. They follow the European as well as the US metal music tradition. These guys surprised me nicely ‘cuz even though I have listened to many Russian bands lately… I believed that none of them could stand and be at the same level of the European & the US ones. Thankfully, Adfail proved, once again, that there are always exceptions to the rule… whereas I believe that we will have big tsunami of Russian bands in a few years… qualified to claim high level positions among the European and the US ones......”