some adventure games i played recently

1691434165

i was listening to akiaura et al's skywalker while watching these words write themselves

the last door - season 1

pixelated, lovecraftian point-and-click horror. a group consisting of three students and a teacher has taken a look at what lies beyond the realm of the living, and they now find themselves equally enchanted and terrified by enduring visions of a bird. you play one of the students who receives a concerning letter from his best childhood friend and subsequently investigates the latter's fate

has some light jumpscares that fit the game very well and don't take away from the unsettling environments. there are practically no difficult puzzles, and i'd be surprised if anyone needed a walkthrough to beat the game. the only part i was stumped by involved a light bulb in the fourth episode but i eventually managed to get past without assistance

riven

first-person point-and-click puzzle game, sequel to myst. set directly after the events of the first entry in the series, you once again travel to an island group and fiddle with a bunch of strange mechanisms to accomplish some goal that is a complete mystery to me (no pun intended)

i've had this sitting in my library for almost two years and was prompted to finally play it by watching hbomberguy's essay on the video game classic MYST, a game i was never really a big fan of as a kid. it doesn't get much more straight-forward. you're dropped on an island and have to figure out how to progress by engaging with your environment in creative ways and piecing together story bits to form a big picture. while i initially wanted to complete the game without any hints, that motivation quickly vanished after hitting a wall after a certain section early in the game involving boiling water and a long, dark pipe. walkthrough recommended unless you have a lot of free time and energy. i didn't continue due to low frustration tolerance, so if you're more well-endowed in that area and are interested in first-person point-and-clicks, this is a no-brainer. i'd probably still recommend post mortem over this

thimbleweed park

pixelated, neo-noir mystery thriller point-and-click adventure involving a murder-a-reno, clowns and an exercise in futility. a german investor is ambushed and killed after being lured to an old bridge outside thimbleweed, a small town of 80 people. the unacquainted agents ray and reyes are dispatched to investigate, though both seem to harbor ulterior motives. along the way they meet billionaire daughter and nerdy game developer delores as well as ransome the insult clown. the gang of misfits becomes entangled in a conspiracy

on the surface, the superbly crafted thimbleweed park is the perfect game for me. it's very apparent that it's a product of love for the genre. the wacky, yet somewhat sinister tone makes for an entertaining play. there's a lot of charm here. unfortunately, i got tired of scouring the same old set pieces for different items and things to interact with about halfway into my 11 hour run, leaving me with a deep sense of frustration and impatience. the enjoyment derived from the humor wore off pretty quickly, and i found myself wishing the game had a more serious approach to the murder mystery investigation. the story also took a turn for the worse in my opinion and concluded in a fitting, yet ultimately unsatisfying way. maybe i need some more time to reflect on the experience, but i'm glad it's over and i never have to touch it ever again. also, fizzscumm

edit about two weeks after writing this: despite my criticism, the game has lodged itself deeply into my brain. i have since watched multiple people play this game on youtube and was delighted every time the players encountered the funny and strange bits. i still mean every word i wrote, but would absolutely recommend this to anyone, especially people with more patience than i can muster

sanitarium

old-school psychological horror point-and-click adventure. you wake up in a dilapidated asylum after crashing your car, not knowing who or where exactly you are. you soon get embraced by a stone statue of an angel who transports you into a strange world where the disfigured children of a small town called genet worship a being they call 'mother'. it's time to figure out what the hell is going on. also involves a circus, cyclops in the sky, cybernetically enhanced insects and an aztec society

let me just say, the theming is very apt. i certainly felt like i belonged in an asylum after finishing this gauntlet of a game. the controls are horrible, even for the time. holding right-click and moving your mouse will actually not move your character despite the game making it seem this way. instead, the protagonist will enter a dream-like state in which he establishes a just-in-time spiritual link with quetzalcoatl who will then whisper a direction of his choice into the character's ear which will very roughly coincide with the position of your mouse cursor, prompting your guy to move in said direction while bumping into every possible non-obstacle even remotely touching his path. there are multiple sections where precision movement is expected of the player. regrettably, the player's expectation of the devs actually providing the code to enable said precision movement is misplaced here. at least you can save whenever you want, i guess

the objects you need to pick up or interact with are not highlighted most of the time and smoothly blend into the environment, requiring you to take a closer look at your surroundings, i.e. click on everything that looks like it could do something. my main complaint with this game and maybe adventure games in general seems to be that they massively overstay their welcome, their worst parts dragging on for what feels like forever due to my patience wearing thin (yes, i'm talking about the maze section). still, the game was overall pretty charming and held my attention throughout its runtime. i'd say the initial warming-up phase where you're not yet familiar with what the developers were going for and slowly explore genet not knowing what to expect is probably one of my favorite worldbuilding moments in adventure game history. i played through the game in a 10-hour-long, mostly uninterrupted session, looking up a walkthrough three times in total: once for a certain section involving a drawer and twice for the aztec chapter. would recommend to fans of the genre who don't want to juggle a million items (looking at you, zac mackraken) and prefer more linear experiences without game overs (still looking)

I’m a negative of a person. All I want is blackness, blackness and silence - Sylvia Plath