Game does good by invoking the spirit of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango making it feel nostalgic and yet being entirely up-to-date.

Okay enough of the quasi-journalism talk, let’s talk about this game. The Journey Down: Chapter 1 is the first part in a four-part adventure game, using good old fashioned point-and-click controls by Swedish Independent Developers, SkyGoblin.

The game starts out with a couple of thugs looking to find a book by searching a professor’s office in Agibo University in the sprawling city of St. Armond. Next we’re taken to Kaonandodo’s Gas and Charter, home and business of the aformentioned Kaonandodo, and his adopted sons Bwana and Kito. Kaonandodo seemed to have disappeared leaving Bwana and Kito to run the business, and it’s behind in it’s payments to the power company. When Lina the professor’s assistant comes by she’s searching for a book, presumably the same book the thugs were searching for. Going here for a possible spoiler – I won’t tell you where, but I will tell you that they find the book and that Lina needs Bwana to take her to the fabled Underland. In order to take her anywhere you and Kito must fix your plane that hasn’t flown in 20 years. Thus starts your adventure.

Remember above when I said the game invokes the spirit of such adventure game classics as The Secret of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango making it feel nostalgic and yet being up-to-date? This is what it feels like. It feels like a maybe mid-to-late 90′s Lucasarts adventure. The graphics are all high-definition, and a 2.5D presentation. (This usually means some combination of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional graphics). The backgrounds are quite beautiful and the animations are well done. The cinematics also look professional and the musical score blends jazz and reggae rather effortlessly.

You basically use one cursor on everything, making it act like LucasArts “The Dig”, which makes it easy enough to use. Even though there isn’t an obvious hint system, there seems to be a subtle one, as you don’t seem to stay stuck for long when you do actually get stuck. Essentially after trying many different solutions, Bwana will gently try to point you in the right direction. This makes the game fun and not as frustrating as other point-and-click adventures. You primarily solve puzzles through inventory with a few on the spot puzzles thrown in. Using your inventory is as simple as dragging the icon of the inventory item onto the screen or clicking it to get a description.

I do have a few niggles about this game that would turn a 4.5 stars out of 5 game into a 5 (even though I don’t tend to use any particular rating system). Firstly the backgrounds as gorgeous as they are, often clash with the 3d models of the characters. The backgrounds look like they are out of a graphic novel, but the characters out of a modern 3d adventure. Secondly the voice acting for the most part is pretty good, although some of the minor characters aren’t that great. Even though Bwana and Kito’s voice acting is really good, Bwana’s Jamaican-style accent does get on your nerves after a while. (Maybe it’s just me, like I said it’s good, and the voice actor is good, but listening to the voice after 2-3 hours kind of gets wearisome.) Not to mention the conversations are pretty darn long, which is something that old adventure games seemed to do as well. It’s sort of like exposition in a movie, too much talking and not enough action (and playing). The music also nice and professional tends to get wearisome because we don’t seem to get a break. Using the inventory is a bit problematic as well, since in order to use an inventory item you have to drag it into the scene, rather than clicking it to activate it, then being able to free move around the screen and place it where you want. I suspect it’s because of porting to tablets and iOS devices because it’s based on a tap and/or drag.

Then are two really minor things, one is that it calls the brochures on the table “folders”. It may be in Sweden they are called folders. Here in the U.S. they would be flyers or brochures. The other is the name of the Underland. Usually here in the U.S. we refer to something like that as the Underworld. Usually it refers to either something like a mob sub-culture (criminal underworld), or maybe something like where the dead go, such as in Greek mythology. Maybe also in Sweden such things are called the Underland. Or I also like to think it’s on purpose since it’s Theador Waern’s story he can call it what he wants. But it’s something I thought I should mention. Those are the only things that bothered me about the game like I said, it’s a 4.5 out of 5 star game.

Hopefully no one will get angry at me for stating these supposed “cons” of the game. Considering that game reviews are generally opinions I feel it necessary to state even the negative opinions because maybe hopefully in the future it will help the developers overcome some of the problems that plague past games as well as informing the reader of something they thought might be a problem and knowing someone agrees with them and yet still approves of the game means that maybe they should approve of it too.

The first chapter only introduces you to the main characters as most of the action happens in Kingsport Bay around the city of St. Armand. You do get a decent back-story about what Lina is doing there, why people want this book, and why any mention of the Underland is forbidden. However they also don’t give away too much as this is the mystery that you’re ultimately supposed to unravel. I would say play it for nothing else then being original, if not for the fact it plays like an older adventure game. I realize that being original and paying homage is usually mutually exclusive but I think The Journey Down really blends both originality and nostalgia well. You should really play it for yourself. In fact if you go to the website you can play a free version (only for Windows as far as I know) which is sort of a pared down version of this game. It will at least give you an idea of what you get in the HD version. The HD Version also includes more puzzles and some more locations. Not to mention if you buy the HD version you’re not only paying for higher quality in the coming chapters, you’re also supporting independent developers who will continue to make these fantastic games for you.

If you like good old-fashioned point-and-click adventures with an original spin, give TJD a try you won’t be disappointed. The HD version of The Journey Down: Chapter 1 will be available Friday the 18th, for PC, Mac, and Linux, and later iOs and Android formats.

Okay so the title of the review is a bit antagonistic.  At least, it might seem that way to the game’s developer.  I might normally be inclined to change it to put the most positive spin on the game, but this is exactly how I felt while playing the game.  I want to let you know up front that I only played it for 8 or more hours but didn’t complete it.  In B.E.E.P. by Big Fat Alien Games, you play a little robot named B.E.E.P. which stands for Built Exploration Extra-solar Planets.  Actually you play a bunch of them as you undoubtedly will die many, many times.  The game is essentially a physics-based puzzle-platformer (say that “five-times-fast”).  If this is your cup-of-tea then read on.

So the story is basically in the future the earth sends out un-manned exploratory vessels, to harvest some anti-matter (or something like that).  They fill these ships with BEEP’s these little robots that can carry stuff with a anti-grav gun, has thrusters to help him jump, and even has a refillable weapon to defend themselves.  You have to use all of these to collect antimatter in each planet.

The main problem with this game to me is some pieces of anti-matter are in such a difficult place that it takes me hours to get to it.  Some places you have to travel down one path, on one side, move the nugget out of the way, and then go all the way back (of which there are hazards along the way) to retrieve it.  Then is the amount of checkpoints.  Too few for me.  I might get to the anti-matter move it where it’s supposed to go, and then get almost all the way back and die on one difficult part.  Also the few jumping puzzles that this game has are also frustrating.  Since you use your thrusters to sort of slow your descent in your jumps you tend to over-jump or under-jump.  There was also some pieces of antimatter which would be in a really difficult to reach place, where you might have to build some advanced ladder of objects in the game in order to reach it, but since it was in water or on some odd angle you’d keep falling and it would take a couple of hours just to reach it even if you weren’t dying all the time.  This makes it a challenge for me to want to finish this game.

Also frustrating was the reload system.  When you used up all your bullets you have to right click on the robot to reload, which is problematic when you’re trying to stop from getting shot.  There are other things which give me a pass on this game.  For instance one of the selling points was that you could explore the galaxy by moving your little ship around a map of planets (the over-world of the game).  Some of the levels are locked which suggested that you could go elsewhere, complete some other part of the game and come back once you’ve unlocked the levels.  Unfortunately, you basically have to unlock the levels in order.  (Each planet is divided into two sets of levels, so you have to basically find all nuggets in one set of levels before getting to the other half of the planet, before you can go to any other planets).  This is not really a problem other than how it’s presented.  You think you can play in a more non-linear fashion, but really it doesn’t work out that way.  Also a minor niggle is the fact you have to install Desura to play the game, and have to run it from Desura.  Desura, if you don’t know, is a downloader/game manager sort of like STEAM.

A small note about the graphics.  A review of the game I read claimed the graphics are like flash-game graphics.  To this I say for the most part that’s true, except it’s higher resolution than most vector-based flash games.  The graphics are adequate but they’re nothing special.  They don’t really pop, and the color scheme makes it look a little bit more bland.

The music, and sound are “ok”.  Which is probably the best thing I can say about this game.

If you like hair-pulling I would say play it, otherwise pass.

You can try the demo here.

The Snakes of Avalon has been described as weird.  Is it weird?  Well, yes — and no.  In Snakes you play a guy who is perpetually drunk.  What happens along the way may be weird by normal standards but in an alcohol-induced daze, not so much.  There’s a murder plot, or maybe there’s not.  You’ll have to decide…

In The Snakes of Avalon you play a man who is so drunk that even the bartender doesn’t like him (even if he is his best customer).  You think you overhear a a man and a woman plotting the murder of the woman’s husband in one of your drunken stupors.  You also feel it’s necessary to prevent this.  At one level there is the main plot of trying to thwart the murder, and then you have this other level, which has something to do with your parents. I won’t mention anymore about the subplot so you can experience it for yourself, but I will tell you it does involve a time machine.  The two stories are along the same lines and that makes it somewhat interesting.

The weirdness comes from all the different, seemingly illogical elements that come into play.  You’ve got good and bad consciences in the form of a moose-head and a talking fish, a zombie-skeleton moose, a time machine, and a bizarre puzzle involving light bulbs.  It’s pure madness, but there is a method to the madness within the story.  Yet it all fits because it’s all within the main characters imagination while drunk.  It just fits rather oddly. 

The game-play is pretty standard point-and-click fare and it’s pretty easy for anyone to get around the interface. You interact by left clicking, and examine items by right clicking. In order to get around “Ye Olde Pixel Hunt” the cursor will highlight when it’s over an object that can be interacted with.

The visuals in this drunken diversion look like they were drawn by some deranged 10-year-old. Yet, the perspective-poor backgrounds, and the limited animations, coupled with the idea of being so drunk you hallucinate promotes a certain synergy that wouldn’t exist in other games with these kinds of visuals. The crude graphics just work.

The audio is a bit of a mixed bag.  I enjoyed the music, and at times didn’t even notice it. Other times I remember thinking that this kind of game shouldn’t have quality music like this.  In fact, this is a good sign of the quality of the music since I tend to mostly remember the negative things about games rather than the positive ones.  It seemed to fit the game-play.  The sound effects were adequate as I don’t remember anything particularly noticeable or jarring  about them.  The voice acting was poor and sounded as if the developers were doing the voices themselves.  Luckily there wasn’t much voice acting to ruin an otherwise interesting game.

I think you should give this a shot because I believe the developer is trying to advance the storytelling aspects of the adventure game genre by layering two different stories that happen to co-exist quite nicely.  This game is available for Windows for free.  You can also download the soundtrack if you like it.

You can find it here – Snakes of Avalon in the AGS Archives