With so many adventure games coming out each week, it’s easy to overlook some. That is where the Steam Festival comes in.
The summer 2021 Steam festival was titled Next Fest and I managed to sample 16 adventure game demo’s this time around and I’m here to share with you my thoughts. Counting down to my absolute favourites of the festival.
At number 16 is Painting Werther from Mad Cream Games. Not strictly an adventure game even though it’s been categorised as one on steam, this interactive visual novel had me
painting and clicking to create beautiful pieces of art based upon a novel by Goethe. There’s little gameplay except clicking when we’re told, but it was an interesting exercise and unique way to discover this authors work. The music also took on some classical tomes but added it’s own touch. It was a relaxing half hour demo. No release date has been set for it yet.
At number 15 is the wonderfully colourful story A Tale for Anna from developer Far Mills. Another that questionably should be labelled an adventure game (don’t worry, there’s plenty ahead!) this fairy-tale revolves around Anna who discovers she has magical powers, and a talking cat, but these powers have also attracted the interest of an evil queen. Gameplay wise, it’s essentially a hidden object game, but seeing as I ploughed almost an hour into the demo, thought it only fair that I let you know about it. In the full game there promises to be mini games and more complex puzzles. Another with no release date as yet.
The List is listed at number 14, on my list. This FMV detective game is from Dan Trimble and is made up of purely police interview videos. Jordan Grady accidentally killed someone at a bus stop in self defence, and after being interrogated at the police station, is let go, only to
be killed himself later on. We have to sift through hundreds of these police videos to see exactly what is going on and if the story is deeper than it first seems. If you’ve played Her Story or last years Jessika, you’ll get the idea, but if you haven’t, essentially we type keywords into a system to discover more. We’ll uncover more evidence such as photos and reports too. I like these type of games but it lives and dies on the actor, and thankfully in the case of The List, it's a strong performance from the short demo so it holds promise.
And now for something completely different. TOEM snaps into place at 13. From developer Something We Made, TOEM is cute puzzle adventure where our aim is to take pictures to
move the story forward. In the demo I needed to take a photo of a hotel, but it was so big it wouldn’t fit into frame, so ended up climbing a big hill and meeting many more cute little characters. I could then take a lovely picture of the hotel, and chat to more of these little guys who have small tasks to complete too. The hand drawn black and white canvas is lovely and the option to just wander around the area and snap whatever we like will be a nice draw for some. This casual adventure is out sometime this year.
From cute to killer next, as at 12 we have Loretta from developer Yakov Butuzoff. This historical murder mystery isn't really a mystery at all, as we don’t need to find a killer, as we are the killer. What I liked about the demo though was there were only small hints of what to expect. Loretta herself is a calm, quiet, anxious housewife. It’s set in the 1940’s and has flavours of Steven King, Edward Hopper and a huge dollop of Hitchcock. The demo was short, and the trailer doesn’t really show much more too so this one has piqued my interest. There’s no release date yet but keep tabs on YakWaxLips as I’ll be taking a deeper look at this as more is revealed.
Next is probably the most confusing demo on the list, and it’s not even the one with the cat smoking a pipe (that comes later), at 11, it’s A Guidebook of Babel from StarryStarry. How do I explain this game? Well from the start, we’re seen moving around a barrel of fish into a pi
pe that explodes, and later on these fish turn into people, but they’re kind of reincarnated but really we’re under some weird experiment and it’s all a dream, or is it the afterlife? It’s super and I mean SUPER confusing. BUT, as I played it, it started to come together and make
more sense. We can do-over a certain puzzle, time travel as such, to make the future easier for us and, it's making my head hurt, but honestly, it was enjoyable. I’m still left a little befuddled. It does looks lovely. No release date for this yet though.
So that cat with the pipe is at 10, and it has a wonderful title. Catie in MeowmeowLand from ARTillery is a bizarrely beautiful bedazzling box of bonkers brainteasers. Catie has fallen down a hole chasing after a white rabbit, and fallen into MeowmeowLand, filled with the most
ridiculous creatures ever seen. Visually it’s absolutely gorgeous. To escape MeowmeowLand we have to complete each room, which consists of various puzzles. We can’t leave the room until we’ve finished all the puzzles. Such rooms comprise as using stars to create a picture of a cat, pushing statues to get the tuning of a set of ears right, and a plethora of delightfully ridiculous characters, including yep, a humungous smoking cat, a pirate fish, a Victorian snake and loads more, mainly cats. The title signifies what to expect in the game. I’m sure the full game will be a triumph and is due out quarter 3 2021.
Hopping into the number 9 slot is The Frogs from Michael Wells, who has an excellent first
name. I absolutely NEED to address the elephant in the room with this one. It looks strikingly similar to Joe Richardson's The Procession to Calvary, eerily so. And it plays the same too. But Joe has supposedly given Michael his blessing to ‘go do it your way man’, and so lets put that to bed. It’s renaissance paintings animated, with classical music. It’s also very funny. The puzzles weren't too shabby and it did have some nice ideas itself. Hopefully it can come from beneath the shadow of Joe and get the audience it deserves. This is out in December.
At number 8 we have The Rewinder from Misty Mountain Studio. On paper this has everything I love and it’s one I’d been eager to try. Pixel art, mythology, Eastern influences
and classic point and click. It weaves all these nicely together but I think my expectations are stupidly high, as although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I wanted to love it! But then again, it’s just the demo. As Qi Yunn, the last known Rewinder, we need to communicate with spirits to open up alternative futures, or rather, change the past. That’s what a Rewinder does. A few minigames made their way into the demo alongside the mystery and it was a little tricky too. If the full game continues the way the demo did, then I’m sure I’ll fall head over heels for it. I guess I just wanted more! There’s no release date set for it at the moment.
Another game that constantly changed time periods is Inua – a story in ice and time Developed by The Pixel Hunt, IKO and ARTE France, and comes in at 7. There are three separate stories at work here, centuries apart, but they’re all interwoven somehow. Starting out in modern day we have to question the denizens of a ship who have found remains relating to a shipwreck. In an alternate time, we also play as a crewman on that ship.
As one conversation opens more questions, we have to decipher exactly what’s going on. I became engrossed in the story here and wanted to play the full game straight away. If you’re looking for a classic point and click then this isn’t it, as the entire gameplay revolved around discovering secrets via dialogue. But it hooked me in quickly and never let go. There’s no release date for Inua yet.
Staying on the theme of cracking cases using mainly dialogue, Murder Mystery Machine is number 6 on the hitlist. Similar to Inua, this game, from Blazing Griffin, has main gameplay of questioning suspects.
What I liked about this though is that instead of getting a notebook to write everything down, we have a black screen full of every single detail, from places, people, relationships, news, and even political leanings, and we have to use our head to connect it all up and figure out the crime. What does A have to do with B and does it relate to C, or maybe X,Y,Z? It became thrilling. The downside is the awkward relationship between us and our partner. It’s like a bad police procedural from the 90s with a solo cop who’s been forced to work with a rookie. Take this annoyance out though and it’s one that I can see me being sucked into for hours on end.
At 5 is Warp Frontier from Brawsome. Probably one of the more classical point and click games on the list, and one that has a good solid knowledge on how to do puzzle design well. If you add on the extra great voice acting then Warp Frontier is a game that I’d highly recommend you check out.
We play as a solo guy in space who needs to get back home asap, but of course, something goes wrong and we’re hurled into a world of chaos. It has an interesting use of inventory and a little robot sidekick dude who can help out when needed. There’s also a really good hint system that opens up bit by bit, so if you’re super stuck it guides you through exactly what you need to do, but if you just want a push in the right direction it does that too. There’s no date of release for this as yet.
Another futuristic point and click awaits at 4, with The Sundew from developer 2054. It’s one that’s been in my sights for a while and the demo of The Sundew did not disappoint. With Lacuna, Chinatown Detective Agency, Born Punk and now this, 2021 seems to be the year of the futuristic cyberpunk adventure, and I’m fully on board with that. The demo was such a solid start with great puzzles, unique interactions with a killer soundtrack. We play as a cybernetically enhanced cop who has almost become obsolete, and she has an attitude. There felt a real sense of accomplishment after finishing some of the puzzles and the story left me wanting more. It did what every demo should do, dangle the very basic threads of something that could unravel spectacularly later on. Plus, it has amazing pixel art. This is due for release in summer 2021.
Probably the one that took me by surprise out of the entire list is at 3, and that’s Norco from Geography of Robots.
It’s so refreshing to discover something you’d never heard about, and it be spectacular in so many ways. In Norco we head home for our mothers funeral, and discover life is not what it was. It’s been years since we’ve visited and our relationship with our brother is tense. Each screen is static and the game opens up mainly with dialogue. The setting is one I don’t think I’ve come across before in decaying suburbs of South Louisiana. It’s a slow burn and I realised I’d been playing the demo for well over an hour, totally engrossed. If the demo is to go by, then Norco could become a front runner of game of the year. There’s no release date as yet.
The penultimate game on the list is Season of the Warlock from enComplet. It takes quite a while for this game to get going as there is so much exposition, but once we settle down to it, it’s a hoot.
We play as two characters, there's the servant guy who’s probably a little more educated than people think, and the Lord of the manor. I enjoyed both of these guys in the demo, and the puzzles were fun too. It’s a bright, exquisitely animated adventure with a twist. We can decide which way the game goes. Making choices is no stranger to adventure games these days, but at a pivotal point in the game, at the end of the demo I played, we can choose something huge that will completely alter our way the game is played from then on. It misses out on top spot as the dialogue and story elements went on a little too much, and it got bogged down in it’s own narrative. Still, an exceptional demo and one that headed straight to my wishlist. Again, no date for release.
And so finally to number 1, and my absolute favourite demo, and probably the game I’m looking forward to the most all year, is The Night is Grey from Whalestork Interactive.
In the game we’re a middle aged man who find himself lost in the woods after being chased by wolves. We come across what looks like an abandoned house, only to be surprised to find a young girl there. The demo takes us on a journey to get the girl to trust us. From the start I loved it. The art and world felt lived in, the character is relatable and the puzzles it offered made complete sense. There’s no reason to go rummaging through a bin if we don’t need to so we don’t, only when it’s clear that the girl needs something out the trash can we do that. It’s logic used perfectly. There was always a sense of danger thanks to the claustrophobic lighting and locations, plus the minimal music. Personally I loved the slow pace of it and at a good hour’s length, it made me want to carry straight on as soon as the demo ended. It’s one I’ll definitely be playing. This is out in December.
Thanks for reading and come over to my dedicated Facebook group The Point & Click Adventurers to discuss it, and more adventure games, further!
Michael