Gugames is great at making quirky point and click adventures and in this one, it's turned up to 11. The Will of Arthur Flabbington is a full length game based on an earlier jam game by the same developer. From the jam game, and later having had the privilege of beta testing, I can wholeheartedly recommend this game. From the bizarre premise, that pairs up Jack and Artie, to the twists at the end, and with all the weird and wonderful situations in between, there is a lot of humour and a lot to see. Personally, I'm a big fan of the pixel art aesthetic and especially all the nice and smooth animations in the game. Despite the low resolution by modern standards, the backgrounds are well-drawn with plenty of details and cute touches. Having played the game before voice acting was added, it has been such a treat to replay it and experience the added life brought to these characters by having them fully voiced! Beware, this is far from an easy game, with some very long chains of puzzles to figure out! You'd better pay close attention to everything, as you'll never know what you'll need later! Fortunately, the puzzles *are* always fair, and careful examination as well as taking your time to talk to all the characters, *will* lead to the solution. If you're stuck on something, try doing something else even in an entirely different location. There's a pretty good chance that doing things elsewhere will help you in your current quest line. I'm hardly the world's greatest adventure game player, but I've managed to solve the game without a walkthrough and it was an immensely satisfying experience. Overall, two thumbs up from me for this great point and click adventure!
I've been following Inspector Waffles over the past 3 years or so and was extremely happy to have the opportunity to help out in beta testing as well as drawing one of the Woolball cards. The demo version covers the (relatively short) first of five chapters and does a good job of getting you interested in the full game. Personally, I love the colourful pixel art graphics as well as the hand drawn cutscenes and the quality is consistently good throughout the game, also helped by the atmospheric music and good sound effects. The characters have a lot of personality (not just gruff street smart protagonist Waffles and his adorable partner Spotty, but also the geeky Pixel, the shrewd owner of the antiques store to name but a few) and the story goes surprisingly deep with some intriguing twists, quite a few of which I did not see coming (or at least not very far in advance) but which all made sense given the facts of the case. The puzzles are not overly hard, but pretty sensible with no moon logic. If you investigate each scene thoroughly, you shouldn't need to do a lot of backtracking. I expect a good 5-6 hours of solid entertainment on a blind playthrough for most players. Apart from the main case, there's even a sort of side quest to perform that will not only get you an achievement, but also unlocks a special reward at the end. The puns and other humour are genuinely funny and made me literally laugh out loud at times. Having followed the game for so long, I was not disappointed in how the game has turned out and I can wholeheartedly recommend Inspector Waffles. Two thumbs up from me.
The picross/nonogram puzzles are pretty enjoyable, with the difficulty ramping up nicely. The plot is over the top and so are the characters. If they were portrayed by actors rather than cartoon drawings, I'd say they're overacting, with icons and sound effects indicating emotional responses. Yes, it's a bit much, but to me that's part of the charm. Most of my gripes come from the interface, as there's no way to skip cutscenes or the tutorial, which is annoying when you've already played through them. Also no way to exit cases you've already solved when you (accidentally) re-enter them. Especially with the first one, this forces you to watch through the entire intro and tutorial and it's good 5-10 minutes before you can even open the menus to load a save game. Don't expect a masterpiece, but if you like picross puzzles, visual novels, mystery stories, or any combination thereof, give it a try.
There's a staggering amount of dialogue and a huge number of possible endings to this game and I have yet to discover them all (and wondering whether it's actually possible to get the combination that I'd most like to see). The endings range from slightly to hugely different and all the characters you meet will have their story resolved, one way or another. The story is pretty complex and playing as either Galen or Yani at certain points in the game will have you learn things about the other character that will make you rethink your own actions. Both characters have their own interesting backstories and secrets. Although there is a relatively small number of backgrounds and the character animations consider mostly of having various poses, I do not consider this a problem in the slightest. The backgrounds have a beautiful other-wordly feel of wonder to them and the characters too are very well-drawn with a lot of personality. There's even some romance options, if you make certain choices (nothing overly graphic will happen and as long as you're not offended by two people kissing you're probably fine). If you don't want to see them, just don't be flirty. Don't expect a lot of action gameplay-wise (speaking of "action" - I love the dialogue after Galen gets some of that other kind of action), but if you're looking for a well thought out story with compelling characters and beautiful visuals to boot, you should definitely have a look at Solstice.
It is hard to get a game like this right. The ABC Murders is one of Agatha Christie's most famous Poirot stories and a game cannot deviate very far from the source material if it doesn't want to become another story altogether. This means the developers had a very limited scope to work in. Unfortunately, it has resulted in a game with a plot that is incredibly linear to the point where every action is basically outlined in your list of objectives. The deductions that you have to make, while a novel idea, can amount to little more than trial and error. I think it would be nicer to have the game present you with the clues and allowing you to pick the conclusion you attach to them and to actually make mistakes in doing so. You can also not make any real mistakes in your investigations as the game simply will not advance until you've found all possible clues. The developers tried to add interest in two ways. First: by having the ego points, which could be a fun mechanic but it is currently overused as it serves both as a score counter as well as an indicator of how Poirot-like you are behaving (checking your moustache in every mirror, for instance). Second: by adding puzzle object mini-games that, when solved, allow you to find the next clues. Many will dislike these mini-games as distracting from the main storyline, but I felt they were enjoyable enough. All that being said, the story itself is famous for good reason and this game does not detract from that. The graphics, while cartoonish, are also vivid and atmospheric. The voice acting isn't bad, though Poirot's Belgian-French accent is not particularly believable, especially when you're a fan of David Suchet's portrayal of the famous fictional detective. The music is fitting and I smiled when I heard the music box play a version of the Poirot TV series theme. All in all, it's not a great game, but worth a play for Poirot fans who would like to make their way through the story in a more interactive way.
I love the world created in this game and the novel way of telling the story. Even though I'm not very good at this type of game, I did manage to get through with ANI "only" 14% corroded (and thus not beyond repair). Although I loved the concept and story, the difficulty level is very high (quicksave is your best friend while playing) and without any mapping features finding your way can be incredibly difficult, even tedious. Particularly in the blizzard where you have even fewer clues to navigate by. The island hopping section was insane and borderline unfair. The controls can really work against you and it took me literally hours to just reach any of the 3 transmitters, getting frustrated at sliding uncontrollably down every slope that looked like it could be a path. I did persevere and finish the game, trying out both choices for the ending and while the moral dilemma was interesting and had been brilliantly worked towards from pretty much the beginning of the game, I would have liked to see just a tad more difference in the endings (particularly the after-credits scene). Despite these rather substantial complaints, I did enjoy the story and the concept so much that I'm rating it 4 stars.
