You awake in a nightmarish carnival and watch a golden-haired woman hurl herself down a bottomless well for your sake. You seek clues and help from jeering ravens, an eyeless scribe, a living furnace, a mismade mermaid, and many more who dwell within the park. All the while, a shadow shrieks fr...
You awake in a nightmarish carnival and watch a golden-haired woman hurl herself down a bottomless well for your sake. You seek clues and help from jeering ravens, an eyeless scribe, a living furnace, a mismade mermaid, and many more who dwell within the park. All the while, a shadow shrieks from atop a towering roller-coaster, and you know that until you destroy this Dark Thing, the woman will keep jumping, falling, and dying, over and over again.... Strangeland is a classic point-and-click adventure that integrates a compelling narrative with engaging puzzles. For almost a decade, we've been working on a worthy successor to the fan-acclaimed Primordia, and we are proud, at long last, to share our second game.
Strangeland is a place like no other. Even in the real world, carnivals occupy a twilight territory between the fantastic and the mundane, the alien and the familiar. In their funhouse mirrors, their freaks, and their frauds, we see hideous and haunting reflections of ourselves, and we witness the wonder and horror of humanity in just a few frayed tents, peeling circus wagons, dingy booths, and run-down rides. Strangeland, of course, is most definitely not the real world. Indeed, figuring out where—and who—you are is one of the game's many mysteries.
As you explore Strangeland, you will need to gather otherworldly tools and win strange allies to overcome a daunting array of obstacles. Forge a blade from iron stolen from the jaws of a ravenous hound and hone it with wrath and grief; charm the eye out of a ten-legged teratoma; and ride a giant cicada to the edge of oblivion.... Amidst such madness, death itself has no grip on you, and you will wield that slippery immortality to gain an edge over your foes.
Navigating this domain of monsters and metaphors will require understanding its denizens and its enigmas. Unlike many adventure games that offer a linear experience and single-solution puzzles, Strangeland lets you pick your own way, your own approach, and your own meaning—one player might win a carnival game with sharpshooting, another by electrical engineering; one player might unravel a strange prophet's wordplay while another gathers visual clues scattered throughout the environment. Ultimately, Strangeland's story will be your story. You are not the audience; you are the player.
Approximately five hours of gameplay, replayable thanks to different choices, different puzzle solutions, and different endings
Breathtaking pixel art in twice Primordia's resolution (640x360—party like it's 1999!)
Dozens of rooms to explore, with variant versions as the carnival grows ever more twisted
An eccentric cast, including a sideshow freak, a telepathic starfish, an animatronic fortune-teller, and a trio of masqueraders
Full, professional voice over and hours of original music
A rich, thematic story about identity, loss, self-doubt, and redemption
Integrated, in-character hint system (optional, of course)
Hours of developer commentary and an "annotation mode" (providing on-screen explanations for the references woven throughout the game)
At Wormwood Studios, we make games out of love—love for the games we've spent our lifetimes playing, love for the games we ourselves create, and love for the players who have made all of those games possible. We know that players invest not just their money and time in the games they play, but also their hope and enthusiasm. And we want to make sure that players receive a rich return on that investment by creating games that provide not only a fun, challenging diversion for a few hours, but also lasting memories to keep for years.
We think the best way to achieve that with Strangeland is to adhere to the genius of the adventure genre: the marriage of challenging puzzles and thrilling exploration, on the one hand, with an engaging narrative, on the other. At the same time, we've tried to remove the punitive aspects of adventure games (deaths, dead ends, illogical puzzles, pixel hunting, backtracking, etc.). Within this framework, we add uncanny visuals, memorable characters, and thought-provoking themes. The result for Primordia was a game that has received thousands of positive player reviews, and we have refined our approach further with Strangeland. We hope it will not disappoint the players who have given us such great support and encouragement over the years! And we hope that it will find a place in the hearts of new players as well.
A very interesting journey into a man's subconcscious. Enjoyable point and click with a lot of deaths and do overs. The game really hooked me and I finished it in a one sit, 6 hour play. Great atmosphere and enjoyable puzzles . I liked it even better than Wormwood's first game, Primordia.
Have you ever thought you'd meet something so gorgeous, so incredibly well made, so polished with ideas that it feels as if you're directly into someone's mind? This is an amazing game, I won't spoil what it is about but beware facing the mirror when you play it. It will show you things that are already there.
This is the first game from the otherwise superb Wadjet Eye Adventure portfolio that I don't like at all. Why?
1. Extreme feel-bad factor. Like a cynical, sick visualisation of a severe depression.
2. The story is not exciting. It doesn't interest or motivate me at all.
3. I don't like the graphic style. A bit of wannabe Giger.
4. The "hires" graphics (hires at least for retro point and click adventures) are technically not as well realised as in other Wadjet Eye titles (e.g. Unavowed).
For me, the game falls into the same category as "I have no mouth and I must scream".
This is a nice little adventure game. The graphical design fits the tone well with all the surrealism.
It maybe feels a bit short or small. There arent many scenes to visit. But that is okay. It isnt stretched out unneccessarily, so Im happy with it.
I hope we will see from that dev!
This game is a amazing experience of art and design.
You can tell the developers put their heart and soul in everything presented.
The meaning behind everything is something to analyse. But it worked for me on a purely emotional level. You understand this in the end of the game.
I enjoyed every second of it.
Only Spoiler I would give is the prophecy riddle. I recommend reading a guide or call the ingame operator. I know the developer of this riddle had the best intentions for this but I dont see how anyone could solve this without help.
Thanks to the developers for this experience!