Don't want to see articles from a certain category? When logged in, go to your User Settings and adjust your feed in the Content Preferences section where you can block tags!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.
Chapter 1 of developer Adventure Mob's point-and-click adventure has been released on itch.io, Humble Store and Steam.

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

I've given the first chapter a try, and I'm not sure what to say about it yet. The quality of the character sprites feels uneven and stylistically mixed, the backgrounds are sometimes very blurry, voice acting seems to be missing in places, and there's not lip-sync as much as there's sort of simultaneous voice acting and looped movement of lips. There are other issues too, which sometimes seem to require a restart of the game to resolve.

I found one of the early dialogue puzzles a bit tedious as it required numerous steps to solve, and I still had to go through the motions even long after I'd figured out what I needed to do. My progress was cut short quickly after that though, since I have no idea what to do now, and there's little indication of what my options are, even though I do have a clear task at hand.

The game has two separate inventories—one traditional one for items you pick up and one for inspiration or emotions that are sometimes triggered by events in the game. I think this is an interesting feature, but since they are so similar in use, I think it would have been better if they were combined into one inventory where "ethereal items" would still be easily distinguishable by their translucent icons.

There are hints of a good adventure game in here, and looking at their Trello board, it's apparent that a ton of work has gone into making this first chapter. I'm afraid it might not have the kind of polish that makes it stand out enough in today's crowded market though, and it's difficult to make a recommendation until I've played more of this chapter and the next and know more about where it's heading.

If you want to play the first chapter now, you can find it on itch.io, Humble Store and Steam. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
0 Likes
About the author -
author picture
A big fan of platformers, puzzle games, point-and-click adventures and niche indie games.

I run the Hidden Linux Gems group on Steam, where we highlight good indie games for Linux that we feel deserve more attention.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
3 comments

tuubi May 2, 2016
View PC info
  • Supporter
The idea seems fresh and the graphics pretty enough... Too bad about the poor execution. Missing lipsync I can overlook (common in older adventures), but game-breaking bugs not so much. Hope they'll be fixed at some point.
tuubi May 2, 2016
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: EikeEverbody interested in the topic needs to play Journey Down if he hasn't yet done so!
Everebody interested in adventure games needs to play Journey Down. :) Can't wait for Chapter 3.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.