A downloadable game for Windows.
I didn't expect it at first, but this game is absolutely fascinating. I lost some hours of sleep because I just couldn't put it down.
Usually, when you get one of these experimental atmospheric adventure games with retro graphics, they are not very fun and tend to think they're more clever than they really are, but this is one of the rare exceptions. Yes, there's a lot of understated atmospheric music, yes, the graphics look like they came straight from a Commodore 64 or something, but there's so much charm and wonder here, it's such a fantastic little world and the mechanics we use to explore it are really cool.
In this game, you're a shapeshifter wizard who can turn into things he looks at, and when transformed, you acquire the properties and abilities of that thing. This by itself is not the newest concept on Earth, but the way it was applied here is quite fascinating.
Anyway, your goal in the game is to explore an ancient ruin and find as much treasure as you can, all while piecing together the history of what happened, as well as the kinds of things that go on in there in the present day. The entire place is full of funny, cute and quirky little characters to discover, all involved in their own little stories. There are chess pieces, worms, rats, monsters, a surprising amount of different things, and most of them can talk. Some of them communicate in riddles, others tell funny jokes, it's really charming.
In order to advance through the ruins, you need to figure out some lock-and-key puzzles where you need to use the right shape in the right situation to progress. That has you exploring all over the place to find the right combination of stuff to do, and it's super fun to find a new shape and be like "oh! I can use this in that other place!"
And this is not a run-on-the-mill "use item on object" adventure either. Sometimes you have to get a bit clever with the way you apply your shapes and what you do with them. One situation that stood out for me was when I had to turn into a key while sliding on ice. It's this kind of thinking you have to apply to solve many of the game's puzzles, and they make you feel smart when you figure them out.
The lack of a map screen may throw some people off, but this game really doesn't need one. It is not a short game, but the world is laid out in such an intuitive manner, with easily distinguishable rooms and locations, that it's really hard to get lost.
There are some problems, though. For one, sometimes you will turn into an object that can't move, and in order to turn back, you have to reopen the shapes menu and recast the spell. I think it'd be better if we just turned back into our normal form when we clicked ourselves a second time, but I digress. Also, some monsters look a bit too similar to others, which make certain puzzles a bit annoying. I guess that's the price you pay for the simple graphical style.
Overall, though, I wasn't expecting to be this thorougly fascinated by this lovely little piece. It's charming, clever and very interesting. Check it out for sure if you haven't already.
