E3 2016 round-up
Yesterday Origins
It seems that Pendulo Studios has taken user feedback from its first outing in the Yesterday series to heart, and is implementing a few changes for this sophomore turn, including a novel approach to its puzzle solving. Yesterday Origins is 3D point-and-click adventure game whose cartoonish art style belies its somber atmosphere and mature subject matter. The game is as much prequel as it is sequel, with its story split between John Yesterday, protagonist of the first game, and his wife Pauline. While John’s story is set during the gruesome Spanish Inquisition and serves as the prequel for what is to come, Pauline’s segments take place in modern-day Paris and drive the story forward.
My demonstration focused on John, whose goal in the game is to complete the ritual that will make him immortal. But first thing’s first: for starters, John has to find a way to escape the dungeon he’s been thrown into. Accomplishing this took the entire length of the demo; the process was long and deliciously complex, and should please those who felt the original game lacked in difficulty. This time around, the developers are taking steps to dedicate the game more to the hardcore adventure audience.
As if not bad enough to wake up as a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, John’s cellmate is a pig, thrown into the cell because of its fondness for human flesh, an affront to God. Should the pig break free of the rope binding it, John is informed, it will surely attack and devour him as well. Moments later, a second body, this one already dead, is dropped in on a rope through an access panel in the cell’s ceiling. Things are definitely getting crowded in here.
The solution to the puzzle is a convoluted one, but it involves faking your own death and making use of a hallucinogenic poison to induce visions of a Satanic porcine frolicking in an orgy of blood. See what I mean about the mature content? But what’s more interesting are the mechanics involved in pulling this off. There is no on-screen interface until the inventory is opened using a controller button. Dialog happens using close-up inserts of the characters, and cinematics play out via comic book panels. Items in your inventory can be combined, but to do so successfully you not only have to choose the correct items, but also choose the right motivation for why you’re doing it from a list of options. This will hopefully prevent random item combinations, as it forces players to think several steps ahead, and have a good reason in mind as to why they should be combined in the first place.
I got some good news in parting: Yesterday Origins is confirmed for a September 29, 2016 release, making an appearance on Windows and Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter
Ukrainian developer Frogwares has had much success with its Sherlock Holmes series of adventure games, gradually adapting the formula by introducing a score of gameplay mechanics that help players really take on the role of London’s most famous sleuth and solve cases the way he would. Their latest release, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter, does not reinvent the wheel, instead further refining the process to tell a more personal, emotional story.
The first thing one notices when starting the game is that both Holmes and Watson appear to look younger than when we last saw them. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as the game is not a direct sequel to 2014’s Crimes & Punishments and does not follow the established timeline. Each case in the game is a standalone story, though they all tie together to tell an overarching tale centered on young Katelyn, Professor Moriarty’s daughter, now adopted by Holmes.
The case shown at E3, “Infamy”, introduces a mysterious American actor named Orson Wilde, just arrived at 221B Baker Street to study Holmes for a role he’s preparing to play. Immediately, the game switches to detective mode, in which Holmes makes some character judgments through careful observation. Occasionally, players will have to make a decision on the spot during such character investigations. For example, Orson Wilde has an American pin attached to his lapel; is it because he enjoys the attention this attracts, or is he actually that patriotic? Even this first scene contributes to solving the larger case at hand; an incorrect deduction at any point during the investigation, while not making a successful conclusion impossible, will certainly make it more difficult to achieve. It does not bode well for me that my conclusions about Orson Wilde proved to be false after checking the character screen.
That night, a precariously ticking container is thrown through the flat’s window. Diffusing the situation with mere seconds to spare, Holmes enlists the aid of his Baker Street Irregulars, the gang of streetwise boys he sometimes tasks with helping him, to report back to him the whereabouts of the man suspected to have thrown the bomb. Holmes sets off to follow the suspect to the Green Dragon Tavern.
Once at the tavern, in order to pursue the suspect further, Holmes must create a distraction that will get the burly gorilla guarding the establishment’s back door away from his post. To do this, I entered imagination mode, which let me slowly plan out a complicated series of steps to manipulate the environment and the people in it, selecting them in the right order to achieve the desired outcome, then executing it to move on. Causing a brawl at a nearby card table gets the guard off his seat, and Holmes quietly sneaks out the back.
Here’s where a more action-oriented sequence plays out: Sherlock must cross to a neighboring rooftop via a wooden plank spanning the gap. To keep his balance, it’s up to the player to to keep two separate on-screen icons in their respective areas, otherwise Holmes loses his balance and falls. After three failed attempts, I handed the controller to my guide from Frogwares’ development team; she crossed the gap in one attempt.
Following the trail to the suspect’s residence, Holmes must make use of his gift of masquerading to gain entrance by posing as a pious preacher to the aging lady of the house. Once inside, I got a chance to see another gameplay mechanic as Holmes, in his churchly disguise, stages an exorcism in order to access his suspect’s private room. This is done in the form of a Quick Time Event, following an on-screen series of button presses to pass each sequence. There are, of course, more aspects to the case from this point on, none of which I saw due to time constraints (nor particularly wanted to spoil until I get the chance to take the game through its paces on my own).
In the end, it’s time to put all the clues together and solve the case. But wait, there’s one more decision to be made. As in the previous game, each case ends by giving you a moral choice, whether to turn in the guilty party to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, or to turn a blind eye and exercise mercy, perhaps due to extenuating circumstances that forced them to do what they did. Since the cases get more and more complex, there are a multitude of ways each can be solved, and different individuals can be accused and arrested, depending on your conclusions. The game leaves it up to each player’s intuition and deductive skill to steer toward the outcome they perceive as right, and just like in real life it is possible to bungle it up by having an innocent person arrested on false charges. You can carry on this way never being any the wiser, although a case-by-case comparison option for those that absolutely have to know whether they achieved the intended outcome is also included once each case is solved.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is out now, available for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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