Gamescom 2014 round-up – Part 1
Silence: The Whispered World 2
The first time you see Silence, you might find it hard to believe it is in fact a sequel to The Whispered World. Where the first game was a defiant statement in good-looking 2D art when 3D (or at least 2.5D) was already the norm, Silence takes the more modern approach, and still looks great doing it. Likewise, it might feel a bit off that the story starts with a ‘real world’ mountain village being attacked by World War II-style bombers. I can’t say much more about the story without spoiling the first game (to read more, see our earlier preview), but the new main characters will get back into the familiar Whispered World soon enough, with the starting place being relatively unimportant to the larger adventure.
Silence and The Devil’s Men had wall-sized mural displays at Daedalic’s booth |
As for gameplay, expect puzzles to be a bit easier and perhaps a bit less numerous. The design philosophy is to pay more attention to the story and move away from ‘puzzles for the sake of puzzles’. That said, the shape-changing sidekick Spot is back and as useful as ever, and the part I saw had no lack of natural puzzle moments. Commonly occurring hallucinogenic plants and occasional switching between playable characters should also spice things up.
Silence: The Whispered World 2 is set to come out early next year.
Fire
Among an otherwise largely traditional lineup, including The Devil’s Men (which we previewed at E3), the Stone-Age themed puzzler Fire was Daedalic’s odd duck. Rather than emulating conventional titles, everything about Fire from the level-based experimentation gameplay to the fairly light story to the endearing little silent protagonist brings to mind Amanita’s peculiar gems, especially Samorost. Each level has you guide caveman Ungh to a firefly that will lead him to the next level, ultimately aiming to reach a volcano where he can get a new source of fire, which he needs to make up for causing his tribe’s fireplace go out on his watch.
Beyond just making the formula work for them, which they seemed to do well enough in the level I saw, Daedalic is also putting its own twist on the art: where Amanita likes to go with a gouache style, Fire aims more at cartoony, and pulls it off quite nicely. Everywhere you go, great little animations add charm and humor, adding up to a delightful experience. The clarity and high contrast of this style should also benefit the tablet versions, which are already being planned. The PC and Mac versions of Fire are due later this year, with the tablet versions coming at some point after that.
Randal’s Monday
While Daedalic is also the publisher behind Randal’s Monday, I was shown the game by Spanish studio Nexus Games, who are nothing if not ambitious. As our meeting started they introduced the game to me as a “classic” point-and-click adventure, and if it doesn’t become one it won’t be for lack of trying. With over 40 characters, 50 locations, 200 distinct animations and some 20 hours of gameplay divided over 7 chapters and a prologue and epilogue, they are not skimping on anything.
The story is like a combination of a sitcom episode and Groundhog Day. It’s Monday, and the rent on Randal’s disorganized mess of an apartment is long due. Not having any of his excuses, his landlord will throw him out if he can’t cough up the money that day. When Randal asks his boss for an advance, he is fired instead and turns to the pawnshop. Since his own stuff isn’t worth anything, Randal ultimately gets the money by pawning off an engagement ring he stole from a friend. It’s a move befitting of jerk protagonists like Rufus and Simon the Sorcerer, but karmic justice is much swifter for Randal. After finding out his ring got ‘lost’, Randal’s friend commits suicide that evening. And things get worse from there.
The next morning, Randal finds that it’s the same Monday again. As will become clear soon enough, the ring was cursed and he is stuck in a loop until he can set things right. Which will not be as easy as just not selling the ring. Somehow what Randal does on one Monday affects the next; in the new day the ring is already in the pawnbroker’s possession, and already sold on further by the time he gets there.
The loose time travel-like mechanic will obviously have its use in puzzles; in one scenario I saw you could reschedule a conference simply by scribbling a new date over the poster and waiting a ‘day’. To avoid boredom from having the same things repeated each day, there is also some variety thrown into the writing: each morning Randal makes up different inane excuses to hold off his landlord, and each evening his friend commits suicide in a different absurd way (the first time by sticking his head in the oven) and Randal throws different quips at the police officers who call him to the scene (as he is mentioned unfavorably in the suicide note). This reflects the approach to the rest of the game, which is stuffed with jokes everywhere and crammed even further with all kinds of pop culture references.
Clerks star Jeff Anderson voices Randal
The cartoony style fits the atmosphere well enough, and so does the overall solid voice acting. Notably, Randal is voiced by Jeff Anderson, who also played the character he was inspired by: Randal Graves in Clerks. That doesn’t mean much to me personally, but certainly the voice works well in the game.
With Daedalic’s support as the publisher, Randal’s Monday is coming out in early November.
Her Majesty’s SPIFFING
Towards the end of the first day I sat down with Billy Goat Entertainment for a look at Her Majesty’s SPIFFING. While the demo was too early to let me explore much or even finish the first puzzle, the things I did see bode well. Chief among them is the writing, which already shines through. The unapologetically British and ever self-deprecating humor brings to mind the Hector and Ben & Dan series and is at a similar level, though never as raunchy as either.
Instead of raunchiness, SPIFFING goes for parodied national stereotypes. The art style goes quite well with this and so does the voice acting, especially for the main character, a fat pompous captain whose voice is just perfect. Naturally the first puzzle is to make a cup of tea, and one for the scrawny more level-headed subordinate who knows just how to talk his way around his boss. Further national pride is on display in the design of the ship itself, which has iconic parts including the front of a Mini Cooper van, though to further the self-deprecating humor a lot of British tech will be portrayed as shoddy.
The British aren’t the only ones getting spoofed, as contact with aliens will take a backseat to interactions with similar expeditions from other countries, including French, American and German ones, with the French leader being a riff on Napoleon and the American team being out to grab natural resources under the guise of spreading democracy. The developers plan to release the game in three episodes, each focusing on the interactions with one of these groups, and hope to release the first episode around this time next year.
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