This month, you can become a female artist haunted by gruesome nightmares or a young girl trying to retrieve some stolen property. You could also attempt to repopulate the universe’s most delicate species, or try to unravel the mystery of a dead alien world. Alternatively, you might join a shark detective on a crime investigation or a misanthropic grump on a quest to fix his Distritube (and maybe look into a murder). All these await you in this month’s round-up of releases from the freeware scene.
Steve’s Selections
Ceasing to be. Her Demise
Aspiring art student Selina thought she’d put her nightmares behind her. Those dark, twisted images of her past had even come to haunt her waking moments, but that was years ago now. Yet here in her new flat, a sickness comes sweeping over her. The nightmares are pursuing her again, featuring strange figures with red glowing eyes and horrific vistas. Painting has held the darkness at bay in the past, but will she be able to drive it off once and for all?
Control is handled solely through a single mouse-click. Hotspot names appear when you hover over them and clicking either interacts or elicits a description. A small inventory appears at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on inventory items only gets a description; to use one you must hold the button down to drag it onto another item or the main screen. Occasionally you will not pick up an item straight away, but will note its existence. In this case, a black and white rendition of the object appears in inventory instead. This simply serves as a reminder of the object’s importance, so you must collect the object itself once you discover a use for it. Careful exploration is vital, as you can only talk to other characters about things you have examined. Lateral thinking is also crucial, embracing the surreal nature of the nightmare worlds to achieve solutions not possible in reality. A diary, collected early in the game, provides reminders of what you currently need to do. The game auto-saves at major scene changes, each section being comparatively short. There are some gory scenes, making this unsuitable for children or those of a nervous disposition.
Ceasing to be. Her Demise can be played online at the developer’s website. Downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux are also available.
The Awakening
You wake to a voice telling you that you are Subject 16, and that you are no longer infected. But the pod you are in is damaged and the laboratory apparently abandoned. On the floor lies the lifeless body of one of the Masters, and the surrounding area shows other signs of a terrible disaster. With most facilities off-line, and the complex you are in surrounded by frozen tundra, your own chance of survival looks bleak. Can those who ruled over you really have come to an end, and are you the last of your own kind?
Control is mouse-based using an alternating cursor system. Right-clicking cycles through three possible actions: walk, look and interact. Pointing at a hotspot will, in almost all cases, show its name. This includes the protagonist, allowing you to use inventory on yourself. At the start of the game you must race against the clock, as your escape from the pod has left you with a serious injury. In a later section you again have to act against a timer, though proper preparation will cause this to run fairly slowly. In both cases an on-screen bar drains away, with the game ending if it empties completely. As this returns you to the main menu, you should ensure you save before attempting anything hazardous. You will need to learn how to operate alien computers and explore a snowy landscape in search of vital tools. Cunning combination of these tools is also required to progress. Whilst the game resolves some questions, it opens up the possibility of a larger story which will hopefully be revisited in future.
The Awakening can be downloaded from the AGS website.
Murder at the Residence Gudul
The year is 3015, and Dowie has just settled down in his armchair to do the same thing he does every night: repeatedly stab the button on his remote to order consumer goods from the omnipresent Distritube. With this wonder of modern technology delivering whatever he wants right to his apartment, Dowie hardly has to move at all. But this fateful night, his beloved Distritube has suddenly stopped working. Now he must reluctantly drag himself out and – horror of horrors – interact with other people. Oh, and maybe he should look into the murder that happened downstairs as well.
A single left-click is used for all actions. Objects or people that you can interact with highlight when the cursor passes over them. You will need to explore all four floors of the building and reluctantly interact with your neighbours to solve your problems. Dowie’s character comes across as grumpy and anti-social, but very few of the neighbours seem to notice his unpleasant demeanour. Clicking on a hotspot elicits a brief description or opening line. If further interaction is possible, you will be offered a list of choices, with your inventory at the time affecting the options available. Reaching your goal involves a bit of interspecies matchmaking and adopting unorthodox machine repair techniques. The game has a moderately dark sense of humour which, while not overly adult, makes it unsuited for young children.
Murder at the Residence Gudul can be played online at the developer’s website. A name-your-own-price download is available from the same page.
Willem’s Winners
GNRBLEX
A year after the Giant Pandas died out in 2133, the Universal Preservation Act was signed, the objective of which was to save all species in the galaxy that faced extinction due to human interference. Terry and her companion robot Mary, who is only ever a light-second’s teleportation away, are assigned the job of saving the Gnrblexian mind-maggot, only two of which are still in existence. They only breed in the presence of a suitable host, and they are very sensitive to almost everything imaginable. When agitated, they tend to make their own heads fatally explode, thus complicating Terry's job a bit. She has to keep the maggot in her care alive while getting it to the breeding chamber and introducing it to its mate and their host. Unfortunately, as if all that is not difficult enough, she runs into a few problems along the way.
Terry is controlled with the mouse using both buttons: left lets Terry interact with things and right makes her describe them. Her inventory, together with buttons to save, load and quit the game, are located at the bottom of the screen. The puzzles are well thought-out: Terry has to keep the maggot alive while sometimes doing things that agitate it at the same time. This makes even mundane tasks a bit harder than normal, giving rise to a wide variety of challenges ranging from pure inventory-based puzzles, doing some math, and perusing the facility's log files to making sure you don't use the wrong equipment in certain situations. The game can end two different ways: either the maggot dies or the breeding succeeds. If you are not careful, Terry can die together with the maggot in some places in the facility. It's important to save early and save often (with only a single slot) because that maggot will die many times before you know how to avoid its demise! If you forget or press your luck too far, fortunately restarting the game doesn't take much time. All in all, GNRBLEX is a commendable game, especially considering the fact that it was made by only one person in less than a month.
GNRBLEX can be downloaded from the AGS website.
Kaitlyn and the Diving Helmet
As we are used to from this developer, Kaitlyn and the Diving Helmet is shown in third-person mode in brightly colored screens where almost no lines are parallel or straight. Kaitlyn is a young girl about eight years old, dressed in red pants and a pink T-shirt, with her long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. The heads of every character, including Kaitlyn’s, are rather large compared to the rest of their bodies. The setting comprises the house of Kaitlyn’s grandma, above which the helicopter bobs up and down, as well as the man in black's exhibition, a comic book shop, and a street. A repetitive but cheerful flute melody that can be switched off accompanies the gameplay. The voice acting is excellent: Kaitlyn sounds young and fresh, the villains mean, and the other people in the game have fitting voices as well. The sound effects, like a toilet flushing, a safe opening and a cannonball dropping on the floor, don't sound very natural but they fit the game's whimsical atmosphere well.
Kaitlyn is controlled using just a single mouse button for movement and interaction. The inventory can be found at the bottom right of the screen, with icons for the settings and a walkthrough at the bottom left. The puzzles are mostly inventory-based but Kaitlyn also has to open a few locks for which she needs to find codes consisting of either colors or numbers. While certainly not one of Carmel’s deeper games, all in all this is a fun little adventure that can be finished in a quick 20 minutes.
Kaitlyn and the Diving Helmet can be played online at Kongregate.
Marko Sharko: Missing Vase
Marko isn’t just your average shark; he happens to be the world’s first anthropomorphic, land-dwelling shark detective who is asked to look into the disappearance of the oldest vase in history, which was displayed in the Seaville library. To solve the case, Marko will need to find his way into an apartment, crack a safe and even use a pair of 3D glasses.
Only the left mouse button is used in your investigation. The inventory and some buttons for the main menu and a walkthrough are located at the bottom of the screen. You won't be needing the walkthrough, however, because the puzzles (nearly all inventory-based, though you must also find some codes and keys to open locks) are very easy. However, they are well-integrated into the story and a few of them are quite original. It’s a shame, then, that the terse text descriptions, sterile environments and lack of fitting sounds create a feeling of general detachment rather than immersion. This is a game that could have been much better if given a little bit more attention to detail, especially concerning the graphics and sound. It still has its moments, but as it stands now, it's a harmless but forgettable game that will take you about 15 minutes to finish.
Marko Sharko: Missing Vase can be played online at Newgrounds.
Other new releases
Not all games are created equal, and freeware games especially come in all shapes and sizes. Not to be overlooked, the following list might also be of interest, though these games may be significantly shorter or less polished, more experimental titles than those detailed above, some perhaps only borderline adventures to begin with.
Imaginary Friends by Mannytsu – During a lonely summer vacation, a young girl finds herself in an imaginary world with a dark undertone.
Postman’s Quest: Not Rain Nor Sleet Nor ARMAGEDDON by Amayirot Akago – The occasional zombie, demon or elder thing won’t stop you performing your mail delivery duties.
It's a Shore Thing by Carmel Games – Help some people on the beach in order to acquire a delicious watermelon.
That’s it for this month. Think we’ve missed a gem or want to tell us about your own game? Then pop in to our Adventure forum and tell us about it!
Article written by Stephen Brown and Willem Tjerkstra.