This month, those who look forward to the future can travel to a space station with a dark secret, or for those who prefer the past, you can visit a 16th century execution that doesn't quite go as history recorded it. If you'd rather get up to a little mischief for a good cause, you can try to break all ten commandments to attract God's attention. Alternatively, you might face every student's worst fear of taking an exam when you haven't even been to any lectures. All these await in this month's round-up of releases from the freeware scene.
Steve’s Selections
Forever Space
Greg Winston had long dreamed of travelling into space, and finally his chance has come. Now he and four others have been chosen to take part in a project aboard an orbiting space station. Their job is simple enough: to monitor audio signals coming from deep space for any variation that indicates they were made by intelligent life. But as Greg settles into his new job, he starts to become concerned. Why is he unable to clearly recall the months leading up to his selection for training for this mission? Is there more to his dream job than meets the eye?
Control is handled through the mouse, with left-click used to both move and interact. When clicking on a hotspot, a context-sensitive menu appears showing the possible interactions available. There is no separate inventory screen. Instead, collected items appear as menu options when they can be used on a particular hotspot. At the start of the game, the action is mundane, with the protagonist simply trying to prepare himself for his upcoming task and get to know his teammates. Once on the space station, however, the mystery starts to emerge and it is up to the player to resolve it. This is mainly achieved by interacting with your colleagues, though how friendly or unfriendly you are will affect the help they offer. There is also a small amount of item use, though you may need to search a bit to find the required objects.
Forever Space can be downloaded from the developer’s website or played online at itch.io.
The Execution of Anne Boleyn
It is the 19th of May, 1536, and Anne Boleyn is scheduled to be executed on the orders of Henry VIII. However, a time-traveller has different ideas, and approaches Anne in her cell within the Tower of London. According to this visitor from the future, this is not the way history is supposed to go, and she needs Anne’s help to set things right again. Leaving a robot facsimile in Anne’s place, the two set out to escape the Tower and put the timeline back on its proper course.
Mouse control involves left-click to move/interact and right-click to examine. Moving the cursor up causes a small inventory interface to drop down from the top of the screen, where you can examine and interact with objects collected. This also includes a button that allows you to switch between Anne and her futuristic visitor. As both have separate inventory items, you will need to engage in some switching to get all the objects you need. There are a few item-based puzzles to solve, mostly involving simple combination. You will also need to find a coded message in a letter, and determine an important number from the conversation of two guards. The latter puzzle effectively comes with an escalating hint system, as repeatedly listening to the guards offers further clues to the answer. The overall tone is tongue-in-cheek, with some light jabs at both history and game conventions.
The Execution of Anne Boleyn can be downloaded from the AGS website.
Willem’s Winners
10 Ways from Sunday
Debra is sleeping in church when she hears the voice of her recently deceased brother Timothy calling to her in her dreams. Something is wrong with him! But what? For that answer, Debra devises a cunning plan to get God's attention so she can ask him what is wrong with her brother: she will break each of the 10 commandments! However, sometimes things don't exactly go as planned...
The two-button interface uses left-click to interact and right-click to observe, the mouse cursor itself making very clear which button does what. When the cursor is at the top of the screen, a bar appears containing the inventory and an icon that opens the game's menu. Breaking all 10 commandments presents a bit of an ethical challenge, and Debra has to do perform some acts she hopes never to have to do again. The diversity of the commandments yields very different puzzles: some of them are inventory-based but there are also conversation puzzles and sometimes Debra just has to do something naughty. None of the solutions are hard, but the game’s length, the number of puzzles and the excellent voice-overs make 10 Ways from Sunday an outstanding MAGS game. Although some may find using the Bible this way to be insulting or blasphemous, this is quite a funny and lighthearted game that isn’t meant to be taken seriously.
10 Ways from Sunday can be downloaded from its AGS webpage
Symploke: Legend of Gustavo Bueno – Chapter 1
Benito Retamosa has finally arrived at the university’s Philosophy department. It's exam time, and because he hasn't attended any courses yet, having been too busy partying and generally being lazy, Benito needs notes so he can learn the material. Of course, nobody wants to help somebody they don't even know, so Benito has to make some friends first. This means engaging in such tasks as stealing a graded exam from the dean, gaining access to the pantry and mixing a drink.
Using the standard AGS interface, right-click scrolling or selecting the appropriate icon at the top left of the screen lets you choose between look, interact, talk and walk, along with the currently selected inventory item, with the cursor shape changing to reflect the chosen option. Left-clicking performs the desired action. Moving the cursor to the side of the screen will show if there is another place Benito can walk to, and clicking the exit makes him walk there regardless of the current cursor. The top right of the screen has icons for the inventory and main menu, along with an image of the item you are presently holding. Next to those is a counter that shows you how many points you have achieved and how many you can score in total. All of the puzzles are inventory-based and none are very hard, though some require combining items within the inventory itself.
This first chapter starts rather slowly, as it's not clear how Benito thinks he will make it to graduation, and he doesn't get far in obtaining the necessary notes. He is also reluctant to talk to people and keeps to himself unless he really has no choice. Still, the ending is poignant and wraps up this installment very well. Overall, the atmosphere and the number of different characters you interact with make Symploke a slow but promising start to what could be an interesting series. I look forward to Chapter 2.
Symploke: Legend of Gustavo Bueno – Chapter 1 can be downloaded on Steam under the Spanish title Symploké: La Leyenda de Gustavo Bueno – Capítulo 1.
Other 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.
Room 42 by Akumu Games – Trapped in a room by a disease that turns people into monsters, can you trust any of your companions? (Contains a brief arcade shooting section.)
Fred and Barney Meet the Future by slasher – When a NASA equipment bag drops through a wormhole, it ends up in the hands of caveman Fred. Will it help him nab a dodo egg?
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.