The Aggie Awards – The Best Adventure Games of 2021 page 13

Written by
AG Staff — February 18, 2022

Continued from the previous page...

Best Sound Effects: Papetura

You’d be forgiven for assuming a game crafted entirely out of paper might be full of nothing but rustling, crinkling, and tearing sounds. Paper is simple, inert, inanimate – what else would it sound like? Clearly solo developer Tomasz Ostafin never heard about his chosen medium’s limitations, probably because all the chirping, buzzing, and trilling of Papetura’s many inhabitants drowned such warnings out. Yes, this stunning world is made entirely from paper, but it’s stuffed to the brim with life that is anything but silent. Every noise perfectly fits the critter who makes it, from the grunts, grumbles and huffs of the curmudgeonly scroll-like protagonist Pape, to the happy squeaks and burbles of his larval buddy Tura, right on down to the many mutters, growls, splats, and susurrations of the beings and beasties they meet along the way – and all that’s on top of the ambient soundscape that gives each scene a depth and dimension you’d never expect from folded paper. What it all boils down to is clear as a bell: Papetura deserves our 2021 Aggie for Best Sound Effects.

Runners-Up:

Genesis Noir

Happy Game

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Down in Bermuda

Readers’ Choice: Happy Game

Amanita Design knows audio. Time and time again (with many a previous Aggie Award to prove it), the indie Czech studio has dazzled us with soundscapes that defy easy description, blurring the line between foley-type effects and music so fully as to make it practically indistinguishable. While the horror-tinged Happy Game is much darker than any previous Amanita production, it continues its predecessors’ proud tradition of communicating everything it needs through sound design. The unnamed young protagonist never speaks intelligibly, of course, instead muttering, moaning and squeaking his way through the nightmare landscape of his subconscious, surrounded by growling monsters, babbling imps, and all manner of gleefully squelching, splattering atrocities. The game might not be as happy as its title winkingly claims, but it’s a sure bet that audiophiles will be, and for that Amanita picks up another Best Sound Effects statuette for its mantle, this time from AG readers.