The Aggie Awards – The Best Adventure Games of 2021 page 6

Written by
AG Staff — February 18, 2022

Continued from the previous page...

Best Gameplay: Chicory: A Colorful Tale

As the recent flood of adult-focused colouring books has shown, there's a simple, universal, and creative joy in bringing scenes to life with splashes of colour. The wild exuberance and purple skies of youth give way to a more thoughtful, meditative experience in later life, and it's this that Greg Lobanov’s Chicory: A Colorful Tale taps into. The residents of Picnic, you see, start out in a black-and-white line-drawn land, waiting and hoping for the wielder of a magic brush (that would be you) to put a little vibrancy back in their cheeks, both literally and metaphorically. Before long you're using that brush to swipe luminous paint across dark caves, dab plants so they’ll project you into hard-to-reach places, fill the clouds with rain to make them physically traversable, and more, leaving a trail of rainbow-hued chaos behind as you go. Chicory plays with the seemingly simple act of colouring, using it in quirky ways to both create tricky puzzles and drive a quietly affecting (and at times surprisingly dark) story about bravery in the face of self-doubt. At once imaginative and reflective, it richly deserves this year's (probably paint-spattered) Aggie for Best Gameplay.

Runners-Up:

The Forgotten City

Lacuna

Maskmaker

Gamedec

Readers’ Choice: The Forgotten City

Investigating a crime is commonplace in adventure games, but investigating a sin is far less so, let alone one that technically hasn’t been committed yet. That’s partly what makes Modern Storyteller’s The Forgotten City so much fun to play. Before you can stop a misdeed that will turn the inhabitants of an ancient Roman city to golden statues and reset the day back to the beginning, you must first figure out who and what are destined to cause it all. It’s essentially a puzzle box the size of a small town, full of a thousand intricately crafted pieces that move, react and change according to what you do. The blissfully accursed townsfolk feel authentic, and getting to know them only makes you care more about their impending doom if you’re unable to prevent it. And indeed, you won’t – time and time again. Mistakes are not only encouraged but actually required in order to finish, as utilizing the perpetual time loop whenever someone breaks the “Golden Rule” will be crucial in putting all the pieces of this puzzle box together. Throw in a bit of light action for a change of pace, and the end result is a well-deserved reader Aggie for Best Gameplay.