Platform(s): Windows PC, Mac, Linux
Release Date: May 25th, 2021
Genre: Point-and-click adventure
Price: $13.49 USD / £10.25 GBP
Player(s): 1
Format: Digital
Developer: Wormwood Studios
Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games
Website: Strangeland - Wadjet Eye Games
Alice Bell (Rock Paper Shotgun)
"Wormwood Studios made an impressive debut in 2012 with Primordia, so expectations were high for their long-awaited follow-up, and it does not disappoint. Unlike their earlier postapocalyptic sci-fi adventure, Strangeland is a surrealist, psychologic horror adventure that feels like it was drawn by H.R. Giger, designed by M.C. Escher, and written by Aeschylus. It's a polished, well-written, well-acted and intriguing interactive nightmare that is easily worth your time—if you can stomach the unrelenting depressive tone and disturbing imagery."
Alexis Ong (Indie Game Website)
Luke Kemp (PC Gamer)
Kenzie Du (KeenGamer)
Release Date: May 25th, 2021
Genre: Point-and-click adventure
Price: $13.49 USD / £10.25 GBP
Player(s): 1
Format: Digital
Developer: Wormwood Studios
Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games
Website: Strangeland - Wadjet Eye Games
SYNOPSIS
"You awake in a nightmarish carnival and watch a golden-haired woman hurl herself down a bottomless well for your sake. You seek clues and help from jeering ravens, an eyeless scribe, a living furnace, a mismade mermaid, and many more who dwell within the park. All the while, a shadow shrieks from atop a towering roller-coaster, and you know that until you destroy this Dark Thing, the woman will keep jumping, falling, and dying, over and over again…"
FEATURES
"You awake in a nightmarish carnival and watch a golden-haired woman hurl herself down a bottomless well for your sake. You seek clues and help from jeering ravens, an eyeless scribe, a living furnace, a mismade mermaid, and many more who dwell within the park. All the while, a shadow shrieks from atop a towering roller-coaster, and you know that until you destroy this Dark Thing, the woman will keep jumping, falling, and dying, over and over again…"
FEATURES
- A brand new adventure from the makers of Primordia!
- Approximately five hours of gameplay, replayable thanks to different choices, different puzzle solutions, and different endings
- Dozens of rooms to explore, with variant versions as the carnival grows ever more twisted
- An eccentric cast, including a sideshow freak, a telepathic starfish, an animatronic fortune-teller, and a trio of masqueraders
- Full, professional voice over and hours of original music
- A rich, thematic story about identity, loss, self-doubt, and redemption
- Integrated, in-character hint system (optional, of course)
- Hours of developer commentary and an "annotation mode" (providing on-screen explanations for the references woven throughout the game)
MEDIA
Alice Bell (Rock Paper Shotgun)
" As a work of horror Strangeland is doing way more interesting things than yer Outlasts, for example... It's an interesting suberversion, because dying is often how you know you've failed a puzzle in a point and click game. I mean, it's famously a failstate in most games, and Strangeland is making a definite choice - one that contrasts with the ultimate revelation that in reality death is pretty final.
You can rip through Strangeland in a morning, if you feel like it. You'll either love everything that is implied by a creepy carnival and funhouse mirrors and the black dog and the giant crab, and engage really well with all the back-and-forth wordplay and the layers of meaning, or you'll hate it. All that Donnie Darko bullshit. Who has the time? But it's a bit of a shame if you're one of the latter, because the depression goo is mixed up with some very nice puzzle design."
Jesse Gregoire (Adventure Gamers)You can rip through Strangeland in a morning, if you feel like it. You'll either love everything that is implied by a creepy carnival and funhouse mirrors and the black dog and the giant crab, and engage really well with all the back-and-forth wordplay and the layers of meaning, or you'll hate it. All that Donnie Darko bullshit. Who has the time? But it's a bit of a shame if you're one of the latter, because the depression goo is mixed up with some very nice puzzle design."
"Wormwood Studios made an impressive debut in 2012 with Primordia, so expectations were high for their long-awaited follow-up, and it does not disappoint. Unlike their earlier postapocalyptic sci-fi adventure, Strangeland is a surrealist, psychologic horror adventure that feels like it was drawn by H.R. Giger, designed by M.C. Escher, and written by Aeschylus. It's a polished, well-written, well-acted and intriguing interactive nightmare that is easily worth your time—if you can stomach the unrelenting depressive tone and disturbing imagery."
Alexis Ong (Indie Game Website)
"There are oblique hints of Peake's Gormenghast books: not so much the dysfunctional pseudo-medieval politics, but the oppressive, inescapable atmosphere and the glacial illusion of 'progress' as you creep through the game. Strangeland is, as the designers have discussed via Steam posts, an exploration of sadness prompted by events in their personal lives; including this Gormenghast quote: 'In the presence of real tragedy you feel neither pain nor joy nor hatred, only a sense of enormous space and time suspended, the great doors open to black eternity, the rising across the terrible field of that last enormous, unanswerable question.'
I would like to play that game. Doing more with less is underrated, and it's hard to create something vast and unknowable if you build it around recognizable genre tropes that prevent you from doing something truly interesting. One of the neatest parts of Strangeland is, in fact, a tarot-reading sequence that requires a little bit of basic memory, dramatic introspection and imagination. It's a nice balance of arcane divination, mystery, and a pinch of meta-commentary—after all, tarot was mostly originally used as gaming cards. Seeing how the reading reappeared later in the narrative is a neat touch, and if anyone wants to make a point-and-click tarot adventure around this idea, I'd love to play it."
I would like to play that game. Doing more with less is underrated, and it's hard to create something vast and unknowable if you build it around recognizable genre tropes that prevent you from doing something truly interesting. One of the neatest parts of Strangeland is, in fact, a tarot-reading sequence that requires a little bit of basic memory, dramatic introspection and imagination. It's a nice balance of arcane divination, mystery, and a pinch of meta-commentary—after all, tarot was mostly originally used as gaming cards. Seeing how the reading reappeared later in the narrative is a neat touch, and if anyone wants to make a point-and-click tarot adventure around this idea, I'd love to play it."
Luke Kemp (PC Gamer)
"While there's an enormous amount to unpack and interpret, you don't have to take a scholarly approach to enjoy the game. If you're just looking for a surreal horror adventure, Strangeland can absolutely deliver that. However, the further you stray from interpreting its message, the more difficult it is to enjoy. Considered purely as a point-and-click game, Strangeland is not great. Considered purely as an artful exploration of difficult subjects, it's largely a success. The truth of the situation, of course, is that it's a mix of the two, which makes for an uneven experience.
I'm very glad for Strangeland: It's smart, unapologetically creepy and gloomy, and knows exactly what it wants to do. Should other games follow Strangeland's deep dark footsteps however, they'll need to do a better job of telling their stories with sharp and compelling game design."
I'm very glad for Strangeland: It's smart, unapologetically creepy and gloomy, and knows exactly what it wants to do. Should other games follow Strangeland's deep dark footsteps however, they'll need to do a better job of telling their stories with sharp and compelling game design."
Kenzie Du (KeenGamer)
"Wormwood Studios developed Strangeland as a spiritual successor for their first title, Primordia. They add a science-fiction psychological horror experience to the Wadjet Eye Games portfolio, which includes critically acclaimed modern point-and-click adventures. Strangeland's themes and aesthetics draw parallels to games such as Sanitarium and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, complete with the high-quality classic art and stories that blur the line between the mundane and the cosmically horrific.
Strangeland is both a satisfying mystery and an atmospheric horror journey through a dark nightmare. Humor and tragedy collide to bring a literary experience for its players. Great puzzles, character writing, and multiple possible solutions give credit to its players while personalizing the path to one of the endings. Overall, Strangeland is a complete experience that masterfully balances grotesquerie and relatability."
Strangeland is both a satisfying mystery and an atmospheric horror journey through a dark nightmare. Humor and tragedy collide to bring a literary experience for its players. Great puzzles, character writing, and multiple possible solutions give credit to its players while personalizing the path to one of the endings. Overall, Strangeland is a complete experience that masterfully balances grotesquerie and relatability."
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