I've been holding off on my March update while I complete the
Cube Escape Collection that I was partway through as April started, so with this now being the first weekend since I've beaten all nine games (several of which will be in my April update), here are my eight games for March.
Master post here.
16.
Unavowed (PC - Steam) | 8 March 2021
Complete playthrough. The latest offering from Wadjet Eye Games modern masters of the point-and-click adventure game,
Unavowed tells a supernatural story in a contemporary setting, with players taking control of a character recently released from demonic possession., who joins the evil-fighting group "The Unavowed" as they seek to understand the motives behind that possession and the 'unpleasantries' committed during it. The plot here is utterly compelling, in an impressively well-realised and internally consistent world, and features a number of impactful, well-judged 'twists'.
Taking place over a series of (mostly self-contained) scenarios that ensure that the complexity of the puzzle-solving stays as a balances level of complexity, perhaps the greatest innovation on offer here is the implementation of a party system, with the main protagonist accompanied to each location by two from the wider group, freely selectable, and the puzzle solutions adapt very impressively to suit any party composition. Those characters aren't merely puzzle-solving devices, though, each having an intriguing back-story to explore, while also really brought to life with conversations that play out between each other without needing player intervention. All realised with some beautifully detailed, high-resolution pixelart and also including a full-integrated commentary mode offering an insight on the development process,
Unavowed is right at the pinnacle of its genre.
17.
The Pathless (PS5) | 11 March 2021
Platinum trophy earned. While mechanically fairly simple,
The Pathless is a beautiful open-world adventure from the creators of
Journey and
Abzu, casting the player as an archer seeking to lift the curse on an island. Largely the gameplay is based around puzzle-solving, making significant use of an eagle companion as part of the necessary interactions - and while these puzzles are never overly challenging, they still manage to evoke a wonderful feeling of satisfaction. These puzzle challenges are scattered around a series of five expansive areas - perhaps somewhat *too* expansive, as it can at times become difficult to find a few particularly well-hidden. I understand the intention behind the game not including a map or any HUD waypoints, as this does genuinely bring benefits to immersiveness, but it also makes navigation more difficult that I'd like - instead, you're forced to make use of an alternative vision mode that highlights points of interest, but this requires line-of-sight. Judicious use of a guide helps to offset this, thankfully.
Despite these navigational frustrations, between each puzzle area, traversal across the world comes with a fantastic fluidity of motion, especially later in the game as you earn upgraded abilities. Boss encounters that become accessible after reaching a minimum threshold of solved puzzles in each area are also a definite highlight in this regard, initially seeing you chasing after each creature, challenged to make use of your movement abilities to catch them.
18.
Loco Motive (PC - itch.io) | 12 March 2021
Complete playthrough. A short but oh-so-sweet point-and-click puzzle game, created in two weeks for a game jam,
Loco Motive is the best third-party attempt to capture the feel of classic LucasArts games that I can remember *ever* playing. Tasking the player to solve a murder mystery on a train, a streamlined interface minimises any friction in interactions and the puzzles avoid ever becoming excessively obscure. Where the game really excels is in its superb writing, with a sense of humour evident throughout - there are plenty of somewhat 'fourth wall'-breaking asides to camera from the protagonist - and enhanced by expressive pixel-art. Nods to the absurdity of the seemingly bottomless pockets that so many point-and-clicks rely on are a great example of this, for example - in both dialogue and animation. While you'll be done within about an hour, anyone who's even the slightest fan of the genre should definitely be playing this - especially as it's free!
19.
Maquette (PS5) | 14 March 2021
Platinum trophy earned. Certainly interesting in concept,
Maquette is a first-person puzzle game based on the concept of objects/interactions within a small central model of the game world being replicated in the world itself - and vice versa. This starts off fairly gently, with the first couple of levels requiring moving blocks, throwing switches and using keys - to open doors, of course, but also as platforms when enlarged, but rapidly gets somewhat more complex, eventually moving to a different area where the whole model can be moved itself within the environment. Particularly about halfway through, to be honest I found the puzzles to be pushing it a bit too far in what was expected of me - there seems no way to guess where a crucial key might be hidden, for example, which means that the steps towards finding it become all the more challenging to determine - and the game doesn't manage to achieve the same levels of satisfaction of some of its contemporaries, such as the excellent
Superliminal.
There's a background plot surrounding the puzzle gameplay, based around a man exploring a past relationship from his younger days, but this doesn't really seem to have a great deal of relevance to much of the gameplay and I wasn't a fan of the writing at all, even if the child-like presentation may be deliberate. At somewhere around five hours for a first playthrough - though much less if following a guide,
Maquette has a similar brevity to many similar games, though some additional longevity can be gained from attempts at the speedrun trophies - though these are never my favourite of types, especially when there's some occasionally fiddly object manipulation required against fairly unforgiving time limits.
20.
Down in Bermuda (Switch) | 15 March 2021
Complete playthrough with all items collected.
Down in Bermuda is a casual puzzle game, based interactions with a variety of mechanisms scattered around each of six island locations, alongside some simple collectible searches - viewed from an overhead perspective and using a cursor-based interface (or alternatively, touch-screen controls). There's nothing ground-breaking here, but the puzzle-solving generally manages to evoke that crucial sense of satisfaction and each location is nicely designed and well-realised with distinctive, attractive cartoon graphics. Overall, this is a decent distraction for a couple of hours, but there's nothing to draw you back after that.
21.
The White Door (PC - Steam) | 22 March 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Continuing with the deeply weird style and themes that run through the
Rusty Lake and
Cube Escape games,
The White Door does however see a somewhat different style of gameplay. The interaction here is still as a point-and-click game, but puzzle-solving is limited, with a narrative of sorts instead being the focus.
The White Door follows protagonist Robert Hill through seven days and nights in a mental health institution, following a routine by day but exploring the events leading up to his admission in dreams at night. It's not the strongest of plots and the interactivity is fairly straightforward, but
The White Door remains oddly compelling with the surreal themes, and short enough not to overstay its welcome.
22.
Cube Escape: Seasons (PC - Steam) | 28 March 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Played as part of the
Cube Escape Collection, a series of nine games from the developers of the
Rusty Lake games. Each game in the collection takes the form of a puzzle game, set within a room (or in some case, a series of rooms) of some description, with the ultimate aim being an 'escape', typically facilitated in some way by collection of a cube used to close out the puzzle sequence. The puzzle-solving comes in a nice variety of implementations, from simple item collection (for example, assembling parts of a torn photo is used a few times during the series) to code-breaking and fairly complex mechanisms - but all using a simple and effective point-and-click interface.
There's a fairly simple graphical style and nothing all that memorable in terms of sound/music, but it does the job, and more notable is the macabre, often eerie theme that pervades the series, though more pronounced in some of the games than others. I'll admit that I do find this a little offputting, but the depth to which the backstory is developed throughout the
Cube Escape and
Rusty Lake games ensures that overall the narrative elements remain compelling. The series does suffer from the occasional overly-obscure puzzle solutions that are almost inevitable once a puzzle game reaches a certain level of complexity, but so long as you're comfortable with having a guide on hand for those occasions avoids too much frustration from building up. I'll give a brief comment for each specific game, but overall, this is a very decent collection.
A strong start to the collection,
Seasons is split into four distinct parts, making good use of time-based puzzles that see one scene influencing the others. On reflection, the graphics are a little simple compared to some of the later instalments, but with these not being the focus of the game it's not a huge negative.
23.
Cube Escape: The Lake (PC - Steam) | 29 March 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Relatively short and straightforward, this second game of the collection is one of the least memorable.
