Having finished a game that is retro in the extreme, I thought I'd return to the present and try something that has great reviews and is a new game. A guest told me he had played this recently and really enjoyed it, so I decided that this would be my next excursion into adventure.
And an excursion it is! It seems fairly straightforward at first. You use WASD and the mouse to navigate through a forest into an odd house perched on a cliff somewhere in the Pacific northwest.
Warning: you cannot save your game at will, which I find a real problem. I've seen the word "saving" only twice, which either is because there aren't many save points, or I was just so immersed in the game that I didn't see them.
Because this is a very, very strange experience. I'm having difficulty with the navigation, because the controls change with each different scenario. Edith has come back to her family home, which the family abandoned when her brother disappeared. She has to find her way in, and then make her way through the rooms, all the while commenting on things.
The house from a distance. Already strange.
Edith is reading her story to you, so you see text in the scenes.
The bedrooms have all been sealed up, with only peepholes. However, Edith manages to gain entry into one of them, and there the game really takes off. It took me a long time to find out how to navigate outside the house, and then farther outside the house as a dream sequence gets ever more bizarre.
This is why the family abandoned the house.
Nice fireplace!
I actually unlocked an achievement because I couldn't figure out how to move, but I'm really not concerned with achievements in this game. I'm just trying to figure out the story! First we get into Molly's room and she has quite a story to tell!
Molly's room in 1947
She had an ant farm!
We will be exiting the house here, and are in for quite an adventure. This is where I had my most serious difficulty; I just could not figure out how to move around. Finally you get it, but even then it isn't straightforward. But out and out and out we go!
Follow the birdie. But how?
Very strange ship. Very strange adventure. Very strange girl.
Up to the point of Molly's story I thought I was in just an interesting walkthrough of a place that would reveal secrets. With Molly, the game turns absolutely surreal. Highly unexpected! It is sort of explained, but now I'm wondering what's to come!
Another hidden door into . . . what?
Whew! Well I certainly am looking forward to the rest of this! Who knows what's to come?
That's what adventure is supposed to be! So, despite the navigation difficulties, I'm really looking forward to continuing this. Won't have time tomorrow, but after that I should get the time. The reviews said this is about a two-hour game. Somebody lied. I've played over an hour and a half already, and there are plenty more bedrooms to go! So if the short time is correct, the rest of the stories must be shorter.
And of course, I don't yet know why Edith is doing this in the first place (actually she's on a ship and is "reading" to us from her notebook).
So! Be back soon!
Next Entry.
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