The point-and-click genre has a long and rich history and is home to some of gaming’s oldest and most loved franchises that have inspired a new generation of developers, such as the Monkey Island series. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned about point-and-click adventures through modern game design it’s that pixel hunting and obscure puzzle solutions (staples of older adventure games) aren’t that much fun. In fact, they’re a bit shit.
One developer that’s hoping to successfully fuse nostalgia with modern design is Germany’s Voodoo Bembel with its debut game A Twisted Tale, which is being released via seven chapters. But while chapter one of A Twisted Tale has some interesting narrative ideas, it’s also a reminder of the genre’s most frustrating gameplay elements.
Players take on the role of Vio, a young woman who is mysteriously transported to another realm after playing with a Rubik’s Cube. Confused but determined to get back home, Vio must search the surrounding areas and chat with the locals to figure out where she is and a way out. The town is made up of roughly eight locations that Vio can explore, and there’s a handful of characters that she will need to chat with in order to get the information required to be successful.
A Twisted Tale has vibrant colour palette
It’s an interesting premise that has some decent writing and humour (although dialogue suffers from some poor audio quality and mixing), but there’s a severe lack of story beats and character depth here. We practically get no information about why Vio has been transported to where she is or why we should care about her plight, and almost all of the characters feel like disparate puzzle pieces rather than parts of the narrative.
I’m still curious to see where the story goes in future chapters, but Chapter One felt like more of a prologue, and with an episodic release, first impressions are crucial to retaining players. Episodic releases can work (just look at Life is Strange or The Council), however, these games usually have clear roadmaps and consistent releases, and without knowing when Chapter Two will release, it’s easy to see A Twisted Tale being buried by other adventure games. But while the narrative needs a bit of work, the gameplay is what sullied my experience the most.
Adventure games of yore sometimes tasked players with clicking every pixel within an area to find items to interact with or of use, as well as trying every possible item combination under the sun to progress forward. A Twisted Tale doesn’t necessarily force players to scour every inch of the screen, however some locations do have an excessive number of interactable items, and there’s no way of knowing whether they’re relevant unless you click on them.
Sadly, most of the characters are nothing more than puzzle pieces
Easily the most frustrating part of A Twisted Tale is its reliance on random solutions to puzzles, which frequently brought my progress to a standstill, and every time I felt like I made a breakthrough I would repeatedly find myself at another brick wall. I mean, how was I to know that I had to knock on the door of a person’s house three times to get the item required? I often knew what the game was asking of me, but simply didn’t know how to do it without trying every possible combination when it came to items or characters. Annoyingly, dialogue doesn’t yield many subtle hints other than sometimes stating the obvious objective, and there is no hint system to lean on for a gentle nudge in the right direction, so if you get stuck you’re on your own unless you venture online for a walkthrough. All of this means that it’s very easy to get frustrated and lose immersion and then interest, and if I wasn’t playing this for content, I would have given up before hitting the end.
It’s not all bad though. One element I did like was the game’s art style, which uses hand-drawn backgrounds and a colourful and vibrant palette. It gives off the feeling of a fun and light-hearted adventure similar to the Monkey Island games. The character models are also creative and well designed and feel very apt for the world. The fact this has all been done by a single developer is super impressive.
This area has lots of items to inspect
As an avid adventure gamer, I was looking forward to A Twisted Tale, but the lacklustre debut of Chapter One and the episodic release schedule has definitely deflated my hope somewhat. I’m sure there are some adventure game purists who will disagree with my thoughts, but for me, Chapter Two needs a bigger emphasis on story and less randomly complex puzzles. I am still hopeful that Chapter Two can deliver a more balanced experience, but only time will tell.
