It’s the night of Izzie’s first day atop Lone Pine National Park’s mountains, and the scrappy aspiring photographer is chowing down on some classic campfire tucker: marshmallows. Izzie can eat them toasted, roasted or straight from the bag, so naturally I give all three a try before deciding that roasted is my fave and scoffing down a couple more. Besides, Izzie has worked up quite the appetite after a tiring day.
Funny story about the marshmallows though. The devs told me during a recent interview that they’d eaten so many while recording sound effects that they’d needed a marshmallow “spit bucket.” Nice.
That’s all I can think about as I hit continue, but I’m quickly kicked in the feels as Izzie is joined at the campfire by a lost close one. The two chat as if they’re catching up for the first time in a while, and it’s apparent that there is more to Izzie’s trip to Lone Pine than capturing photos of the cryptids that are rumoured to inhabit the area. It’s a surprisingly poignant moment, and already I am more invested in Izzie’s quest.
Roasted all the way
Izzie wakes up from the dream a little confused the following day. “The dream was…it felt so real,” she utters to herself as she prepares to head off for the day to try and catch the cryptids on camera – the reason she’s here in the first place.
Lone Pine, from Brisbane’s Bang Bang Bang Interactive, is a modern point-and-click 2D adventure that sees Izzie head to the now-abandoned titular National Park to capture evidence that cryptids exist. But Mother Nature has other plans, and a deadly storm hits Lone Pine, leaving Izzie to find her way home, but she quickly realises that there’s more to the mountain than people thought and endeavours to uncover the mystery.
The demo, which drops tomorrow, gives players access to the first hour (roughly), offering a taste of the game’s mechanics and narrative beats. I say this is a modern point-and-click adventure, as Lone Pine has been built around using a controller (something that this gamer appreciates). However, don’t stress if you’re a keyboard and mouse advocate, you’ll still find support here. But for the most part, the gameplay follows the adventure game blueprint closely.
The controller-first approach sees players able to move Izzie with the thumbsticks, and impressively, Bang Bang Bang Interactive has deployed a node system that lets players cycle through hotspots within a certain radius, making it much easier to interact with things near one another. Izzie has a backpack to carry items of use, and a journal that shows objectives, notes she’s picked up, cryptids, and the map.
The nodes make interacting with items easier
Puzzles in the demo are simple enough to solve, although if you do get stuck there’s a hint system in your journal that can be used to give you a nudge. If you were at PAX Australia last year and played Lone Pine, then the first half of the demo will be new to you, but the second half is mostly from that build, which sees Izzie having to solve a puzzle to discover a way to attract a cryptid.
Once you figure out how to lure the cute mysterious critter out in the open, you’ll need to use Izzie’s camera to photograph it. This is Lone Pine’s unique mechanic that tasks you with capturing the cryptid to prove its existence. Here, you’ll need to play with the camera’s shutter speed to ensure the lighting is all good. Once snapped, you can name your cryptid – I named mine Ivana.
Visually, Lone Pine has a striking art style, with dense, lush colours that feel natural for the world. Bushes have a rich deep green, fire crackles with a beautiful orange-yellow glow, and the shift in time and weather is appropriately depicted. What stands out is the environment’s lack of definition (complimentary), which makes it feel like Izzie is exploring the pages of a children’s storybook Gen Z’ers would find when rifling through their parents’ stuff. It also helps that the UI is clean and simple, allowing the art to shine.
Photographer simulator
Despite being set in a fictional national park and featuring cryptids, Lone Pine is fully Aussie voice-acted (by the game’s developers I should add) and has been written with this in mind. Izzie has that little bit of sass you’d expect, but don’t expect her to drop any c-bombs. It’s always appreciated hearing your fellow countrypeople take the lead in a video game, but with the devs taking this on, sometimes dialogue is a little flat. Though, Sam, who voices Izzie, has done a pretty good job all things considered. The only request I have is that the full release include an option to let dialogue play out instead of asking the player to push a button after every sentence.
Bang Bang Bang Interactive is still aiming to release Lone Pine in 2026 on PC, and after playing the full demo, I feel vindicated in including the title in my 12 Point-And-Click Games To Get Excited About In 2026. The devs tell me that the game will be around four hours long when it releases, and I’m happy with that. Too many adventure games are longer than they need to be.
After playing through the demo a couple times (which ends on a bit of a cliffhanger), I am excited to see what lies in store for Izzie and her adventure to Lone Pine. Sometimes I really enjoy an adventure that flows without forcing the player to think too hard about puzzles, and I was pleasantly surprised by the narrative adding some emotional weight. If Bang Bang Bang Interactive can tie it all together and make it work in a short runtime, we may have a banger on our hands. Let’s hope they don’t pull a Firewatch.
You can Wishlist Lone Pine on Steam now.
Previewed on PC // Preview code supplied by publisher
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