Sam and Max Save the World Review (Switch)

It seems like a lifetime ago that the wise cracking canine shamus in the suit and the hyper kinetic, ultra-violent rabbit first made an impact on the gaming world. Luckily for us, after the proposed sequel was cancelled, Sam and Max found another way to reach their audience. It started as episodic seasons, of which Save the World was the first. You get Six episodes in total, and while they aren’t perfect, they certainly do enough to bring a smile to the faces of fans of the dangerous duo.

Sam and Max, as we all should know by now, are Freelance police who undertake missions given out by the commissioner. Sam is the thoughtful one, often pointing out the lunacy of what is happening around him, while Max is borderline insane and always looking for things to shoot, break or eat. The duo is joined in their adventures by Jimmy the rat- a low level fence who lives in their office, Bosco the shop owner and Sybil the woman of ever changing career.

The game controls have moved from the PC (and Wii) versions and now players directy control Sam. As he wanders around, things of interest highlight and can then be interacted with. This is still very much a point and click adventure with the character models and objects now in 3D.

It's somewhat of a relief to find that the writing and voice work retains much of its excellent quality. The humour and style that the original game was well known for is upheld admirably here. Some of the lines that our two heroes come out with are absolute genius and will have you laughing away on many occasions. The six episodes all have their own theme and range from average to excellent in terms of humour and general madness. Abe Lincoln must die stands out as a brilliant piece of social satire while Reality 2.0 might strike a little too close to home for many players.

As these episodes where released as episodic content on the PC and are self-contained three hour adventures there is a certain amount of repetition in location. Most episodes require you to visit Sam and Max's room, Bosco's Inconvenience store and Sybil's office. You will then typically have one or two other locations to explore relating to the episode you are playing. This isn't ideal and certainly not on a par with the original games layout but certainly shouldn't put you off.

On the whole, the puzzles are a mix of the logical and lateral thinking variety. Quite often you will have to be in the mindset of the game world to work out how to solve a certain situation. This works fine as most gamers will soon get the drift of how they should be thinking. There is a couple of instances where solutions are quite obscure though, our advice is simply to make sure you look everywhere and try everything. Even so, it's likely that players will stumble a few times and find themselves frustrated just that little bit too often.

Overall, We are really happy to see Sam and Max make it onto the Switch as this, and the games that followed it show enough of the greatness of the original. We can only hope that when the final of the three seasons has been released on the Switch we might get some news about further adventures.

Overall 7/10

The Darkside Detective Review (Steam)

Written by Thomas Sharpe

The memorable duo list is long, and while not philosophically as potent as Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, McQueen and Dooley in Darkside Detective are far funnier. I think you’re meant to find Rosencrantz and Gildenstern funny. Or maybe ribbingly meta. Or hilariously intertextual. But there’s more of the Morcombe and Wise in McQueen and Dooley, thankfully. Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are visually reminiscent of Hall and Oates, with their rakish flocculence, and this is arguably their only real source of humour.

There’s certainly more of Sam and Max with McQueen and Dooley, but without the American bombast. When, at the time of Indiana Jones and Sophia Hapgood in Fate of Atlantis, Lucasarts point and clicks never quite peaked the surreality of Sam and Max, and one could argue that McQueen and Dooley in Darkside Detective are a successful descendant. Especially in a vast landscape of over-zany (Edna and Harvey) and perhaps over-whimsical (Vella and Shay) duos that read more like a Joss Whedon script (largely interchangeable dialogue that could be attributed to any character).

Darkside Detective, with it’s allusions to a broad avenue of spooky pop-culture, delivers magic like Penn and Teller rather than Siegfried and Roy. Joyful, ironic and minimal animal abuse. The writers have managed to not just give textual homages at the rate of Pegg and Stevenson in Spaced, but incredibly gave it breathing room where others get bogged down in a referential mire. Maybe it’s just that Spooky Doorway’s silly humour lightens me rather than paws at me, much like the comparable yet different results of Reeves and Mortimer when set next to the at times cringingly try-hard Fielding and Barratt. A similar result is the products of collaborations between Pratchett and Gaiman, who maddeningly make something less playful and fun than Adams and Lloyd, with their Meaning of Liff, a true philosophical benchmark.

The puzzles and gameplay of Darkside are balanced and largely amusing, rather than the travails of Rincewind and Luggage in the egregious Discworld point and click, which is notoriously left-field. Nico and George from Broken Sword were left in the dust by contrast, despite that excruciating goat puzzle in the first game. The big and blocky pixels are a reverse of Jake and Dinos Chapman, subsuming the player in a just-rich-enough visual style to evoke nostalgia and playful simplicity in good measure. Crucially, Darkside Detective tries much less hard than the painful conceit of this missive, and is one of the funniest games I’ve played in years.

Overall 10/10

Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit Review (Switch)

 

Of all the retro revivals happening at the minute the beloved point and click game is still somewhat underutilised on consoles. There have been some highlights of course with Broken Sword 5, Monkey Island and Roki being particular favourites, but compared to Metroidvaias and Rogue-likes there isn’t the strength in depth you might have hoped for. This is changing though, as the original Broken Sword and a new sequel are coming. Speaking of Broken Sword, here we have Crowns and Pawns which is a game clearly inspired by it and a title that should keep you busy until the triumphant return of George Stobbart.

Crowns and Pawns follows Milda, a girl with Lithuanian heritage who inherits a house from her grandfather which sets in motion a chain of events that sees her exploring the lesser highlighted areas of Europe and European history. The setting is a nice change from the norm as countries such as Lithuania offer a rich cultural and historical heritage to explore which will likely be less familiar to players. It’s something more developers should think about when choosing the settings for their games.

Of course, as soon as Milda touches down it becomes obvious there is much more going on than simply sorting out her grandfather’s house and soon, you’ll be caught up with the KGB and looking to uncover a long-hidden secrets and mysteries. This does play out in a way similar to the Broken Sword games with a lot of historical researching and visiting of churches and other cultural sights. But Revolutions game certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on churches so while it feels familiar it never moves into full copying territory.

There are two main processes to solving puzzles. The first will be familiar to point and click fans in that you move around areas picking up objects, combining when needed and then using them to solve a location-based puzzle. An early example of this is needing to figure out how to get a key from between a crack in the floorboards which requires magnets and string.

The other thing the game has you doing is combining notes in Mildas phone. For instance, when reading a book, she will often mark down important things such as locations or dates. You may then need to combine these with a note which says something like “My grandad was looking for treasure at a church”. Matching the two things will then normally give Milda a revelation leading to a new line of enquiry or a new location to go to and explore. The system itself is not particularly complicated but we did find ourselves stopped in our tracks a bit too often with this and starring at notes in her phone is far less interesting than interacting with the world.

Being stopped in our tracks is a bigger issue with the game as well. You’ll always get those moments where you aren’t quite sure how to solve a puzzle in point and click games but the clue giving in Crowns and Pawns is slightly off and not quite good enough too often. A lot of the time we didn’t have any idea what our goal was even when we asked what we should be doing, or we felt we had already done it. When you have a clear thread of what to do the puzzles are very good but too often, we found ourselves wandering aimlessly.

Overall, Crowns and Pawns is a fun and worthwhile game for point and click fans. It may be a bit unrefined in terms of its dialogue, but the puzzles, locations and general story are interesting and engaging. If you can get over the stop start nature of the game, then it is well worth playing as there is a lot of charm here and it’s clear the developers had a lot of passion for the project.

Overall 7/10

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow Review (Switch)

It is warming to see point and clicks still burbling along, and even more heartening to see them being chucked around with some degree of excitement. The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow had a trailer that was almost specifically targeted for my tastes. Folk horror, period English setting, that look, sinister synth soundtrack. It looked great, and for the most part did not disappoint. Hob’s Barrow manages to capture something really special in its narrative, aesthetic, and pace, that makes up for sort of light puzzle experience.

You play as Thomasina Bateman, a barrow archaeologist whose skepticism drives much of the story forward. Much seems to be reminiscent of Lovecraft here; a protagonist who is steadfast in a no-nonsense scientific empiricism, slowly broken down by the relentless inexplicability of other-worldly horror. There is also something similar to Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space here; a subterranean mystery that has seeped up to the surface to ruin lives and challenge sense. To describe Thomasina in more relevant terms, she felt like a wonderful, charismatic mash-up of both Indiana Jones and Sophia Hapgood from The Fate of Atlantis. Through her, you interact with a bevy of Derbyshire (presumably) characters. A luddite local resistant to the new railway connection; a sad but well-meaning drunk somewhat lost in his own tangled memories; a chirpy, unconcerned barman; a stoic, restrained blacksmith. They’re all fully voiced superbly and uniquely, especially notable as it is largely a Yorkshire accent being used.

Thomasina’s arrival in the town, with this population of variously mysterious individuals, is spurred on by an invitation to excavate Hob’s Barrow. The farmer on who’s land it is situated, however, won’t grant you permission to dig it up. This, amongst many other obstacles, must be overcome to reveal the story. The locations are vivid, in a classic style. Especially noteworthy is the town square at night, which aches and creaks with atmosphere, with the fog fighting the glow from the pub’s window. Navigation across the locations is easy and accessible, as is all the user-interface. There’s even a fast-travel system, which is quite fortuitous as some progress is made really by checking out all the locations to see if something has changed. This is one of my few gripes with Hob’s Barrow, as I felt like I needed to run the list of places rather than solve anything. The developers do emphasise that this is a narrative-driven adventure, so I understand that the puzzlin’ might be a bit “lite” for some.

Much of the point and click puzzling is immediately quite straightforward. If you have the items, they are rational and fitting solutions which drive the plot forward. I never felt like I was doing something absurd (aside from the more supernatural settings, where it is understandably reality-bending). I had a couple of stumbling blocks, but it turned out I just hadn’t checked out an area.

Barrow is a short game but has enough time and space to do what it needs to. You may well spot the trajectory of some of the story beats if you’re familiar with folk horror, or creepy Victorian stuff, but despite its clear influences, the journey to the outcomes is really something special. The time spent in the dialogues is a joy, the music is eerie, the cutscenes are sublimely weird, and there are just enough puzzles to keep you engaged.

I have since found some more work by the developer that I can’t wait to play. While I would have loved to have had a deeper point and click experience, this just speaks to how much I loved being in the village of Bewlay with Thomasina. The attention given to some folklore is brilliant, and there is even a goat that felt like a nod to Broken Sword. At the close of the game, I was hoping that Cloak and Dagger Games make some sort of point and click version of Turn of the Screw or Hardy’s Desperate Remedies. They’ve got the eye for this sort of atmosphere, and I can’t wait for the next one.

Overall 8/10

80 Days/Overboard Review (Switch)

Inkle have been charming the gaming world now for a long time, but we are embarrassed to say that this is the first time we have come across their releases. You can now get two of their best games in one physical package, so it seemed like the perfect time to finally dive into their world of choose you own adventure like games.

We don’t normally get on well with virtual novel type games but there’s something different about these. It helps that both games are fairly short. Also, we found that there was a lot for the player to think about and do amidst the blocks of text. The two games are also remarkably different in how they play out which is something we weren’t expecting.

80 Days is the longer and more in depth of the two games and loosely follows the story of Jules Verne’s novel ‘Around the World in 80 Days’. Playing the role of Mr Fogg’s gentleman’s gentleman you are tasked with packing for and planning your trip around the globe. At each new destination you have the opportunity to buy and trade at the markets and explore to find new routes and events. It starts out fairly easy but when your funds are running low or you’ve hit a major hump in the road (such as being thrown off a train by an angry waiter), it starts to get tense as you scramble to get back on track as the continually ticking clock winds down in the background.

There is a lot of text to get through here though. It seems a bit of a missed opportunity to have an around the world adventure that takes in so many different locations and not have at least a few great visuals to go with them. The words are great of course, but there really should be a bit more to look at as well. If Pirates! Back in the 80’s could do it then we can certainly do it in the modern day.

To keep things interesting, there are around 120 different cities to visit and numerous ways to get around. There are also a few random elements which move around objects and events so each time you play the game shouldn’t be the same as the last. It’ll take you between two and three hours to complete your quest so this adds a good level of replayability.

Overboard, is quite a different prospect. Here you play a woman who at the start of the game kills her husband by throwing him off a cruise ship. You then have eight hours to get away with it before you dock in New York. One play through takes about thirty minutes but again, each time you play characters and events change and a continual list of tasks and mysteries get added to draw you back in.

There’s more to look at here and much less text. Most of the game playing out as brief conversations with the cast of colourful characters aboard the ship. It has less depth and scope than 80 Days but works to compliment it well as a quick adventure between treks around the globe.

Overall, we had a really good time with both these games. They sit somewhere between a point and click adventure and a visual novel and both games are well worth playing multiple times. We suspect this will start a bit of a love affair between ourselves and inkle’s titles and we can’t wait to see what other adventures await.

Overall 8/10

 

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Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide To Side-Scrolling Beat-'Em-Ups

We’ve never had a Bitmap book come through the door we didn’t like. When this heavy tome arrived focused on side scrolling beat‘em ups we were immediately transported back to the arcades of old. Perhaps of all the books the team have released this has the potential to hit the nostalgia gland more than any other with the genre having many games that never made it to home releases.

Across the 456 pages it’s pretty much guaranteed you are going to find a ton of game you won’t have played, or perhaps even heard of, as the book covers games from all over the place. It’s set out into different decades running from 1980 all the way up to recent releases in 2021. The whole thing starts with a foreword from Renegade creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto followed by an informative and entertaining look at what makes a game fall into the genre. During this afterword section you also get the first of many double foldout pages.

In a visual representation of a side scroller, many of the articles about key games unfold to effectively create a four-page layout. This starts with Streets of Rage which is used to display a numbered scene from the game which acts as your guide to the key ingredients of the genre. The fold out pages are double sided as well so there’s no wasted space here.

Starting in the 1980’s with Kung Fu Master the amount of information you get on the games is massively impressive. For instance, Double Dragon has six pages dedicated to it covering development, gameplay, ports and classic moments. More obscure games get less or are reduced to split pages, but this certainly feels exhaustive in terms of the games featured and it’s hard to see what else could have been put in (even the notorious Bebe’s Kids is here). The big licenses are all in here as well, screenshots and all, so expect to see Turtles, Simpsons and even Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.

There is a decent selection of screen shots and some full-page pictures but there is also a lot of text here so it’s certainly not just a coffee table book to flick through nonchalantly. The research and dedication required to get all this information together is impressive and everything is interesting and will likely send you off hunting for more than a few of the games. The fact each decade comes with a written introduction to the development of the games and market during that period is further proof that these books will likely end up on some kind of historical game development course in the future. There’s certainly enough to take you from knowing nothing to having a huge knowledge of both the titles and genre through the ages.

Overall, Go straight is an exceptional book. It’s perfect to dip into to look for your favourite game or read from front to back to get a detailed overview of pretty much every title in the genre. It’s logically organised which makes finding things easy and the intros to each decade are great encapsulations of the time they look at. Much like the Point and Click Adventure book before it, this is a real highlight in an already packed and impressive back catalogue from Bitmap books. Utterly essential for all retro fans.

 

Click here for store link. 

The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow Review (Steam)

 

It is warming to see point and clicks still burbling along, and even more heartening to see them being chucked around with some degree of excitement. The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow had a trailer that was almost specifically targeted for my tastes. Folk horror, period English setting, that look, sinister synth soundtrack. It looked great, and for the most part did not disappoint. Hob’s Barrow manages to capture something really special in its narrative, aesthetic, and pace, that makes up for sort of light puzzle experience.

You play as Thomasina Bateman, a barrow archaeologist whose skepticism drives much of the story forward. Much seems to be reminiscent of Lovecraft here; a protagonist who is steadfast in a no-nonsense scientific empiricism, slowly broken down by the relentless inexplicability of other-worldly horror. There is also something similar to Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space here; a subterranean mystery that has seeped up to the surface to ruin lives and challenge sense. To describe Thomasina in more relevant terms, she felt like a wonderful, charismatic mash-up of both Indiana Jones and Sophia Hapgood from The Fate of Atlantis. Through her, you interact with a bevy of Derbyshire (presumably) characters. A luddite local resistant to the new railway connection; a sad but well-meaning drunk somewhat lost in his own tangled memories; a chirpy, unconcerned barman; a stoic, restrained blacksmith. They’re all fully voiced superbly and uniquely, especially notable as it is largely a Yorkshire accent being used.

Thomasina’s arrival in the town, with this population of variously mysterious individuals, is spurred on by an invitation to excavate Hob’s Barrow. The farmer on who’s land it is situated, however, won’t grant you permission to dig it up. This, amongst many other obstacles, must be overcome to reveal the story. The locations are vivid, in a classic style. Especially noteworthy is the town square at night, which aches and creaks with atmosphere, with the fog fighting the glow from the pub’s window. Navigation across the locations is easy and accessible, as is all the user-interface. There’s even a fast-travel system, which is quite fortuitous as some progress is made really by checking out all the locations to see if something has changed. This is one of my few gripes with Hob’s Barrow, as I felt like I needed to run the list of places rather than solve anything. The developers do emphasise that this is a narrative-driven adventure, so I understand that the puzzlin’ might be a bit “lite” for some.

Much of the point and click puzzling is immediately quite straightforward. If you have the items, they are rational and fitting solutions which drive the plot forward. I never felt like I was doing something absurd (aside from the more supernatural settings, where it is understandably reality-bending). I had a couple of stumbling blocks, but it turned out I just hadn’t checked out an area.

Barrow is a short game but has enough time and space to do what it needs to. You may well spot the trajectory of some of the story beats if you’re familiar with folk horror, or creepy Victorian stuff, but despite its clear influences, the journey to the outcomes is really something special. The time spent in the dialogues is a joy, the music is eerie, the cutscenes are sublimely weird, and there are just enough puzzles to keep you engaged.

I have since found some more work by the developer that I can’t wait to play. While I would have loved to have had a deeper point and click experience, this just speaks to how much I loved being in the village of Bewlay with Thomasina. The attention given to some folklore is brilliant, and there is even a goat that felt like a nod to Broken Sword. At the close of the game, I was hoping that Cloak and Dagger Games make some sort of point and click version of Turn of the Screw or Hardy’s Desperate Remedies. They’ve got the eye for this sort of atmosphere, and I can’t wait for the next one.

Overall 8/10

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut Review (Switch)

Originality may be somewhat dead in the games industry but every now and then you get something that manages to stitch things together in a unique enough way for it to seem like there is at least still some hope left. Disco Elysium is unlike anything else on Switch and, unless you are a fan of a handful of specific early CRPG Dungeons and Dragons games, probably unlike anything else you have ever played.

If there is a comparison to be made, its closest mirror would probably be Planetscape: Torment. But instead of being set in a fantastical ethereal realm this is a much gritter affair which walks the dark alleys of nihilistic Noir and dystopian societies. It also walks the line between CRPG and point and click adventure and you’ll need to be ready to read a serious amount of text to truly engage with the madness.

Viewed from an isometric perspective, you wake up in a wrecked hotel room (after a long trawl through your subconscious), with no memory about who you are or what you are doing. Gradually, you need to piece together who you are and what is going on. It’s soon revealed you are a police officer investigating a murder and it’s then up to the player to decide how they proceed through the game with numerous morally ambiguous options available.

There isn’t any real time combat in the game with most of the challenge coming from either hitting skill checks or working out how to get around the issue if you haven’t got the required stats. Skill checks are carried out with a traditional dice roll which is affected by a whole host of different areas which range from the obvious such as reflexes and charisma to the more obscure such as being able to tap into the ‘vibe’ of the surroundings.

When you come up to a skill check you will be given a percentage change to see if it will be completable for you. Green checks can be attempted multiple times as you level up and gain more skill, but red checks are one attempt only so will need careful consideration. Your other actions in the game can also add modifiers to the checks. Backing down from a character may result in a minus modifier with them if you must pass an authority check point for instance, while further investigation of crime scenes can give you plus modifiers when talking to people who try and avoid your questions. It does take a while to get used to, but the system works once you get it.

There’s much more going on here than a simple police investigation as well. As well as NPC’s you will often talk to different aspects of your characters own personality. Again, based on your skillset, at certain points elements of your mind or body will engage with you. This takes the form of various reactions to things people say or you find while investigating. It gives the game a weird psychedelic and surreal element so prepare yourself for some pretty high concept experiences as you chat with your central nervous system about the events of the day.

Don’t think you’ll be able to get away with skipping through the text either. You have two health bars, one physical and one which deals with your morale. Picking the wrong choice or failing certain checks can see either of these damaged so you’ll really need to be aware of what’s happening. Letting either bar drop to zero will result in your death so it’s also a good idea to have a supply of healing items on hand as things can sometimes come out of nowhere.

For a game that really seems like it should be on the PC it’s remarkable how well it has transitioned to the Switch. Even on the handheld, the text is readable, and the colours used within the text didn’t give us any colour blind related issues. You have direct control over your characters movement, so the lack of a mouse isn’t an issue and you can press a button to highlight interactable objects. That said, some these objects are quite small so you may need to keep an eye out when playing on the handheld screen. There’s also a checklist of tasks to keep you on track of what to do, which is handy as the game can get a bit obscure about how to progress your objectives at times. It all works remarkably well and once you get the hang of how the levelling system works it’s incredibly engaging.

Overall, Disco Elysium won’t be for everyone, but for those who want to engage with a dark and meticulously structed mystery this is unlike anything else out there. There is a lot of text and a lot of puzzle solving and critical thinking will be asked of the player but immerse yourself here and you may well find this turns out to be one of your favourite games of all time.

Overall 9/10

Quest for Infamy Review (Switch)

For those of a certain age, you will no doubt remember Sierra’s much loved Quest for Glory series. At it’s core it was a point and click adventure series but also had elements of hybrid gameplay such as real time combat. The series lasted for five games and the mix of humour and mythology worked very well.

Quest for Infamy, is of course based heavily on this model and series of games. Indeed, in terms of how the games look the team have got the style down perfectly and it looks identical to classic Sierra games of years gone by. The tone and writing are also of a good standard and keep the humour level high throughout. Impressively, the game is fully voice acted which is some achievement.

The twist here of course is that instead of being a hero you are playing the role of a minor hoodlum. You aren’t a bad guy per say but you are certainly not going to do anything that you don’t end up profiting from. In their quest players can take on three different classes which will see them travel through the games via different routes. For the physical minded you can take on the role of a brawler, cast spells as a sorcerer or take the sneakier route of the rogue.

The game itself plays pretty well. The main criticism you can lay at it is that goals are often a little vague. This wasn’t such an issue in games of this type in the past as most would restrict your wandering around to a small number of screens until you got your bearings. In Quest for Infamy, we can see some players wandering off in the wrong direction and getting lost in the environment as these barriers and restrictions are far fewer. We also found it difficult to find some objects at times – even with the highlight option. Again, this is nothing new for the genre but these games didn’t used to be played on screens the size of the Nintendo Switch.

On the whole though the puzzles do have a crazy kind of logic to them, and the world is well realised and rich with detail. It’s clear a lot of thought has gone into this and on the whole the game holds up for the length of the quest. It also looks amazing.

As a further throw back to its retro routes the game also comes with a pretty extensive digital manual and even a guide to get players through the opening prologue of the game. Again, for those of a certain age it’s the sort of thing we all remember for those big box Sierra games of old.

Overall, Quest for Infamy is a worthy addition to the many point and click adventures that have found themselves on the Switch. It’s certainly among the most retro of those titles but it’s a great throwback to classic Sierra games of old and we can only hope more appear in the future.

Overall 7/10

The Art of Point and Click Adventure Games Review

Bitmap Books have built up an excellent reputation now with a string of extensive and informative releases. As long-time fans of the point and click genre it seemed a perfect opportunity to dive into their hefty tome based on everything involving using obscure items and dialogue trees.

The first thing to say is that this is another release that certainly gives a good impression with it being the size of a small bus – both in general size and page count. This edition of the book now contains around 500 pages organised into chronological order spanning from 1984 all the way to 2020. An excellent opening laying out the history of the genre draws readers and also gives a great overview for those looking to know more or who may be unfamiliar with it.

If there is a criticism here it’s that there is no glossary to allow you to get straight to a particular game. Luckily the exhaustive interviews in the book are indexed alphabetically meaning it’s easy to find which legend you want to read about. The amount of people interviewed is unbelievable. Pretty much every icon and legend of the genre is here meaning you get insights into just about all of the major publishers and developers that made their name in this area. Multiple legends from Lucas Arts are here such as Tim Shafer and Ron Gilbert, Sierra games such as King’s Quest, Gabriel Knight and Police Quest are spoken about, Revolution and Westwood get a solid nod and even people behind Future Wars and the Discworld games are on hand.

In fact, the only real omission we found was that Ragnar Tomquist wasn’t interviewed about The Longest Journey series. That and the interview with Jane Jensen about Gabriel Knight had some strange questioning considering the game was remade in 2014. It would also have been nice to delve a little deeper into the issues regarding Discworld and what would be required to bring the games to a new audience. These are all minor point though as the amount of stuff in here is mind blowing.

The exhaustive collection of information also covers just about every major point and click game you can possibly think of. Being as pedantic as we are though we would have liked to see a 2004 mention for The Moment of Silence. Aside from that though we really couldn’t think of anything that was missing. There are hundreds of games here and it will likely send you racing to eBay to try and find adventures you’ve missed out on.

Mass of information aside the other big selling point of the book is of course the art work. As usual this have been handled expertly. Most of the titles are treated to at least a double page spread of an iconic image from the game. Key games are also given extra pages to show off more of the locations and key art work. All these pixels and screens and are presented beautifully.

Overall, The Art of Point and Click Adventure Games is an exceptionally high quality release from Bitmap Books. It works both as a casual coffee table book to be browsed through and looked at just for the art and also as a more thoughtful read containing all the information you would ever need for those looking to learn about an important and iconic genre. It’s easily worth the asking price and stands out even against Bitmap Books other excellent releases.

Click here for store link 

*picture from Bitmap Books website