Following Freeware – April 2015 releases
This month you can go looking for a missing girl or search for your missing possessions. You might wish to take on dangerous criminals in a twisted game show, fight a hideous monster in order to impress a girl, or simply struggle for survival in the remote jungle. Alternatively, you can start a new game series with a lowly farmer seeking greatness or continue an ongoing series with a hapless alien out of his depth. Or you can choose to face up to your past in a nightmarish world dominated by a hated figure from your past. All these are available in this month’s round-up of releases from the freeware scene.
Steve’s Selections
The Visitor 3
Agent Moss is beginning to regret his exaggerations of his adventures. True, his tales of how he dealt with the vicious humans of planet Earth have earned him promotions. But with those promotions come new responsibilities that put him in even more danger than before. Now, as Military Commander of Omega 1, he has been sent out to locate a missing prison transport. This ship was moving the highly dangerous criminal, Leech Larson, and has been lost in a hazardous asteroid field. Finding the ship drifting with a large asteroid in its side, he and his faithful assistant Head board the craft to investigate. But this asteroid is no mere rock, and something else is loose. Will the luck that has kept Moss alive to date save him this time around?
Continuing Nicky Nyce’s humorous adventures of a hapless alien, The Visitor 3 has this series going from strength to strength. The pixel art graphics have the same early LucasArts-era look, with plenty of detail. Moss is a pot-bellied green alien whilst his assistant is a human head in a floating jar. All characters are well animated, as are the background features. The setting is largely spaceship interiors, though with cutscenes and one brief interactive section taking place out in space. These are not all featureless identical corridors though. Even in the prison ship, where you spend most of the game, there is plenty of variety of locale, from haphazard boxes in a cold storage room to the austere command console on the bridge. Many of these show damage from asteroid strikes, with changes taking place over the course of the game as more damage is done. A number of dramatic synth pieces, fitting with the sci-fi setting, play throughout. There is also a range of sound effects, including whirring machinery and the crash of asteroid impacts.
Control is point-and-click, using the standard AGS four-action cursor, which can be cycled through by right-clicking. Though playing the previous games will give returning players familiarity with the characters, this episode can be played on its own. The opening section serves as a good introduction, with Moss’ ill-advised web activities threatening the ship’s systems. The Agent’s cowardice and bullying contrast with the almost worshipful devotion of Head, setting a humorous tone to lighten the horror setting. The rest of the game is set on the prison ship and involves multiple characters. Some sections only have one protagonist available, but you will more often have multiple player characters, switching between them being vital to success. This is usually Moss and his assistant, though a surprising third character is introduced in the later part of the game. There is also a section where you play Leech Larson in the immediate aftermath of the first rock hitting. The ship’s systems have been damaged by asteroid impacts, requiring cunning alteration to get them working. As the game progresses, a more dangerous presence makes itself felt, making evasion a priority. Only on a couple of occasions is agile mouse usage required, avoiding the threat being more of a cerebral exercise in the main. Death is possible, but the game resets to just before the fatal action if this does occur.
The Visitor 3 can be downloaded from the AGS website.
The Knobbly Crook: Chapter 1 – The Horse You Sailed In On
O’Sirus the Snip is on trial. Explaining his actions that led to this charge, he recounts a tale of when he was simply O’Sirus. For some time he had heard the spooky voice, sometimes accompanied with visions of the spooky face. This had told him that he needed to travel to The Knobbly Crook to achieve his goal of becoming a Guffaloon, a member of the royal guard. Sneaking aboard one of the giant mechanical horses that sail the great sea, he realises he has made a grave error. This particular horse has just come from the Knobbly Crook, and is actually taking him away from his goal. If he is to achieve his fabled destiny, he must find a way to convince the crew to turn the beast around.
The Knobbly Crook: Chapter 1 – The Horse You Sailed In On is only the first part of Gnarled Scar’s new adventure, but it is an impressive opening. The graphics are highly detailed, though somewhat surreal in content. O’Sirus wears a breastplate that looks like a monstrous face, with a covering for the lower half of his face that looks like a skull’s jawbone. The other denizens of the ship are no less strange, including a giant covered in green hair and scales, and a figure in a fur-lined robe with a horned face mask. The ship itself seems to be part-mechanical, part-organic, with a stomach-like acid pool below decks. All characters and devices move smoothly, with idle animations as well. Displayed as text, speech is audibly presented as a growled mumbling, conveying the tone of the speaker if not the words. The action has a pleasant guitar backing, with more instruments added in the bar where a one-man band is playing. There are also a variety of sound effects, often mechanical in nature.
Control is handled through point-and-click, with right-click cycling through five cursor options, including Touch. The setting is a bizarre fantasy world, as evidenced by the fact that O’Sirus’ job prior to setting out on his quest was paper-farming. You will interact with numerous other passengers and crew, not all of whom have your best interests at heart. Indeed, some are on the lookout for you, though fortunately the vague description they have is not enough to identify you outright. The crew provide different amounts of help on your quest. One is willing to let you access a lower area if you can get the lift to it working, while another inflicts sharp blows if you even put a single hand in the wrong place. A herd of Gummerlings, small but vicious-looking beasts capable of eating the ship if roused, will also play a part in resolving your scheme. Though there are plenty of indications that this world can be a hazardous place, there does not seem to be any way of dying.
The Knobbly Crook: Chapter 1 – The Horse You Sailed In On can be downloaded from the developer’s website.
Being Her Darkest Friend
In trying to perfect your art, you have always laboured under the fierce tutelage of Seligmann. Almost deified by some of his students, he had nothing but the harshest criticism for those who did not follow his ideas of what art should be. You thought you had left him behind you, but now you find yourself in a nightmarish world which seems to have him at its centre. Working your way through twisted versions of your past, you must face your fears and bring down the horrors that stem from them.
Chronerion Entertainment’s Being Her Darkest Friend is an exercise in psychological horror. The pixel art graphics have a retro look to them. Characters are well-defined overall, but their faces are largely featureless apart from the eyes. The colour palette is almost entirely black and white, the only fully coloured character being the female protagonist. The backgrounds and other characters have only rare splashes of colour, such as a static fire in one part, enhancing the depressing feel of the setting. The main locations are a dark cave, revealed slowly as the game wears on, and the studio where the lead studied under Seligmann. You travel between these automatically as the story progresses. The contents of the latter change each time you return, presenting subtly different challenges each time. The aural background is a disturbing low hum, punctuated by loud mournful horn sounds. There are also a handful of sound effects, including a camera shutter.
Whilst containing little that’s overtly horrific, the game content is psychologically disturbing and unsuited to the young or easily troubled. The interface is very simple, with all interaction solely involving the left-mouse button. There is also a small inventory, arrayed across the bottom of the screen. Collected items can be dragged onto hotspots from here for use in the environment. The inventory items, including a camera and paintbrush, are mundane in appearance, but have strange effects when used. Working out the special abilities of these objects and how to use them to best effect forms the backbone of the puzzles. There are also a handful of characters to interact with, though without dialogue choices as they’re mostly present to provide clues.
Being Her Darkest Friend can be played online or downloaded from Game Jolt.
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