Following Freeware: May 2013 releases

This month, if you’re not afraid of heights you can infiltrate an airship to (literally) bring down a nefarious gang. If you don’t mind getting your feet (and maybe other parts) wet, you can delve into the sewers to stop an assassination conspiracy or dive deep into the ocean in search of a legendary temple. Not all temples are underwater, however, as you can steal treasure from one above ground as well, though you won’t escape easily with your spoils. Elsewhere, a village needs saving through a series of RPG spoof quests, a missing exploration party is stranded on an island out of time and place, and a genie-summoning spell needs a variety of ingredients collected. For those who’d rather stay closer to home, you can investigate a missing persons case in the local mall, or look inward as a robot on an introspective journey. Some famous names are in play this month, including President Obama saving the Scooby Doo gang from a haunted house, the cast of Comedy Central’s Ugly Americans dealing with the supernatural and alien inhabitants of New York, and Woodward and Bernstein in a surreal Watergate investigation much different than history remembers it. All these await in this month’s roundup of new releases from the freeware scene.
 

Infiltrating the Airship

Henry Stickmin’s criminal career has definitely had its ups and downs. From bank robbery to diamond theft via a daring prison escape, his adventures have brought him significant trouble. But his luck and perseverance against all odds have brought him to the attention of the government. Promising to clear his record, they have hired him to infiltrate the airship of the notorious Tophat Clan. Whilst suspected of major crimes, this gang has always managed to avoid leaving the evidence needed to conclusively implicate them. Now, with a whole new range of inadvisable devices, it is up to Henry to sneak on board and find the proof to bring the gang, and their airship, down.

Puffball United’s hapless stickman takes his adventures to new heights. The same simple but effective cartoon style from the previous episodes is in evidence here. The characters are all stick people, but with expressive heads and limited clothing. This time around, top hats are the most popular choice, being the predominant gang apparel. The various members of the gang are distinguished by other features, such as the ginger moustache of the right-hand man and the leadership medallion worn by the boss. These are all smoothly animated, as before. The game is fully voiced to a good standard, with each character having a distinctive tone. There are also multiple sound effects and music, many imitating other games being spoofed, including Mass Effect and Final Fantasy.

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There are several ways of winning the game, but as in Stickmin’s previous escapades, there are many more ways of losing. Taking a surreally humorous approach throughout, you find your allies as much a danger to you as the criminals you are infiltrating. You are also supplied with a range of gadgets of varying degrees of helpfulness, some involving outside references such as the Techno Trousers from Wallace & Gromit. Whenever you fail, you have the option to retake the last decision, step back to the previous decision or start over again. There are also some segments where you will need to act moderately quickly, though being too slow will usually generate its own unique fail.

Infiltrating the Airship can be played online at Newgrounds.
 

Adventure Island

Katie Smith

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Annie Player is asked to investigate an unknown island where an exploration team has disappeared. When she arrives, she realizes that there’s more to the island than meets the eye. It turns out it’s not as uninhabited as previously thought, and each section of the island seems to have been pieced together from different times and places, with old-fashioned pirates across the way from futuristic machines and perhaps even portals to different worlds.

Adventure Island is an epic undertaking from Elen Heart. The game is huge, from the large number of island locations to its many puzzles and characters. The graphics use photorealistic backdrops with  a 3D character model of Annie to guide around on screen. It is also fully voiced, and atmospheric sounds from seagulls to the ocean near the abandoned camp immersively fill the game world. The backgrounds are gorgeous, though the animation is a little more ragged.

This is an adventure filled with references and homages to tons of different thematic genres and games, such as Myst, Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Syberia, and many more. It’s a pure point-and-click game, and clicking arrows moves Annie from one screen to the next. There are tons of puns throughout, beginning with the main character’s name, and there’s a thought-provoking mystery to tie it all together. The puzzles vary from inventory to riddles that fluctuate in difficulty.

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Adventure Island can be downloaded from the AGS website.
 

Watergate: The Video Game

Claudio Medina

It’s June 1972. You’re journalist Bob Woodward and you just received a call from your boss at The Washington Post about a burglary in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. You and Carl Bernstein are assigned to report on this strange incident. It’s time to do some investigative journalism! You know the drill. Find clues, take notes, make the right calls and stay away from hookers and LSD. Wait…what?

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What commenced as a pun between two friends regarding a hypothetical sequel to the old MacVenture game Shadowgate became a real thing thanks to the restless work of Samuel Kim. Thus, Watergate was born. And it is a proper homage to the venerable classic adventure in a lot of senses, including a brilliant 8-bit soundtrack, first-person view, static low-res pixel art graphics and a distinct movement interface involving a mini-map with boxes representing the rooms that surround you.

You interact with your environment using common verbs such as use and speak, along with less useful ones like punch, in a similar way to LucasArts SCUMM games. Picking up objects and using them on the right hotspots is a crucial part of the gameplay. The game starts as a serious reenactment of the investigation into the Nixon cover-up scandal, similar to the movie All the President’s Men, but soon transforms into a comedic, often arbitrary adventure that strays from the real events and drifts into surrealism. So don’t be surprised when you encounter Mario & Luigi and they become the key to surviving one of the many horrible and unexpected ways of dying, as it won’t be an unsual event in this bizarre path to a Pulitzer prize.

Watergate: The Video Game can be played online at the official website.

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The Search for Oceanspirit Dennis

The village is in trouble, a nameless but terrible doom approaching to destroy it. Tasked with saving the village, Ray is sent to the next town over to find and return with the legendary hero, Oceanspirit Dennis. But Arimeth, guardian of the only bridge between these two locations, is unwilling to let Ray pass. If only he had enough Manners Points, Ray could unleash his special ability and easily defeat Arimeth. It looks like he will have to do some favours for his fellow villagers if he is to earn the points he needs.

OneDollar’s addition to the Oceanspirit Dennis canon is an RPG-spoofing adventure. The characters are moderately low-resolution, though the backgrounds are more highly detailed with shading to give them a real sense of depth. You will visit the local tourist information office, a nearby field, and the subterranean bunker of a local gamer. The sprites are decently animated, including facial animations, such as Ray’s eye-popping surprise at an off-screen event. The soundtrack has a sweeping high fantasy feel, with some appropriate sound effects backing up the action.

As befits an RPG spoof, the quests that you must undertake to acquire Manners Points are a satire of the mundane tasks handed out early in such games. A bald man requires you to move a table, whilst a young girl sends you on a fetch quest for milk and cookies so her teddy bear will go to sleep. You will meet some bizarre characters as well, including the tourist information officer who communicates solely via glove puppets. Nods to other games abound, with a giant Final Fantasy sword on sale as a souvenir and a Banjo Hero controller available as an item. The gamer in the bunker also sets you the task of playing two games that are undeniable spoofs of the worst sides of freeware gaming. Despite mimicking RPG combat at one point, the game strictly requires adventuring skills to complete.

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The Search for Oceanspirit Dennis can be downloaded from the AGS website.