Following Freeware – September 2015 releases

Escape the Game

The last thing the influential videogame critic remembered was a particularly horrendous looking game loading up on his computer. Suddenly he finds that he has fallen into that very game. The only way back to his real life is to achieve the game’s ultimate goal of becoming a Wizard-Hero-Pirate-King. But this game is full of bugs, often quite literally, and the quest might actually be impossible to achieve. Perhaps using his outside knowledge of how games work will aid him in this insane quest.

With Escape the Game, Helpa Games have created a fun if somewhat surreal experience. The graphics feature a bright cartoon style, with characters appearing slightly stylised but properly proportioned. The lead character is a man with a ponytail and  beard in a grey suit, an outfit that is not entirely appropriate for what awaits him. Much of the game is set in a deliberately generic fantasy realm, with a big castle and a forest with dwarves and trolls residing in it. You will also visit the Pirate Bay, home to an oddly familiar character, where it is always night. The characters in these locales are simply but effectively animated, and the critic has a wide variety of movements and expressions. The music changes with the location: the main fantasy section has a gentle folksy guitar piece, whilst the Pirate Bay has a tune that feels appropriate to its particular resident. There are also a handful of sound effects, including a repeated scream from the protagonist.

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Progress is achieved using a simple left-click interface. When you point at a hotspot, the cursor changes to an appropriate action icon, most often look. After examining an object, you will usually get a different icon for further interaction, such as picking the item up. The game pokes fun at various genre conventions. In the opening tutorial, the lead character protests having to perform all the tutorial actions to continue. Elsewhere, a guide character moans about having to sit in the same place the whole time. Even the menu gets in on the fun, with the option to turn on voice acting suggesting you read the dialogue aloud in different voices. To succeed in your goal you will provide an odd answer to an equally bizarre riddle, navigate a short mystical forest maze, and fight a mighty champion (a turn-based mental challenge rather than a button-mashing obstacle). The dialogue is well written, with a tendency towards sarcastic humour.

Escape the Game can be played online at JayIsGames.

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Hjarta

A cosmonaut is being sent out on a vital mission. Travelling alone, he will be the first to visit a new planet… A girl has been taken hostage by some thugs who are identified by individual letters. With a terrible fate awaiting her if she stays, she must seek a way out of this captivity… A synthetic being and his companions are prisoners aboard a transport. They must use their superior thinking power to outwit the organic creatures that hold them… Three stories. Three views of the future.

Whilst they feel part of the same world, the three stories Eight Bit Skyline present in Hjarta are entirely standalone tales, with no overt connections between them. The graphics are mostly made up of solid blocks of colour with simple graduated shading in places. Despite this relatively basic art style, it includes more than enough detail to make the important parts of the scenery stand out. As the cosmonaut you travel to a strange red planet, with a single monolithic building on the surface. As the girl you are trapped in a small attic room on top of a slightly seedy apartment. As the prisoner you are in a two-level vehicle that’s travelling across a barren landscape. All three stories are backed up by classical pieces from Grieg, Berlioz and Smetana. There are also a handful of sound effects, mostly related to machinery.

The three different characters can be played in any order by clicking one of their portraits when the game starts or after completing a story. Choosing one enters that story, with the option to continue if you have played part of it already. Control is performed through simple point-and-click; left-click interacts while right-click examines. The cosmonaut must operate his damaged spaceship and determine how to use some alien devices. The girl has to improvise with the limited materials on hand to escape the gang that has captured her. The synthetic prisoner and its companions need to work together to take over the vehicle carrying them. In this section, interacting with cellmates causes them to take appropriate actions to advance your collective cause. Inventory is stored in the menu bar at the top of the screen, and can be selected for use on hotspots. The menu bar also contains a help button which will give a progressive series of hints to the current puzzle if you are stuck. The overall tone is one of serious science-fiction.

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