London in "Heir of the Dog" is bigger than I thought...

I can't help but see Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams in these roles...

After my first hours sniffing around in Heir of the Dog, I recognize the similarities but also the differences with Lucy Dreaming. The graphical style and the user interface are exactly the same. The pixel art is gorgeously detailed, but since it's Victorian London, don't expect bright colours. While many humoristic adventure games go the extravagant cartoony way, Heir of the Dog contains lots of browns and greys. There are only four verbs to choose from, which feels like a very good compromise between the obsolete nine-verb system and the often too easy one-click interface. The four verbs allow for enough humourous reactions without becoming too much to handle in production. And while in Lucy Dreaming the biggest questions were often in which dream you could find the next solution to your problems, in Heir of the Dog it's mostly which physical form you need to take on.

You have to admire the dev's inventiveness...

I encountered the game's first brainbusting puzzle. Disclaimer: I did play a beta version, so this puzzle has since been altered to make it more accessible. When I faced it, I had to take seven screenshots to keep a better overview, whip out a calculator, and even then I wasn't able to solve it. Of course, I flunked Math twice in my "academic" years, so that might have something to do with it... The puzzle itself is actually quite ingenious and fully integrated into the game's world, so I felt rather bad that I just couldn't get past it. Thankfully for my ego I wasn't the only tester who was having trouble with it, so the dev "dumbed" it down a bit for the likes of us. Though I know of some people who just love spreadsheets and who will never forgive me for this...

Looks like a trail...

Once I solved this puzzle, with a lot of help I must admit, I could continue my search for my uncle. I was finally able to talk to the residents of the dog pound, where I met the lovely poodle Sally who was perfectly willing to help me, in exchange for a jailbreak of course. Several inventory puzzles and item assemblies later I Michael Scofield their way to freedom and I got a new lead. The next puzzle had me counting again, figuring out the length of a chimney sweep and finding the right way through a flue. After some stupid errors on my part, causing me to run back and forth to the chimney sweep store again and again, I finally triumphed and got yet another lead. Problem was, this time it pointed me in the direction of the dense pea soup fog hanging over the Thames, blocking my passage to the other side of London.

Quite the posh gathering...

That's when an entirely new location opened up: the mayor's mansion! Behind a locked gate earlier, now the time had come to gain access to this abode in order to procure my ticket out of this part of London: a ride on a hot-air balloon. With the help of some urchins, which took some personal convincing first, and once again lots of changing back and forth between man and dog form, and dealing with some more hilariously eccentric characters, and one wicked little feline... But getting that ticket wasn't enough. Another devious puzzle had me literally programming a couple of lice into a sewing pattern, which took me several tries as well. It was easy to deduce which pattern I needed to use, but it was the correct order and movements of the lice that did me in.

How do you fly this thing?!

Last time I hijacked a hot air balloon in an adventure game, I just had to click on two buttons to change directions and rise and descend. The Algerian desert was a lot easier to maneuver and locate the German dig site at one of Atlantis' lesser colonies. When I tried to navigate the London skies in Heir of the Dog, however, apparently I completely missed how I could activate one of the on-board control systems. So I found my way after some trial and error and using three more screenshots as reference guides. Getting close to ten hours of playing time by now, I'm starting to wonder how long this game will actually be... Because I'm sure this new part of the city will do its best to keep me very busy as well...

You can find Heir of the Dog on Steam and on GOG!

New game playthrough: "Heir of the Dog"!

New game!

Heir of the Dog is finally here, the new point 'n click, pixel art, crazy puzzle filled adventure game by Tall Story Games, aka Tom Hardwidge, of Lucy Dreaming fame! If you're literally going, "Lucy who?" then I'm going to give you a five second long reprimanding look for probably not having played any adventure games in the last five or so years... Only five seconds, because I don't want to lose my followers of course...

Previously known as the jam game Hair of the Dog, we now have a full Hardwidge-length game keeping us occupied for a good 15 hours! And yes, that's HARDwidge, not EASYwidge. People starving for puzzle-filled games can really get their fill here. There are puzzles in Heir of the Dog where you have to check in-game documents, and they feel like copy protections of old games where you actually had physical copies of those documents in the big box. And to be honest, they would be much easier to solve that way as well. I had to take ten photos with my smartphone to be able to solve stuff...

You play as Mr Cummerbund Bandersnatch, roaming London in the year 1859 in search of his scientist uncle. Accidentally drinking a potion his uncle concocted, Bandersnatch is transformed into a monster with a heightened sense of smell in a kind of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde fashion. Every morning at 8 am, Bandersnatch returns to his human form, then changes again at 8 pm. By using your uncle's pocket watch, you can skip ahead and transform at will. The first few hours are spent finding an antidote, but once you've done so, it turns out you've only made matters worse, and from that moment on you change into an actual dog.

It's that moment when you discover your uncle has changed into a dog as well. This part of the story you might already have played through in either that jam game or the demo of Heir of the Dog. You'll have to travel all over London, visiting the locations both during the day as a human and at night as a dog. After all, some actions you can only undertake as a human, and as a dog you can sniff out useful information and even talk to other dogs. Thankfully you retain your inventory, and you have to combine your puzzle solving as both human and dog to reach many a solution.

After five hours of playing, I discovered my uncle has been taken to the dog pound. However, that's where I lost his scent, and now I'll need some inside help to figure out what happened to him next. So stay tuned for further adventures of this... semi-werewolf in Victorian London! 

You can find Heir of the Dog on Steam and on GOG!

Sadly, my "Nighthawks" adventure comes to an end...

Such lovely banter between these characters...

Sometimes a game comes along that's crazy addictive. A game you wish you didn't have to pause when real life gets in the way. A game you just want to keep playing until it's completely finished. That's pretty troublesome when the game in question takes you 45+ hours to reach its ending. But Nighthawks is one of those games. Never did I feel I was getting bored by it. Never did I want that ending to hurry up and arrive so I could go play something else. Every step of the way I was completely enthralled by it. No pun intended... The story, the characters, the side quests, the humor, the lighthearted banter, but also the dark and violent twists, the unexpected gruesomeness. This game captivated me more than any book or TV show has been able to in a long time. Even when perhaps the gameplay isn't what you would normally expect from an adventure game; even when it requires a lot more reading than you are used to; in fact all those descriptions and dialogues are what make Nighthawks stand out so much to me. And that's why it will most likely wind up in a very high place in my annual top ten.

Ah, the aristocracy...

But Nighthawks isn't without its flaws. I've heard from other players that they find the last week of each act is quite uneventful. I've always used that time to raise the respect of my fellow companions during enemy attacks, but you can only do that for so long until you can only rely on going on actual quests with them for that. After a while it's pretty obvious there's nothing coming anymore in a particular act. You can skip ahead to the final showdown, but I didn't do that because each night there's another news headline, and also a funny conversation at the bar, and I didn't want to miss those. Should you decide to skip, you get a message stating which quests you'll miss out on, if there are any, and then you can go back. It was only at the end of Act 4 when there were no more conversations at the bar, that the daily news was truly the only interesting thing left to discover. So yes, that might be a bit meagre for some.

They never learn...

Another element are recurring character designs when it comes to the extras. You'll face random enemy attacks, and they're usually the same people - sometimes wearing masks, sometimes showing their faces - even if you have previously killed them. The woman with her baseball bat and skull t-shirt is even the exact same character guarding one of the locations you often visit; you don't see her attacking you there, though! There are other examples where different characters look exactly the same as someone you encountered far earlier, like a homeless man, or a member of a cult you encountered in an alley, though that one could at least still be plausible, I guess... 

A very punchable face, this one...

Very confusing also were the instances when a quest status is updated, stating you have to take the next step in the mission, while in fact you can't actually do anything yourself but have to wait for the story to catch up instead. For instance, at one point I discovered the location of a group gathering I had to infiltrate, yet it didn't show up on the map. Turned out I had to wait for another character to come pick me up one night, and they would take me there. But since I had already triggered several other future "start of evening" events, and you can only see one of those each night, I could only continue this quest after several nights had passed, which was a bit frustrating because I really wanted to continue the story and see what would happen there.

Goodbye, dear friends!

But all those things are rather minor annoyances in what is otherwise an excellent story experience. When the game ended for me after 47,5 hours, I was very sad it was over. It felt like falling into a black hole, a lifeless void. There were some choices to make at the end, and here I followed my heart and decided the city would take care of itself and I could easily leave it behind with someone dear to me. I often say I might replay a game that promises multiple endings or different playthrough experiences, though I must admit I hardly ever do. There are just so many games out there; and my official review editor is probably wondering if I'm still alive... But I really do want to start a new playthrough of Nighthawks and play no longer as Jonathan Nice but as Jeremy Naughty and be an absolute bastard this time!

You can find Nighthawks on Steam and on GOG!

"Nighthawks" is a HUGE game and if this was a book, I wouldn't be able to put it down...

Thankfully there are no gambling mini-games to get addicted to...

A lot has happened since my first week as a vampire in Nighthawks. As I felt the approach of Act One's ending, I was completely convinced I had to choose one of the many companions I had come to know during the story so far, to come fight the bad guys with me. After all, the lot of them was suddenly gathered at the bar, just waiting for me to recruit them. Turns out, it didn't work that way at all. Initiating the final mission had me kicking out my companion of choice and going to bed, only to have the mission start automatically in the morning with me going at it alone.

Unlocked some new areas in the city...

But it all ended up okay, though with a couple of surprises. This story is full of twists and turns and unexpected events, and new characters keep popping up. Not only full NPC's, but also new companions who raise some of your stats when they join you on your adventures; though I never felt I couldn't accomplish something because I made the wrong choice in who I let tag along. So I played it taking turns, and always asked along the person I had made the least progress with yet according to those stats.

I can't help but think of Xavier in GK2...

The main mission of Act Two didn't really take me that long to prepare for. At least this time I had learned my lesson and I didn't fast forward, but instead played through all available days going on all kinds of side quests. But even then, after a while, it really felt like I had done everything I could do in this act. But with still new nights coming along, I decided to spend my time a bit different: I went underground to map out the entire sewer system, drawing the routes, locations and ladders in a spreadsheet. I was sure it would come in handy someday...

Mission: Accomplished!

But there were plenty of other interesting missions to undertake before I go to that point. The main goal was to earn the trust of two prominent figures in the vampire community, with them voting at the end of the month on my presence in Cradlebridge. It took quite the scavenger hunt to accomplish that, and I uncovered many secrets along the way, with me having to decide how to act on the things I had discovered. Did I make the right choices? Even now I'm not sure, and I have a feeling I will only be able to judge that when the game reaches its conclusion. But that's still a long way off...

Excellent voice work during this sequence!

My favorite mission, however, didn't have much to do with politics: it was about finding out what happened to a little boy that went missing. After locating his house, I went inside to find an exact replica of the building as a doll house, and through some mysticism its history and that of its residents slowly unraveled to me as the dolls moved around and the rooms lighted up one after the other. Sally Beaumont plays a leading role in this story, performing - sorry, but I have no other comparison - as if she was Dolores Umbridge pretending to be Mary Poppins.

Playing an RPG in an RPG...

Another side quest with which to pass the time is Sanguine Nights, an in-game role-playing game you can participate in when you visit the local diner. You have to make choices basically in the same way as in the Nighthawks game itself, but it's the added comments of the other players that make it so memorable. I still would like to play a real D&D game myself some day, to be honest, but I'm afraid perhaps it's been too romanticized in other media...

You can decide not to do this to Becca, but I couldn't help myself...

The highlight of each night to me is always the early evening at the bar. The companions are all gathered there, and talking to one will trigger an interaction between them, where they are usually teasing each other in some way. These bits just feel so... wholesome, for some reason. I love those interactions. They're such a huge contrast to the often violently dark parts of the story. At those moments, they just seem like a group of friends, hanging out together, playing the occasional prank, and it really shows Cobbett's versatility as a writer and his innate sense of humor.

I also have a more revealing screenshot of Lux...

After 25 hours, Act Two is done and I'm confronted with even more vampire characters in Act Three making life in Cradlebridge difficult. Looks like this time it's my job to reconcile different factions in the city, or find a way for them to coexist at least, but I'm not quite sure this time if I'm going about it the right way. Only time will tell, and with Nighthawks, time is exactly what you need, because I'm still only halfway the game, I think, so there's still a lot to discover!

Yeah, I'd like to go cruising again...

You can find Nighthawks on Steam and on GOG!

"Inner Voice", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot!

Excerpt: "With a total play time of four hours, this jump-scare-filled horror game about a man stuck in a reconstruction of his past is effectively creepy without being dangerous, the only risk being its nightmare creatures threatening to scare the living daylights out of you. With only a handful of puzzles, most of your time will be spent walking around with limited interaction, taking in the sights and sounds, and listening to the narrator slowly unfolding the story of the tortured protagonist’s past and the incident involving his wife. As you piece together what actually happened to this tragic, turn-of-the-twentieth-century midwestern couple, perhaps you’ll help Booker find that redemption is finally possible – or maybe not, depending on which ending you get. Either way, Inner Voice is a short but absorbing journey through a realistic-looking yet strange and desolate dream world that fans of games like Silent Hill (without the combat) or Layers of Fear should enjoy."

My first week as a vampire in "Nighthawks"...

Yeah, shake those... cards...

I'm five hours into Nighthawks and I just spent my first week in Cradlebridge. I've met a bunch of people after I first arrived, both vampires and humans, did some errands for some of them, earned me some money, bought some new clothes and even weapons, though apparently I can't even use them since I lack the skills... I'm playing the game as an average nice guy; I'll try to avoid confrontations and insulting people, but when push comes to shove I don't have an issue with dropping my pacifist principles and defend myself or even go full Anakin Skywalker and take revenge when someone truly makes me angry.

Ah, the lovely Becca...

I've noticed that I'm not really making any conscious decisions in this game. I'm just doing what works for me. Some options are unavailable to me because they involve traits I didn't choose when compiling my character at the start of the game. Other options I fail at because my stats aren't high enough. Usually leaving only one option, or sometimes even none at all and then I have to leave locations without having anything to show for it. I do try not to harm any humans, but a certain mission required fresh human blood and perhaps I'm just lazy and didn't look hard enough for alternate and more peaceful solutions, but I couldn't find any willing "donors", so eventually I went on a hunt.

Don't tip the scales in the wrong way...

The hunting mechanic is actually quite interesting. You pick a place where you stalk your pray; yet you don't yet know who your victim will be. I went to a diner, and then you have to observe and mingle with the other guests. Sometimes an interaction will let you come closer to your target, other times your suspicion bar will be raised. Trying out the available options, you have to try and fill your target bar first, otherwise you go home thirsty. I really enjoyed the scene animations here, because usually all scenes are static. This time, the screen colors red, and vague silhouettes slowly move back and forth, the music becomes more suspenseful, and to be honest, even while very intriguing, the whole made me very uncomfortable as well. I don't think I'd be very good at this hunting if it were real.

This kid reminds me of my son's half-sister...

I'm actually curious what the average adventure gamer thinks of Nighthawks. It's certainly not a traditional adventure. You can't literally explore the scenes by clicking on hotspots. Instead it's all done via the textual interface. But there are dialogues with NPC's, there are fetch quests, it's very much like a detective game and just as with The Séance of Blake Manor, every action costs time. Every click, even going through the dialogue menus and leaving again without actually asking anything, takes you a minute closer to sunrise. It's an exploration game that is a lot more than a simple click-to-progress visual novel. I can tell by my behavior of saving the game. It feels like I'm playing an old Sierra title with death waiting around every corner. The comparison fits even more, because it even contains a maze, in the form of the city sewers! I must have at least 25 save files by now, probably more!

Quite the gathering...

Nearing the end of Act One, I was offered the choice of immediately continuing the storyline, but the game then alerted me there were some "side quests" I would miss. Because I didn't want to miss anything of this brilliant example of fine storytelling, I simply went to bed and waited for the next sunset, after which I could talk to some people again and do another errand for them. I assume I'll be able to do this a couple of nights in a row, until every quest is completed and the main storyline will automatically take over again. At least this way, I guess I can raise my stats a bit more and be better prepared for whatever showdown is coming... Or at least I hope so...

You can find Nighthawks on Steam and on GOG!

New game playthrough: "Nighthawks"!

New game!

If I had to say what my first introduction to vampire kind was, it was probably the movie adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire. Once I learned enough English, I read all her vampire books. I've also read Dracula, though I don't think I ever saw one of his movies. While I liked the movie Buffy The Vampire Slayer, I never got into the TV series, though I did watch all of True Blood. Finally, I got hooked on the Anita Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton. And yes, I even read the ones full of explicit polyamorous sex scenes... When I think of vampires in adventure games, however, I'm afraid I'm not all that experienced. Of course I played A Vampyre Story, and there are the vampire-like villains in Gabriel Knight 3, but other than that I only remember one small character at the dinner table in Hugo's House of Horrors; incidentally the very first text parser adventure game I ever played. 

Now here comes Nighthawks! Eight years in the making, almost a million words written by witty author Richard Cobbett of The Curiosity Engine, beautiful artwork and character designs by amazing graphical wizard Ben Chandler, a dazzling soundtrack by the unsurpassable Thomas Regin, and published by prestigious Wadjet Eye Games. This adventure game/visual novel/RPG hybrid has many excellent reputations to live up to.

Quite the elaborate character compiling...

Before you can actually start playing, you need to answer a truckload of questions, the result of which compiles your protagonist's characteristics, skills and abilities. Compare it a bit to the old Quest For Glory games, where you choose your character's class and distribute some extra skill points. But it goes a lot deeper than that in Nighthawks. There are too many choices for me to list, so I'll just summarize what I went with myself. The person who made me into a vampire was a scholar, which means I'll be faster at learning new skills. I have a continental origin, because, well, I live in Europe after all. And apparently this means I'll be better at seduction and manipulation. Which is so not me, actually... But it certainly sounds like fun! Though that might be the influence of those Anita Blake books again... My special gift is the "tenebrous form", meaning I can transform myself into a cloud of smoke and shadow. Perhaps there are more powerful gifts to choose from, but this one felt more defensive to me, which fits better with my own personality. And the topic I'm most familiar with is culture, because I have a clear affinity with literature, cinema, games of course, and perhaps a little music. So there, that's who I'll be while playing Nighthawks.

My window to the world...

As the game truly starts, first I get to play through a prologue. This serves to explain Nighthawks's setting: who I am, where I came from, where I am now and what I'm doing here. The first screen has me looking at a street in the city of Cradlebridge. A static work of art, except for the animation of falling rain. The right side of the screen looks a bit like a text adventure: a description of my current situation, and some choices. Apparently I'm standing in front of Elijah Morrow's appartment. I have no idea who he is, but I guess I have business with him. So I should knock. But wait a minute, there's a mysterious little gargoyle holding a cellphone, showing I have a new message. This cellphone holds all kinds of information: news headlines, a contact list, an overview of my character stats, and you can also save your game here. Which might be interesting for a narrative adventure where every choice you make guides the story. There's also a credit card with my bank balance. Nil. And two orb like things, one showing my health, another indicating my current blood intake. No doubt this will all factor into the RPG elements of the game, but right now I don't yet know how to manage them.

Argh, my first major dilemma and I'm not even five minutes in!

After searching through Morrow's appartment, I learn this guy was my maker's human servant, who betrayed him and then fled. So that's why I'm after him: I want to know why. The reason, the motivation. I'm all on my lonesies now, in a city where vampires have made themselves known, and where society has given them the right of existence. I have one obvious yet huge goal now: I have one month to make it on my own here, and if I fail, I'll likely be destroyed. Like getting shot by an angry, vampire-hating landlady! After eluding her bullet with my special gift of turning into shadow and smoke, I have the choice of feeding on her or resisting the sweet call of human blood... I drained her; how dare she, shooting at me like that!

I nicknamed him Feathertongue...

Stepping outside, I'm suddenly ambushed by a couple, man and woman, more vampire haters. I try to fight back, but it's futile and they beat me to a pulp. No worries, though. This is how the prologue is supposed to go, and I wake up for Act One of the game, on the evening of the next day in my room at the Halcyon Hotel. My refuge, my sanctuary, my place to change outfits and equip myself with all kinds of accessories and weapons. Only problem is, this is just the start of the game, and I own pretty much zilch. Some slacks and a T-shirt, that's it. As I'm about to hit the streets again to find out more about Morrow, I'm greeted by another vampire, Maze. Owner of Cygnus Rare Books, it sounds like he'll be my mentor for now, showing me around the city, teaching me the ropes. Together with his book shop assistant Hazel, they come over a bit like an alternate universe version of Gabriel Knight and Grace Nakimura. A very alternate version...

Long live travel maps!

While at the start of the game I could only read the descriptions of my surroundings, as soon as other characters pop up the voice actor get their chance to shine. I haven't encountered that many yet, but what I've heard so far already sounds excellent, and I know I also have some famous voice actors to look forward to like Sally Beaumont and Ivy Dupler. Coupled with the music, they give Nighthawks a modern noir sound. The remainder of my first hour as a vampire I spent exploring the city. A handy travel map displays how long it takes to travel between locations. Because I need to keep an eye on the time: I'm a vampire, after all, and sunlight doesn't sit well with me. I need to be back in my sanctuary before sunrise, so each night I only have a limited amount of time to do whatever I want: inquire about Morrow, earn money, find blood, and try to settle in with all other creatures of the night. I think I have a long road ahead of me... 

You can find Nighthawks on Steam and on GOG!