New game: "A Vampyre Story"!

New game!

Bill Tiller released A Vampyre Story about ten years after LucasArts' The Curse of Monkey Island was the height of point 'n click adventure gaming, yet it shows many similarities to that classic. The backgrounds have this amazing, Don Bluth animated movie type of graphics style, and the user interface utilizes a variety of the verb coin. Having played for the first hour, this feels like a very slow-paced game, where you need patience to explore since there are quite a lot of hotspots to examine. 

No, Harry, they're gargoyles, not flying house elves...

You play as Mona De Lafitte, a former Parisian opera singer who fell under the spell of vampire Shrowdy von Kiefer. Shrowdy kidnaps Mona and takes her to live with him at Castle Warg in Draxilvania. One day, however, Shrowdy is killed by vampire hunters, and Mona is left alone to escape the castle and return to Paris, finally free of her vampire master's spell.

A verb cross instead of a coin...

Though alone she actually is not. Froderick the bat is her constant companion, good for most of the jokes in this game, the way Max was in Sam & Max Hit the Road. They kind of have the same accent as well, by the way. It's an awesome voice actor in any case. Mona herself has a higher pitched voice in a French accent that totally fits the role yet might not be for everyone's ears. Examining objects does take longer than in other adventure games, however, since Froderick often insists on giving his own opinion as well after Mona's, usually including one pun or other - which might get to feel a bit tiresome if you're an impatient gamer who wants to move on.

Oeh la la, ze bedroom!

Mona is obviously a lady, wearing a pocketless dress, and only limited space in her coffin for keepsakes. So she doesn't pick up everything she encounters, even if she admits the items could be useful. But she does store the idea of the items away, remembering where she can find them should the need ever arise to use them. I thought this was both quite funny and more realistic than your average adventure game.

Appropriate inventory system...

It's funny that Mona doesn't acknowledge her actually being a vampire herself, insisting that she's drinking wine instead of blood. Funny, because she does have the ability to change into a bat herself, with one option in the verb cross allowing her to fly over things. Also when you want to use a heavier or larger item she didn't pick up yet, she turns into a bat to go retrieve up from wherever she saw it earlier.

Let it go, let it goooo!

The primary objective is to get a secret key from a gargoyle so Mona can leave her limited living quarters and explore the rest of the castle. A typical tit for tat presents itself, so figuring out how exactly to accomplish that will be my next endeavour. I was also able to open up a hatch in the torture chamber, but neither Mona nor Froderick will go down there because of the smell, and Mona's small perfume bottles aren't enough to banish the odor. So I'm hoping to discover a solution for this puzzle as I play on.

You can find A Vampyre Story on Steam!

Missing celebrities found in "Les Manley in: Lost in L.A."!

You watch that bay, dude!

After exploring L.A. during my previous game session, I didn't really have a clue as to where to go or what to do next. Thankfully the solution soon presented itself, but also leads me to a big gripe I have about Les Manley in: Lost in L.A.: the fickleness of the walk-icon! Coupled with the fact that I didn't know how to open up the map from my inventory, I often spent some time frantically clicking the borders of my screen to get Les to move to the next screen. This also means that sometimes, I didn't even realize there was a next screen!

Look behind you! A two-headed... No, better not go there...

So after I pretty much accidentally stumbled onto the beach I hadn't yet found earlier, the game took off again with one thing leading to another. Since I'd already done most of my other exploring, I quickly figured out where to go next this time, and I could finally enter the mud-wrestling club as well, which led to a cutscene consisting of a series of still shots of bikini- and lingerie-clad women, immediately making obvious this game's notoriety.

So this was the hideout all along?! Would never have guessed!

Next up it was straight gaming into the finale, though not without a couple of reloads because I had missed some things and found myself in a soft lock, though thankfully not as many as in the first game. By now I must confess the game had grown on me a bit. Yes, it's cheesy as hell, and you don't want to ignore Les's touch-icon, especially near the end. And yes, there were even some genuinely funny moments. Though only some absurd ones that only seem to exist as an excuse to hand Les an inventory item he will need to tackle some obstacle later on.

I don't think Les is in for a nice massage...

After almost three hours of gaming, I reached the end, which was much faster than I had antipicated. Truth be told, I expected to get stuck a lot more times, similar to the first game. Instead, there were enough clues to keep you going, and even when I encountered a game-over screen, the text shown would give a suggestion on what I should better think of the next time. Not really giving away the solution but at least making you aware that you're still missing something and thus nudging you in the right direction.

I wouldn't really go that far, personally...

In the end, I enjoyed this game a lot more than the first game, but of course I was pre-warned how terrible it would be. So with very low expectations, I can certainly say it was indeed an improvement, but perhaps too silly a story and also too 1991 to pass not only today's standards but also today's morals and values (though sometimes reading the news and watching TV I do doubt if things have rilly changed that much since then...)

Next up I'll play a more modern game again - though it's almost twenty years old as well by now! - about a female vampire, since there's a sequel in the works...

You can find Les Manley in: Lost in L.A. on Steam and on GOG!

"Among the Whispers: Provocation", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

 

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot!

Excerpt: "Not only does it provide another hauntingly eerie environment to explore, Among the Whispers: Provocation is a more active game than Conrad Stevenson’s Paranormal P.I. and I can only applaud that development. While patience is still a factor, and you might get frustrated when a ghost spouts unintelligible gibberish in your quest to find out who they are, it’s a much faster-paced title that also adds puzzle elements to the gameplay. And while the general setting is the same, each night is different thanks to the game’s randomization. Coupled with slowly unlocking more rooms, more tragic deaths and more ghost hobbies, and the historical mystery of the Magnificent Drive mansion to uncover through all kinds of collectible documents, what might otherwise have been a repetitive procedural is elevated into a fun, exciting and mysterious story as well, which will no doubt give even the bravest of ghost hunters some sleepless nights."

Classic playthrough: "Les Manley in: Lost in L.A."

"New" game!

After the disaster that was Les Manley in: Search for the King, my sadomasochistic side played up again and enticed me to boot up its sequel, Les Manley in: Lost in L.A. Now, considering the current climes, the only way you could find me lost in L.A. is indeed in computer game form. But the change from a text parser to a true point 'n click interface did fill me with a little bit of hope; though I also heard mention that this sequel makes the first game appear like LeChuck's Revenge...

Ooh, inventory...

The story so far: Helmut Bean, tiniest man in the world who helped me retrieve something from a pool drain in the first game, is now living the L.A. dream with actress LaFonda Turner, only to find himself kidnapped like so many other celebrities seem to be these days. After he called me, Les Manley, to come and visit him, he's nowhere to be found. The quest to find him naturally falls to me, then.

No way to get lost with such a detailed map...

So for about an hour I've been traipsing all over L.A., talking to some people, acquiring a handful of inventory items, like a fake celebrity selfie, a spare travel map for some reason, an elastic piece of pigeon poo (!) and a free pass for a mud wrestling club. The logical places to visit won't let me in yet. So these obstacles still need to be vanquished, though I have no idea what exactly that will lead to. But some items come without a clear goal of where to go and what to do with them exactly. Which is classic adventure game fare, of course...  

Yes, be your own game and stop referencing the clichés...

I guess there's nothing else to do for now than revisit all locations and see if there's something else I can do there. So far I'm quite appreciative of the smart-cursor interface, the graphics style and, well, the typical 90s style adventure game music. I have a feeling this game is also more forgiving than its predecessor, though it's still early days and I might regret having said that that in my next blog post...

You can find Les Manley in: Lost in L.A. on Steam and on GOG!

Earth Must Die! - my Nice Game Hints review!

Read my full review on Nice Game Hints!

Excerpt: "Earth Must Die! is pure escapism. Developer Size Five Games - probably best known for the Ben and Dan point ‘n clicks and the Lair of the Clockwork God adventure platformer - makes us forget all the problems of the real world by having some silly, foul-mouthed fun with gratuitous deaths and sexual references. And even saying that, I’m sure it’s still too vanilla for some."

A rather fast conclusion to "Shadows of the Afterland"...

And that's how we got our multicultural society here...

When playing Shadows of the Afterland last time, I left Carolina in a sticky situation. Having saved the game, I was ready to investigate and figure my way out of it. But when I reloaded and watched the recap of my previous playing session, I thought the game glitched and the recap kept showing, no longer past conversations, but future ones as well! Trapped by the villain, I expected a good puzzle but instead the game kept going from cutscene to cutscene. The recap wasn't glitched, because I loaded an older saved game to test it and the conversations kept coming this time as well. I didn't even have to switch Afterlife locations manually anymore.

The travel map.

Finally I was given control again and I could do a couple of actions, but they didn't amount to much. Half an hour after reloading, I finished the game, bringing my total playing time to just under five hours. It was only partly a satisfying ending, since I was expecting more answers to the mysteries. I was left with the same questions I had at the start of the game. 

This woman looks at least 20 years older than she says she is!

I did discover another handy feature besides the recap system the devs added to Shadows of the Afterland: saving during conversations, and even during cutscenes! You simply pause the game in the middle of talking, click on the menu icon and save! Oh, how long have I wished for this to be implemented! The conversations here aren't that long, but there are games where they can stretch out for a long time and sometimes, when you have to go, you don't have the time to sit through all that, and in many games quitting a conversation early doesn't always guarantee you can continue the conversation later on.
 

Portal hopping to the land of the living...

So, other than the rather hurried and pretty much un-interactive finale, I really enjoyed Shadows of the Afterland with its quirky characters, fun pixel art, and interesting take on the afterlife, mixing the drama of death with humor and adding a very slight whiff of some Grim Fandango crime. And of course that brilliant recap system, and the ability to save during conversations.

Next up I'll be going back in time to a 90s classic. With a trembling heart I'm going to attempt the Les Manley sequel, Lost in L.A. After the disaster of the first game, I'm hoping this one will be a bit more forgiving, though that will probably not be the case since it's I've heard it makes the first game look like Monkey Island 2...

You can find Shadows of the Afterland on Steam and on itch.io.

This time on "Shadows of the Afterland"!

Awesome! A recap system!

Okay, hold up! Why don't more adventure games use this technique? Previously I had simply loaded up my Shadows of the Afterland save file, but then I tried the Continue button on the main menu, and I was suddenly treated to a recap of my previous gaming session! How marvelous is that! It might not seem that way, but I often days pass before I get a chance to continue a game, and often I'll feel lost with no idea what I was supposed to be doing. A recap like this (almost) beats an in-game notebook!

I get a slight Soylent Green vibe from this scene...

Carolina has been giving a task by the former spectral agent to prepare her journey back to the land of the living. This meant exploring the land of the dead even further, solving some easy puzzles, fetching some items for people so they'd help me. It all comes down to remembering the things you saw earlier which might be able to help you, or talking to someone who might know more. Nothing to break your brain over.

Valencia looked more like Westworld's Delos HQ when I was there...

Finally I reached the advertised part of the game I've been looking forward to: possessing people! Because that was such a blast in The Will of Arthur Flabbington by Guga Games. And indeed, it finally adds an extra layer to the puzzles. Though it also feels quite uncomfortable doing so...

A nice little family to use to my advantage...

I've also learned something very important, which has given me an inkling of what exactly happened to Pilar/Carolina. But I'm still very curious to see the motivation behind it all. 

You can find Shadows of the Afterland on Steam and on itch.io.