Earthworms: Creepy point and click puzzler (Switch)
Having grown up playing point and click games like Monkey Island and Broken Sword - and many others since - I think it's fair to say I'm no stranger to the genre.
It was with some joy that I spotted and downloaded Earthworms from the Nintendo eShop - it seemed a steal at about 90p.
I'm always pleased to find new point and click games, I don't think the genre gets enough love these days.
The word which stood out for me with this one was... odd. And I don't mean that in a bad way. Let me explain.
In Earthworms - which was made by indie studio All Those Moments - you step into the shoes of Daniel, a man tasked with finding a missing girl.
His investigations begin in a strange little town but take him to all kinds of increasingly bizarre and creepy locations.
Without wanting to give away too much, there's a lot more happening in this town and its surroundings than meets the eye.
The game nicely blended elements of mild horror and sci-fi, all the time feeding me bits of information and keeping me wanting to know more about what was really going on.
What struck me initially was the artwork. It's as if you're walking around in some sort of surreal painting and that made the whole thing feel a bit different to your usual point and click.
Helping to ratchet up the suspense was a suitably unsettling soundtrack and some pretty decent sound effects.
So how was the pointing and clicking? Pretty good, in my opinion.
I find some games in this genre have the problem of making the solutions to their puzzles a bit too far-fetched, resulting in the player having to go around repeatedly using every item with every other item.
Thankfully the solutions in Earthworms were, for the most part, the logical sort that could be worked out with some good old fashioned head scratching and an optional pen and paper.
I confess I did consult a guide on one or two occasions (perhaps my point and click skills are just a bit rusty) but other than that I managed to figure out the puzzles for myself.
An interesting additional layer to the typical inventory puzzling action is Daniel's vision ability.
Interacting with certain places or items will cause him to see a fairly basic monochrome image.
These images might repeat themselves when interacting with other things within the world, suggesting some kind of connection between the subjects.
While they didn't always lead me directly to the solutions, they were nevertheless interesting, as each one found allowed Daniel to fill in another blank in his theory about its relevance to the investigation.
Earthworms is a relatively short adventure once you hit your stride, but I didn't mind that.
For about 90p (and even at its usual price, which I believe is a couple of pounds) there's much to enjoy here.
Have you played Earthworms? Let me know what you thought below!
It was with some joy that I spotted and downloaded Earthworms from the Nintendo eShop - it seemed a steal at about 90p.
I'm always pleased to find new point and click games, I don't think the genre gets enough love these days.
The word which stood out for me with this one was... odd. And I don't mean that in a bad way. Let me explain.
In Earthworms - which was made by indie studio All Those Moments - you step into the shoes of Daniel, a man tasked with finding a missing girl.
His investigations begin in a strange little town but take him to all kinds of increasingly bizarre and creepy locations.
The game nicely blended elements of mild horror and sci-fi, all the time feeding me bits of information and keeping me wanting to know more about what was really going on.
What struck me initially was the artwork. It's as if you're walking around in some sort of surreal painting and that made the whole thing feel a bit different to your usual point and click.
Helping to ratchet up the suspense was a suitably unsettling soundtrack and some pretty decent sound effects.
So how was the pointing and clicking? Pretty good, in my opinion.
I find some games in this genre have the problem of making the solutions to their puzzles a bit too far-fetched, resulting in the player having to go around repeatedly using every item with every other item.
Thankfully the solutions in Earthworms were, for the most part, the logical sort that could be worked out with some good old fashioned head scratching and an optional pen and paper.
I confess I did consult a guide on one or two occasions (perhaps my point and click skills are just a bit rusty) but other than that I managed to figure out the puzzles for myself.
An interesting additional layer to the typical inventory puzzling action is Daniel's vision ability.
Interacting with certain places or items will cause him to see a fairly basic monochrome image.
These images might repeat themselves when interacting with other things within the world, suggesting some kind of connection between the subjects.
While they didn't always lead me directly to the solutions, they were nevertheless interesting, as each one found allowed Daniel to fill in another blank in his theory about its relevance to the investigation.
Earthworms is a relatively short adventure once you hit your stride, but I didn't mind that.
For about 90p (and even at its usual price, which I believe is a couple of pounds) there's much to enjoy here.
Have you played Earthworms? Let me know what you thought below!
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