Amanda the Adventurer Review (alyssa-black)
Short puzzle game in the style of “cute horror”. It’s one of those overall enjoyable titles where the idea is great and execution is (mostly) well-done, but you can’t seem to swat away the thought that it could have been so much more if the concept was expanded on. The game’s just a bit too short, a bit too easy and a bit too shallow to be truly outstanding, but it still gives “time well spent” feeling in the end.
Some thoughts:
- The idea of your surroundings (in this case, an attic) being one big puzzle divided into small ones is still a neat one. Despite “Inscryption” and the likes taking it to a whole other level of awesomeness, in smaller games like “Amanda the Adventurer” it’s still fun to participate in, and game’s indisputable charm partially makes up for a smaller scope.
- The puzzles are not difficult but fall into “fun to solve” category. If this was the focus of the game, with just a bit more fleshing out it would have been a splendid cozy horror. However, a huge chunk of your time would be spent not on solving puzzles but rather on rewinding the in-game tapes – a sort of command center for all your actions with creepy children’s TV show running - to see if you missed something (different ending/reaction/dialogue line). This is definitely encouraged by design, as skipping this step will lead to not only upsettingly short and confusing experience but also to missing out on major “horror” moments, which is a key reason (I’m assuming here) you were inclined to pick up this title to begin with. This could certainly be a draw for some, so if you’re one of those people who loves to re-play the scenes to see something new – this might be just the game for you. If you, like me, largely prefer to engage with interesting plot and fun puzzles, favoring “linear but deep” as opposed to “shallow with lots of options” this might be a bit of a disappointment.
- To expand on the point above, this game is full of extremely obscure stuff that, at the moment of this writing, hasn’t even been fully explored yet. Secrets that are interesting only because of how hard it is to find them rather than on their own merit. There’s also an audience for that - people who are willing to dig in game’s files and even engine editors, but I’m not one of those, and since it’s a significant part of this adventure – it didn’t really deliver for me like it might for others.
- The story, though, is unique and creatively relayed through different mediums of cartoons, FMV and epistolary bits, making me wish for a deep-dive into all that goodness instead of going for several open-to-interpretation endings that teeter on “anti-climactic” all the while losing a chance to be loads more immersive.
- There’s no horror here in the classic sense of this word. This is a spooky puzzle adventure, and nothing here will be scary or even unsettling. If anything, it’ll probably make you smile on a few occasions. This is, very obviously, a stylistic choice, so it’s not a drawback of any kind but merely an observation for those who expect a usual for the genre atmosphere.
- There’s a very decent voiceover, minimal but well-done soundtrack, and some cheesy FMV scenes that all came together rather nicely to form an original narrative – a job well done on this component.
I really wish this game would have gone full-steam-ahead with the main plot and its indie-awesome originality (and more difficult puzzles) as its core, instead of relying on the mechanic of replaying sections for more secrets, more side stuff, more endings, all of which makes the primary storyline muddled and blurred and, ultimately, under-explored – quite often the case with stories saddled with multiple endings not due to polar opposite choices, but due to random “secrets” you have to find. This personal gripe aside – it’s still a fun, engaging puzzle game that might not have won me over but entertained me, nonetheless.
My final take out of this is that Dread X seems to solidify its “wacky horror” publisher status (where things can range from scary to surrealistic to adorable and still end up generally well-made) with their every release. Not being too much into “Amanda the Adventurer”, I love that the guys behind the famous indie horror collection are expanding and growing. That means a new one might be coming soon (hopefully), and I’m all for that kind of craziness.