26 Sep, 2010
Twisted Lands: Shadow Town is a thrilling point and click adventure game on the PC. If you’re a fan of this game genre and are looking for a new addition to your noodle bending collection, then pay attention to what this release from Alawar Games has to offer.
The story follows Mark, a treasure hunting fellow who is out on the messiest and most useless boat in the world with his girl Angel. Shortly after our introduction to the characters, Mark falls from the boat and is washed ashore on an island hours later with Angel nowhere to be seen. From there the story gets more and more exciting as you help Mark navigate the island, Boats, Shacks, Mansions and all, with the ultimate objective, getting enough Snake Statues to open a huge fiery door deep inside a cave. The story is seriously great and I was annoyed at myself for my lack of puzzle skill at some points because I wanted to know what happened next. I won’t spoil anything though because that’s no fun is it.
Let me just say that this is the prettiest point and clicker I’ve ever played. The environments are so well designed and thought out that some of the visuals actually look like photographs. When I say prettiest, you might say “What? It’s a wrecked staircase and a Jail cell”. Yes it is… It’s a good looking one though right? There are little animations among the still images of the scenes, when you hover over an object that can be used; you are welcomed by some severely creepy ghostly faces that circle it in mist. Also when you carry out an action you are welcomed with a strangely detailed animation of what you are doing, like pouring water and such, I haven’t played a point and click game with such animations.
To think about it, this game is more of a point and click and drag because you can also click and hold some objects to move them out of the way of something you might be in need of, this is also something I’ve never encountered in a P&C game. Apart from this, it is still the same format as usual. The Journal on the left, the cheat question mark on the right and the Inventory sandwiched between them holding all your tat that might be useful later on. The hidden object puzzle screens still irritate me like crazy I’m afraid. For me they get in the way of the game rather than adding something to it. I feel that these screens should have the list of objects at the bottom but rather than having to find them all and then gaining one object which is useful, you should have the option to look for the most useful object in the list and if it’s the one you need, then you can exit the screen. That’s just me trying to change a whole game style though… ehem.
The soundtrack of this game is brilliant, I constantly find myself feeling cold or frightened when a spooky piece of music starts itself up as I enter a room, I’ve always said that a great soundtrack can make a game and in this case, the music and sound effects finish off the scary feel of the game perfectly. Also watch out for the screamers, I walked into a screen where I was met with a high pitched female scream and I think I probably managed to emit the same frequency from my fright too. *Embarrassment*
So if you hadn’t guessed, I love these types of games and this one is excellent. The developers must have truly tried hard to create this challenging puzzle filled horror story and I would urge fans of the Genre to pick up a copy of this one.
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