Gemini Rue, Primordia – Point and click adventures are not dead – part 2.

Although the golden age of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky, Gabriel Knight and their ilk is long gone, and often do we hear cries of adventure games being dead and forgotten, it is not yet time to panic. Point and click adventures may not be in the mainstream spotlight, but they are most definitely not completely buried, either – they thrive within the halls of smaller studios, indie projects and Kickstarter campaigns. In this humble collection, we will take a brief look at some of the more interesting indie point and click adventures of modern times, and also risk a short glimpse at what the future might hold.

Gemini Rue

Joshua Nuernberger's 2011 existential point and click adventure tackles a number of great questions – what is man without his memories? Is a person not merely the accumulation of his past memories and experiences? Within 5 minutes of starting Gemini Rue, it becomes evident that the search for answers is going to take us on a journey most extraordinary: the very first scene of the game shows one of its protagonist, codenamed Delta-Six, undergo a brain wiping session robbing him of all his memories. It is soon explained that Delta-Six is an inmate spending his days locked up at a mysterious, rather Orwellian rehabilitation facility that aims to re-train criminals into upstanding members of society – or, if that fails, repeat the process until their unwilling subjects stop resisting. One of Gemini Rue's plotlines thus follow the adventures of Delta-Six within the facility, looking for, among other things, traces of his own memory, identity, and, of course, a way out. Another, parallel story puts us in the shoes of Azriel Odin, ex-assassin turned law enforces fighting his former employers (an intergalactic mafia-like organization) in order to find his missing brother.

In terms of atmosphere, Gemini Rue radiates an aura both futuristic and depressing – if one wished to draw apt parallels, we would no doubt have to point in the direction of films such as Blade Runner as far as inspiration is concerned. Although the explorable areas themselves are not huge (a handful of screens, really), Gemini Rue is nonetheless very easy to get immersed in; for gamers with a special taste for gloomy futuristic settings, the title will be quite difficult to put down. The pixelated, oldschool graphics serve a similar purpose, accompanied by a fantastic score of highly atmospheric noir music.

Gemini Rue adds an interesting -and at the very same time, potentially questionable- element to its classic point and click gameplay – namely, shooting segments. Controlling either Delta-Six or Azriel, players will find themselves in situations where they'll have to engage in firefights. In practice, this is quite simple: we get into cover, and lean out of it using either the A or D keys, followed by a number of well-timed shots at our enemies. Timing is the key, knowing when to lean out of cover and when to shoot – there's not much more to it than that. Thankfully, the developers knew very well that they were making primarily an adventure game, and so the shooting bits never overstay their welcome. Furthermore, there aren't such a large number of them during the story, either, which means they ultimately never truly get in the way enjoying Gemini Rue and the tale it's trying to tell, should we find the firefights less than appealing.

As for that very tale it's trying to tell – it most definitely paints an interesting premise with its memory-wiping rehabilitation facility and the mysteries behind it, that much I can admit. Somewhat more of a letdown, however, is the huge, earth-shattering twist, which ended up being very predictable – too predictable, if we wanted to be specific. As such, the big reveal will most likely not come as a huge surprise for many. And yet, despite the finale ending up as a disappointment due to its sheer predictability, Gemini Rue still provides a satisfying experience with its beautifully grim atmosphere and thought-provoking existentialist dilemma, making it easy to recommend the title to any adventure fan looking for a well-told sci-fi tale.

Gameplay time: ~6-8 hours
Webpage, demo

Primordia

Primordia, developed by Wormwood Studios tackles the ancient question: can the machine, built by man, ever overcome its creators? The game -much like Gemini Rue- takes place in a grim future, with the major difference being the absolute lack of the human race: the planet is now rules by machines. The last remnant of the human race remains in the form of a religion called Humanism, its major tenets instructing robots to revere man as the ultimate Lord and Builder and father to all machines. Our protagonists, unsurprisingly, are also robots: one is the desert hermit Horatio, the other his wise-cracking sidekick, Crispin. Their uneventful lives, however, are interrupted when a large, hostile robot enters their home, attacks them and steals Horatio's power core, an item required for his survival in the uninhabited deserts. And so, our heroes, with no other option left to them, make their way to Metropol, the last remaining city of the machines, in order to reclaim their power core and -in the process- find out what really happened to the humans that walked the earth before them.

Graphically, Primordia deserves praise: although its visual style makes use mostly of brown and grey colors, it is a fitting palette to the game's mechanical world, showing promising signs of creativity; from the endless wastes stretching outside the city to the rust-covered metropolis of the machines, everything is brought to life with utmost care. The game's general feel is akin to that of a great classic, Beneath a Steel Sky, achieving a pleasing balance of serious moments and comedic banter, be it the tophat-wearing Briton gentleman of a robot, Crispin's constant one-liners or the machine that refuses to talk in anything but rhymes. Horatio's companions as well, among them the jokester Crispin and the always law-abiding Clarity, along with all their dialogue and occasional bickering, bring a welcome variety into the game's already unique atmosphere. Primordia's primary narrative, however, takes a long while to get going, and even when it does, it never becomes something truly extraordinary, despite tackling a variety of heavy issues including morality, free will, progress and hope; ultimately, Primordia's story never ended up giving me that near-cathartic post-game satisfaction that one feels upon completing a truly gripping tale, which is, to say the least, regreattable.

Ultimately though, Primordia is still a fairly deep, charming and often genuinely amusing adventure. Despite not being a masterpiece, it still manages to moderately satisfy with its uniquely dark atmosphere and likable characters, which is more than what many other titles in the genre can boast of.

Gameplay time: ~4-6 hours
Webpage

Point and click adventures are not dead – part 1.