The classic point-and-click adventure genre has been around for so long now that it can almost feel static, which is why it always feels so exciting to come across a game thatfeelsa little different. Last year’s excellentPhoenix Springsput a twist on the familiar by swapping out the typical inventory system for leads, allowing you to match evidence to more abstract ideas that would form connections. It also had an incredibly vibrant art style and wonderful voice acting.
The Drifter’s Writing And Voice Acting Shine
It’s Phoenix Springs that entered my mind as I started playing the demo forThe Drifter, a wonderfully immersive new point-and-click from the developers of Peridium and Crawl. The first striking thing about it is the voice acting. Our protagonist, Mick, awakes in a train car, which he’s hopped on to get to his hometown. As I click around to examine objects, I’m treated to some excellent voice acting – every action is narrated, and Mick expresses his thoughts in wonderfully naturalistic dialogue and a distinct Australian accent.
The second striking thing is its blocky, dynamic pixel art style.
It’s not long before the game’s inciting incident happens. Mick pulls up a tarp on the ground to find a sleeping man, who’s unresponsive – likely sleeping off whatever substances he’s been using to cope, Mick surmises. He tries to open the train car’s door, but it’s stuck, so he tries to wake the sleeping guy up so he can give him a hand. The man panics as he wakes, brandishing an iron crowbar at him and screaming unintelligible sentences. I click on the tarp in my inventory and throw it over the man, who, in his confused state, struggles to escape.
Mick rips the door open with the crowbar, only to be blinded by light. He hides by the door as the confused man stands in the beam, shouting. Suddenly, gunshots ring out, and the man collapses to the ground, bleeding and very dead. Panicked, Mick dashes across the train car and climbs out of the access hatch to escape.
Fast-Paced And Thoughtful Game Design
These opening minutes are a good display of the kind of tone The Drifter will have – mysterious, dark, and surprisingly fast-paced. The genre is well-known for its sometimes illogical puzzles, which can lead to players wandering around maps looking for items they may have missed, or trying to brute force a puzzle when common sense doesn’t seem to be the answer.
In The Drifter (or at least its first chapter), there’s none of that. The answers make perfect sense, and there’s a surprising quickness to its pace. I don’t know if there’s actual time pressure to make certain decisions, but I find myself rushing to find solutions as quickly as possible in tense situations, which isn’t typical of the genre.
Also not typical of the genre is the way puzzles are tracked for you. One tab has icons that you can mouse over to see what puzzles or mysteries you’re currently trying to solve, and the last updates to those puzzles. For example, Mick’s phone dies while he’s trying to get his sister to give him her address so he knows where to go – this, and his attempts to get the phone charged, are all tracked in that tab so you never get lost trying to juggle the disparate threads of this story.
And there are many threads. What appears to be a story about nomadic and unhoused people turns out to be a web of conspiracy, and I’m excited to learn more about it when it launches this year. Until then, you can play The Drifter’s demo for yourselfhere.
