AdventureX 2018 Roundup - Part Three

It’s a testament to the number of quality games on display at AdventureX 2018 that we have required not one, not two, but three round-ups just to give you a glimpse of the games we most enjoyed. After all, with adventure games like these who needs AAAs, right?

Future Flashback

Against a backdrop of flickering neon, Future Flashback follows the life of a troubled man grieving for the loss of his son. Through use of drugs that can recreate vivid memories, the game’s protagonist takes himself on a journey of medicated remembering, but what will happen when his dependence on the drug begins to run too deep?

Our sneak peak into this world took us on a distinctly Blade Runner-esque point-and-click adventure. With short puzzles to solve based on clues embedded in each scene, the game promises to be far more than just a tale of a sad sci-fi man. Its vibrant soundtrack and visuals caught our attention initially, but the story kept us intrigued throughout the demo. Future Flashback’s demo was shown for the first time at AdventureX and so far Brazilian development team Myths Untold are still in the early days of development, but we hope to see more very soon.

Like Roots in the Soil

It’s not every day that you get to control a game via a plant pot. In Like Roots in the Soil’s AdventureX set-up twisting this plant pot allowed the player to study the duel perspectives of two nameless characters: one young man and one old. The short tale, originally a submission to Post-Apocalyptic Jam 2017, follows two men as they ‘walk towards destiny’, one in a futuristic well-built world, and the other walking through ruin. Watching the progress of the two men while short poetic phrases narrated the scene made for sombre and beautiful viewing. Its duration is full of a melancholic post-apocalyptic energy, but the game’s ending takes us somewhere else entirely. Instead of leaving us with dread it does something truly special, it ends on hope.

You can download the game now from Space Backyard’s website, although you’ll probably have to make do with a mouse rather than a plant pot.

Talesinger

There’s just something about Talesinger. Whether it be the broad Welsh accents, the basis in Celtic history or the instantly recognisable vegetation that litters the forest floor, it manages to feel like a little slice of home inside the Unity engine (if your home happens to be Britain, that is). In this narrative adventure the player is cast as Gwen, an apprentice bard about to embark on a quest to unite the Celtic tribes of her home. But instead of fighting, Gwen must use music and stories to inspire those around her. We saw just a sneak peak of the trials Gwen had ahead of her, and one thing is for sure, this is a game where the voice-acting is nailed. The instantly likeable Gwen remains for now in the early development stages, with developer Quantum Soup beavering away to get it to PC and consoles in the near future.

Lake

When we played Lake, the narrative-adventure game that sees you delivering mail to the residences of a sleepy Oregon town, we crashed our van a lot. We may not have gotten to grips with steering, but the surroundings of Lake more than made up for it. Following the life of Meredith Weiss, Gamious has developed a game that, while a little bumpy in these early stages, is still incredibly soothing to play.

The narrative follows Meredith as she returns to the home she left in a hurry. The gameplay, structured out into separate days, sees Meredith encounter the streets and people she remembers and also those she has forgotten. Lake doesn’t yet have a release date, as the team at Gamious are on the lookout for a publisher. With a town still to populate and plenty of story threads yet to explore, we’re looking forward to seeing how Lake continues to develop.

                                                                                                      ***

And that’s all from us folks! AdventureX 2018 housed in three small rooms just about every kind of narrative adventure game you could imagine, a fantastic example of the breadth of interpretations that can be found within the genre. If we were to take just one thing away from the experience it would this – adventure games certainly aren’t dead, they’re more alive than ever. We're looking forward to seeing how the expo grows next year; with a sell-out crowd, the appetite is definitely there!

Click the below links for the other instalments in this series.

AdventureX 2018 Roundup - Part One
AdventureX 2018 Roundup - Part Two