This summer the developers of the former Soviet Union especially generous in the game about robots. In August comes the first episode of an ambitious post-apocalyptic adventure
The Uncertain by Moscow studio ComonGames – where we play and make difficult decisions because of excessively curious robot who is interested in the history of the long-lost human race. The project is clearly inspired by the interactive drama Telltale Games is .
A few days ago we met platformer Scrap Garden of Lithuanian Flazm Entertainment’s Interactive has . Here, the main character does not need to suffer moral dilemmas – he just has to save the world ..
The plot Scrap Garden is somewhat reminiscent of Machinarium : a small robot Kenny, who had to go on scrap metal, performs a great mission and save the whole city after the metropolis was suddenly no power, and all the inhabitants of the mechanical literally froze.
However, any special plot twists, turns, and to communicate with a lot of charismatic characters should not wait: our hero predictably recovers and starts any important towers with energy crystals, and the other residents, as we have said, turned into metal idols. More or less unexpected plot twists will happen only in the finals, and we are dealing mainly with the mayor, who, in fact, and gives out instructions where to go and what to do.
Nevertheless, the story touches – the main character, as in Machinarium , once you start to feel empathy and sympathy.
It’s small, moving and dreams to fly. And the invisible narrator creates melancholic mood of their comments or, for example, a description of how the wind hits Kenny’s face during his first flight. In addition, the authors came up with a pretty unusual world in which robots eating ice cream, conduct strange experiments dream of power and battle with huge frogs and octopuses.
Robot against the dragon
The same can be said about the gameplay. On the one hand, Scrap Garden , everything is simple and predictable.
The authors are not afraid to exploit the known stamps and cliches of the genre: jump, solve puzzles, overcome traps, fight with spiders, rats and “bosses”.
All the way, we will carry the boxes, click on platforms to activate runes redirect rays using mirrors, collect crystals (they need to unlock the passage to the desired location) and take away from the very large monsters important plot gears.
No special skills and “pump” parameter in our little robot is there. A battle with the “bosses” are in a similar scenario – dodging attacks and throw stones at them, or hide behind cover and then throw stones at them. Well, it was not without QTE in the final.
On the other hand, the play still nice. Surprisingly adequate management, even on the keyboard (which is rare for a platformer), riddles unobtrusive crystals that you need to collect a lot of, a charming character, interesting setting, and the whole atmosphere some pleasant. The process tightens, and I want to go Scrap Garden until the end.
In addition, there is sometimes still happen trivial puzzles and situations. When, for example, our robot is something that undermines, rides on the trolley makes or controlled falling from the mountain, trying to avoid the huge boulders, rushing behind him.
More then a variety of locations (there are urban landscapes, and lush glades, and swamp, and snow-capped mountains, and an underground laboratory), really big “bosses” (among them there are even a huge dragon), and the hero himself so charmingly jumping on mushrooms, spiders and rats …
Garden Scrap Seller – simple but pleasant and unobtrusive platformer that relies not on some unique mechanics and a variety of game situations and objectives, and on the history, atmosphere and charming protagonist. And this is quite enough to pass for game night or two.
