Following Freeware – January 2016 releases
The Splitting: Chapter 1
Fireberry Studios takes the idea of a world behind the mirror to the extreme in their adventure The Splitting: Chapter 1. In this first installment, Daniel wakes up after a dream in which some unknown person told him he was leaving but had hidden something behind Daniel’s bed. When Daniel looks around, he finds out that he has no reflection anymore! Gingerly feeling the mirror, he learns that he can pass through it, ending up in a world that is a mirror image of his own. Some things are different though: several rooms in the mirror version are destroyed and there is a strange but friendly man lurking in his house. Together, Daniel and the lurking man set out to find leinaD (Daniel’s mirrored counterpart) and discover what has happened to this world.
Daniel’s homes (both the real and mirrored versions) are shown from an isometric view in simple pixel art with subdued colors. The animation is basic, with characters gliding over the ground while walking, moving their hands and legs just a bit. They don’t move their faces while they speak, but nor are there any voices; everything that is said is shown on the screen in small black boxes. A simple tune accompanies the gameplay, interspersed with just a few sound effects like a toilet flushing and doors opening and closing. They are not very realistic but fit the game’s environment quite well.
Movement is controlled using WASD, with additional keys used to interact, bring up the inventory, and quit conversations. The game has an excellent auto-save function, resuming exactly where you left off if you leave and come back. There are quite a few puzzles to be solved, most of which make ingenious use of the differences that exist between the two worlds. You can take items from one house to the other, and things that happen in one world beyond your control (like someone ringing the doorbell) also happen in the other world. Most of the puzzles are rather simple but a few of them require some creative thinking and inventive solutions. For instance, you have to bribe a paperboy with something really special, get hold of the lost half of a pair of socks and give both your mirrored and ‘real’ sister the keys to your house. I had a lot of fun with this game and finished it in about two hours. With this debut episode ending on a cliffhanger, hopefully Chapter 2 will arrive soon.
The Splitting: Chapter 1 can be played online at JayIsGames.
Oh du lieber Augustin
Augustin is a poor man from Vienna who often plays his bagpipes and sings in the pub to earn some drinks. It’s 1679 and the plague is ravaging the city, so many people come to the pub to find relief. One day, the people become bored with Augustin’s songs and demand that he come up with new ones. Together with a guest, Augustin plays a new song, then goes home so drunk he falls asleep in the gutter. Thinking he is dead, the men who collect the bodies of plague victims find Augustin and dump him in a mass grave. Whilst finding a way out of there, Augustin is inspired to write a new song.
Oh du lieber Augustin, by Creamy and cat, loosely tells the story of its old folk song namesake, which is said to have originated in plague-ridden 17th century Austria. The game is presented in pixel art with rather realistic looking depictions of the pub interior and the mass grave Augustin finds himself in later on. The animation is very well done: people walk in quite a natural way and Augustin taps his right foot while playing the bagpipes. With no voice-overs, text appears above the speaker’s head in the color of their clothes. In the pub, Augustin makes sure there is a lot to listen to, but there is only a simple, sombre background tune in the grave scene. The few sound effects like the murmur of people talking and the clinking of glasses are very well done.
The game is played using the two mouse buttons; the left key lets Augustin move around or interact with things and the right key provides a description of hotspots. Moving the cursor to the top of the screen makes the inventory appear, together with the familiar load, save and quit buttons. There are a variety of puzzles along the way: some of them are inventory-based but you also have to search for string to mend the bagpipe and overcome a challenge in which you learn a tune from separate pieces of torn sheet music. The puzzles are easy and the game is very short: you can finish it in 15 minutes. Despite the grim backdrop, Oh du lieber Augustin has a cheerful tone and never gets sad.
Oh du lieber Augustin can be downloaded from the AGS website.
Other new releases
Not all games are created equal, and freeware games especially come in all shapes and sizes. Not to be overlooked, the following list might also be of interest, though these games may be significantly shorter or less polished, more experimental titles than those detailed above, some perhaps only borderline adventures to begin with.
Zombie Society: Death after Death #1/3 by Lu_Muja – Find out who is behind the brain drain in the debut installment of this interactive cartoon.
Cope by Death By Muffins – An accident happens in The Hive Institute and you, patient 1307, have to cope with the sudden freedom this provides.
Your Grace by Oldschool Wolf – With the members of your council of advisers usually offering conflicting advice, can you guide your kingdom to a bright future?
U-Ropa by Atavismus/Hobo/Jonas/Peder – On the undersea vessel U-Ropa, an accident leaves a technician trapped in his destroyed cabin.
That’s it for this month. Think we’ve missed a gem or want to tell us about your own game? Then pop in to our Adventure forum and tell us about it!
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