Following Freeware – July 2015 releases

This month you can play a boy searching for his identity, a young woman seeking an apprenticeship, or someone who looks like a fridge. You can also time travel across the span of 150 years or loop repeatedly through a period of only 5 minutes. Investigators can look into the death of a pipe-maker, or seek out the horrible truth behind events on a spaceship. Alternatively, you might play a robot involved in creating a TV show, a man turning a toilet into an art gallery, or a fantasy adventurer in well over his head. All these await you in this month’s round-up of releases from the freeware scene.
 

Willem’s Winners

A Tale of Caos: Prologue

When we meet Terry for the first time, she is in a carriage on her way to the technomancer Albion McMaster’s house, where she hopes to become his apprentice. She will show all the masters who threw her out what she is made of, oh yes! She has heard that McMaster lives a very secluded life in his castle and lets nobody in, so after arriving she must find an alternative way to enter. Surprisingly, McMaster turns out to be a friendly man, and gives her a task that, when completed successfully, will make her worthy of being his apprentice. Together with the automaton owl Heimlich which Terry made long ago, she goes on her appointed quest through the lands surrounding the castle in search of three very special objects.

A Tale of Caos: Prologue is the first installment of a new series by ExperaGameStudio, the makers of the brilliant four-part A Matter of Caos[/i]. This spinoff looks very different from their other games though. The world is shown in third-person mode in beautiful bright colors, in stark contrast to the largely black-and-white presentation of the other games. Despite its highly pixelated display, everything of importance is clearly visible here. Terry has to visit a fairly large number of main locations for such a small game, such as a boring forest, a swamp and the castle’s garden. Each of these locales consists of a few screens, and there is not one scene in which there is nothing to do. The gameplay is accompanied by cheerful music that changes depending on the current location. There are also a great many convincing sound effects, like the breaking of branches, big explosions, the roaring of animals and many more. The game does not contain voices, however; everything spoken is shown in small but readable letters on screen. The letters perhaps need to be small because Terry and the other characters often use lots of words to say simple things. The dialogues are sprinkled with little jokes and here and there you find references to other adventure games and movies.

data-fancybox="images"
>

The whole game is played using the left mouse button. At the bottom of the screen is a small window containing a picture of Heimlich, as well as the inventory. The inventory items are drawn in great detail, which is handy because some of the objects look very similar. Luckily, when you hover the mouse over an inventory item or hotspot, its name is displayed at the bottom of the screen. If you want to know something about an inventory item you have to click it and then click on the picture of Heimlich. You can also combine inventory items as well as use them directly in the environment.

Terry has been given quite a task, and it’s not easy to accomplish it successfully. Most of the puzzles you encounter are not very difficult but there are a few that really get you thinking. Most obstacles are inventory-based, though there are also some quite funny dialogue puzzles. Among your objectives you’ll have to distract a witch, steal an egg from a ginormous bird, and concoct a very poisonous drink to proceed in this game. You will also have to talk to Schopenhauer the Troll. Luckily, when you’re stuck you can always ask Heimlich by clicking on his picture, and if he doesn’t help you enough there is a walkthrough available too. A Tale of Caos: Prologue is not nearly as serious as its predecessors. It has a cheerful, relaxed and funny atmosphere, and despite some setbacks on her way Terry keeps a very determined and optimistic disposition.

A Tale of Caos: Prologue can be played online at Kongregate.

data-fancybox="images"
>

Fanbots

It’s 3.002.025 AD. A team of robots has just arrived at the remote planet Koruuna-8 to correct a great wrong that’s been done to all robots universe-wide: the cancellation of the sitcom ANDROIDS! According to the Third Law of Robotics, a robot may protect its own well-being if that doesn’t conflict with the first two laws, and the well-being of all robots in the universe is now at stake. So the team has taken over the abandoned underground studio where ANDROIDS was filmed, and is now attempting to make the first new episode. The tasks are divided among the team, and the first problems appear. Solving them is the job of the small robot SM4-SH, whom you control in LostTrainDude’s Fanbots.

The studio where ANDROIDS is made is drawn in a very pixelated style in bright colors. It’s presented in third-person mode in much the same way as Sanitarium and many RPGs are presented, with an isometric camera view from high up showing the action. The only other location SM4-SH can visit is the surface of the planet, where some crates and a broadcasting tower stand. Fanbots is rather unique in the fact that it doesn’t use music or voice acting and there is only one sound effect: the lift going up and down. Other sound effects are merely described as text on screen, as is the communication between robots.

data-fancybox="images"
>

The game is mouse-driven, with the left button interacting with things and the right button bringing up a short description of them. There is no way to save the game and no inventory to speak of. The puzzles are of a mixed nature: SM4-SH has to make sure the other robots can keep working, and they come with different kinds of requests. There are a few errands to run, some machinery to tinker with, and you even have to puzzle a bit to get a good script together. Fanbots is short but sweet, has many funny jokes concerning robots, nerds and sitcoms, and the ending is very satisfying. It will take you only about 15 minutes to finish so it’s worth a try.

Fanbots can be downloaded from the Adventure Game Studio.

data-fancybox="images"
>

Smells Like Art

Bosko has inherited a very dirty and stinky restroom from his great great grandpa’s neighbor. Before he can do anything with it, it has to be thoroughly cleaned. But it’s so enormously disgusting inside that even the cleaning agency refuses to help him. Bosko wants to turn the place into a restaurant, but his business advisor Lloyd convinces him that no one would eat there because he will never totally get rid of the smell. Bosko should instead turn it into an art gallery, Lloyd tells him. So Bosko goes to work, but turning the piece of germ-ridden filth he has inherited into an art gallery is going to take some effort.

Smells Like Art, as with all Carmel Games adventures, is presented in third-person view. The screens are drawn in the familiar cartoony style in which almost no two lines are parallel. The game world, consisting of Bosko’s horrible place, a restaurant, a pet sematary (sic) and the City Hall, among others, is drawn in simple lines in cheerful hues. In the background a part of Paul Dukas’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is played ad infinitum. Luckily it can be switched off. As always, the voice acting in Smells Like Art is excellent, with each character having its own voice and accent. The spoken text is also displayed in subtitles at the top of the screen in one of the seven languages you can choose from before starting the game. The few sound effects, like filling a bucket with caramel and opening doors, are adequate.

The interface is very intuitive, as Smells Like Art is played entirely using the left mouse button. The inventory is at the bottom right of the screen, and the game’s menu and walkthrough can be accessed via icons in the lower left corner of the screen. Bosko has to solve mainly simple inventory puzzles. He also has to find out why the owner of the only local restaurant is crying. Overall, this is one of the simpler titles by Carmel Games, but it makes for a fun ten minutes.

data-fancybox="images"
>

Smells Like Art can be played online at Kongregate.