Following Freeware: September 2014 releases
This month you can travel across time with a Lego man searching for his father, or travel into outer space on a malfunctioning space ship. You might try to save the world by dealing with the hazards of Pandora's Box, or simply save your sanity by cutting off the supply of sweets to your hyperactive kids. Alternatively, you could travel to the Wild West in an ongoing search for lost treasure, or try to convince Snow White to sample a poisoned apple. All these await in this month's round-up of releases from the freeware scene.
Minifeg: The Search
In Minifeg: The Search, by Sandra Almeida, the titular hero has built a time machine so he can meet his dad, whom he never knew. His father made him a wooden duck when Minifeg was still a baby, and now Minifeg wants to use this keepsake to go back to the time of his childhood. Unfortunately, Minifeg had to pawn the duck to finance his time machine, so all he has is a chit on which is written: "Value: One Duck." With this he sets out on an adventure through time. To complete his quest, Minifeg has to deliver a 21st century cake to a medieval wizard, go to the time of the dinosaurs and find a way to get his duck back. And after all that, he still has to make his way to his own time again.
Minifeg is a minifig: a small Lego man who lives in a well-made and colorful Lego world. A lot of time must have been spent to make all the beautiful environments Minifeg can visit, including his modern day home town, a village in the Middle Ages, and a large Mesozoic plain. All of them have welcome small details you would expect in their appropriate eras, like annoying kids, sleeping knights, vibrant green foliage and large dinosaurs – there’s even graffiti. The world is presented in third-person mode, with the camera always at Minifeg's eye level so you get a good idea of what he sees. Most if not all of the animation was done in stop-motion video and it’s very good: there is a jester juggling balls with a crowd of people around him who all move, and Minifeg walks quite smoothly for a man with no knees. There are no voices or sound effects in the game, but each time period has its own music, which fits well but can get annoying because it repeats over and over again as long as you are there. You can turn it off, however.
Minifeg has to walk quite a lot throughout the game, which can get a bit tedious, but there is plenty to see and do. Clicking the right mouse button makes him look at an object while the left button makes him do something with it. The cursor turns a lighter color over hotspots. Clicking the right or left edge of the screen will make the scene scroll or change once Minifeg gets there. When the cursor is moved to the top of the screen, a hidden bar appears that contains the inventory. Most of the puzzles are inventory-based and are quite hard, so you have to examine every detail thoroughly to make sure you don't miss anything. You will even encounter a few delightful red herrings, which you don't see often in small games like this. You also need to talk to people and do things in a particular order to succeed. Sometimes it is not at all obvious what you have to do next, but all in all, Minifeg: The Search is a great achievement that is consistently fun to play. Let's hope we see more of this little Lego protagonist in the future.
Minifeg: The Search can be downloaded from the Adventure Gamers Studio website.
Dakota Winchester’s Adventures 2
Dakota’s search for the cursed rubies of Hilda has brought him to the remote Western town of Cactus City. Located in a sun-scorched desert, the local mine looks like a good bet for finding the missing artefact. Unfortunately, some hostile local wildlife is guarding the entrance, and Dakota is ill-equipped for the descent itself. Perhaps the townsfolk will help him find the equipment he needs.
Having previously explored atropical island, Carmel Games’ titular archaeologist continues his quest. The graphics use the same bright cartoon style of their other productions, with reasonably proportioned characters. Dakota himself sports the same tropical adventurer outfit of the previous tale, with the locals adopting a more Wild West style. Arriving at the tiny provincial train station, you’ll also visit the saloon and ultimately descend into the dark depths of the mine. All characters are well-animated, and the game features decent voice work throughout. A simple Western guitar piece backs up proceedings.
Having not planned ahead for his journey, Dakota needs to source the equipment he needs locally. Whilst a couple of items can be found lying around, most require you to assist the townsfolk in some fashion. Using a simple one-click control scheme, you will save a fruit vendor from a dangerous scorpion and locate some unusual food for a woman tired of the same fare day after day. Puzzles are mainly solved through inventory use, though there is also a standalone puzzle to fit some awkwardly shaped logs in a storage box. Completion of the quest nets Dakota the second of three jewels he seeks, so we can expect to meet him again soon.
Dakota Winchester’s Adventures 2 can be played online at Mouse City.
A Tough Sell
In A Tough Sell, by The LabLabLab, you play the Evil Stepmother from the fairytale about Snow White. At this point, you have already attempted to kill Snow White a few times, and naturally the girl is now very reluctant to open the door to strangers, let alone take anything from one. Still, you desperately want her to die so you will have to persuade her to take a bite of the delicious poisoned apple by saying the right things. Snow White is wary of you at first, and she won’t keep the door open for long. In fact, she will clearly tell you how much she trusts you or when her patience with you runs out. But the more she comes to believe you, the more she will open the door. Making her eat the apple is no easy task, however, and if you fail, Snow White will disappear behind the door and not come back whatever you say.
A Tough Sell starts with a screen on which you can choose to watch the intro, a tutorial, or get right into playing. The game itself is presented in a single scene styled like a beautiful 17th century painting. Snow White can be seen partly hidden behind her door, leery of the Evil Stepmother, who is of course disguised as an old apple seller. There are no animations except for Snow White gradually moving in and out from behind her door. Nor are there any voices or sound effects to be heard, but during the game soft string music is played. Both the Evil Stepmother’s text and Snow White's replies appear in text bubbles next to their heads.
In order to proceed you have to type in what you want to say to Snow White in a rectangular box at the bottom of the screen. You can type anything you like: for instance, you can try to flatter her or ask her about her life, the dwarfs, etc. If Snow White doesn't understand you, she will tell you so. The text parser is pretty good, but if you type sentences that are too long it might misinterpret them and Snow White will give you unexpected answers. On the top right of the screen are bars that show the amount of patience and trust Snow White has, while on the bottom left are options to view a log of your conversation and for restarting the game. It will likely take between 10-20 minutes to finish the game, whether you succeed or not.
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