Baobabs Mausoleum - Episode 1 - Ovnifagos Don't Eat Flamingos
I will admit that the first thing that drew me to Baobabs Mausoleum when an article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun that compared it to Twin Peaks. Also I am a sucker for weird, episodic, TV styled games. There is always a risk that comes with episode based content...maybe it won't sell and the next one will never come out...cross your fingers...
After giving this first episode a play I am not sure it's at all like Twin Peaks. I mean you play a FBI agent and are in a strange small town, but that's about it. The rest is WAY off the hilt. You play as Watracio Walpurgis and you are some sort of eggplant man. And that is not even the strangest thing in this game.
Trapped in the small, only periodically available, town of Flamingo's Creek you are set along a bizarre adventure game. And everything is weird, the people, the town, the situation, the dialogue. Even the pixel art has a style to it that cuts between someone who knows what they are doing and MSPaint, but it clearly fits together too well to have not been a very specific choice.
Now I am a sucker for weird games (see my Zeno Clash review). I'm often curious to see if it is just weirdness for the sake of itself or if it is a coherent set of strange rules and visuals that actually form a whole. I felt Baobabs Mausoleum doesn't get this across initially. It hits you hard up front with the intro, menus and the like well and good but the first chapter of the game didn't convince me. Sticking it out though, proved to be a good idea. Baobabs Mausoleum does stick the landing with it's particular brand of strange.
I am usually not a traditional adventure game guy. I like the concept but at some point obscure puzzles, backtracking and other tropes of the genre get in the way of me getting to the next point in the story. I get frustrated and bail. So many half finished adventure games...thank god for walkthroughs. Baobabs Mausoleum does a good job of mixing it up in the game mechanics department that it didn't hold me back. Part of this was helped by the short playtime, you pass through almost a dozen chapters in about 2 hours so the game moves rapidly to give you something new each time.
Baobabs Mausoleum has puzzles, combat even a first person mode section (was not expecting that). It doesn't bog you down with wall of text, just quick to the point conversations that are both informative and satisfyingly odd. Even when I got "stuck" a few times it was only for a few minutes rather than hours. The developer (Celery Emblem) was not just hitting the right notes for strangeness either, Baobabs Mausoleum has got quite a few chuckle moments, which I appreciated. Weird is good, weird and funny I like better.
Baobabs Mausoleum is not going to be for everyone. I am not sure if there is an audience for this game that isn't already well into games like this. If you like traditional adventure games then it might not be for you. On the other hand if you are looking for something different this might be right up your ally. Honestly the trailer does a pretty good job of setting you up for what you get. I enjoyed my time in Flamingo's Creek and hope that episode 2 rolls along soon.
Comments
Post a Comment