Shardlight (PC) Preview

Disease, hunger, death - all realities hanging over the people in Shardlight, the latest morose yarn being spun in the world of adventure gaming. Nothing is ever bright and happy, right? Well, certainly not for lead character Amy Wellard who is showing strong symptoms of the fatal Green Lung illness that has incapacitated so many since bombs fell and brought chaos twenty years prior to the events of this story at hand. Striving to prevent the same fate that others fell to, Amy's mission is to obtain a special vaccine by any means possible, even if it means taking on mundane 'lottery jobs' to win the chance of receiving the medication, or even going as far as joining rebels, infiltrating facilities run by the untouchable Aristocratic rulers, and going completely against her longstanding morals.

In the early stages, there is plenty of variety in the puzzle stakes, from shooting down objects previously unreachable, to combining various items, through to remembering codes and patterns, all without any hand-holding. Purists will be overjoyed at being forced to figure out cryptic clues and force their way through alone, whilst newcomers may well bemoan the lack of even a tiny nudge in the right direction. In this play-through, only two real scenarios caused problems - the first down to sheer ignorance, overlooking something really obvious, and the other coming from not exploring all conversation avenues and, thus, being unable to access a new area on the map. Anyone au fait with point-and-click titles of this ilk, though, will be right at home, hints or not.

Visually akin to Technobabylon - thanks to Ivan Ulyanov being back on the team - Shardlight takes the AGS tool and squeezes as much out of it as possible to make this shine compared to similar games using the engine. Despite the pixelated appearance that comes with the territory, it evokes a strong emotional vibe throughout, connecting players to the dystopian world Amy et al are trapped within. It is Amy's objective to keep surviving, even for just one more hour, in order to find a cure and save everyone, herself included - no matter what the cost - and thanks to strong voice acting for her character, as well as the support roles, there is an instant draw, making those in control feel a true part of the action from the very start. Although there are a few too many moments of trekking back and forth in the initial stages, the rest of the challenges are smart and really do get the old grey matter working hard. Also, the narrative and overall theme keep things going strong, and towards to end of this early trial version, the game starts to expand further, removing the shackles completely and branching into what appears to be a gripping quest.