Ghoul Britannia: Land of Hope and Gorey (PC) Preview

Brexit decreased the available manpower, leaving Britons to handle all menial tasks - and they would rather die instead of actually doing them, which leads to the perfect solution, which is a new scientific breakthrough that enables the British government to exploit the dead, in order to turn them into the state's new workforce. As expected, things don't turn out that swell, zombie apocalypse ensues, and it's this world where Hope Andrews, a girl handy with tools, has to survive.

Wacky? Yes, but Ghoul Brittania seems to not be aware of that, and as a result, doesn't take advantage of its concept - and if the game doesn't care why should you? More importantly, while obviously a comedy, not only this isn't funny, it rarely even tries to be so. As for the political commentary expected from something dealing with Brexit (yeah, and zombies), apart from a few lines of dialogue that could be described as satire, this doesn't really care much about politics.

Sure, when compared to the gameplay, character interactions remain the better half of the journey. Sadly, while somewhat enjoyable, the dry humour on offer is a bit too dry, and the characters are almost completely forgettable. At least it's all nice too look at, with a neat visual style where 3D cartoonish characters move on 2D, room-sized dioramas. The music, however, is totally out of place, as it's more suited to a Resident Evil theme, rather than a comedy - even a dark one.

Unfortunately, the real disappointing part is the actual process of playing this. Ghoul Britannia controls like the simplest point-and-click adventure imaginable, without any fancy mechanics like in the - fantastic - Whispers of a Machine. It's just you, a 10-slot inventory, and then "puzzles" that require the use of any items you'll find and place in these slots. And it's all boring as hell.

All obstacles have Hope (and later on, a second, undead character) picking items that will let her keep on moving, without much happening during that, with the whole thing feeling strongly like a long list of chores, instead of… well, an adventure. The dry humour on offer is easy to stomach, and occasionally (edit: rarely). What about a dry, non-immersive world, with an even drier gameplay, though? Sure, this preview built was just a small taste; a 70-minute intro to post-Brexit zombie apocalypse, but a tiny sample is still a sample, and if this is anything to go by, fans of the genre should probably not expect much from the full release.