Armikrog is a point-and-click adventure game from Pencil Test Studios. An alien astronaut named Tommynaut (voiced by Mystery Science Theatre 3000’s Mike Nelson) crash lands on a mysterious planet named Spiro 5, along with his fleshy canine companion, Beak-beak. On this planet, they find themselves forced to take refuge in a strange fortress known as Armikrog, where they soon learn that the fate of a child rests in his hands. Can a world filled with clay provide mind provoking entertainment? Find out in the Cubed3 review.
Armikrog is a simple, yet very distinguished, game; there is no menu screen to manage or read anything, and there is no combat. Sound design is sparse and Mike Nelson is wasted, since, despite being the leading role as Tommynaut, his talent is barely represented as one of the best improvisational comedy performers. The controls are completely done with the dragging and clicking of the mouse. This should have made the game easy to control; however, clicking doesn’t register consistently, so performing simple actions – such as moving levers, picking up items, and even just moving around – can become an ordeal.
Armikrog is filled with puzzles; almost every room has some form of hint, mechanic or subtle note that must be taken notice of, as later on in the dungeon, an event will require them to continue further. Strong memory or a notepad comes strongly recommended, especially due to some of the puzzles involving strange alien patterns that are very hard to memorise. Although Armikrog is plentiful in puzzles, many of them begin to get recycled, and in most cases, a simple colour swap is the only effort done to differentiate them, with a difficulty boost to the puzzle’s mechanic.
