A First Look at Armikrog by flotsam




As a first look, pretty much all that I need to say is that it looks fabulous. Claymation rules, or at least it would in my universe, and people who are prepared to go to the extraordinary lengths required to produce it would get medals and raise my children.

Beyond that it is so far a very early work in gaming progress.
Play wise, you can be Tommy or his doggy like companion Beak-Beak. Just click on who you want to be and get exploring. Needless to say, some things only one or the other can do.

So too various items can be collected by one or the other. Tommy finds items and stuffs them inside his plasticine chest (including a baby). Beak-Beak swallows them, then coughs them up like a cat with fur-balls, for Tommy to pick up and then use.
Having an item is enough. If you need a lever and Tommy has it, clicking where its needed will produce the result.

Where to use things is a bit of a mystery. There is no feedback from the game - no hotspots, icons etc. You simply click on things to elicit a response. So far its not too bad, but you won't know whether a lack of a response is because there is no response, or you don't have the right item, or you should have tried Beak-Beak, or something else. If you have a lever stuffed inside your chest chances are you will use it somewhere, and you might be able to work out where; however if you should click on a "thing" as Beak-Beak that was completely unresponsive as Tommy, you just have to click and see what happens. Fundamentally, I see this as a bit of an issue.

Experienced adventurers will probably sort out what to do, but the complete absence of instructions (eg select which of the playable characters you want to be by clicking on them) was a bit of a challenge even for me. Likewise the menu screen, where you don't save but rather it autosaves, and then you select options, and then load your autosave. Perhaps I missed something somewhere, but more information in the game would be nice.

But enough of that. This is plasticine goodness that would make Grommit proud, and of which nobody should speak other than glowingly. So may it glow, and sustain me through its travails, which I will get back to you about.