From a maker who has been involved in a vast array of video games across 20 years or so (Ben Jordan, A Golden Wake, Shardlight and Lamplight City to name just a few) my first hour of play has been particularly promising.

Rosewater is set in the same alternate 19th century world of Lamplight City, and while you don't need to have played that (I haven't), there are references to earlier events from the get-go so if you have played it may add to your appreciation.

Our protagonist, Harley 'Spitfire' Leger, has left the city behind and headed west, looking to get a gig as a writer at the Rosewater Post. It's a small out of the way place, a frontier mining town, that has seen better days. Having left the train station, you quickly encounter the so-called welcome committee, an interaction which will likely be a heads up to things to come.

In my hour to date I have seen a person thrown out a window, broken into a Blacksmith, survived a bar room brawl and watched a wild west show. Plus joined a treasure hunt and gotten the job at the paper. I have just triggered being able to leave the town for the first time.

Rosewater looks good, utilising rotoscoping (think Take On Me by A-ha or the tv series Undone) to help produce its animated world. It plays in the third person, is all voiced, and while I turned the music down I thought the game did a good job of letting the ambient sound take the lead. Conversations are prominent, and I have had a few inventory puzzles. Plus, a lock pick challenge, and the journal in the inventory suggests there will be more of these to come.

Its exclusively point and click, you can highlight hotspots, and the mouse will react to a hotspot to indicate what can be done there. It autosaves but you can also save at will. Double clicking an exit point will jump you there.

Based on an FAQ at Steam, I will gather some more companions, obstacles might have different solutions, and I can't/won't get locked out of content because of a particular choice.

I look forward to what is to come.