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Genre: Adventure Developer & Publisher: Duje Segvic/Ilustrator.hr Released: January, 2024 Requirements: OS: 63-bit Windows 10 Processor: Minimum, Intel Core i3 3240 or equivalent; Recommended, Intel Core i5 2400 Memory: Minimum 4 GB RAM; Recommended, 8 GB RAM Graphics: Minimum, Graphics card with DX 10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities DirectX: Version 10 or above Storage: 1 GB available space
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By flotsam
FLAKE: The Legend of Snowblind Duje Segvic/Ilustrator.hr From the moment I pushed the elephant off the moon, there wasn’t much about this game that didn’t grab me across the seven-ish hours it took me to get to the end. Let me tell you a bit more. Flake is a creature of some sort, seemingly suited to the snowy mountain he finds himself stuck on top of. Getting down to the coast that Flake can see below seems as good an objective as any, and will hopefully reveal a bit more about exactly what is going on. It is a more involved story than just getting down the mountain, but how elaborate it is you can find out for yourself (you can even read some more about the background lore at the makers website). It does involve time travel and polar bears if that helps, and some strange not-quite-transformations that strike Flake from time to time. Plus snowballs, which you get to make and throw and which are essential to moving on. Throwing doesn’t require any actiony timing or twitching, so rest easy. Just use the snowball like any other inventory item and Flake will let fly. Whether or not it hits the objective is another thing altogether, in which regard pay attention to what Flake might tell him/her/itself about the snowballing efforts to date. As you progress down the mountain you will meet a number of other characters, some more disembodied than others. Like the animation style generally, which is charming and reminiscent of many things you watched or played back in the day, I liked how they were drawn, as well as how they sounded. Many had a kind of kookiness about them that contributed to a generally off-kilter vibe. Flake was particularly endearing in all its mannerisms, but it wasn’t alone. Some characters, in particular the family of polar bears, are as chill as Flake, others far more earnest. Travis was particularly busy, especially analysing all the different things I asked him to examine. He was also very helpful. As were the bears, in quite different ways. You never know what you might learn when you ask a polar bear a question. Game play is completely point and click, and you can save at will. Scenes slide in many directions as you make your way about, and be sure to explore the edges of scenes as triggering a move can be a bit precise at times. Everything is voiced, and you pick from available topics to engage in conversations. Certain responses might open up new topics, as might things learned from others. Click a hotspot to generate a small number of icons (look, use, talk) and make your choice. Click and drag inventory items to use them in the game world or on other items, and right click items to get a little insight into what they are. Double-clicking a spot will hurry Flake along. It's all very straightforward. Both the ambient sound and the soundtrack hold up their ends. I often turn the soundtrack right down, but it seemed to enhance the snowy mysteriousness rather well, so I left it alone. It can be amusing, wryly so, and jokes are a feature. They even feature in a puzzle, and one in particular is rather good. Puzzling is predominantly inventory based, although there are some conversation puzzles and a rock-paper-scissors challenge to win. As always, I needed a bit of help but generally felt I had plenty of things to work with in order to move on. The most elaborate puzzle comes at the end and was one I liked a lot. Enter the Mind Maze and work out how to manipulate the portals to make your way out, helped by a map (of sorts) that warrants attention. The puzzle came together in pieces; the more I explored the more things made sense. Which didn’t account for the bee in the hat. Or one of the things I had to do to move on (which I might still be trying to work out if I hadn’t tried everything everywhere). While it chewed up a chunk of playtime and I was forced to swallow more than one voiced invective, it was in my view an excellent and well constructed challenge. Which, if you throw in ‘engaging fun,’ is how you can describe the game generally. About the only thing that didn’t do it for me was the end. It was inconclusive, with many things unresolved, and a whole new line of information dumped in to boot. Sure it sets things up for another game, but I felt let down, however much I might look forward to the next time. But it didn’t take away what had come before. Which was a very good time. I played on: OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit Processor: Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB Video card: AMD Radeon RX 580 8192MB
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