Another promising game on my decades long journey through the realms of point'n'clicks was Encodya. Though I instantly liked nanny robot Sam's design, of course, as his features have hints of a gorilla or rather the mecha gorilla in the Kaiju eiga King Kong Escapes, I wasn't too sure about character design overall. It just reminded me too much of the contemporary deformations quite often recognized in the lower price range of digital game stores, where Encodya, despite its initial asking price, ended up swiftly for me to pick up.

In a section of countless Unity games, Encodya being one of them, the titles often are targeting too well, so browsing for the biggest discount percentage often is the only option to make way through countless offers on search for a potential gem. This time, I had the game marked when it was released to Nintendo's Switch, but mixed reviews could not convince me to pay more than a few Cents when the PC version dropped drastically. It had to wait a little on my pile of shame anyway, but after such a satisfying genre title like Return to Monkey Island, there was room for this experiment.

I might even have been encouraged by Ron Gilbert's next big hit, as so many people discredited him in advance and I must admit that I didn't have much doubt, but definitely thought I'd have to get used to the new graphic style, that turned out to be just wonderfully carrying a more grown up perspective on the franchise. So I really wanted to open up to a game like Encodya and give it all the chances to surprise me.

It actually was astonishing to read a disclaimer before Encodya even started. It confused me a little as use of stereotypes sure is questionable, but if they're really bad, then you avoid them. Or you rock them to underline your statement of course, but then it should be clear enough that it doesn't need an explanation. Sadly it's not the last occasion to make me scratch my head.

First off, I appreciate this Kickstarter backed production at least was unleashed as an edition to pass a percentage to charity, so if you decided to go all in early on, then you at least did something good. Sure, I'm totally in line with that a product should cost what it's worth, but after avoiding financial risks in development I think a digital release does need a good reason to cost as much as the new Monkey Island for instance.

And here's the elephant in the room. Even though Chaosmonger suggest knowing the size of footsteps they're following by having a retro computer store clerk wearing a three-headed monkey on his t-shirt, it doesn't turn out they understood the quality of those classics. Even the excessive pixel hunting in Encodya's hard mode could be rather an accidental revival than a nod to the excessive moon logic exploits Sierra had been notorious for and most of us are quite happy have ceased existing in newer games making them a lot more comfortable.

Luckily, I just thought to have found a way to get stuck, but the solution was always hidden in the background somehow. If you hated spotting that small worm in Discworld for example, you should definitely play easy mode with hot spot highlights and hint system, just like modern point'n'clicks usually feature anyway. Having chosen the iron route, I can only imagine the help taking away most of Encodya's challenge though, but hard mode on the other hand didn't feel like featuring a significant bonus.

From the first awakening on a rooftop over Neo-Berlin the main tasks for 9-year old orphan Tina and robot Sam are teaming up to process lists, sadly. As a tutorial it's actually quite functional to have a roll of daily supplies to find, but then it gets dull over time, especially when to check one item off the protocol the only puzzle is to finish another to-do list first.

Encodya is a very bare bone view on point'n'click adventures and it really emphasizes the impression a basic scenario was merged with random nerd references by drag and drop without elaborating a proper story or an idea how to guide the player through the game via interaction - to the extent an obvious action might have to be triggered through dialogue before it can finally be executed.

It's all about wasting screens to get the protagonists from A to B to C to A, whilst the few possible interactions aren't really rewarding, so I even stopped my usual exploring and testing combinations routine completely and rarely used the "look at" command. Encodya is sort of the antithesis of Jan Müller-Michaelis' brilliant Edna & Harvey, part of his thesis on non-linear gaming, that has a phrase in store for each and everything the player could think of.

Despite Encodya plays very well just using a mouse with every required function, it ends up being a mess, when it comes to creating an internal logic. You might accidentally find random items hidden on screen, but when you start looking for them there won't be any, just so that when you thought it was a one off, you suddenly are required to hunt down pixels for almost everything. Once you thought they hit rock bottom, you will have to look for initials in a faulty phone book or remember dates to pass, though the game didn't exactly teach you to keep track of those details before.

Whilst background designs of dystopian Neo-Berlin are actually quite pleasant, the town doesn't exactly appear crowded. Not judging on design choices, though one of the pedestrians is looking like a green army man, thus standing out like a glitch, the few passerbys often cut through the protagonists just as Tina tends to hide her face in Sam's mechanical buttocks.

Also massively playing Arceus and Scarlet, I should be able to live with that, if they just didn't waste time on details like putting an Amiga computer or a floppy into Encodya just as they must have had been asking twens for inevitable references on Twitter, so they could cheer you up naming the Konami code or remind you of Darude's Sandstorm during gameplay without any actual relation to it. Hurray!

What would match an arsenal of relics any lootbox subscription casualty gets indoctrinated as the epitome of nerd culture better than bashing Trump? This might have had a lot more relevance during production and still required an amalgamation with Hitler to legitimate the personified evil presence of Neo-Berlin's Mayor Rumpf, a German word for body or hull, that could also be translated to trunk btw., whilst Rumpf in German wouldn't pronounce as close to Trump as an American accent would allow. A good illustration of the sloppy precision in the making of Encodya, superficially eyeballing tropes as close enough.

The randomness of Asian elements in cyberpunk is actually one of the better references and as a German Encodya possibly made me understand the lack of insight to cultural reality a lot better. Neo-Berlin neither felt as a logical spawn to the Germany I know, nor did it feel like capturing political criticism beyond the level of a pub discussion. Instead, Encodya does a great job in building a world on raising more questions.

I get, that Rumpf uses cyberspace to distract citizens, who cannot disturb his plans when roaming the city like zombies. The more tragical Tina's mother passed as a side-effect of her participation in cyber-activities. During research, we learn that Tina also had a father, whose background crosses with other characters from the story. On the few occasions like when browsing corporate data though we're limited with the excuse of not having enough time, so we can't read deeper into the background optionally.

Instead, the puzzles rather try to distract us from the missing substance of a scenario that could have been played out like Luke Skywalker's heroic journey in the world of Blade Runner and Neuromancer. But maybe Chaosmonger misunderstood the tendency towards an ellipsis and lack of storytelling capabilities of George Lucas as the charme of Star Wars and with the childish angle Encodya turns out to be more like young Anakin within Ready Player One.

This still could have led to a finale of cyberpunk extravaganza, but cyberspace rather appears as an excuse to present simple forest structures for further pixel hunting, avoiding more details about Neo-Berlin other than Tina's father's plans to make the world a more peaceful place. Rumpf attacking this virtual reality is indeed able to increase the thrill, but without real answers up the sleeve ends up being simply dissatisfying.

A lot of these decisions could probably have been avoided by taking the time and having externals looking over it. This could especially be crucial to the success of independent game developers trying to stand out in sharp relief to big companies actually establishing the release of unfinished applications.

With Sam's humor being one of the more positive aspects of the hit and miss voice acting, I would have loved better elaborated dialogues not only playing with cliches, but also increasing the intrinsic motivation to explore the game and help where help is needed, instead of freeing an imprisoned character for the sole reason of a reward put in promise. This could have been a surprise gift solving the puzzle just as well, but with stronger relevance.

Just as I might have spent this time way better with a meta analysis of Return to Monkey Island, I'm rather writing this critique to help you decide if you really want to throw well earned currency after Encodya, preventing you from wasting time and money, whilst you might read a review containing spoilers after the game, so you would already know all the layers Ron Gilbert has to offer, settling off with instant nostalgia based on the campfire tales of those who actually had the experience.

I know, those experiences are taking off as purely individual romanticism parting from the original product, so your impression of genre classics like the Lucas Arts adventures can be entirely different from mine. I wouldn't argue that much, if Encodya was indeed adequate in a sense of presenting processed thoughts I could at least comprehend and appreciate.

What we don't need in the 2020s though is another uninspired cast of the genre, regurgitating phrases thought as fan service as if it were a Disney production. Especially if they don't have the funds to blind us graphically to the fact the game wasn't that brilliant in the first place.

Despite my rant it's not really that Encodya is the worst game ever, it's the addition of missed opportunities to make it stand out as good or even exceptional. As much the blunt puzzles are nerve wracking, it's neither enjoyable from a camp or kitsch point of view, nor would I really categorize it as trash. It's really just upsettingly underdeveloped.

oh this just isn't very good.

I'm not a strict follower of the "show-don't-tell" philosophy, but always a bit of annoyance when a story feels like its talking down to me. Encodya isn't quite confident enough to let players interpret information for themselves. It frequently interrupts the action with over-explanations of the plot and the factions, while neglecting incidental moments that might warm me up to the protagonists. This is particularly irksome when it sort of leaves you high and dry in terms of actual puzzle direction. The game will highlight objects you can pick up with the space bar, but the highlight is easy to miss. It also won't tell you what you can interact with or why. There's always going to be a bit of that with point and clicks, but it feels egregious here when the game markets itself as a kid-friendly, Ghibli inspired game.

I spoiled myself on the ending and just, I dunno. I'm not expecting Shakespeare or anything, but I just don't think the writers have enough of a concrete idea of what kind of cyberpunk story they want to tell. I don't even think the story NEEDS to be complicated or bogged down with too many sci-fi concepts. Its a kid-oriented point and click by an indie company that donates 10% of their earnings to charity. I respect that a lot. But the final thesis of the game and the narrative battle is just a bit half-baked to me.

Villain: "If you upload nature into the cyberspace, people will want to leave cyberspace and society will collapse!"
Hero: "But nature is good!"

I guess ultimately, Chaosmonger Studio seems like a good company who are passionate about what they do and want to put good out in the world, even if they still have a lot to improve upon. I'm gonna try to remember that if they make another game, so that I can buy it and probably never play it.