What can you expect from three Romanians going on Kickstarter with another recreation of all the legendary Point'n'click adventures we all love? Yeah, you'd think Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure is just another one of those nice ideas addressing our nostalgia, that will turn out bland after the introduction or trailer material, but this one's different.
Stuck in Attic created beautiful and flawless animations on plenty of hand drawn backgrounds just like it would be the next modern installment after Monkey Island 3, Discworld and Broken Sword and you might want to forget studios ever attempted going 3D after fully interactive cartoons were just on the doorstep. They totally went out of their way to make Gibbous completely dubbed in English and include lots of details they could have already gotten away without.
As a first release Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure might not be 100% perfect when it comes to writing. The developers are great in including reference without rubbing everything in your face and the mix of a playable private detective, a slacker and his talking cat are an awesome base to go from, but I somehow had a hard time picking the game up again for another session without being able to explain why.
Maybe one thing bothering me was you've got a lot of hotspots to interact with, though it's mandatory to find out when a special ability like involving the cat is required, too often the result will be the same "won't do that". That's something they maybe wanted to elaborate in vein of the Edna & Harvey games for instance, but didn't have the resources for anymore. Loving to explore the environment especially once the scenery expanded this became a little frustrating.
For what Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure might lack in that last bit of refinery of storytelling to keep drawing me in all the time, it really offers a lot of smaller gags and spoofs to keep being entertaining. Making this a comedy loosely based on lovecraftian myths isn't much more than a general theme for a mystery in the middle, but probably a good lever to click with popular culture. In my opinion wordplays with locations like Darkham and Fishmouth are good examples for when they're overdoing the comedy, but that's my personal humor.
I understand Stuck in Attic wanted to pay tribute to their Transylvanian heritage by including some funny scenes over there as well and though this offers some of the best moments, actually modernizing the Monkey Island sword fight as a rap battle and putting the mechanics in question at the same time by omitting the learning process, that side plot feels quite random and out of focus. It's promising though for the announced next title Near-Mage that's supposed to take place in Transylvania.
Though some characters you cooperate with are only functional to close gaps between chapters, the general writing of NPCs is a very strong point of Stuck in Attic's design and they're very good at emphasizing quirks to make them unique and funny. I like the somber tone between the lines and the cynical cat was something they could have even expanded on.
I have a hunch the designers either wanted to focus on the storytelling or had a modern puzzle design in mind for Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure, because almost everything fell into place quite naturally for me. That however leaves a slightly bitter taste on my tongue that it could have been a little less straight in thinking. I'm totally fine not having to consult a guide for moon logic and I appreciate the absence of too many red herrings, but I would have liked just a notch more challenge.
Towards the end they try to create that by puzzle mechanics you could actually crack by just trying hard enough, but they always manage to leave enough hints to solve them on your own. It just requires knowing what to do with the information and then it's possible to apply logic. That's fine, it's probably a more user friendly way to do it, but I'm missing some of the best surprises you could get out of the classic Lucas Arts adventures.
At least they also don't have you hunt pixels and that's where the engine is very convenient, even on the Switch version of Gibbous that I got, because it caught my attention instantly on the eShop being on sale for a fiver.
Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure actually plays quite nicely via touch screen especially for the zoom in feature that helps admiring the art's beautiful details. But you can do just the same on your Pro Controller for instance and it doesn't take long to learn all functions. Popping up the inventory and menu, highlighting all hotspots or of course clicking on a hotspot to reveal icons to pick between commands is very pleasant.
So there's really no reason you shouldn't try Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure if you're just the slightest fan of gorgeously animated Point'n'click galore, because you very well will get your money's worth in about 11-12 hours of gameplay, which is a good duration for these programs in my opinion.
Is it an instant classic? That might depend on your reception, but the overall quality can't be denied. It sure has more substance than The Wardrobe, another too overlooked genre highlight I've written a review about some months ago. As another suggestion for further reading The Innsmouth Case comes to mind, because it's the more hilarious Lovecraft spoof in writing, but it can only be that as an illustrated interactive novel.
We definitely shouldn't measure Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure by the romanticizing memory of the moments we had with what we consider classics. Have you played games like Maniac Mansion or Zak McKracken lately for example? Some references can only be understood if you actually lived when those games were made and Lucas Arts improved on their gameplay mechanics a lot. Even Monkey Island could be stripped of things like unnecessary map walking. We should welcome a new generation being able to put the best of what was into a modern context.
So keep in mind this is the debut of a start up and though Stuck in Attic include references and of course draw inspiration from those classics, they deserve to build upon this. What I'm so grateful for is they don't just try to cash in on regurgitating retro triggers. Instead with Gibbous they present themselves as dedicated genre connoisseurs with a mind of their own.
Having to face the usual problem of finishing a story, they even manage to implement a brain teaser referencing the linearity of Point'n'click gameplay and shining like that could be a chance to once elevate to the writing genius of a Ron Gilbert. Until then Gibbous is a brilliant show off what Stuck in Attic are capable of creating, a wholesome experience you would expect from a professional studio. Hopefully this is the first in a long line of future highlights to come.
Stuck in Attic created beautiful and flawless animations on plenty of hand drawn backgrounds just like it would be the next modern installment after Monkey Island 3, Discworld and Broken Sword and you might want to forget studios ever attempted going 3D after fully interactive cartoons were just on the doorstep. They totally went out of their way to make Gibbous completely dubbed in English and include lots of details they could have already gotten away without.
As a first release Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure might not be 100% perfect when it comes to writing. The developers are great in including reference without rubbing everything in your face and the mix of a playable private detective, a slacker and his talking cat are an awesome base to go from, but I somehow had a hard time picking the game up again for another session without being able to explain why.
Maybe one thing bothering me was you've got a lot of hotspots to interact with, though it's mandatory to find out when a special ability like involving the cat is required, too often the result will be the same "won't do that". That's something they maybe wanted to elaborate in vein of the Edna & Harvey games for instance, but didn't have the resources for anymore. Loving to explore the environment especially once the scenery expanded this became a little frustrating.
For what Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure might lack in that last bit of refinery of storytelling to keep drawing me in all the time, it really offers a lot of smaller gags and spoofs to keep being entertaining. Making this a comedy loosely based on lovecraftian myths isn't much more than a general theme for a mystery in the middle, but probably a good lever to click with popular culture. In my opinion wordplays with locations like Darkham and Fishmouth are good examples for when they're overdoing the comedy, but that's my personal humor.
I understand Stuck in Attic wanted to pay tribute to their Transylvanian heritage by including some funny scenes over there as well and though this offers some of the best moments, actually modernizing the Monkey Island sword fight as a rap battle and putting the mechanics in question at the same time by omitting the learning process, that side plot feels quite random and out of focus. It's promising though for the announced next title Near-Mage that's supposed to take place in Transylvania.
Though some characters you cooperate with are only functional to close gaps between chapters, the general writing of NPCs is a very strong point of Stuck in Attic's design and they're very good at emphasizing quirks to make them unique and funny. I like the somber tone between the lines and the cynical cat was something they could have even expanded on.
I have a hunch the designers either wanted to focus on the storytelling or had a modern puzzle design in mind for Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure, because almost everything fell into place quite naturally for me. That however leaves a slightly bitter taste on my tongue that it could have been a little less straight in thinking. I'm totally fine not having to consult a guide for moon logic and I appreciate the absence of too many red herrings, but I would have liked just a notch more challenge.
Towards the end they try to create that by puzzle mechanics you could actually crack by just trying hard enough, but they always manage to leave enough hints to solve them on your own. It just requires knowing what to do with the information and then it's possible to apply logic. That's fine, it's probably a more user friendly way to do it, but I'm missing some of the best surprises you could get out of the classic Lucas Arts adventures.
At least they also don't have you hunt pixels and that's where the engine is very convenient, even on the Switch version of Gibbous that I got, because it caught my attention instantly on the eShop being on sale for a fiver.
Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure actually plays quite nicely via touch screen especially for the zoom in feature that helps admiring the art's beautiful details. But you can do just the same on your Pro Controller for instance and it doesn't take long to learn all functions. Popping up the inventory and menu, highlighting all hotspots or of course clicking on a hotspot to reveal icons to pick between commands is very pleasant.
So there's really no reason you shouldn't try Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure if you're just the slightest fan of gorgeously animated Point'n'click galore, because you very well will get your money's worth in about 11-12 hours of gameplay, which is a good duration for these programs in my opinion.
Is it an instant classic? That might depend on your reception, but the overall quality can't be denied. It sure has more substance than The Wardrobe, another too overlooked genre highlight I've written a review about some months ago. As another suggestion for further reading The Innsmouth Case comes to mind, because it's the more hilarious Lovecraft spoof in writing, but it can only be that as an illustrated interactive novel.
We definitely shouldn't measure Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure by the romanticizing memory of the moments we had with what we consider classics. Have you played games like Maniac Mansion or Zak McKracken lately for example? Some references can only be understood if you actually lived when those games were made and Lucas Arts improved on their gameplay mechanics a lot. Even Monkey Island could be stripped of things like unnecessary map walking. We should welcome a new generation being able to put the best of what was into a modern context.
So keep in mind this is the debut of a start up and though Stuck in Attic include references and of course draw inspiration from those classics, they deserve to build upon this. What I'm so grateful for is they don't just try to cash in on regurgitating retro triggers. Instead with Gibbous they present themselves as dedicated genre connoisseurs with a mind of their own.
Having to face the usual problem of finishing a story, they even manage to implement a brain teaser referencing the linearity of Point'n'click gameplay and shining like that could be a chance to once elevate to the writing genius of a Ron Gilbert. Until then Gibbous is a brilliant show off what Stuck in Attic are capable of creating, a wholesome experience you would expect from a professional studio. Hopefully this is the first in a long line of future highlights to come.