Whenever a short indie game has a sequel, even if I didn't much care for it, I'm always curious to check it out if just to compare how things have changed. There's no better way to recognize a game's mechanics than to see what was removed or added between versions.
Chronicle of Innsmouth 1 was a retro styled point and click, and it made for a good aesthetic. Mountains of Madness goes for a more modern style of point and click. Just use the left and right click instead of the "open" "close" "pick up" etc prompts. The puzzles felt... fairly more straightforward? They added fun little animations and details. Its a pretty well put together production. At the same time, its sort of become... another modern point and click. And that's fine, great even. I'll take any point and click. But what made the game distinct in the last game is gone. Hard not to feel like something is lost.
Still, the writing flaws seem more apparent to an extent. No women, no people of color, lots of "scary crazy people." Lovecraft stuff. One of my favorite things in any narrative is cutting away from the protagonist to an entirely different character for a bit. While this game certainly has that, its hard to decipher how purposeful it is. I'm still not 100% sure how every character adds together into the wider picture. They could be building up to some theoretical third game, but its kind of a messy picture.
On top of that, I just... don't find Lone Carver an interesting character. It appears occasionally in Innsmouth 1 as a third party trying to stop the rise of Cthulhu, but there's a gap in his journey between the flashbacks and when he shows up in the game's present. Mountains of Madness is about bridging that gap, explaining how he survived the violent events of the flashback to appear later in the first game. It's his story. But again, didn't care about Carver! Wasn't living a sleepless night wondering about what edgy private detective adventures he's been up to. He's all the noir detective archetype with none of the interesting history or character dynamics or perpetual punching bag crisis. He's a cool guy who gets the cool lines and the Lovecraft powers. Huzzah.
These games were a way to spend a weekend. That's all I can really say about 'em.
Chronicle of Innsmouth 1 was a retro styled point and click, and it made for a good aesthetic. Mountains of Madness goes for a more modern style of point and click. Just use the left and right click instead of the "open" "close" "pick up" etc prompts. The puzzles felt... fairly more straightforward? They added fun little animations and details. Its a pretty well put together production. At the same time, its sort of become... another modern point and click. And that's fine, great even. I'll take any point and click. But what made the game distinct in the last game is gone. Hard not to feel like something is lost.
Still, the writing flaws seem more apparent to an extent. No women, no people of color, lots of "scary crazy people." Lovecraft stuff. One of my favorite things in any narrative is cutting away from the protagonist to an entirely different character for a bit. While this game certainly has that, its hard to decipher how purposeful it is. I'm still not 100% sure how every character adds together into the wider picture. They could be building up to some theoretical third game, but its kind of a messy picture.
On top of that, I just... don't find Lone Carver an interesting character. It appears occasionally in Innsmouth 1 as a third party trying to stop the rise of Cthulhu, but there's a gap in his journey between the flashbacks and when he shows up in the game's present. Mountains of Madness is about bridging that gap, explaining how he survived the violent events of the flashback to appear later in the first game. It's his story. But again, didn't care about Carver! Wasn't living a sleepless night wondering about what edgy private detective adventures he's been up to. He's all the noir detective archetype with none of the interesting history or character dynamics or perpetual punching bag crisis. He's a cool guy who gets the cool lines and the Lovecraft powers. Huzzah.
These games were a way to spend a weekend. That's all I can really say about 'em.