Skygoblin, 2012
WHAT WE LOVE
1. The mood: «The Journey Down» is full of good vibes. It’s a cheerful story, includes plenty of picturesque characters, and the whole game exudes optimism. We have to warn you that «Dead Synchronicity» is going to be quite the opposite, but playing «The Journey Down» is simpy delightful.
2. The approach: this is an adventure that offers the player quite a lot of locations, characters and objects to interact with simultaneously; and then more locations that are discovered gradually; and then more characters; and then more objects… ¡Great! This «less guided» experience is exactly what we miss in some of the newest point’n click adventures. It obviously makes the player feel more involved in its fictional universe; a feeling which is, by the way, one of the greatest things of graphic adventures.
3. The puzzles: some of the puzzles in «The Journey Down» will remind you of the greatest moments in classic Lucas adventures. At Skygoblin they know how to get that strangely effective mixture of absurdity, humor and logic that makes the player smile, when not laugh.
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4. The music: the elegant combination of light jazz and reggae works like a charm, period.
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WHAT WE LIKE
5. The graphics: «The Journey down» universe has a really strong personality. You may like it, you may not, but there is no doubt that you will recognize its African-inspired style from the very moment you see a couple of snapshots (like those in this article). It’s unique and impressive, and that’s not easy to achieve…
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«The Journey Down» is a really great graphic adventure: amusing, fun and ingenious. Its creators, Henrik Englund and Theodor Waern, are currently working on the iOS version of the fist chapter, which will even improve the weak points of the PC version, and that looks absolutely promising.
Luckily, they are also working on the second chapter of the game.
Luckily… because WE DO NEED to know more about Bwana and Kito’s adventures!!
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