It's always nice when a new development team enters the independent scene. In the case of Dry Drowning the pleasure is double in that the work was handled by the Italian Studio V with the support in the distribution phase of VLG Publishing. It is not long before the release of the title, scheduled for August 2019, and the preview that we have had the opportunity to dissect is an almost complete product and able to give us a good idea of what it will transmit to the players this Visual Novel with strong noir and thriller colors.
Dry Drowning is set in the fictional northern European city of Nova Polemos in a dystopian future where the Black Bonds party is rising to power and trying to impose an Orwellian-like authoritarianism with absolute control over citizens' information and lives. Touching sadly current issues even in the real world, immigration and racism, the fulcrum of the events narrated concern the between the private investigator Mordred Foley and the serial killer Pandora which, despite the watchful eye of the institutions, has been killing undisturbed for years. Foley and his assistant Hera Kairis, a girl who immigrated from Greece years earlier and was welcomed by the investigator as his assistant, have a dark past intertwined with the vicissitudes of the murderer and are in search of redemption. The opportunity is given to him by a new murder in which the leader of the Black Bonds is involved, accused of being the culprit.
As can be seen from this brief summary relating to the incipit of Dry Drowning, there is a large narrative work that weaves an interesting plot with multiple endings. The developers guarantee over 20 hours of gameplay to discover all the narrative alternatives and uncover the secrets behind the personality of Foley and his supporting actors. The title, as already indicated, is a visual novel and consequently does not present particular animations, if not some change of pose or expression, and above all it does not have a dubbing to support the many textual dialogues. However, the gaming experience is pleasant and the reading of the texts is facilitated by the beautiful and varied soundtrack used, in which the piano (played by Hera not surprisingly) is king.
The gameplay is as simple as it is effective: beyond the choice of the various questions to ask the counterparts on duty and the analysis of documents and objects, there will be key moments in which to make choices that will influence the plot (and therefore also the ending) and the key moments in which it will be necessary to exploit one's own clues to unmask the true nature of our suspects. Indeed Foley has an innate talent that allows him to understand when he is told lies, making the interlocutors appear with masks of monstrous animals. With the collection of clues and a work of deduction we will go to reveal the truth and, in case of error, we will have a limit of three attempts before ending the interrogation prematurely, being able to start over in case of total failure.
In the first available chapters we therefore got to know different characters and deepen the psyche of the protagonist Foley, tormented by the dark past and always at the limit of morality in the actions and choices made. It is already evident that each chapter presents the common thread of Pandora to act as a link to the varied narrative experience, allowing the player to discover new characters and new interesting subplots. Unfortunately, the level of difficulty is already limited, and not only by the typical schemes of the genre, since on many occasions it will be sufficient to try to solve the apparent intricate enigma. However, in general, Dry Drowing is presented as a narratively compelling title but not free from defects.
Specifically in the Steam version for PC we encountered some minor bugs with sporadic crashes of the game and problems in the saving phase and we came across an imperfect translation. Indeed interface, texts and dialogues are exclusively in English, despite the origins of Studio V foreshadowing the possibility of selecting the language in the finished product. An interesting possibility, considering that the title will be cross-platform and available, as well as on PC, also on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
Dry Drowning is a narrative experience that draws on the vast corollary of noir and dystopian cinematography and literature, making the events set in Nova Polemos compelling and intriguing. Despite some flaws in the texts and some minor bugs, the work of the developers is at a very advanced stage and we are sure it will give many hours of investigations and dialogues, supported by a beautiful soundtrack. It remains to be seen if the epilogue, or rather the epilogues, of Studio V's work will live up to the expectations generated by this development build.
