Edgar - Bokbok in Boulzac is a graphic adventure in 2d environment, made by La Poule Noire with the Unity graphics engine, of short duration. Available in English and French only, it can currently be played on Steam.
The intent, the plot and the characters
Edgar - Bokbok's intent in Boulzac is to purely entertain the user through comedy. The plot itself expresses this character: the player plays Edgar, initially marginalized in his refuge in the forest, but later forced to go to the city of Boulzac, where downright bizarre things happen. Edgar is not alone, but with his hen BokBok.
Between one perfect comic time and another, the main goal is to find a spare part for the car at all costs. This serves to literally cultivate the protagonist's true passion: the pumpkins of his refuge. In fact, among the various buildings and streets of the cities, there are strange and bizarre characters that will help Edgar - in one way or another - in his intent. An example is Marguerite, one of those sprint grannies who for some reason is used to playing videogames and is the owner of a rather snobbish cat (which eats only superfine food), but who especially delights in cosplaying. But the development of the plot is not so trivial, because in Boulzac they happen during the night somewhat strange events that affect citizens, which the player will have to reveal.
Graphics and identity
As for the graphic sector, it can be seen from the game images that the 2d environment is composed of deliberately squared drawings with hard lines, which lead to repetitive shapes and identify what is the simple - but not minimal - style of the game. In fact, having this style is not a bad thing for a title like that, because what has been said means that the game has its own real identity. This causes the comic sense of the experience to be greatly enhanced.
The gameplay and its simplicity
What might seem like a video game of the classic point and click genre (to be clear: like Monkey Island or The Wardrobe) is actually much more simplified than it seems. In addition to movement, all interactions such as dialogues, the collection of objects, as well as their positioning and use, are also managed with a single button. Furthermore, all the objects that will be added to the inventory will not have to be selected in order to perform their function, because everything will happen automatically. It is now clear that the use of the mouse is limited only to showing which objects you have in the inventory, and that is why we cannot label the title exclusively as pure point and click.
However, this does not mind, as its being a very simple graphic adventure makes the game within everyone's reach. It could also be given to a young boy as a very first approach to the world of video games.
The audio sector
Several times trying indie titles we found ourselves faced with music and sounds are all wrong (for example the sound to pick up an object could be louder than that of the player's footsteps), but this is not the case. All the music and all the sounds are perfectly contextualized and coherent not only with the setting in which Edgar is but also differentiated according to the situation. The only lack - and not even that important - is the ability to manage the audio options in a personalized way. As is found in general for most video games.
Edgar - Bokbok in Boulzac is one of those video games that perfectly demonstrates that it is not necessary to develop a long-running, vast, or unnecessarily exaggerated title for it to be enjoyable. Definitely to try, even for the more than honest price with which it is proposed. Too bad only for the lack of longevity and for the extreme simplicity, which will make the most avid fans of the (difficult) point and click adventures turn up their noses.
