Review for Omen Exitio: Plague. PC game, the video game came out on 05/03/2018
A tribute to those never too regretted game books that reached their peak between the eighties and nineties and drawing their narrative lifeblood from the horror imagery of HP Lovecraft's mind, Omen Exitio: Plague is the latest effort of Tiny Bull Studios, an independent team from Turin, already a pioneer of echolocation virtual reality in Blind.
Years after the successful transposition on PC and console of the famous Lone Wolf, the Lone Wolf of the late Joe Dever, thanks to Omen Exitio: Plague also the crew of horrors of Lovecraftian mythology belonging to the cycle of Cthulhu finds its deserved space within the vast independent videogame offer. The first episode of what we hope will become a prosperous saga, Plague combines in a simple but essential way the experience of classic fiction with that system of interactivity typical of the videogame medium.
The result? An adventure to read in one breath that will bring us back with the mind to plumb that thin veil that separates reality from illusion: hold on tight though, Omen Exitio: Plague will test reality as you have always known it!
Zanzibar, late 800th century. What does it do to us Jake Huntington, a respected and well-liked London medical researcher at home, on a ship bound for the dark continent? What was supposed to be one of the many overseas military expeditions of the Victorian Era will soon prove to be the beginning of an adventure that will lead Jake to question everything he has always believed in. Between open accounts with the past, the threat of a global and catastrophic epidemic and new unmentionable horrors, the English doctor will be the means of the complete decline of humanity or the key to an unlikely salvation?
This is up to us to decide. Omen Exitio offers us a simple and intuitive interface, which, however, could have offered a few more frills with little effort: against the backdrop of a book yellowed by time we will find ourselves weaving, page after page, the destiny of Jake Huntington and of all humanity. The interaction will take place through the choice, at the bottom of the page, of one of the proposed dialogue or action options, which will lead to different scenarios depending on multiple variables. Relevant or fortuitous choices they will allow us to acquire experience points, which can be used to improve one of the five peculiarities that characterize the protagonist.
Combat, observation, medicine, agility and charisma can thus be evolved and will contribute to the success or failure of the dialogue options: as the adventure continues, it will be necessary to invest a greater number of experience points to reach an adequate level of skills that will allow us to get the better of enemies, real or imaginary, e survive all the heart-pounding pages that await us.
Those who are well acquainted with the games that have Lovecraftian mythology as a background, be they boardgames, role-playing games or videogames, know that they will meet a minimum common denominator: the difficulty of the gameplay or more generally the improbability of achieving victory in the game. playful experience! In Omen Exitio the guys from Tiny Bull Studios have chosen, also for peculiar narrative contingencies, not to go down this path: the experience points obtained will be really many and will allow you to improve the skills of the protagonist far beyond the strictly necessary useful to achieve the best of the endings.
The points can be spent at any time, even a moment before making a certain choice: this greatly facilitates the assignment, however, undermining the charm of the character's evolution and completely canceling the surprise effect. One solution would have been to set up "check points" at specific points in the game where the accumulated points could be spent, unambiguously and without second chances until the introduction of a possible next chapter. Likewise, the lack of Game Over distorts and reduces the sense of frustration and helplessness resulting from the unknown that the script never fails to masterfully instill in us and at the same time automates the system for assigning points that will simply be spent "as needed. ".
In some narrative nodes, often linked to the numerous secondary characters and historical figures of which Jake will get to know, we will find ourselves facing what are called Enterprises: unraveling the tangle of complicated situations, succeeding in key actions or simply obtaining objects that are important for narrative purposes we will have access to a series of companies whose success or failure will be recorded in a specific section of the Jake's personal diary, in which we will find the notes on the development of the adventure, the character sheets of the key figures encountered and the inevitable inventory.
As history progresses, Dr. Jake Huntington's slow but inexorable decline of reason will be tangible: page after page, choice after choice, in perfect Lovecraftian style we will find ourselves losing touch with the reality that surrounds us, provided that of reality and it is not an illusion, overwhelmed by that sense of paranoia and confusion fans of Providence Solitaire know well.
From London to Zanzibar, passing through Delft, Liverpool, New Bedford and not surprisingly right up to Providence, the pages well paint the atmosphere and peculiarities of the streets of the countries that we will find ourselves adventurously traveling in an attempt to escape and at the same time overwhelm the Cult of the Ancients chosen as the nemesis of the first episode of Omen Exitio.
As in any self-respecting game book, every choice we are going to make will have a more or less direct and immediate impact on the evolution of the adventure, which will soon merge into one of the five different endings planned: a complete game run lasts between three and four hours and will lead us seamlessly to the epilogue. Jake will succeed to survive the horror or become part of it?
In this nineteenth century sunset to be read, great care has been taken by the guys from Tiny Bull Studios in characterization of the numerous characters with which Jake will have to deal, weaving a mosaic of situations that suggest a historical reconstruction never left to chance. The stylistic and lexical research then pays homage to the tangible passion that the young and promising young people of the independent studio have for HP Lovecraft.
Exchanging a few words with Simone Grosso, Game Director of the title, it immediately seemed clear to us that behind the title there is a quantity of additional material, of technical improvements and impressive narratives, which we hope to see implemented regardless of the success of this first episode. Where some narrative strands of secondary and / or historically existed characters do not find a way to be sufficiently developed in the narrative arc of the episode, any future updates will also open the doors to this very precious type of content which constitutes the real added value to a already well-made narration.
A quality sound will accompany us in the reading of the interactive game book, where well-made artwork will appear regularly that just like the audio tracks too soon will be repetitive and with a recycled flavor. The lack of a subdivision into chapters and the possibility of playing selected portions of the narrative partly undermine its current replayability: technicalities which, however, do not invalidate the great satisfaction of a direct encounter with Nyarlathotep or Azathoth on duty!
Available on Steam, Omen Exitio: Plague is a title dedicated to any fan and sympathizer of Lovecraftian mythology. First episode of what we hope will become a real saga of "omens of destruction", despite the still immature nature Plague hides in the sunlight a narrative potential that has struck us. If you are not a lover of the most dangerous octopus in the Universe or the idea of "playing by reading" is not your thing, Omen Exitio: Plague is not a title that belongs to your Steam library. The hope is to see some updates soon that will allow us to better appreciate the stylistic depth and enhance the complex script: we know for sure that the guys at Tiny Bull Studios have numerous ideas in the pipeline and we can't wait to follow them. evolution!
► Omen Exitio: Plague is a Graphic Adventure type game developed and published by Tiny Bull Studios for PC, the video game was released on 05/03/2018
