For the record: 275 games. |
Do you remember your first Steam games? I remember
mine. Aside from downloading a lot of free MMORPGs (a move I regret now since I
played only two and soon uninstalled every other one) and a lot of free and
free-to-play titles, the first games I actually remember buying were Undertale
and Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink. It’s a weird combo, huh? Well I added
15$ to my Steam Wallet because Undertale costs 9.99$ in the U.S. but costs
10.99$ in Canada, goddamn stupid exchange rates, and I had to spend those last 4
dollars on something… but I digress. So yeah, I looked at the selection of
games and took the first thing that would cost approximately what I had left.
Undertale review? Yeah, no, not today, sorry. It would be a gigantic review,
I’d need a special occasion for it. Like an anniversary, maybe. (Hint, hint.)
Today, I need something smaller. So, Clockwork Tales it is.
Item searches have been a staple of puzzle games for a
while. I remember, long ago, reviewing a game like that for the blog. What was
it called again? Sunnyville? Yeah. It’s a sub-genre that offers its own
challenges, but it’s usually pretty bland if it’s all there is to do in a game.
I’ve always felt that the Item Search sub-genre worked better when put within a
story context, with some additional puzzles. On this, Clockwork Tales delivers,
offering various puzzles with a few Item Search screens. Also, this story takes
place in a steampunk world with plenty of world-building, so it could be
interesting.
We open as our protagonist Evangeline Glass arrives in
the calm mountain town of Hochwald. A letter from her mentor, Professor Ambrose
Ink, asked her to go there. Glass, Ink… odd family names, no?
Oooooooh…. I get it now! Clever.
If the rest of his body moved, it wouldn't be nearly as creepy. |
Either Ink likes the chilly air and opening the window just wouldn't be enough, or the maintenance at this inn is desperately lacking. |
I will say, though; Matthew the robot-birdie is very, very cute. |
Man, being a spy is so hard! Thankfully, using her
wits (or yours), Evangeline gets in the room, powers up Matthew, and sees that
Doctor Ink was trying to get images of a mysterious machine beneath the castle
past the gate at the end of the street. A machine causing tremors all around
the region.
Other steampunk supervillains are taking copious notes right now. |
The film is crap, I just love to reference that thing.
Can I have your helmet? It will count as your contribution to the Swear Jar for almost saying "bitch" in a game for kids. |
How should we build the Barber emblem? By scavenging multiple pieces! |
Finally, Evangeline Glass is able to leave the
zeppelin using the glider, but the soldiers shoot at her and she crashes into
the castle’s backyard. What’s worse, the key to open the gate was stolen by a
squirrel. What happens next can be called An Exercise In Convenience. This is
basically every single scenario in a puzzle game where you find, in a single
screen, the dozen or so items required to move forward to the next important
screen. I know, that’s the whole point of the genre – although items found in a
location don’t always make complete sense. Here alone, we get a chain from the
crashed glider, toss a snowball at an owl, gather snow in a bucket and melt it
over a hot air passage that is conveniently laying nearby… I gotta avoid the
word “convenient”. I keep using that word all the time. The water is used to
unfreeze a barrel, to get a stepladder laying behind it – or is it a ladder? I
swear, I always confuse ladders and stepladders, but hey, at least I’m not the
only one. Who leaves a (step)ladder laying there, frozen in the snow, anyway?
We get a lysflower-shaped spade, break some ice to collect a hook frozen
underneath. Again, I ask: Who would leave a hook there? Then we attach the hook
and chain together, and get the key from the squirrel’s nest.
Oh, and then that’s not all; the lock on the gate
leading to the next room requires a key, but it’s actually a puzzle to
complete. Not a very tough one, either. Seems Lord Barber, the villain, only
wants smart people to be able to come into his lair. That’s good, but his
adversaries, the heroic Glass and Ink, are also very smart and can easily
bypass these puzzles…
Or maybe he’s just obsessed with puzzles, like the
Riddler or something.
Not that this matters since, as soon as we unlock the
door… we’re caught by the giant robot and thrown into a cell. Oopsie.
A mouse? Why would I need to pick up a MOUSE? |
I’ll say, I do enjoy a special aspect of this puzzle
game, in that you can send Matthew to fetch items that are out of reach.
Sometimes, a situation seems to have no answer, until you remember that you can
actually do that. It adds a nice dimension to the puzzles. And I think it has
actually allowed this game’s developer, Artifex Mundi, to get more creative
with their puzzles. Why force the hero to make a tool to reach that faraway
item? Just send the robot-bird!
Barber’s mansion is quite poorly guarded. Aside from
the two robots in front of the elevator, there are no guards whatsoever.
Evangeline can freely visit upstairs. By collecting colored jewels and
completing a puzzle in the fireplace room, she finds a secret passageway to
another secret room! In that room, we find instructions to make gunpowder,
which is certain to come in handy as soon as we find charcoal, in the fireplace
room, and sulfur, in a jewelry cabinet.
Then we can just grab the musket in the living room,
add a bullet found earlier, add gunpowder, bring the chandelier closer and just
above the guards’ heads.
Pow, clang, onomatopoeias galore as the robotic guards
are defeated. It’s not over, though; through more items found in the room the
robots stood in, we’re able to acquire secret blueprints and another Barber
insignia that will be needed to get into the elevator. Hurrah!
I can’t wait to make Barber pay for trying to break
the region with earthquakes. I hope he gets a very embarrassing defeat, a
humiliation that will make everyone else laugh, oh so much. Something that
would be great, accompanied of the famous shave-and-a-hair-cut, two-bits music.
Ironic, on top of all that, for a buy named Barber.
But that’ll have to wait till Monday. Cya!
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