Story: Bjorn is a quirky, hapless fellow who runs an antique shop, but his most recent acquisition seems to have gotten him into trouble. Soon after he acquires a mysterious statue, he is knocked on the head and robbed in his own apartment. The statue is still there, as are all of his shabby belongings, but a plaque from the statue was taken, for whatever reason. After he searches for some stale cookies and eats some food off the floor, Bjorn decides to investigate this situation. After all, why would someone bonk him on the dome and steal the plaque, right? This sets into motion a sprawling, puzzle filled quest that forces him to repress his inner impulses and focus on uncovering the truth, or maybe just horse around and piss on a potted plant. Can Demetrios make the most of his limited intelligence and social skills to find out the truth about the statue, or will he just be left in the dark with his cookies?
Entertainment Value: The point & click adventure genre was once a staple of video games, so I’m glad to see some indie developers going back to that well. In the case of Demetrios: The BIG Cynical Adventure, we have a game that pays tribute to the classics of the genre, but also establishes its own style as well. This is evident when you first start the game, when you are asked what level of toilet humor you prefer. If you don’t like toilet humor, you will miss out on most of the enjoyment, as Demetrios is low brow and knows how to get laughs, even if they’re gutter laughs. In fact, the game celebrates how crude the humor can be and to me, that shows the developers just wanted to give players a good time. The characters are kind of simple, but do what needs to be done and when more depth is required, such as Demetrios and his neighbor Sandra, the writing makes sure that happens. But even minor characters have a lot to offer in terms of humor, with some hilarious awkward moments available. Some of the humor is up to you to discover, so click on anything that seems interesting and sometimes you’ll be presented with options to get into some mischief. You might wind up arrested or even dead, but the game is generous and never punishes you for exploration. So don’t hesitate to try all the wacky things you can think of here.
So the game is clearly fun from a humor perspective, but how does it hold up in terms of point & click tropes? This might be a game about toilet humor, but it offers an extensive, well crafted adventure to embark on. The locations are varied and numerous, each chock full of things to soak in and explore. These areas often have multiple screens to peruse and each one also offers three cookies to locate. The cookies can be tough to spot, but they’re well worth seeking out. If you find yourself stuck, you can redeem cookies to earn hints of various obviousness. One cookie gets you a vague nudge, will three will spell out what you need to do. So these aren’t the usual bland collectibles, but valuable tools in case you get brain freeze. The puzzles work like traditional point & click content, as you’ll try to find assorted objects of interest, then use or combine them to solve puzzles and progress. Some of these can be quite tricky, but never overly frustrating, so it strikes a nice balance. But don’t only concern yourself with the important objects or you’ll miss out on the game’s oddball sense of humor. So even if an item seems irrelevant to the adventure, you never know what might happen. You also encounter some mini-games and while a tad inconsistent, they do offer a nice break from the core gameplay and mix things up. I had fun with this one and I think fans of point & click adventures or offbeat humor will find a lot to like here.
Marc Fusion 