Review

Written by Jade Swann | Edited by John Gerritzen

Whateverland: Prologue is the free-to-play demo for Whateverland, an upcoming point-and-click adventure game. You play as Vincent, a thief sent to Whateverland after stealing from the witch who created the world, and can enjoy the first thirty minutes of his adventure into the strange land.

PICK YOUR PATH

Whateverland: Prologue begins with a beautifully hand-drawn and fully voice acted opening cinematic. This immediately sets a fun and interesting tone for the gameplay, and the wonderfully Tim Burton-esque art style extends to the characters and world as well. The few characters you meet in the demo all manage to establish their own unique personalities within a short period of time, which is impressive. From the pretentious, poetry-obsessed raven (I see what you did there) to the Shakespearian-looking ghost, the characters fit into the world well.

How you interact with these characters and solve the puzzles is completely up to you. You can take the nice route and offer your help willingly, or you can take a more mischievous route and rely on your thieving and deceit skills to progress. Whateverland: Prologue gives you a quick but effective taste of these mechanics and provides both a “good” and a “bad” way to complete the demo. From the options provided, I am looking forward to seeing all of the different choices that will be available in the full release. 

IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS

For a point-and-click adventure, this title packs a lot of great details into the gameplay. Instead of walking up to characters and only talking via the standard dialogue bubbles, there are also some animated scenes that will come up and switch back and forth between you and the person you’re talking to as each person speaks. Though the animations do not always sync up and you cannot skip the dialogue, this is a nice little touch that helps to break up the stillness that point-and-click games can sometimes have. 

The characters are all fully voice acted, and the soundtrack is a nice addition that complements the tone of the gameplay. There are also several worldbuilding tidbits that definitely help to build intrigue around the characters and how Whateverland has changed them, as well as the lore behind the world itself. Though the gameplay is brief, there are already some interesting mechanics to go along with the different ways of solving each puzzle, such as the more mischievous choice of lockpicking. While I wish there were more to click on and investigate, there are enough tasks in the demo to keep you intrigued and wanting to play and explore the strange land more.