Point-and-click games don’t get much love from publishers today. Sure, there are still plenty of people out there that love them and would love to play more of them, but outside of the “less casual” point-and-click games produced by publishers like Big Fish Games, there aren’t very many out there. Resonance aims to give point-and-click lovers a nostalgic trip down the road previously paved by games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Syberia I and II.
Resonance is a complex game, both in terms of puzzle-solving and user interface, but with persistence and learning the interface, it turns out to be a rewarding adventure with a good story to boot. Give The Secret of Monkey Island a little bit of color, add some voice acting, throw it into 21st century plotline and add in Syberia’s puzzle mechanics, and you’d have Resonance.
Resonance follows the story of a four unlikely people looking to discover the vault of data collected by a physicist who has created new technology that has the power to not only help the world, but to destroy it. The story becomes more engrossing the more time that you spend playing it. The backstory behind each character unfurls little by little, one by one, in a way that is reminiscent of TV shows like 24.
The old-school 16-bit graphics in Resonance have a vibe that will surely please fans of the Secret of Monkey Island. All of the environments pay close attention to detail, so although the game uses old graphical styles, it displays them in a manner that will make gamers that are unfamiliar with the style appreciative of it. Environmental details like sparking wires and flocks of birds flying in front of the camera all add up to create surprisingly immersive and believable environments.
Voice acting in Resonance is by no means a tour de force, but it isn’t bad either. At first, much of the voice acting seems rather unnecessary, but as the game progresses, it’s hard to imagine playing the game without hearing the dialog of the characters as they interact with other people and their memories.
The game even employs the voice acting talents of Bastion narrator Logan Cunningham as Detective Bennet, who plays the gruff gumshoe’s role quite well.
Resonance also uses an interesting gameplay mechanic that differs from other games of its kind by allowing the player to control four different characters at virtually any time that they may please.
Different characters have different strengths and items that allow them to gather information that progresses the story. For example, one character can distract a NPC to allow another character to gather information. Learning how to use each character in each situation, and use their inventory to your advantage is one of the high points in Resonance.
However, there are minor annoyances to the use of multiple characters. Certain characters must present certain items and topics of conversation to specific NPCs. and this can make for a bunch of confusing hit-or-miss trading. The game also uses a short-term memory list, which allows a character to take an item from the environment, move it into their memory inventory, and then use it as a conversation topic with other characters. While this is an interesting mechanic and does add to the game experience, a universal short-term memory bank for all characters would have saved a lot of time and frustration at certain points in the game.
Many of the same mechanics used in other point-and-click games are also present in Resonance. This title spends a little more time than other point-and-click games in making the player think though. This can become frustratingly true at times when a player might spend an hour looking for an item that has been under their nose the whole time, or while solving long puzzles. The steep difficulty in certain puzzles begs for an in-game hint button.
Despite the unforgiving puzzle difficultly, and the learning curve behind the usage of the user interface, Resonance is an extremely solid game with a memorable story and unique gameplay. Just don’t expect you’ll get through the game while doing paperwork. Resonance may not push the graphical prowess of your PC very much, but it sure makes up for it by putting your brain on a treadmill.
Leave a Reply