A Resonance Preview

Having thrown a humbly point-and-clickable party after finding out about the imminent release of Resonance, I couldn't help but restlessly wait for the first bits and bytes of playable code. Vince Twelve, the game's designer, had after all advised me against revisiting the old demo, as it apparently had been surpassed on every conceivable level. Judging by the simple fact that said demo was quite an impressive offering the bar was raised quite a bit. And then, after much restless walking up and down, the new press-demo for Resonance was released.

Was it good? Did it live up to my expectations? Was Vince correct? All I can say is that you simply can't imagine how good this game actually is. Resonance blew me away, and if the rest of the game fulfills the preview code's promises, I'm confident it will soon be considered as one of the great adventure games and a worthy addition to Wadjet Eye Games' line-up of such gems as Gemini Rue and the Blackwell series.

Let's start off with the basics though. Resonance is an indie point-and-click adventure, with full voice-over, pixel-art graphics and a plot that goes a bit like this (and I quote the xii games site):

A particle physicist’s mysterious and spectacular death sparks a race to find his hidden vault and claim his terrifying new discovery. The player will take control of four characters whose lives become entangled in the search for the scientist’s vault. They will have to learn to trust each other and work together to overcome the obstacles in their way and to keep this new and powerful technology out of the hands of a dangerous organization.

An interesting plot indeed, but do trust me when I say that things feel way more involved and sinister when you actually play through the game. The characters are excellently written and realistically motivated, the story isn't afraid to cinematically travel back and forth in time and the game world feels both ominous and incredibly detailed.

What's more, this is one of those rare games that aren't afraid to tax the player and help with the development of them latent lateral thinking skills. Three inventories (a proper one, a short term memory one and another one for long term memories), four playable characters and some tough yet fair and excellently designed puzzles make for some truly rewarding aha! moments and for some innovative adventuring with classic elements.

The brilliant interface and the wise difficulty curve, along with some of the very best and richly animated pixel-art graphics, a wonderful soundtrack, a subtly disturbing atmosphere and impressive ammounts of polish, make Resonance one of the most promising adventures in years. Oh, and this is bound to be a pretty huge offering too. Finishing the supposedly short demo took me more than three hours...

Watch this space for the, surely glowing, review. It's bound to appear pretty soon.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Da New Guys review
• The Fabulous Screech
• The Dream Machine interview
• Discover Incursion!