Fun Little Adventure Game
Notwithstanding Old Man Murray's claim some years ago, adventure gaming isn't dead (but it's sure close). That being said, Samorost 2 is a cute new entry in the deathly-ill genre. In this game, you play the role of a cute little alien whose even cuter little dog has been kidnapped by a bunch of space thieves. Naturally, you hop into your personal spaceship and try to track him down. In doing so, you visit a variety of different planetoids, each with different environments and puzzles to solve. There is no text, very little comprehensible dialogue, but somehow the game manages to get the player to identify with the main character. The graphics, while obviously not top of the line, are attractive and are drawn a uniquely pleasing style.
Each level is short enough that if you know what to do, you can be finished in less than 15 minutes. In fact, the whole game can probably be beaten in under an hour. But the joy (and I suppose the maddening frustration) of adventure games is in the search for solutions to puzzles. This can elongate the game into a nice 3 to 5 hour romp, which can make for a pleasant afternoon or two. Given the price point on this game, that doesn't strike me as entirely unreasonable.
Ultimately, every adventure game comes down to the story and the puzzles. The story here is every bit as simple (but cute) as I describe above. And the puzzles, while not always intuitively obvious, generally steer clear of the maddeningly idiotic solutions that came to epitomize adventure games towards the end of their prime. If you're looking for a nice little diversion between blockbusters, Samorost 2 certainly fits the bill.
