Strange Antiquities builds on the first game by adding new ideas and letting you change things more making it really special.
Undermere is a small special town. In the first game Strange Horticulture people there were caught up in a strange forest cult trying to call a mysterious being called the Woken Dendrue. Now in the new game a group of ravens is causing trouble. People are scared to go outside because they see a sign that something bad might happen. This is good for you because you run a shop called Strange Antiquities. People come to you to buy lucky charms, spells and things to make them feel better. Your shop is doing great.
Bad Viking makes a supernatural detective game called Strange Antiquities. In the game you run a small shop in a fantasy village. People come to your shop asking for special old items. You have to figure out which item to give them. You look through old books and explore the area to find more items and book pages. While doing this you feel a strange growing fear inside you.
At first Strange Horticulture seems like just a small change from other games a new shop and different items but the same point-and-click style. Games like this are usually pretty simple. Our Amerzone review said that just changing the look isn’t enough to make a game stand out. So how does Strange Antiquities feel different? After playing a short demo for about an hour I stopped worrying because it already feels special.
A customer comes in looking for a Hunter’s Boon replacement. I look at my cabinet with strange items like bone pendants rocky decorations with red marks and animal carvings. I check the store’s guide think for a moment and find the Hunter’s Boon quickly. Everything is going well so far.
But the requests keep getting trickier. One woman asks for something that’s not in my main list. So I check the index instead and find clues like how curses are linked to Lamb’s Syphon and see other names for items. I figure out what she wants give it to her and she’s happy. I also add a label with the other name on it so I won’t have to look it up again later.
A day or two later, one of the shop owner's quirky academic friends brings me a new book. She complains that the shop is being run by an apprentice then quickly leaves. The book she gives me is full of new symbols. I soon realize these symbols will show up on future items and I’ll need to figure out what they mean to help my customers correctly. It makes things a bit more complex but it’s actually one of my favorite new parts of the game.
A man comes to me looking for a creepy necklace that makes a soft hissing sound when held to the ear. In Strange Horticulture you used to just look at plants under a microscope to study them. Now you can also use your senses to examine things more closely. It adds another level of depth to a system that already worked really well.
Exploring works differently now. In Strange Horticulture you had to earn the ability to explore by watering plants or helping customers correctly. But in Strange Antiquities you can explore the map more freely. In the demo I was limited to the village but there were interesting places nearby that I wanted to check out.
I found some stolen valuables hidden behind the old prison in Undermere. Then I went to the nearby winery to get some artifacts from its basement. Instead of going to random places without a clear goal the new system is more organized and helps you feel more connected to the world of Undermere.
If things start to go wrong there’s a new way to recover. Like in Strange Horticulture making too many mistakes increases your sense of dread which can stop you from doing anything. To recover in that game you solve a puzzle by putting together stone pieces to make a seal. In Antiquities this has changed to a dice game. You have to roll the right combination to unlock seals. But if you roll an X too many times your dread meter fills up and you lose.
At first it took me a little time to understand but I ended up liking it more than the old way. It feels more fun and exciting because there's some luck involved and bigger risks. I also liked the sound the wooden dice made when they hit the surface. Overall it made me think more.
At the end of my second day in Undermere I have to make a choice. A woman rushes into the shop and says her friend keeps stealing her jewelry. She wants to buy a magical item that her friend will steal hoping it will teach her a lesson. The game warns me that my decision will matter later. Should I give her something that punishes or something that scares? Punishment sounds harsher while fear seems softer. I choose punishment stealing is wrong As night falls the demo ends on a dramatic note.
I really liked the first game So I wasn’t sure if Strange Antiquities would be any different. I loved the town of Undermere but I didn’t know if it would be enough for a second game. Luckily Antiquities improves on everything the first game did well. It adds more types of item analysis and lets you explore its strange world even more. After just one hour I’m hooked I want to find all its secrets. Jupiter needs more pets the ravens are causing trouble and strange things are happening. But where do I start?
0 Comments