Undermere is a novel little place. In Dangerous Viking’s debut sport, Unusual Horticulture, its residents have been embroiled within the peculiar machinations of a forest cult intent on summoning the mysterious Woken Dendrue. Now, in its sequel, a conspiracy of ravens has descended upon the township; individuals are afraid to depart their properties, cautious of what seems to be a logo that one thing unhealthy is going on. This in poor health omen is sweet information for you, although – because the short-term proprietor of native curios retailer Unusual Antiquities, you are the primary port of name for cover totems, warding spells, and mood-lifting enchantments. Enterprise is booming.
If you happen to’re unfamiliar with Dangerous Viking’s supernatural detective game sequence, Strange Antiquities (and its much-beloved predecessor, Unusual Horticulture) duties you with working a retailer in a quaint fantasy hamlet. Villagers come on the lookout for particular relics, and it’s essential to work out which one to offer them. You may spend your time flicking by way of the pages of worn tomes and exploring the native space to search out extra artifacts and ebook chapters, all whereas warding off a creeping dread nestled within the pit of your abdomen.
On paper, it appears like there’s not a lot room to innovate on Unusual Horticulture – totally different store, totally different artifacts, identical nice point-and-click journey. It is an inherent battle for an usually mechanically easy style. As our Amerzone review says, a recent splash of paint alone can solely accomplish that a lot, so how then does Unusual Antiquities develop into its personal sport? Fortunately, after only a transient hour with a personal demo, my worries have been squashed.
I am instantly introduced with a buyer on the lookout for a substitute Hunter’s Boon. I flip to my cupboard of curiosities, peering on the oddities on supply. There are pendants made from bone, rocky ornaments emblazoned with odd symbols drawn in suspicious purple liquids, and carvings of forest animals. I open my information to the shop’s stock, suppose for a number of moments, and rapidly find the Hunter’s Boon. To date, so good.
However requests solely get tougher. A girl asks for an merchandise not listed in my ebook. As a substitute, I’ve to flick again to the index, the place I spot descriptors and the objects they relate to (curses, for instance, are referenced in Lamb’s Syphon) and different names for objects. Placing two and two collectively, I give the shopper her curio, and he or she leaves happy. I connect a label to it – these at the moment are totally customizable, by the way in which – with the choice title included to save lots of me some flicking forwards and backwards.
A day or so passes, and I am introduced with a brand new ebook from one of many store proprietor’s eccentric tutorial colleagues. After tutting over the truth that Unusual Antiquities has been left within the fingers of “an apprentice,” she swoops out of the shop, leaving you with a stunning tome full of new symbols. It rapidly turns into obvious that these glyphs will seem on future artifacts, and that I am going to must translate them to make sure my prospects obtain the best boons. It is yet one more complication, but it surely by no means turns into a frustration – the truth is, it is simply one in every of my favourite new additions to the sport.
I am then approached by a gentleman on the lookout for an eerie necklace, which, when raised to the ear, emanates a mild, snake-like hiss. When you’d merely drag a plant underneath the microscope in Unusual Horticulture to look at its quirks, now you can use your senses to analyse objects extra fastidiously. Once more, it is one other layer of complexity to what, on paper, felt like an already bulletproof system.
Exploration is totally different right here, too, as now you can wander round Undermere at your leisure. In Unusual Horticulture, you needed to refill the ‘Will to Discover’ meter by both watering vegetation or getting buyer requests proper, whereas in Unusual Antiquities, there’s much more alternative to discover the map. The demo confined me to the village itself, with close by POIs simply begging to be explored.
I recuperate some stolen valuables hidden behind Undermere’s rotting penitentiary, then I pay the vineyard subsequent door a go to to recuperate some artifacts from its basement. As a substitute of visiting disparate, oftentimes meaningless places and hoping for the most effective, this new system, whereas extra streamlined, immerses you within the wider world of Undermere.
Talking of meaningless, if issues start to get out of hand, you are now introduced with a brand new restoration system. Much like Unusual Horticulture, making constant errors through the day makes your inside sense of dread rise to the floor, leaving you fully incapacitated. You may have to unravel a puzzle sequence to piece your fragmented thoughts again collectively, represented by a sequence of stone shards in Horticulture, which you set collectively to kind a seal. In Antiquities, that system has been changed with a cube roll, the place you may must roll the proper mixture to interrupt a sequence of seals. Rolling an X provides to your dread meter, resulting in a sport over when you accrue sufficient of them.
Whereas it took me a number of moments to get my head round it, I grew to favor this to the previous system. There’s a component of probability and better stakes, which is extra thrilling than having to piece a puzzle again collectively. There’s additionally a satisfying ‘thunk’ because the picket cube hit the panelling, and I discovered myself having to suppose extra deeply on the whole.
Because the solar units on my second day in Undermere, I am given a alternative. My final patron of the day barrels into the shop, informing me that her ‘pal’ has a nasty behavior of stealing her jewellery and that, in an effort to cease her, she desires to purchase an enchanted merchandise that she will be able to, in flip, have her acquaintance steal. The sport informs me that this alternative can have penalties additional down the road, so do I give her an merchandise that can punish, or one which instills worry? The previous implies that one thing extra drastic will occur, whereas the latter appears to let the thief off extra evenly. I go for the previous – how dare she steal this girl’s issues – and, as we fade into the evening, the demo involves a detailed. Fairly the cliffhanger.
As somebody who liked the primary sport, I had my reservations about whether or not Unusual Antiquities might set itself aside. Undermere’s appeal is definitely what enticed me within the first place, however I wasn’t positive if it might carry a sequel. Fortunately, Antiquities takes the whole lot Horticulture did effectively and enhances it, including extra selection to merchandise evaluation and letting you discover its distinctive world. After simply an hour with Antiquities, I am determined to uncover all of its darkish secrets and techniques – Jupiter wants extra pets, these ravens want handled, and there are eerie video games afoot: the query is, the place do you even start?
