How about a dystopian noir cyber-thriller point & click game in the style of the excellent graphic adventure, Technobabylon? Now, Enoch: Children of Fate is not made by the same developer, but the visual style and the moody atmosphere is very similar. And that’s an excellent thing. The demo isn’t long. However, my time spent with it was enough to hook me into the mood for an atmospheric detective story. So, it was a sad thing when the demo finally ended.
Citadel station, but bleak
In the far future, mankind’s last hope lies in a gigantic space station, in the style of Citadel station from Mass Effect. A utopia was promised, as we can see in the intro, but things didn’t pan out that way. Instead, humanity got a dystopian crime riddled hellhole, where the artificial sun only works 10% of the time. The rest people spend cast in shadow… and rain. Good for the Blade Runner-esque atmosphere, but probably not that fun for the people living here. A setting right up my alley, in other words.
In the demo, you get to play as detective Arten, a female detective with a hard outer shell, but it’s clear she carries around deep personal issues. What those are we don’t get to know in the demo, but I assume it will be a big part of the main narrative in the full release. Arten is being called to a gang murder, with multiple victims, and here, it’s your job to figure out what happened with your partner Nakanaga. This you will do in very classic point & click fashion, with smooth UI and item manipulation. Overall, there isn’t too much to notice when it comes to the gameplay, as it works, and is as standard as they come for this genre, which is good.
While all interactions played out well, three separate items in the bedroom had the same comment/voice line attached. It’s a bit weird hearing it repeated, considering 99% of all adventure players will click on absolutely everything. It’s a minor issue, but it’s there, in an otherwise wonderful little game (so far).
Looking the part
The most important thing for any point & click game for me is the story, visuals and general presentation, and here Enoch: Children of Fate truly shines. It looks great, has excellent voice over for all the characters, and the music also felt very fitting to the setting. And not to forget the story itself. Playing as a crime detective in a bleak future is always cool, and from what I can tell, Enoch: Children of Fate will have an interesting tale to tell. It ends on a major mystery cliffhanger, which means, it’s another game I will have to suffer in waiting for. I highly recommend giving the demo a go if you like point & click adventure games!
Thanks for reading
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 