Thimbleweed Park is an adventure game in the classic style, with humorous writing and puzzles to solve. A murder has been committed and it’s up to the player controlling two different agents to solve it.
Throughout this pixilated adventure game, the player will be beset by challenges and puzzles that vary in difficulty depending on whether you chose Casual or Hard on game start. Such a disparity of difficulty is designed to weed out those whom have not played adventure games before. On hard mode, more puzzles and more items available mean the challenge grows exponentially, almost doubling the amount of time it takes to complete the entire game.
Each character has an inventory wherein they can collect items from the scenes of crimes and use them on all available people and objects in the scenery. Thimbleweed Park differs from other adventure games through a more advanced system of item interactions.[sc name=”quote” text=”Thimbleweed Park differs from other adventure games through a more advanced system of item interactions.”]
Along the bottom left of the screen, different ways of interacting with objects, items and scenery are available, such as Look at, Use, Push, Pull and all kinds of ways to interact with the scene. Each item in your inventory can be combined with others to create new items and solutions to problems.
A key element in all adventure games is the dialogue; is it good enough to allow the player to play the game and not be bored to tears? Luckily, the writing in Thimbleweed Park is extraordinary, with huge amounts of subtle humour and poignant observations. Characters feel alive and present in a vibrant world that brings real meaning to the adventure.
The dialogue does have one main problem; it is simply far too slow. Luckily, the game gives an intricate way to skip dialogue using a certain number of fingers in a swipe. Taking away a finger will trigger all hotspots to light up, whereas adding a finger will skip the cutscene entirely. This helps with the pacing of the game, but it is still an issue when the dialogue moves at a snail’s speed. Thankfully, the dialogue is enjoyable to at least be able to sit through it, long though it is.[sc name=”quote” text=”Thankfully, the dialogue is enjoyable to at least be able to sit through it, long though it is.”]
Any good adventure game needs to have three key elements to be successful: it needs to have good quality puzzles, good quality writing and the world the game takes place in needs to feel alive and relevant. Thimbleweed manages all of these qualities, along with an impressive visual style that hearkens back both to the classical adventure genre and simultaneously to the oldschool arcade games.
Thimbleweed Park is visually stunning, filled with great writing and intriguing puzzles that captivate the player and keep them hooked on solving the mystery.
Great adventure games crop up only but rarely, but Thimbleweed Park is certainly of the very few that manage to balance excellent writing with superb puzzles, all in a beautiful package.
[review pros=”Decently challenging. Great writing. Beautiful visual style. ” cons=”Dialogue takes too long.” score=9]
[appbox appstore id1228969539]
