ANNA'S QUEST

 

Genre:   Adventure

Developer:  Krams Design

Publisher:  Daedalic Entertainment

Released:  July 2015

PC Requirements:  

    • OS: Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 (32/64 bit versions)
    • Processor: 2.6 Ghz Dual Core CPU
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 405, AMD Radeon HD 5400 Series or higher
    • DirectX: Version 9.0c
    • Hard Drive: 1400 MB available space
    • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card with Latest Drivers

Additional screenshots

 

 

by flotsam

 

Anna’s Quest

Daedelic Entertainment/Krams Design

It is probably not surprising, given some of the games emanating from this developer (Whispered World and the Deponia games to name just a few) that the animated Anna’s Quest is a polished little number indeed. Storytelling is prominent, production values top notch, and everything comes together to produce an epic little Grimm-lite fairyish tale.

Also not surprisingly, this is Anna’s quest. It starts with a sick Grandpa, and a journey through the woods to find a cure, and quickly results in a witchy imprisonment in a tower. The first task is to escape, and some recently discovered telekinesis powers come in mighty handy. Anna can pretty much attempt to “move” anything; click the little brain bottom left of screen, point it at the object in question, and watch while Anna scrunches up her face and does her best to will it to give in to her. It isn’t always successful, but it will come in handy.

Escaping involves all manner of inventory based tasks, most fairly benign, some a little more “creative”. This is the game’s stock in trade, and Anna will have done many a good deed, undertaken many a task, and collected and used many an item by the end. Early on you might have a dozen items at any one time, but the number on hand tends to diminishes as the game moves along. “Getting” rather than “using” becomes a bit more of the focus, although they still have to be used once acquired.

Quests by their nature should take a bit of time, and this one clocks in at about 12 to 14 hours. It never gets dull, or lags, and is gentle enough in its difficulty to keep rolling along. Try a wrong combination and Anna might well say something like “that was a good idea but I need something a little more pointy” which may help with what to do or find next. I won’t pretend I didn’t peek at a walkthrough one or twice, but by and large it was nicely constructed conundrum wise, avoiding the obtuse or completely illogical.

A couple of times I was left scratching my head as a result of a failed trigger, so it is worth looking at almost everything and poking around in places even when you have no more reason to do so other than simply being inquisitive. On the odd occasion I also couldn’t combine things until (seemingly) I had a reason to do so, which was mildly frustrating in hindsight. Apart from that though, it was pretty much irritant free.

It does get a bit wordy at times, and there were parts where I wanted to be able to do something rather than just talk more. However the conversations – varying from exposition to friendly banter to idle chit chat – all add to the depth of both the unfolding events and characterisations. All too are well voiced, and apart from Ben the bear, not at all irritating, either aurally or personality wise.

The graphic style well suits the feel of the quest, and despite its rather childlike look manages to carry off a whole range of more adult emotions and events. Certainly there is a girlish charm about Anna, and talking bears and fixes suggest a gentle narrative, but it is richer and deeper than it at first appears. Threads become entwined, seemingly bit characters get drawn back into more central roles, and perceptions about many of them change or at least develop.

Anna is pivotal. She has the frailties of a child, as well as the same fierce determination to get what she wants. A tad precocious, she was what started things for the designer, Australian Dane Krams. Whether she was imbued with all the qualities she comes to exhibit, or whether they grew as the game developed I don’t know, but she was a good place to start.

The game is all about the quest, and the story, and you can find that out for yourself. Like much about this game, it is deceptively more than it first appears.

The game plays in the third person, with the mouse used to interact with the world. Right click to look, left to interact and move, and wheel scroll to bring up the inventory. Escape brings the menu, from which you can save and fiddle with the settings.

The music and sound never get overbearing, the inventory items never get overwhelming, and Anna and the others will keep things engaging. Hard core adventurers might find it a little easy, but it’s really a sum of its parts type of thing. All of them came together to produce a quest that I enjoyed far more than I thought I would.

Grade: B plus

I played on:

OS: Windows 7

Processor: Intel i7-3820 4GHz

RAM: 12GB Ripjaw DDR3 2133 Mhz

Video card: AMD Radeon HD 7800 2048MB

 

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