Kelvin and
the Infamous Machine game
According to the developer’s web site, this recent
addition to the Adventure Game genre features classic point-and-click
gameplay, offering both pointing and clicking. The game offers beautiful
hand-drawn 2D environments, a huge variety of wacky puzzles that
increase in difficulty as you go. There are fifty to six quirky, fully
animated characters and over 1000 lines of written dialog. The original
soundtrack contains twelve unique tracks. And of course, it offers the
unique opportunity to annoy three of the greatest minds in history and
save the universe!
Kelvin and the Infamous Machine is a hilarious
point-and-click adventure in which you stumble irresponsibly through
history to help legendary geniuses complete their masterworks! With that
said let us take a look at it.
Mechanics
I played the DRM fee version from
Humble Bundle, where I downloaded the game using a free key provided
from the developer for review purposes. The above listed requirements
are from the Humble website. There is no graphics card minimum mentioned
in the requirements and my GeForce GT 240 card handled the game with no
issues. The developer’s site does not offer recommend System
Requirements. Other than noting the game is available for PC, Mac,
Linux, Android and iOS, they are silent regarding recommended
requirements. For purposes of this review I visited Steam’s site to see
if they listed graphic card minimums. Steam lists the same requirements
as Humble except for the addition of Graphics card minimums, which Steam
lists as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260, ATI Radeon 4870 HD, or equivalent card
with at least 512 MB VRAM. The DRM free version responded without issue
with my GT 240 which is less in power than the GTX260, but it does
surpass the VRAM 512 MB. Perhaps the higher card requirement for Steam’s
version is needed? I cannot speak to that. Due to the conflict in
numbers I make note of it so gamers will be aware one version may work
for you while the other won’t. Or perhaps it is not an issue at all. But
the GTX 260 is a more powerful card than what I have. Check your card
before making your choice.
The inventory is located on the upper left of the
screen, represented by a backpack. It works as every other inventory you
have seen before. Mix and match objects as needed. There is no hot spot
identifier that I found and the saves are non-existent. You are provided
with an auto save on exit. The opening screen offers the control panel
that provides minimal options. You can adjust the volume for music,
sounds and voices. The text can be selected as English, French, Spanish
or German. You can reset your progress. Does that mean start over? I
have no idea. I did not try it. I was trying to get through the game and
did not wish to start over. Once you achieve access to all three levels
(Chapters) on start, you can select any one of the three to play. Upon
reloading the game, it auto-opens to where you left off. I had no
technical issues with the auto save’s functioning. It worked fine
throughout. The escape key accesses a choice Continue or Quit. Selecting
Quit takes you to the menu. If you want to adjust any of the options at
that point you can go back to the game without quitting. There are no
other keyboard keys you can access during gameplay. ESC is it.
Graphics were okay, but they could have been
sharper for my taste. Voice acting was very well done, as is the
background music. In fact the sound track is offered as a separate
purchase.
Gameplay/Story
You play as Kelvin in this 2D
cartoonish style game with many locations. It is open-ended, though
certain locations require you to discover a way to enter. The order of
advancement is up to you. Above it was stated this game is irreverent,
wacky and funny. It is all of that. Kelvin stumbles irresponsibly
through history to help legendary geniuses complete their masterworks!
He is the well-meaning research assistant of Dr. Edwin Lupin, an
outstanding but wacky physicist who goes completely nuts when his life’s
work, a shower-shaped time machine, is ridiculed by the scientific
community. Bent on leaving his mark, Lupin launches himself into the
past to prevent history’s greatest geniuses from completing their
defining works, so he can complete them instead.
During the course of this game your assignment is
to guide Kelvin as he is sent back in time to undo the damage caused by
the unstable Dr. Lupin. The guy rewrote history, erasing works of Ludwig
van Beethoven, Isaac Newton, and Leonardo da Vinci. Kelvin’s job is to
assist each of these three historical figures to reclaim their works.
There you have the basis for each of three chapters. Puzzles are
primarily inventory based with the usual logic content, where through
speaking with local denizens, either to convince them to assist you or
to help solve their problem, to receive a reward of what you need.
Summary
It is a clever, well constructed game with an
entertaining story line. It was actually quite fun, though I felt the
game was too short. Again time varies depending how quickly you can
figure out how to solve certain puzzles. There are no walkthroughs that
I’m aware of, though I did not do an extensive search. It took me five
hours to complete the game. I often come up short trying to reason out
what I can substitute for a crystal ball, so the fortune teller will
give me what I need. It is an enjoyable game though I do not like the
autosaves, only the gameplay.
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
August 2016
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GameBoomers
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