Sandra and Woo in the Cursed Adventure
Feline Fuelled Games
I had never heard of Sandra or
Woo (I did have a crush on a Sandra when I was 9 but that doesn’t
count), but it is apparently a webcomic by a German author and an
Indonesian artist. According to wiki it has been around since 2008 and
so far there are nearly 900 comic strips.
Sandra is a girl and Woo is a
raccoon. I don’t know how they spend their time in the comic but here
they get sucked into a medieval
adventure game, in the middle of preparing a swan costume for the school
play.
Enter Cloud and Larissa, one a
boyfriend the other a loose cannon, who after some convoluted break and
entering come to the conclusion Sandra is missing, and set about
un-missing her. Easier said than done, and not because the ex-boyfriend
becomes involved. Alternating between medieval world and downtown
wherever Sandra hails from, the plot is ultimately secondary to the
characters and their various goings on.
You also get to play as multiple
characters, including Woo, and they each have a different way of
tackling their challenges – gung-ho (and not afraid of some full on
vandalism) for some, a little more reserved for others. I liked the
character aspects a lot. Other things weren’t quite as enjoyable.
Chief among that were the mini
games. There are way too many and they aren’t really fun. They are to be
done/endured/screamed at, depending on how you feel about them, and how
you go. They involved time limits, move limits, and mazes amongst other
things. I didn’t much like any of them, especially in the context of an
adventure game. Had I subscribed to them independently I might have
enjoyed some of them, but perhaps not.
Interestingly, I read a review
after the event that said they can be skipped. Having gone back I can’t
work out how, but if they can then that is a plus. Skip them I say.
I looked up the comic strips and
the art is faithful. It looks a lot like a comic, flat and clean, with a
manga look about the characters, especially some of their expressions.
Fans I suspect will feel at home.
Apart from the mini games, the
puzzling is inventory based – find things and use them appropriately.
They can be convoluted, and a tad silly – one early on requires an
almost negligible interaction before the forceful use of a large mattock
will complete the task. Some require triggers before they will work, so
make sure you look at flyers and posters and such, especially if you
have picked them up.
There is a lot to pick up, so
have at it. Be prepared to use them in very interesting ways.
Bouncing back and forth between
the different worlds and characters provides a good contrast. The music
can be distinctive at times, but generally just stays in the background.
The voices though are a very mixed bag.
The game is all mouse driven,
right click to look, left to interact. The inventory is a backpack top
left, which can be opened with the mouse or the keyboard. Again, right
click to examine, left to use. The space bar will highlight hotspots by
generating a little raccoon image holding a sign pointing at what you
can look at.
Sandra and Woo was an up and
down experience, but take out the mini games and it was probably on the
upsurge overall. It was clearly made with affection for its source, and
with a bit of polishing I would probably come back.
I played on:
OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-6700 4GHz
RAM: 32GB GDDR5
Video card: AMD Radeon RX 470 8192MB
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
June 2017
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