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Genre: Adventure Developer & Publisher: Microids Released: November 6, 2025 Requirements: OS: Windows 10 or higher Processor: Minimum, Intel Core i5 9th Gen/AMD Ryzen 3 4100 4 cores 3.8 Ghtz; Recommended, Intel Core i7 9th Gen/AMD Ryzen 5 4500 6 cores 3.6 Ghtz Memory: Minimum 8 GB RAM; Recommended, 16 GB RAM Graphics: Minimum, Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti/AMD RX 580 8 GB; Recommended, Nvidia RTX 2060/AMD RX 6700 XT DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 25 GB available space
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By flotsam
Microids Hard on the heels of the recently reworked Amerzone, we now have this, the next game released by Benoît Sokal back in the day (2002) and the first of what became a series with three sequels. Like Amerzone, I played the original back then and remember it positively, but I haven’t played it since and apart from some general recollections the detail escapes me. This review is therefore based solely on my experience playing this version. The game revolves around Kate Walker, a lawyer despatched to the European town of Valadilène, a clockpunk out-of-the-way place, to secure the purchase of the Voralberg automaton factory. An untimely death adds an unforeseen complication and sets Kate off on a journey the likes of which she could never have expected. The game plays in the third-person and is entirely point and click. It looks good, if a little flat texturally and chromatically, but the detail is impressive. There is sufficient movement in the world to help bring it to life, and in conjunction with the free movement and the dynamic camera, it definitely felt like somewhere I was, not somewhere I was watching. That was further helped by turning off the music. It never let up, and well before I had left Valadeline its relentless loop had worn me out. Whilst there isn’t a lot of ambient sound, what there is was more than enough to provide the ‘soundtrack.’ What’s more, music still plays under many of the cutscenes, providing what I thought was a perfect balance. The camera can’t be controlled, and might frustrate at times. It pivots and swings, sometimes pulling back, sometimes moving in close, and might watch Kate explore from behind or from in front. While generally I thought it worked well, there were times when my exploration was a little clumsy and even a tad complicated by how I was able to view the game world. The camera is at its best in large locations, adding an almost cinematic vibe to Kate’s endeavours. The initial main street of Valadilène is a good example, the scene shifting and moving as Kate explores. There is rarely an occasion on which what you can see on screen is all there is, and Kate’s perambulations will push and pull the scenes in many directions. Hotspots will become visible as Kate approaches, and click to utilise. You don’t choose what to do at each hotspot, engaging in whatever the little pop up label says to do. It might be e.g., interact or take or go up, place if an inventory item is needed, or speak if a character is involved. Interact might pull you further in (e.g., close up on a desktop) where you might be able to further explore or engage. If an inventory item is needed, a little inventory window will open, enabling you to cycle through each item to determine which item to try. All up, interacting with the world is efficient and I thought it worked well. Kate has a phone, which is a key part of a couple of puzzles but is largely the source of people from her personal and professional life calling her for a ‘chat.’ While it fleshes out who Kate is, and plays into the journey she is on and the choices she ultimately makes, it is somewhat soapy and a touch clichéd. Puzzling is a mix of inventory conundrums and straight out puzzles, and are a mix of the seemingly mundane (e.g., get a permit stamped) to the much grander (e.g., restart a factory, activate an airship). You will find things, fix things and blow things up. It isn’t difficult, but making a cocktail (something I should have excelled at) tripped me up and the less said about finding the tossed crank the better. Certain conversations are necessary to trigger progression. A topic tree will pop up when speaking to a character, and you simply choose which one to ask about. Or just choose the one marked ‘mission,’ which will mean you miss out on some interesting banter and a degree of depth but will certainly cut to the conversational chase. There is a fair bit of contrived back and forth, and a bit more likely the result of wondering what to do next. That can be helped by playing in Story mode, which will put objectives into your journal, or play in Adventure mode to be more on your own. I toggled between them to get a sense of both, and Story is certainly a more guided experience. You will get to leave Valadilène, via a wind-up train helmed by Oscar, a most excellent if punctilious automaton. The additional locations you visit are few, but each is varied and elaborate. Contrast the the university at Barrockstad, its entrance flanked by a group of mammoths and its station home to lush gardens and an exotic aviary with the ‘worn out’ snow-swept span of Aralbad. The grimy mining hub that is Komkolzgrad is different again. I was impressed by all of them. Kate walks by default but double-clicking will get her to run, and holding down the mouse will cause her to follow it. Top right are icons for your phone, your journal (which includes your documents and inventory items) and the settings menu. The game exclusively saves automatically, but you can force a save by changing locations (e.g., enter or exit a building) and while you can have three games on the go at any one time, each has only a single save point. So there is no reloading earlier progress, although you can restart a Chapter should you wish to. What else? Some of the cutscenes haven’t been remastered and are somewhat jarring as a result, and Kate’s facial expression can border on the scary. The voice acting, especially that of Kate and Oscar, is excellent. Sound dropped out in the un-remastered cutscenes, but apart from that issue the game ran flawlessly. There are references to the earlier Amerzone. The game sets up for a sequel and a dozen hours or so should see you through. In conclusion, whilst not everything hit the mark, I enjoyed engaging again with Kate and Oscar. I played on: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Intel I7 Ultra, 2.2GHz Intel Arc 140V GPU, 16 GB 32 GB RAM Windows 11, 64 Bit
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