Edna is the focus of
this unusual adventure. Imprisoned in an insane asylum with her talking
toy rabbit, Harvey, she wants to escape and she wants to remember. A
good portion of her childhood has been erased by the treatments she's
received -- all prescribed by the asylum's head psychiatrist, Dr.
Marcel. In Edna & Harvey: The Breakout, Harvey jogs Edna's memory
throughout the story using nostalgic quips, anecdotes, and flashbacks.
"Where are all those annoying do-gooders when
you really need them?" Edna
The story opens with our heroine and her rabbit
locked in a padded cell. Edna wears one of those ugly rear-opening
hospital gowns. She is angry and rebellious and vulnerable. Her chief
protection against pain is her sense of the absurd. Harvey is made from
blue terrycloth. He is part heckler, part instigator, part comforter,
and part goof.
In almost every way, Harvey and Edna are a perfect
team. Portrayed as animated characters in flat, blocky, hand drawn
environments, they match the cartoon esthetic and the jazzy,
freewheeling background music . But there is much going on under the
surface that gradually darkens this lively, colorful world.
A good chunk of the exploration involves gaining
access to the asylum rooms without getting caught. You will become
conversant with ventilation ducts, the roof, the automated laundry
system and "staff only" rooms and corridors. To break out, Edna must
discover and manipulate the foibles and fantasies of the asylum's
patients. The results are sometimes surprisingly hilarious and
occasionally intensely frustrating.
"I need it to enhance my conductivity! After
lightning has struck me, then you can have it." Aluman
Edna & Harvey: The Breakout uses a third
person perspective and a point-and-click interface. The game offers four
different verb commands for interaction with characters and with
hotspots: "look at," "pick up," "talk to," and "use." Most of the
challenges involve combining and/or using various inventory items,
though you will confront a few pattern challenges, dialog challenges,
and a fair number of invisible triggers. Trial and error is sometimes
necessary.
There is a lot to see and do, and most uses of
inventory items are logical. But occasionally my progress ground to a
halt. One puzzle solution is so out-of-the-box that reference to a
walkthrough was obligatory. Another pattern/matching sequence is fairly
logical, but has too many unresponsive combinations; I finally solved it
by sheer luck. A couple of times I returned to a scene to find that
something had changed that enabled progress, though I wasn't quite sure
why the change hadn't occurred earlier (I must have tripped an invisible
trigger somewhere).
"Shhh. The player was deeply impressed just
now." Edna
The main strengths of this game are its attention
to detail, the writing, and the voiceovers. Hats off to Jocasta
Gottlieb, who voices Edna, and Jonathan Tilley, who voices Harvey. They
provoked, amused, and surprised me throughout the nearly thirty hours it
took me to complete the game. (When you accompany Edna and Harvey, you
get a lot for your gaming dollar.)
Dialogs contain zany one-liners, absurdist
commentary, puns, and references ranging from pop culture to classic
literature. Breaking the "fourth wall" from time to time, the game
comments on its players as well as its creators. For instance, Edna's
group therapy sessions are composed entirely of game developers.
Remarkably, virtually every interaction in this
game brings a unique response. The translation from the German is
uniformly excellent, even though hundreds (thousands?) of dialogs,
hotspot rejoinders, and jokes had to be rewritten for English language
speakers. The humor overall is more American than British -- though an
occasional British term does surface, including that famous example of
faint praise: "clever clogs."
"Splunge!" The Mustard Bottle
You can affect the gameworld in several ways. Edna
uses a pen to scribble words or pictures throughout the asylum. For part
of the game you can splatter mustard and ketchup, producing a
satisfactory "splunge" sound. Also for a short while you have access to
a dictionary/encyclopedia that will define things for you -- sometimes
even sensibly.
One downside: saving games and loading saved games
takes several seconds. Since you can mark up or "decorate" so many
objects in the gameworld, my guess is that the game has to check the
current condition of all these areas while saving and loading. (It's
worth the long saving process in order to see the results of your
efforts.) There are no loading screens once you begin playing, so the
actual gameplay progression is uninterrupted.
"At last we can make our dream of an ice cream
parlor come true." Harvey
This game plays a lot like an old-fashioned
LucasArts adventure game. Because of its 2D graphics, verb command
interface, large inventory, and substantial length, it is (in some ways)
more reminiscent of the classics than current games designed by
LucasArts alumni.
Edna & Harvey: The Breakout contains two
different endings. I became so invested in Edna and Harvey's story that
the endings had a wrenching quality, though each ending is consistent
and suitable.
Quick List for Edna & Harvey: The Breakout
A wacky cartoon romp through an asylum and
surrounding environs. A satiric exposé of psychologists, stockbrokers,
preachers, philosophers, lovers, and other schemers and fools. Lots of
loony dialog, one-liners and puns.
Third person perspective, point-and-click
interface. Smooth navigation. The space bar shows all hotspots.
Mostly inventory puzzles. Some pattern/sequencing
puzzles. The most difficult puzzles are the security camera room
challenge, the cafeteria "matching" arrangements and the church organ
sequence. No sliders, no mazes, no color based puzzles, one puzzle
involving sound that can be solved by written clues. The laundry
sequence and security gate sequences require quick clicking. You can't
die.
Memorable writing and voiceovers. Lots of character
interaction. The game started me out chuckling, but left me wistful.
Underlying darker themes make this game inappropriate for young
children.
If you take your time and try everything with
everything else, the game can take up to thirty hours to complete. No
problems with installation. One crash to the desktop.
Aimed at gamers who enjoy oddball characters,
inventory challenges, and wordplay. If you harbor feelings of nostalgia
for the classic LucasArts adventure games, this game is for you.
Final Grade: B+
What I played it on:
Dell Studio XPS 8000
Windows 7 Home Premium
Intel Core i5-750 processor
6GB DDR3 SDRAM
1024MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 220
Soundblaster X-Fi
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
March 2011
design copyright©
2011
GameBoomers
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