Fenimore Fillmore: 3 Skulls of the Toltecs

Misfire. I salute the idea but it is poorly executed. Right off bat the game is showing us tons of rough storyboard art and giving us a behind-the-scenes feel while subjecting us to a long credits sequence. I know you guys are proud you made a game but I don’t like you in that way. Maybe woo me and show me something good before you start giving me a sneak peek at how the magic is made. Credits-first isn’t helping the game feel cinematic. The intro makes it seem like a bunch of teenagers made this game. The game itself - funny and charming I think… didn’t make it far because it’s poorly laid out. The original run of point-and-click adventures had a great flow and clever design to subtly guide the player to action and satisfaction. This game plays out like… OK I don’t know what to do. I guess I have to try every clicking every option with every object until something happens. To add to that frustration the main character will just say “no” to lots of things you click on. There’s a window in a barn. I’m like let’s open this window and he’s like “I’d better not” or something. Not very satisfying. Went to big town. It didn’t seem very big at all. Kept leaving and coming back like there must be more here but I tried everything. Turns out a blank piece of sky in the background must be clicked on to go to another part of the town. I don’t want to hover my mouse over random parts of the background hoping that maybe it’ll lead to the next area. At least not right off rip. To get to one of the first areas, the monastery, you have to ride a donkey up a long path while it makes some super wonky sound effects. It takes a long time. But here’s the thing: watching that donkey slowly and jankily make its way up while the camera pans IS in the spirit of those older games. It has the right vibe. While it has the right vibe, it’s deployed too quickly. We never found the 7 dollars that the French soldier at the monastery wanted. But we sure spent a lot of time watching that donkey walk up and down the path when we kept going back to see if we missed something. To me it seemed more like a “try every possible combination” style game than “have fun navigating scenarios” style game. Quickly advancing the story and allowing a few things to get done right away would have taken me in. I see charm somewhere in there. After a long intro and credit sequence that seemed a little too comfortable with our friendship, followed by a play style of randomly-click-until-something-happens. I don’t think I’ll ever be motivated to find that Frenchman’s seven bucks.