What is it about point-and-click adventure video games that draw me in? I feel like it isn't even a conscious decision either. While putzing on my computer early last week, I decided to install Phantasmagoria from GOG, not thinking that I wanted to play a point-and-click game, just that I have had Phantasmagoria in my queue for I don't know how long, and thought it might be a nice game to pull up while Conklederp is playing Animal Crossing.
[Really quickly, and just to get the definition of point-and-click out of the way (because we don't want to assume that everyone knows everything about every genre because I know I sure as hell don't) refers to a storytelling based game where you would typically point a mouse cursor at an object on the screen, and click on it to interact with that object in order to solve puzzles and progress into additional areas and progress the story. Or you can just read the definition over on Wikipedia.]
Why I even bring this up, is that I was looking at the last couple of games I have played on the Switch, along with one of the games that I am currently playing (Goetia) and thought, "Wow, I sure do play a lot of point-and-click adventure games." Not that that is a bad thing. I do frequently love the stories that are told in these games, even if the puzzles often trip me up or I tend to overthink solutions to rather simple puzzles. And this is where my own mental strain comes in.
I love solving puzzles. Along with some of our friends, Conklederp and I love doing escape rooms, which essentially are point-and-click puzzle games set in the real world. Finding an item in one location, deducing what it could be used for, and discovering that it is used to solve a puzzle on the other side of the room is a pretty cool rush. My favorite puzzle had something to do with finding an object that would "speak" to you giving you information, realizing that there were multiples of this type of object and that there was a picture of these objects on the other side of a room in a particular order next to a telephone and when you dialed the phone number based on the order of the objects in the picture using the number you had already received from the objects in the picture, you got another clue. That, to Conklederp and our friend group, is fun. And when we have to wait for our favorite escape room company to develop and playtest new escape rooms, we would frequently (in the Before Times) play Mansions of Madness which has escape room elements. Which is what we did last weekend, but virtually, because we are not dumb asses who think we can or should skirt social distancing guidelines (idiots).
The thing about this genre of video game is that I find them mentally exhausting and easily overwhelmed. Once multiple areas start opening up, items start clogging inventory space and there is more than one puzzle to solve, my brain begins to kick into overdrive. I try to keep track of each location, how it relates to the previous and subsequent location, all of the interactables in those locations if there are any puzzles in those rooms, all of the items in my inventory, and then wondering if I am clever enough to realize that this item in Room A goes with the puzzle in Room D. For instance, in Phantasmagoria, I am 90% sure that in order to explore the dark basement, I need to find either a lantern or a candle because I found a book of matches earlier and that makes sense to me, but I have searched a lot of the house, the grounds outside, and am in the process of exploring the nearby village of Nipawomsett, still thinking that I need a lantern or candle. Maybe the matches are not even used in this puzzle, and instead are supposed to direct me to the bar that the book cover is advertising? Maybe you use just the matches and risk burning your fingers only to have the match go out right as a shadowy figure crawls out on all fours from underneath the stairs, bones cracking as it rises to its full height, towering over your soft mortal frame of flesh and bone.
I like to keep my video game genres varied. If I am playing a survival horror game, I might combine that with something less intense like INK or The Legend of Zelda. And when I finish a game in one genre, I will typically try to pivot to a different genre, and while this has been predominantly true, four of the last six games I have played and written about have been point-and-click adventure games [The Office Quest, Old Man's Journey, Apocalipsis: Wormwood Edition (Harry at the End of the World, & One Night in the Woods)], although I did play INK, and Mother Russia Bleeds between some of those so they are the opposite of point-and-click.
Just something that I was musing about while trying to figure out how to determine what it is in my inventory that is small and thin enough to scrape away the mortar between bricks so that I can access the bricked up church located behind the fireplace. You know.
~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian
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