I believe when I picked this game up, I was a bit deceived. The trailer and even the opening of the game hints at a nice dark tale that might just be more about surviving and a touch of horror. This... is simply untrue. Rather you are about to play a much more standard-fair fairytale about a little girl in a magic kingdom. Yes, that is very oversimplified look, but as a quick recap, it's still pretty accurate... and yet, I can't say I'm sorry I gave this game a try. Come on in and see for yourself.
Story: Anna is a little girl growing up on a farm, innocent and hidden away form the world. Her grandfather has made sure they can not reach and harm her, at least for as long as he could. Like any child, she was curious about what she wasn't allowed near, but she was a good girl and was obedient to her loving grandfather.
That is, of course until the day he went out to town to trade for what they needed and something was wrong when he got back. He was sick, and it quickly became very serious, leaving him bed-ridden and in need of care. And that need sent the young girl out into the world for the first time...
But that is not where our story really begins... for we begin when Anna has already encountered one of those dangers and is the prisoner a witch who was just waiting to capture here and is now the subject of her rather strange expairiments. What is she trying to do? What does Anna have to do with it? And most importantly, how can Anna get out and help her grandfather before it's too late? This is the adventure Anna is about to begin. The path is perilous, but she will not be alone for allies as well as enemies can come from strange places and in even stranger forms... like.. a teddy bear?
The story will unfold in a series of six parts, each focused on a specific location and goal which will move the story along. It actually has some pretty good twists that it would be a shame to spoil and the characters that fill it are very well written. And Anna herself will leave her own impression as someone who is simply too pure for the world she finds herself traversing while much less well intending forces swarm around her. It's even going to throw some really good twists at you before it's over, especially when you consider at it's core, it's a simple story about a girl trying to save her grandfather.
8/10
Graphics: There was a time when a review saying a game looks like a Saturday morning cartoon would have been high praise and a little bit of exaggeration. This was due to the limits of both power and space, but without those limits today, we do see this as a design choice from time to time. This is definitely one of those games.
Everything in this game is hand drawn like you might expect a modern cartoon to be (thankfully NOT Cal-Arts), adding the fairy tale aspect to the game brilliantly while letting every character be incredibly expressive, from the caring Anna to the cold and calculated witch and everything in between. And the grounds you will see varies just as much, starting with a modern-looking girl's room complete with stuffed animals and pastel colors everywhere to the gloomy tower it resides in to forests and even a fully guarded castle. You will never get bored with the look or where they take you using it to it's absolute max.
7/10
Sound: The music of this game is going to stand out a bit more then most game music these days. True, like most of them we now have full instrumental work and relying on classical strings and intense tension filled tracks when things get dangerous, but this is really not the main theme the game is going to rely on. Rather, it seems to lean much heavier into piano work, using it for an almost melancholy effect as often as not. It's going to be the kind of thing you will have to make yourself pay attention to in the middle of the game if you want it to stick, but it is used brilliantly to enhance the moments that show exactly why Anna is driven to do what she is trying to do. It is well-made overall and there is nothing here to complain about.
Sound effects, on the other hand, are a lot more ordinary. You are playing a point and click game where most of the time sound effects rely on you to do something such as a generic sound to combine items or to go with the animation of the action you choose. There is little outside of these realms, letting the star of the show be the voice acting.
And that is a pretty good star, I have to admit. Everyone just oozes character to who they are, from the wicked witch who's doing a balancing act between trying to be patient and calm but ready to snap at a moment's notice to the innocent as the day she was born Anna... and that was the vibe this entire game gave. Everything happening to her and her reactions just screamed to me how she was way too innocent to survive in this world... giving a little extra motivation to you as the player to insist she does.
7/10
Gameplay: As a point and click title, that is exactly what you will be doing while playing this game. You will control Anna in her world exclusively with the mouse, pointing where you want her to go or at what you want her to interact with and clicking to move her there or work with the item. You will do this to solve the puzzles put before you in order to progress the story and the game in total. These puzzles are usually environmental and require you to figure out how to interact with characters and items to accomplish your current goals, or even sometimes who to talk to in order to find out what that goal is. It's a fairly relaxed style of game an one made popular on PCs in the early 90s as Windows based PCs in homes made the assumption of a mouse available to play these kinds of games all but assured.
And if you played one of these games back then you will feel right at home as the interface is just about exactly what you might have expected back then. I have to say just about because the game takes advantage of the fact that any modern mouse will have a mouse wheel, something that you simply would not have been able to assume back then. As such, we no longer have a need for an inventory or options icon cluttering up the view since it can all be accessed with the flick of this wheel. Adding to this clean and simple interface is the cursor itself which whenever you float it over something yo are allowed, making for a clean and direct action to do anything in the game. In fact the only action that involves more then at most spinning the wheel and clicking what you want to work with is if you want to use Anna's telekinetic abilities granted very early in the game thanks to the witch. This has it's own "brain" icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.
But if you've played point and click adventure games in the past at all, you know of the two major weaknesses that tend to carry across the genre: pixel hunting and moon logic. It is entirely common, especially in games that do not use 3D graphics like this one to have to scour the screen from time to time for that one object you never expected to be able or have to click and then to use it in ways no sane human being would ever think to. These are things this game avoids brilliantly with the only button you will want to use on your keyboard as you play: the space bar. Whenever this button is pressed, the game will place circles on anything you can interact with and arrows on exits to other places, so if you ever feel like you are missing something (or just want to see everything) it's easy to assure you are all set.
As for moon-logic, there is no User Interface control that will ever fix this, but Anna's Quest is thankfully written to make sense and while you might wonder what a solution is for a while, nothing is so bizarre that you are starting to ask more what the mindset of the author was then what you can try that will make sense. In addition, lines from Anna will often let you know if you are on the right track, making for a nice design in general! In fact there are only two places where you will ever be flailing with a puzzle without much explanation in the entire game and that's due to the puzzle being around conversation. In both cases, you can say any and every option available to you, and in fact may need to multiple times on lines before you get the reaction you need. You will far more likely stick here then anywhere else in the game and with good reason considering how well made the rest of it is.
7/10
Bugs: This game ran absolutely amazing with only a few minor issues at all, mostly around the mouse cursor and all around conversations.
- Mouse goes CRAZY: Every once in a while when a conversation between characters completed, the mouse would spaz out on the screen before settling where you clicked to select the response you had selected. This would be over after just long enough to see it and never long enough to even get in the way of mouse movement, let alone effecting gameplay, so this is an incredibly minor issue.
- Icons? Even more rare the mouse would sometimes be stuck in the "chat mode" after exiting the conversation. This doesn't effect gameplay and you can still click to use/talk or look at anything, but the icons describing these icons just don't appear.
- That chat is a little fast... And the last issue seems to be more towards the end of the game, but also a lot more common. There are a number of voiced lines where the person cutting them for the game seem to have done so a bit closer then is natural. Nothing gets cut off, but there are many lines, especially towards the end of the game where the natural pause you might expect is just not there.
Score: Anna's Quest is the definition of a solid point and click adventure game. The story makes sense. The game runs without any real issues. The puzzles make sense and the game is even crafted to hint that you are on the right track when your idea is close but not quite right. All this combines to make for a very smooth experience. But it is not an exciting one. Rather this is the kind of game you can kick back and relax while you play. It's solid, and if you like this kind of game, you will enjoy yourself with something crafted much better then you normally get.
7/10
System Requirements:
- 2 Ghz Dual Core processor
- 2 GB RAM
- NVIDIA Geforce 205/AMD Radeon HD 3400 series
- 1.4 GB hard drive space
- Windows 7, 8, or 10
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
Source: GOG.com
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