Things That Go Bump In The Night | Wayward Manor Review

<p>One of the biggest themes in the video game industry is death&period; The vast majority of titles produced across the last 30 years  require the player to kill at least one living being before they can be completed&period; What is far less common is for games to explore what happens after death&period; This is the main idea behind <em>Wayward Manor&comma;<&sol;em> which places the player in control of a suffering ghost&comma; for all is not well in the land beyond the living&period; The unnamed ghost had been happily haunting an old forgotten mansion until the arrival of the insufferable Budd family&period; Annoyed by their mere presence and angered by their treatment of the house&comma; the ghost sets out to scare off these unwelcome intruders&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This adventure takes the form of an interactive point and click title that centres around solving puzzles&period; Developer The Odd Gentlemen are no strangers to puzzle games having also created the award winning The Misadventures of P&period; B&period; Winterbottom&period; The game contains 5 chapters&comma; each of which focuses on a different area of Wayward Manor and is split into a number of levels&period; The objective of each level is to fill up the fright meter&period; This is done by scaring the house&&num;8217&semi;s various inhabitants and making them jump&period; Each time the player manages to frighten someone&comma; they will be rewarded with a scare&comma; which is represented on the fright meter by a skull symbol&period; Generating 6 scares will fill up the meter  and allow the player to progress through the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;64242" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-64242" style&equals;"width&colon; 750px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05085006&sol;wayward-manor-4&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-64242 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05085006&sol;wayward-manor-4-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"wayward manor 4" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"421" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-64242" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Wayward Manor is played from an isometric viewpoint with each level taking place in a different room of the house&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The puzzle solving elements come from trying to work out how to get these scares&period; As a ghost&comma; the player can interact with any object in the level that glows green with ectoplasm&period; A simple click is all that is required to activate the object&period; At first&comma; the scares are quite easy to get&period; Dropping a bottle onto a character&&num;8217&semi;s head or making a mouse run across their path is all that is needed&period; As you move on to the later levels&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll come across characters who are much harder to frighten&period; For example&comma; two of the characters who live in Wayward Manor are a set of twins who cannot be scared whilst they are in each other&&num;8217&semi;s presence&period; Players will have to find a way to split them if they are to fill up the fright meter&period; <em>Wayward Manor<&sol;em> has quite a well balanced learning curve although seasoned puzzle game players may find the game to be too easy&period; Nethertheless&comma; it will still take both intelligence and timing to complete the game&&num;8217&semi;s later stages&period; For anyone that does get stuck&comma; each level contains some helpful animals that will offer hints and tips if clicked upon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game&&num;8217&semi;s biggest flaw is its simplicity&period; Whilst this does help to make the game accessible&comma; the shallow gameplay also means that <em>Wayward Manor<&sol;em> can start to feel repetitive after a while&period; The game&&num;8217&semi;s puzzles are neither intricate enough nor satisfying enough to truly grab the player&&num;8217&semi;s attention&period; Thankfully there is some extra depth to be found in the secret scares&period; In each level there are three hidden objectives&comma; which require thought and careful planning to achieve&period; Finding all three of them is much harder than simply completing the level&period; The secret scare system is one of the best parts of <em>Wayward Manor<&sol;em> as it adds some much needed challenge and replayabillity&period; It is a shame therefore that the game does not keep a record of which secret scares you have found and which you have not&period; This feature would have been a much welcome addition for those players who wish to complete the game 100&percnt;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;64239" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-64239" style&equals;"width&colon; 750px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05085033&sol;wayward-manor&period;jpeg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-64239 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05085033&sol;wayward-manor&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"wayward manor" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"499" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-64239" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Each of the game&&num;8217&semi;s characters have their own unique quirks&period; Son Hubert loves to blow up objects with dynamite whilst grandfather Theophilus will shoot anything that moves&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In terms of presentation&comma; the best part of the game is its characters&comma; which are well designed and full of personality&period; Whilst <em>Wayward Manor<&sol;em> is by no means a graphically impressive game&comma; it is nice to look at thanks to an art style that is part Luigi&&num;8217&semi;s Mansion and part Coraline&period; Comparisons to the 2009 stop motion film should not come as a surprise&period; To create the story for <em>Wayward Manor<&sol;em>&comma; The Odd Gentlemen teamed up with Neil Gaiman&comma; a Hugo award and Carnegie medal owner&comma; whose book Coraline was based on&period; As well penning the game&&num;8217&semi;s story&comma; Gaiman also provides the the voice for the manor itself&comma; which acts as the narrator during the cutscenes&period; Fans of his past work will be disappointed to discover that the story of <em>Wayward Manor<&sol;em> is actually quite  bland&comma; although there are a couple of interesting plot points&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; The Odd Gentlemen have produced a good point and click adventure&comma; but not a great one&period; <em>Wayward Manor<&sol;em> is built up on some very solid foundations and the core game mechanic works well&comma; while the game&&num;8217&semi;s aesthetics compliment each other wonderfully&period; However&comma; behind this spooky exterior lurks an interior of simple puzzles and dull design&period; The best puzzle games surprise players with their inventiveness and keeps them hooked with new mechanics and ideas&colon; <em>Wayward Manor<&sol;em> fails to provide this&period; It is a game that feels more like a boredom killing mobile app than an addictive puzzle adventure&period; Neil Gaiman fans may get more enjoyment than most from a trip to Wayward Manor but for everyone else&comma; there are  better  properties on the market&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;