You may have heard of a mini-game releasing on Switch this month – a point-and-click graphic adventure with Voodoo mysticism, set in the Caribbean and with music by Peter McConnell, composer on Monkey Island 2? That’s right! Its Detective VoodooMysterious, mysterious debut from Short Sleeve Studio, hot in the footsteps of avid fans Back to Monkey Island. In terms of timing, this Switch release is like you’re going to a fancy dress party with rubber gloves on your head and yogurt jar on your nose, only to meet Mel Gibson wearing a rooster suit from Chicken Run.
However, after taking advantage of that particular monkey in the room for a trailer, we can confess that Detective Voodoo is very much its own – not simply a voodoo graphic adventure Funny Caribbean that your grandparents bought you the wrong thing. The setting is Zo Wanga Island, an island increasingly overrun by tourists thanks to the growing commercial activities of a corrupt conglomerate, Island Ventures. Indigenous Zowangs like Detective Voodoo (that’s his name – competing for due diligence with his brother Donut Hole Billy) are pinched by real estate development and profit-digging trades, earning money from the local climate and culture.
Short Sleeve’s game is a detective noir story with all the classic components. Voodoo is a private detective, a nice guy for his good fortune and helpless by code of ethics in a corrupt world. He’s smarter than the world but doesn’t do too much for it. Then, during the actress’ walk, Mary, a woman looking for help but quickly reminds you that she’s your boss, doesn’t push even though she’s suffering from amnesia. and very little chance of continuing. The only noir story component that isn’t necessary here is the “noir” part, which is – as any screenshot will show you – decisively clair.
Highlights are not only full of vivid colors, but are also exceptionally transparent when it comes to showing what’s in the world for you to interact with and explore. This is, of course, a good thing in some respects – no need to glance at the screen to wonder how fuzzy or overly stylized shapes are supposed to be – but it also feels extreme. grave. Everything is displayed so literally and openly that there is nothing left to imagine. There’s no mystery, no half-baked plot, no depth from the alluring surrounds to the bustling background – everything is just on screen so you can see it at first glance. This openness is reflected in the overall tone of the game, and without some shadows or a slight edge, it feels like the humor struggles to really bite. When it can be done with daring – small talk with a bored, rich wife interested in get acquainted Mr. Detective, for example – things feel too narrow to make some fun out of it.
That said, Detective Voodoo definitely isn’t would like too serious. It opens with fourth-wall-breaking surrealism establishing its license for the inherent silence of point-and-click adventures, like picking up large items at random or performing actions. ruthless action to solve petty problems. There’s an instant classic joke made from the “you can’t use that with that” line in the beginning of the game. The plot then moves steadily to absurd places and never gets bogged down in itself.
However, humor does not quite find its rhythm and is not supported by a visual novel-style head-speaker approach to displaying dialogue, which effectively puts the world on hold. stagnation – including characters – to refer to one face on the screen at a time. These spot animations are beautiful, but in reality, the characters’ charisma and chemistry have to work against the alternate approach.
In keeping with this very careful presentation, Detective Voodoo’s treatment of demons is less dull than in the Monkey Island series. It introduces concepts and language as part of religious customs and opens with a screen of light text that justifies their acceptance for the purpose of telling a humorous story. It’s a great idea, even if the game still largely turns it into a book of spells and love potions. Unless Voodoo is a religion based on fetch quests, we’re not culturally enlightened, but this rather serious framework contributes brilliantly to world building.
Speaking of quest fetching, the puzzle design in Voodoo Detective has some weak points. The occasional highlights of manipulating items, environments, and NPCs in synergies to make progress (a neat series of interactions with the captain of the ship that stuck with us) more the number of times you need to go back and forth between screens to select a new item . What’s worse, however, is that items are sometimes obtained through dialogue options that are only available when the item is needed. A thoroughly scanned environment must therefore be retested, so you can’t be sure which avenues you’ve exhausted in narrowing down solutions when you get stuck.
Although we had some difficulty with the quizzes, the user interface is very simple. The model is a no-frills joystick cursor movement setup with a single action button. The action bar and any face buttons work, including the D-pad, so you can play with a single Joy-Con with one hand without having to change any settings. To boot, there’s touchscreen support – that awesome Switch bonus in games that also release on mobile. If we had to grumble, moving the cursor to open your inventory instead of using a dedicated button is a tagline. It’s another hitch for the game to figure out the rhythm, so we just let ourselves into the comforts of Zo Wonga Island – or use our fingers on the screen.
In the end, it’s the vibe that will have to win you over if Detective Voodoo is worth your time and money. The graphics are consistent and clear, the voice acting is strong if a little rough, and McConnell’s music has a sort of calypso/smooth-jazz sense of humor that isn’t stale.
Inference
Voodoo Detective is a gripping old-school point-and-click adventure with a fun, pulpy story and some good laughs. The text and its vividly descriptive art style are approachable and low-stress, if succinctly captivating and unexpected. Meanwhile, fun music and memorable vocals. While the puzzles can be complicated, the story moves steadily enough and after about five hours it doesn’t ask for too much. This is a steady release for Short Sleeve Studio, and while it doesn’t turn everyone’s head from the party, it’s a good laugh if you try to figure it out.
