Strangeland

The Good
The immediate thing that draws you to this adventure game is the art and graphics that make it up. The background and objects are a lot like H. R. Giger's style that can be seen in Dark Seed and the sprites have a likeness to the style in I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. The music is eerie and is slightly reminiscent of Xorcist who composed music for Bad Mojo.

The game has a nice mixture of fairly simple and cryptic puzzles, but there's a decent amount of hints from a few characters to get you going. The amount of flavour text is interesting enough to go through. What's different in this particular adventure in the game is that its mandatory to die to solve a few puzzles, but thankfully you'll never find a dead end anywhere.

The Bad
Astounding as it is, this game is a bit weak in the replayability sector as the puzzles do not change with every gameplay, nor are there different paths to choose from, though those expectations are pretty excessive for a game that sacrifices length for absolute quality. One bothering issue is the item selection with the mouse roller which isn't as quick as selecting an item from a window like a Sierra title, which poses a problem when you need to be quick against the darkness, but otherwise doesn't really ruin the gameplay, since dying is to be expected anyway.

The Bottom Line
Adventure games have come in many different types and flavours, but perhaps you haven't seen one quite like this one in a while. If you wish to relive the psychological horrors and weirdness of the 90s, this title will really catch you, especially if you're a fan of adventure games made by Cyberdreams. Wadjet Eye Games has really given us something to play and remember.