The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3 - Know Thy Enemy

The Good
At the beginning of this episode, a death worms is falling from the sky and seem like it could pose a threat to mankind. That is an interesting premise, one which is nicely exploited in the first couple of screens.

You play as two characters, Reemus and his beer Liam, and most puzzles require combined actions of the two, a bit like in "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis". It laudable how the game designer managed to infuse so much personality (even if stereotypical) into his two main protagonists in such a short game.

Most puzzles and well thought of, and reasonably original. Also, the game has two endings, and the branching happens early in the game, so there is additional game time for those who not only want to "win" the game, but also "beat" it to its fullest. And for the most compulsive completists, three achievements are awaiting to be gathered by devising alternative solutions to puzzles. (although I must confess, I could only beat one branch of the game and did not get any medal - shame on me)

Another big asset of the game is his cartoon graphics, which are efficient and simple, but not simplistic.

The Bad
Well, while the graphics are nice, the animation is minimal. Also, the background music gets quickly repetitive and is not always looped right (with a noticeable click when the sample is played again). Really minor quibbles, though.

Slightly more irritating is the way some actions can only be made by one of the characters, for no obvious reason. The other will simply tell you that he will not do it. Another mild disappointment, is that after the first couple of screens, the game makes no use whatsoever of the premise. So there is no actual plot advancement. Ultimately, solving all the nice little puzzles will only serve to get from point A to point B.

And finally, this chapter is really short, as it takes only 20 minutes to complete it, although it'd be unfair to hold that against a free flash game.

The Bottom Line
Chapter 3 of "The several Journeys of Reemus" is a short but clever adventure game, with (mostly) well-designed puzzles and funny characters. The premise is interesting, although the length of this episode is too short to fully exploit it. Ultimately, 20 minutes well spent, and maybe an hour worth of gameplay for the completists.