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Episode 62 - The Drifter
0 Playsin 5 hours
Deep down under, Roses and Matt cast off their possessions and hop a freight train car into a world of HIGH OCTANE EXCITEMENT and POINT AND CLICK PUZZLES. We're talking about the Drifter. And we played a couple of other very good games. Lot of hyped-up energy this episode!
Email us! mattandroses@gmail.com
Games Mentioned:
- The Beekeeper's Picnic: A Sherlockian Adventure
- Öoo
- Bomberman
- The Drifter
- Sanitarium
- Return of the Obra Dinn
- Myst
Recommended
Transcript
Raisin Reflections
00:00:00
Speaker
If you were to ask me to list even my top, say, 300 favorite foods, I wouldn't put this on that list. Like, I wouldn't even think to. Okay. But I realized today that when you chomp into a handful of raisins, ah huh holy cow, is it a great experience.
00:00:22
Speaker
It's not, though. here's the thing. They're sweet. with just a little bit of tart, and they're chewy. Ew. And so raisins, man.
00:00:34
Speaker
Okay, because there's nothing more and disappointing than you get a cookie, and you're like, ooh, can't wait to get to that chocolate chip. Mm, a chocolate chip. Here it comes in my mouth. Oh, it's a raisin. and Yeah, if you put raisins in my carrot cake, I will throw a fit.
00:00:51
Speaker
But when you know a raisin is coming, and you throw it in there, and you're just chomping, Fuck, it's a good food.
00:00:59
Speaker
Do you, well, do you have a food that you're like, this isn't one that leaps to mind? This isn't one that leaps to mind when I think of foods, but actually when I eat it, God damn it.
00:01:14
Speaker
Um, yeah, maybe. i mean, I don't have a top 300 foods. Well, i'm saying if somebody was like, okay, if somebody locked you in a torture table, if a saw, if saw grabbed you and threw you in a pit and was like, you have to list your top 300 foods or eat your best friend's head.
00:01:36
Speaker
i You get to number 72 and you're like, my best friend's head. Fuck. Yeah.
00:02:01
Speaker
everyone.
Hosts' Dynamics and Binge-Watching
00:02:02
Speaker
Welcome back to Save Your Game. I am one of your hosts, Pushing Up Roses. As you note, I did not say co-host this time because I thought about it and I thought, we are equal-powered hosts on this show.
00:02:14
Speaker
The other host, of course, being Matt Aukamp. Hey, We're equal-powered. We're equally-powered. Which means neutral, which means there's no power in this show. There's no power.
00:02:28
Speaker
yeah. But we do have the power to convince the people to play adventure games. Yeah. I mean, I'm plus i'm positive you're negative. or some Well, we we can switch. dare you? You know, I don't want it to sound like ah and don't want it to sound like a... Oh, another spooky woman with tattoos is negative, huh? I don't want it to sound... I was trying to reference electricity.
00:02:54
Speaker
were you? That's shocking.
00:02:58
Speaker
This why I'm popular on the internet. Matt?
00:03:06
Speaker
So how how are you doing today? Pushing up roses. I'm doing swell. I can't wait to talk about the games, plural, that we have played for this episode. What? We played plural games? Hey. Plural. I played a game this week.
00:03:24
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. Speaking of, have been playing this week? So, besides the game that I binged, well, it's in the title, I can say it.
00:03:35
Speaker
We were talking about The Drifter. I binged that game and won. It's one of those games where I had to know what happened, you know? So I took like seven hours and just played it. Oh, what a mistake.
00:03:47
Speaker
Yeah. I don't recommend doing that. That's how you do, though. That seems to be like... That's what I do, yeah. yeah i I have to know. I have to know right now. And if any game is... If there's any game where you have to know, it is this it is this game. And I started playing it at like 7.30. Yeah, it was at at night, so it's not good.
00:04:10
Speaker
But if you were to have played, say, the polar opposite of the Drifter...
Exploring Beekeeper's Picnic
00:04:16
Speaker
What do you, what, it just off the top of your head, what game do you think that would be? I think 100% that would be the Beekeeper's Picnic, a Sherlockian mystery game.
00:04:27
Speaker
A Sherlockian mystery game. That was called, I don't know if I got it right or not. I'm pretty sure it says Sherlockian in it. Bee. I thought you were making a joke because one of the games on our greatest adventure games of all time is called A Sherlockian. It's so something Baker Street Breakouts, A Sherlockian Escape Adventure is the one on our list.
00:04:47
Speaker
Yeah, it the Beekeeper's Picnic is hyphen A Sherlockian Adventure. So I guess maybe this is just a thing people do now. I think it's a genre. Yeah, it's ah a genre. When you have Sherlock Holmes in your game, you call it A Sherlockian Adventure.
00:05:01
Speaker
Not the greatest name ever, but that's fine. But yeah, I played that today, actually. yeah Upon several people's recommendation. It is the cutest, the cutest little point and click that you've ever seen.
00:05:17
Speaker
It is not difficult, which you know what? Sometimes I want that, especially after playing something like very intense, uh, like the drifter. I'm not saying the drifter was ah was an insanely difficult game, but you have to be very observant.
00:05:30
Speaker
Um, I'd say beekeepers picnic is very casual. It's not a walking simulator, but it is, it feels casual. feels like what a nice day this is. And what a, what a good friend I have in Dr. Watson as Sherlock Holmes. And, And he's such a good friend that after I retire, I'm going to throw him a picnic.
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah. that's the whole That's the premise, right? And I do think there is some ah some truth to that. I think that in one of the final Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, Sherlock does become a beekeeper. Yeah.
00:06:11
Speaker
and I didn't know that. Yeah, and I think Ian McKellen, who played one of the iterations of Sherlock Holmes, that that was also a beekeeper thing. So it's in line. It's not just like random, like, ha ha, what if Sherlock Holmes is a beekeeper? absurdist.
00:06:24
Speaker
um It is slightly based on something. Something canon. I think Helen Greetham, the writer and artist, like the overall developer of this game, and she seems to really know her Sherlock Holmes shit.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yes. Like there's some there's ah some really deep lore woven into this game as well as like she nails his voice perfectly.
00:06:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's great it's great. The voice acting is really good. we had John Walker on a couple weeks ago and he he recommended this game and he was like, it sounds very twee.
00:07:02
Speaker
yeah But it's not. And the truth is, it's very twee. Okay. I agree. I think it's great, but it is very twee.
00:07:14
Speaker
I think it's twee, but also more than twee. Does that make sense? Huh. Yeah, mean, that's not all. It's very earnest. That's not all it is. Yes. Yeah, yeah. It's a very earnest game. And...
00:07:28
Speaker
I already explained kind of the premise, but um you're playing Sherlock Holmes. You are retiring. You are ah beekeeper now in the countryside of England.
00:07:39
Speaker
And that's your new thing. That's what you want to do for the rest of your life. And... Watson doesn't go that way. ah you kind of You kind of break paths and you don't see Watson for a while until he comes to visit you after some wartime um and he wants to rest. And so he stays with you and you're and you're all excited because that's your mate and you want to do something for him.
00:08:01
Speaker
So you prepare a picnic. However, you can't just prepare. You can't listen to me. You can't do anything in an adventure game until you do something else. Until you solve everyone's problems, then you can do your thingy.
00:08:16
Speaker
I hate to contradict you, Roses. Yes. You can invite John Watson on a picnic pretty much immediately.
00:08:27
Speaker
What? Did you know this? No. Okay. You can... Why would I do that? Immediately at the beginning of the game, you can invite Watson on a picnic and... yeah We'll get into this in a second, but it it ruins the whole point of the picnic. You kind of get there and he's like, why did you bring me here? There's nothing. There's here. I know. Yeah.
00:08:52
Speaker
There's no food. There's no ah there's nothing to drink. Let's go to the pub instead. And then sure and again, we'll talk about this in a minute. But like Sherlock Holmes is like, damn it. I didn't know that.
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, you even get ah ah an achievement for it. I might go back and do that, honestly. it's it's It's super, you know, this game has a lot of ah
00:09:16
Speaker
this game has a lot of things where you can you can make choices like that. Sure, sure. Yeah, there's a lot of, obviously I only played it once, so I don't know like the extent of the choices, but I could tell with some of the dialogue options that, yeah, you can definitely make some choices.
00:09:36
Speaker
you the The paths don't really branch too much. but So you can solve a couple puzzles in different ways. um Okay. But it's basically the same.
00:09:46
Speaker
In truth, it's the same way. It's just what flavor do you want? Yeah, gotcha. So, for example, there's a point where you need somebody to distract someone. Okay. You need to get a distraction. Who did you pick to be the person who distracts?
00:10:05
Speaker
ah Sanjay. And he was so excited about it. Yes. That's exactly why I did it. I'm like, oh, this kid's going to love me forever.
00:10:15
Speaker
Sanjay is a character. He's a little kid that just adores Sherlock. He's like read all the books. and but It's funny. You find him ah just when you find. Yeah, you find him, quote, dead. And he's like faked his own murder. And, you you know, you're examining him. and He's like, he's still breathing.
00:10:35
Speaker
You wake him up and he's like, OK, who did it? Right. And you kind of down a little bit. You break his little heart. Break his little heart. He's upset. So now you have a puzzle where you can't get the drink you need for the picnic, which is sold by Sanjay's mother until Sanjay is happy. She's pissed. Thankfully. why you know Why did you do that?
00:10:58
Speaker
Thankfully, this is this is something that I think is so funny, is that you you have to solve several puzzles that all relate to one ah illegal taxidermy ring that has happened in this taxidermy black market that has happened to infiltrate the town in several ways. Yeah. You have to, you have to basically break this thing wide open to solve a couple puzzles.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah. Very, very funny. To get to a picnic, a good picnic. Uh, one of the, Other mysteries you have to solve, you have to find somebody's missing father. You don't even know that that's a mystery you're solving. Right. That's just so sweet.
00:11:37
Speaker
But she is the person I chose to distract because she was, I think, my favorite character. good call. I didn't – I don't know. i didn't I guess I didn't think about it too much because I was – I guess because that mystery was entwined with with Sanjay, with the character.
00:11:55
Speaker
i thought that's who you had to choose. I'm going to go back and see if there's other, just to get new dialogue trees, just to see. I know they're probably going to be solved the same way. Yeah, exactly. But I do want to know. Yeah, there's different dialogues and it's funny. Also, there's a point where you have to disguise yourself.
00:12:12
Speaker
Yes. you can pick two different people to be. You can? Mm-hmm. Were you a woman or a man? ah woman. Me too, because I thought that's what you had to be. well say And then I remembered, I'm trying not to give stuff away, but I remembered that you can ask somebody for a man's disguise or a woman's disguise. So i went I loaded a game and I went back and I asked for a man's disguise.
00:12:38
Speaker
And it's very the person who you are is very funny. And in a dialogue option, you can play a prank on that person. That's so funny. Because it is a person who is in the game that you... Of course. Yeah, of course.
00:12:52
Speaker
Oh, I love it. very it's very fun it's very cozy it's it's there's no murder mystery in this so these are all like you know there's an illegal taxidermy ring going on and uh someone's pet is missing and yeah ah these are not you know this is not hard news this is like oh what a cute little town let's solve some mysteries and let's deceive somebody to get a a picnic basket because apparently we can't make our own. So we got to get one.
00:13:25
Speaker
I love how the game looks. It's really beautiful. It's got one of those muted palettes like, um, Hobbs Barrow. Hobbs Barrow did. Yes. It's earthy. Yeah.
00:13:38
Speaker
You know why? i think because those earthy tones, Hobbs Barrow was also kind of set in the countryside. I wonder if just those earthy tones really connect with like countryside England, you know, countryside UK.
00:13:51
Speaker
Yeah. You see sort of white cliffs. I wonder, you know, everybody's heard of the white cliffs of Dover. I wonder if it's supposed to take place in a similar area.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah. It's giving me vibes. I don't know if you've played these games, Matt, um but I did a few videos on them. They're games from my childhood and they're called the Eagle Eye Mysteries. And they were ah mystery games for kids by EA Kids. ah EA had a children's division once upon a time called EA Kids.
00:14:21
Speaker
And those were where those games are from. One of them is Eagle Eye Mysteries in London. It became one of my favorite games just ever as a kid. And it's kind of giving me those vibes. Like there's never a murder.
00:14:34
Speaker
You know, you're deducing things um and they're very simple, but they're fun. And yeah, it it gave me I'm not saying that the same game by like any means. Of course. not The vibe is very similar. Well, remember we played a demo earlier.
00:14:51
Speaker
um called what was It was called like Little Problems or something. yeah Little Problems, a cozy detective game, which is very similar. It's like you play a girl who's solving like where her homework went or who drank the last of the milk. That game's supposed to come out sometime this year, but I haven't heard any updates on it.
00:15:11
Speaker
On its release. love shit like that. I truly. um To this day, have actually not found another game like the Eagle Eye Mystery games. Yeah. ah Definitely look them up. They are.
00:15:24
Speaker
i think they're almost forgotten and underrated. Sure. It was the first game I played with Sound Blaster. It's the first voices I heard out of a out of a computer. Wow. Mine were, think, Sam and Max.
00:15:37
Speaker
Oh, nice. That's great. That's fun. i love that. So. There's some serious stuff in this game. Yeah. Quote series. Let's put that in quotes. Quote series.
00:15:50
Speaker
um You are, as Sherlock Holmes, reckoning with the way you've treated Watson your whole life. Yeah. And it comes up in several different ways. you are...
00:16:04
Speaker
given the opportunity to sort of think about how you didn't treat him very well. Like you manipulated him. You never shared true appreciation with him.
00:16:19
Speaker
And even though you can manipulate him in this game, ah You can use him as the one of the distracting, as one of the people distracting. You get an achievement that's like old habits die hard or something. Oh, God.
00:16:34
Speaker
I didn't even think of to do that. Just because of the whole thing, you know. Yeah, because that's the whole point. The whole point is you've only used Watson is like a yeah as part of your part of your toolkit.
00:16:48
Speaker
yeah But yeah, you can in this game. It's about friendship. it Well... No? You don't think so? so there Yes, i think there I think it is about friendship, but they do reckon with the romantic tension between Watson and Holmes.
00:17:07
Speaker
Sure. It's there the way it always was in all the Sherlock Holmes stories where you're like, this is more intimate than friendships that I am familiar with. And there is a joke early on where when't the first time you walk upstairs in Holmes' house, Holmes' cottage, he says...
00:17:28
Speaker
ah you simply wish to know how many bedrooms I have, don't you? Yes, it does yes, yes. Which I think I took to mean, am I sleeping in the same bed as Watson?
00:17:39
Speaker
Right. You're not. No. But at the very end, when you finally get to confess how you've always truly felt about John Watson, you get to choose what you think their relationship is.
00:17:54
Speaker
What did you choose? I... i I chose that they were in love. I said, yeah i I've always been in love with you. as that I said, I've always been in love with you, Watson. And he gives me a kiss on the cheek.
00:18:05
Speaker
That's so sweet. What did you choose? I chose ah deep friendship. And the the reason I did that is because I enjoy male friendships that are earnest and honest.
00:18:18
Speaker
And I think those are important. I think it's they're both important, obviously, to have either an LGBTQ relationship Or just a non-toxic, like, male friendship.
00:18:32
Speaker
absolutely Absolutely. And yeah, I think there's definitely something to, if two friends, especially male friends, are close and intimate, in the non-euphemistic way and that word could be used, there's the, oh, are they gay? but Right.
00:18:49
Speaker
And i I don't think that's fair. Sure. But my... Yeah, I... a For my entire adult life, I've assumed Sherlock Holmes and John Watson was a gay relationship that wasn't just wasn't allowed to be explicit at the time.
00:19:05
Speaker
Sure, sure. So that's why I chose that. Not because i thought it added to the game that they were in a relationship. Like I do think you're right. It probably is a better story if they are just very close friends.
00:19:20
Speaker
I chose it because I believe that's true about Holmes and Watson. You just get to choose how you ah see these characters, which is really nice. And even the friendship ending, it is an intimate friendship.
00:19:33
Speaker
It's not a sexually intimate friendship. Yeah. But it is one of deep, yeah like, love, you know? Yeah. and It's great. I really, it was so beautifully done. It was so beautiful.
00:19:44
Speaker
And I love that because Helen, Helen Greetham, Greetham, wish I knew how to pronounce her name. She is, she clearly, and again, understands the history of Sherlock Holmes so well that Like that's, that was clearly done intentionally. She's like, I know many people playing this game have different feelings about the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Watson. And I don't want to take that away from them.
00:20:10
Speaker
So I will allow them to make any choice about it that they want. That's great. And it's, it, yeah, it's just a game that feels good. It feels good to play.
00:20:24
Speaker
It only takes about two hours. I think even with loading all my saves, to get all the achievements. Yeah. It looks like it took me two and a half hours total.
00:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's not long. It is not a long game, which I am totally fine with. I think you could finish it if you're good at point and click puzzles. And if you're a person who clicks through dialogue, and you're not trying to reload your saves and get all the achievements.
00:20:54
Speaker
You could get this done in an hour. Yeah, I think if you play it more casually, because i did i saw some people did some like commentary Let's Plays on it. It looks like if you play it like casually and do maybe everything, talk to everyone, you could stretch it to three and a half hours. but Really?
00:21:13
Speaker
I think you maybe could. I can't think of a thing I didn't do. okay. Do you click through dialogue? But I do click through dialogue a little. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it's not long-winded, but there's quite a bit of dialogue. if you want to if you know If you want to hear everybody talk, it might take up some extra time.
00:21:33
Speaker
And the voice acting is incredible. Yeah, it's really good. it's It's really good. And I sorry, I know I said I wanted to keep this like kind of really tight and it's spoiler free. But I think i I we went more into it than i ah intended.
00:21:50
Speaker
But I do like recommend this game very highly, even though it's short. I think the things that we quote unquote spoiled are things that are clearly going to happen from the very beginning.
00:22:02
Speaker
Sure. um Like the things that we didn't spoil are the solutions to the mysteries, which I think are the things that were a little more, I don't know if surprising is the right word, but as surprising as this game gets.
00:22:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. The last thing I'll say, i want to talk about two mechanics real quick. There is a hint system in the game. You can call your brother Mycroft at any point. Yeah. And he basically gives you a hint to whatever puzzle.
00:22:29
Speaker
The other thing is one of the main mechanics of this game is you collect evidence and you go into your, quote, brain attic. Brain attic. yeah And you can put clues together to make evidence.
00:22:45
Speaker
deductions and that's also very cool and a way better and simpler way to do that than any of the frogware sherlock holmes games that tried to come up with mechanics for this in the past yeah it's a very it was a very simple easy to use mechanic can't mess it up yeah but yeah that's awesome well what have you been playing Other than I know you also played.
00:23:10
Speaker
I played that a game called the Beekeeper's Picnic. And ah see, this game is about Sherlock Holmes. It just starts the whole thing. going to have to stop you You've done whole thing. So I played a game called EW.
00:23:24
Speaker
EW. It's just three O's. O-O-O. um And when you find out why it's called that, it's it's it's just an adorable. I'll tell you.
00:23:36
Speaker
It is a pictogram. Of the main character. It's so cute. It's an O with an umlaut over it and two O's. And what you are is like a little bear bunny looking guy. The descriptions keep calling him a a bomb caterpillar.
00:23:51
Speaker
And I get why. At some point, you I'll get into why. But at some point, you're trailing two bombs behind you at all times. And at that point, you do kind of look like a caterpillar.
00:24:03
Speaker
But you start with no bombs behind you. And for about half the game, you only have one bomb behind you. don't look like a caterpillar. You look like a little bunny bear squish head. How squish head?
00:24:17
Speaker
um But it is a puzzle platformer. kind of metroidvania ish where the whole thing is built or you're solving puzzles around the physics of bombs if you've ever played like the bomber man games yeah where you're walking around on a grid and when you set off a bomb it flings stuff to the opposite side of the grid or whatever so this is a side scroller so sort of so not necessarily well i guess it's pixel art but Definitely like a CRT graphics look.
00:24:50
Speaker
at any You have ah three controls. You can move, you know, you have your direction pad. You have a to drop bomb and B to explode bomb.
00:25:03
Speaker
And everything in the game is about, you know, like you pop a bomb below you and you blow it up and it launches you into the air. You leave a bomb somewhere and you move away.
00:25:13
Speaker
and and Maybe you get, maybe it's like, say, I need to explode this thing, but I need to not be close to it for some reason. yeah You leave a bomb, you walk away, and you explode it, and then you come back, right? Like, it it is is starts out sort of that simple.
00:25:29
Speaker
Yeah. And then as you get into it, and you end up getting a second bomb, it becomes more complicated. Like, okay, I'm on this ledge, and I need to go upwards. If I drop one bomb to my left...
00:25:42
Speaker
and one bomb below me, then I blow up the first bomb, it'll fire me into open air to the right, but then as I'm in the air, I blow up the second bomb below me, and it launches me upward.
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah, got it Or, you know, sometimes it'll be like there's a retracting platform, so I leave a bomb on it, I go hit the switch, it drops, and I blow up something that I can't reach.
00:26:08
Speaker
It's very cute, very cool, Another short game i am in chapter eight of... Wait, wait, wait. Another short game I'm playing in chapter eight?
00:26:25
Speaker
just want to sit with that for a second. i'm mean I'm in chapter eight of what seems to be ten ah nine chapters, maybe ten. yeah i am one hour into the game.
00:26:36
Speaker
ah Wow, okay. So each chapter is just when you get to a new area. It's just the background changes. um and And each... Every time the background changes, it basically adds some new element for you to think about.
00:26:53
Speaker
Sometimes it's not even... They've changed the physics of it at all. Like they haven't added... they haven't added anything new. They've just added puzzles where you have to think about the bombs differently, which is really cool. Mm-hmm.
00:27:08
Speaker
Because then maybe you can go back to a previous space and be like, okay, now that I've realized i can use the bombs in this way, going to try that somewhere else. Yeah. Really cool. It's just a really cute game.
00:27:19
Speaker
It's called OOO3O's. Just type three O's into the Steam or itch.io or wherever you like to get games and you look for the little pink squishy bear face.
00:27:34
Speaker
It's great. ah um so I love that. I love that. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. So that's what I've been playing. And I'm going to tell you a secret. Okay.
00:27:45
Speaker
I've been playing something else. Oh my God. What? I've been playing something else. Now that's not Australian. That's more like. Oh geez. Okay. What can you do?
00:27:56
Speaker
Say I've been playing something else in your best Australian accent. Oh, I've been playing something else. I've been playing something else. yield I've been playing something else.
00:28:06
Speaker
If you're an Australian listener. Sorry. Sorry.
00:28:12
Speaker
What have we been playing, Roses? We've been playing The Drifter. Holy shit. You can't see it, but I did a little gesture with my fingers there. Holy shit, this game was so good.
00:28:26
Speaker
it's so It's so good. So good that I want you to play micy Carterino so we can come back and talk about The Drifter.
00:28:58
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back. I am one of your hosts, Matt, and this other host is here. Her name's Pushing Aparosis. I'm here too. That's your legal given name.
00:29:09
Speaker
It's not my birth certificate. pushing pushing up and then roses is my last name actually that's why everyone just calls me roses my last name's like hey hey there roses yeah like oh hey thompson how's it going hey what up camp wait what's up all camp people do call me all camp if you meet me in person don't call me all camp call me call me matt um all right well anyway uh thanks for listening and
00:29:41
Speaker
Matt, the drifter.
Diving into The Drifter's World
00:29:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Hey, I played a really cool game this week. It's called Ooh, and it's about Bob. Oh, my God. No, I played a game called The Drifter by by Power Hoof.
00:29:58
Speaker
Or is that the publisher? Yeah, Power Hoof, a.k.a. Dave Lloyd. And it's a two-people team, Dave Lloyd and Barney. Let me look it up.
00:30:11
Speaker
Barney Cumming. That's right. And, yeah, that's them. That's Power Hoof. It seems like they've been in the game for a little while. But are certainly breaking out with the Drifter. Right. Yeah. They made a game called Crawl that a lot of people spoke very highly of when it came out like almost 10 years ago. um I've never played it.
00:30:31
Speaker
Looks good. Looks fun. Yeah. Whatever. Whatever. It's not the Drifter. That's not what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about point and click game called the Drifter.
00:30:42
Speaker
You know. It's weird to even just... like I don't want people to get the wrong impression. This is a point-and-click adventure game. Yes.
00:30:53
Speaker
But it feels unlike any point-and-click adventure game I've ever played, at least for the majority of it. It more feels like a ah just a fucking thrill ride. Right.
00:31:06
Speaker
Yes, it's it's it moves very fast in a lot of places, but more so in the beginning. um And it is actually narrated in first person yeah by the character that you're playing. And I think that drives it in such a literary way.
00:31:24
Speaker
ah it felt like I was reading a good book. And it and and you think that that could get pretentious, right? But man, it's well written. Like it's it's well written. It's it's well spoken. It's so good.
00:31:38
Speaker
It's really, really well written. And that that narrator is unbelievable. So good. Adrian Vaughn? You basically play a drifter. you owe It opens up in a boxcar.
00:31:53
Speaker
You are a guy who's hopping freight. you're getting towards your destination. So you're you wake up and you're trying to wake up the other... Do we use the term hobo when it's a choice you're making?
00:32:06
Speaker
don't know. feel like hobo is such an antiquated word. ah Yeah, it is. But i don't think it's derogative. i think I don't think it's derogatory. I think it's something that like people called themselves. i'd think you know I think if you ask this main character, Mick Carter, if he's a hobo, he'd be like, yeah.
00:32:25
Speaker
But yeah, sure. Yeah, absolutely. It was like, I guess, like tramp, you know, not in the tramp stamp way, but like, you know, you wander places and you don't have much money and, you know, you hop train cars or whatever.
00:32:40
Speaker
had a lot of friends when I was younger who hopped freight. Again, it's like ah it's kind of like a choice. It's like a thing that people do in a period of their life. Now, granted, the circumstances of Mick Carter hopping freight are a little more tragic. He chose this life, but for really sad reason.
00:32:59
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, you open up on a train car and you kind of get the sense immediately that it's just going to be a point and click adventure, right? You're going around, you're, you're, you're thinking of collecting inventory. He's narrating in this really cool, gruff Australian accent.
00:33:19
Speaker
And then something happens very suddenly and it catapults like a roller coaster off from there. Yeah, this moves quick. This is a fast pace. I would say up until up until a chapter where you have more time to like free roam on a map, which a lot of adventure games do. Monkey Island does it. Gabriel Light does it. It's moving fast in those first couple chapters.
00:33:44
Speaker
But then it starts moving fast again. like And you don't know when it's going to happen. like Just suddenly things go crazy. and yeah you might even think, oh, I have more puzzles to solve before it moves on to the next point.
00:33:58
Speaker
And you might, you might, you might come back to some of those puzzles, but things just will go off the rails. They'll just go nuts. Yeah. um Do you want to give broad strokes, like an yeah ah broad overview of what people, what kind of story people are looking Yeah, it gets very interesting because I went into this thinking it was more of like a grounded thriller.
00:34:24
Speaker
um This game is set up to be kind of like a mystery, a thriller mystery. um Once you get off of that train, you find yourself in kind of like... um I guess it's a homeless camp.
00:34:38
Speaker
It's like this overpass. And you have friends there. Apparently you've be you've been there before. Your ex-wife ah had did extensive work with the homeless. So you do know ah some of the men who are around the setting.
00:34:51
Speaker
And it is set up as though strange things are happening. Homeless people have been going missing. And everybody seems to have a different take on it. Your friend seems to think it's some you know mythical thing called the Malinji.
00:35:06
Speaker
um People have seen these monsters, these three-eyed monsters roaming around and taking people. Whereas, you know, you as Mick Carter, you're kind of more, I think, grounded. And you're like, no.
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah, of course. are yeah absolutely not. ah But as you go, you you realize that something is wrong with you as well.
00:35:30
Speaker
Right. Because you find out from that in that opening that That you're talking about, Rose, is you find out not only are homeless people going missing, they're also yeah p other people experiencing homelessness are going insane, like are losing their minds and attacking, violently attacking people at random or...
00:35:54
Speaker
Which happens to you, which happens to you very like really early on in the game before this is explained to you. So you're you at you have it confirmed ah ah already right that this is true.
00:36:07
Speaker
And that accounts for some of the mechanic. So kind of early in the game, it's very intense. And this is actually in the trailer. So I'm not going count it as a spoiler. Yeah, we're not going to say how we got there. We're not going to spoil anything in this episode. This is more of an odd game. This is more of us losing our minds about how good this game was yeah than it is a deep dive. We're just gushing here.
00:36:29
Speaker
But this is in the trailer and you are thrown into um like a a lake, a little pond lake, just a body of water, you know, tied to concrete. You're drowning. You see bodies all around you. There's a Hessian bag over your head.
00:36:44
Speaker
It is intense. Let me tell you. I'm like, I got to get out of here. and I am like, my heart is beating so hard. um And there's a few things you can do here. and And in fact, there's a few things you might need to do. So this game is very similar to other, I don't want to say time travel, but um things like Prince of Persia or maybe the ah Sexy Brutal, where when you die, and you will, you probably will die in this game. died so many times. Yeah, I died a lot making mistakes.
00:37:18
Speaker
You will go back. You know, you don't have to reload. It'll go back. It'll feel like you're dying. You know, Mick will say, I feel like I'm everything is darkness. Everything is black. It feels like I'm dying. I'm dead, but I'm not.
00:37:32
Speaker
I'm not dead. And then you go back to where you were and you get a second chance or a third chance or a fourth chance, you know, to try again. Which is an important mechanic. It might be frustrating to some people, but this is a mechanic you would use when you need to figure out how to do stuff.
00:37:48
Speaker
ah Do you remember the mechanic in... um Oh gosh. ah The new Wajidai game. ah Old Skies. Yeah. Do you remember the the puzzle where we had to like...
00:38:00
Speaker
Essentially get killed in a bar to see what we had to do. Yes. That's kind of what this is. you it It's not that you can't get it right on the first try. You can if you're lucky.
00:38:11
Speaker
ah But a lot of these puzzles, especially in the puzzles that put you back in time, you might need to experiment a little bit with what you really need to do. And I think the further you get into the game, the more, no matter how much you experiment, you're not going to, you need to die.
00:38:29
Speaker
Yes. Like if you die, you haven't failed. You ah are experiencing what the game wants you to experience. Yeah, there was there was a puzzle I got so stuck on that they weren't even giving me like the all of the flashbacks and dialogue anymore. just like, well, i'm like I don't know.
00:38:52
Speaker
But yeah, so that it's got a mechanic like that on top of being a traditional point and click where you are figuring out puzzles, you are trying to get evidence. you know Mick becomes kind of this...
00:39:04
Speaker
gruff, amateur detective in a way. It kind of reminds me of some movie called The Changeling. Okay. George C. Scott. And it is a thriller horror game, but it is, it in my mind, ah mystery.
00:39:17
Speaker
i think a lot of thrillers are also mysteries, right? You are putting together this mystery, this story of strange events that have happened. And Mick is trying to figure that out. He's trying to figure out where these people are disappearing to. He has seen people get taken in front of his eyes.
00:39:34
Speaker
Yes. um And other people are denying that reality to him. Correct. yeah Like that, that isn't happening. You're losing it. and you are at the same time.
00:39:49
Speaker
Not only are you in incredibly emotionally vulnerable state. Again, this isn't a spoiler. this You find this out in the before chapter one. You have sort of abandoned your family at some point in the you don't know how long ago past because of something tragic that happened.
00:40:11
Speaker
And you are returning for the first time in a really long time because your mom has passed away. yeah And you want to be there for the funeral. And so you're in a really difficult emotional state and you are definitely hallucinating, right? You are at points in this game seeing things that are not there.
00:40:35
Speaker
So the idea that some of the things that are occurring, you're just mistaken about or you are, you know, have hallucinated entirely.
00:40:49
Speaker
Yeah. Isn't crazy to think. I think the game also intentionally from what we know of the story makes that a little bit vague. There were definitely things that I'm like, I'm not sure if he's seeing this or not.
00:41:02
Speaker
I think he might be seeing this one and maybe not seeing this one. it all, it all comes together in the end. It will have an explanation. Yes. um But thought that was a good, i liked that. I liked kind of speculating what Mick was really going through. Cause keep in mind,
00:41:18
Speaker
He has gone through something tragic. He's back to be at a funeral where somebody has died. i think that it's realistic that the character could be having some flashbacks of trauma on top of there's something wrong with him and he's right seeing some stuff, you know?
00:41:39
Speaker
And I'll say a lot of it does have explanations. Not everything. there I think some of the things that he experiences, you could... Some of them are very definitely hallucinations. We have confirmation that they were hallucinations.
00:41:55
Speaker
Some things that he's experiencing are not hallucinations. And we have confirmation of that. But there's a big gray area in between hallucinations. in instances and ah visions that he's having that we don't know even by the end of the game.
00:42:16
Speaker
Was that real or wasn't it? That's just the human brain for you, right? There's a lot, you know, for what appears to be a simple plot in the beginning, for what appears to be a mystery that you're trying to crack and unfold, it certainly goes very kind of psychological It's one of those thrillers, i think, and I don't think this is a spoiler. I think this is more of ah a genre thing. It's one of those thrillers that kind of pivots a little bit.
00:42:43
Speaker
Right. And then goes a little bit more paranormal. And I'm not going to say what kind of paranormal that it is. Or I guess maybe sci-fi would be. Sci-fi, yeah. Yeah, I think maybe sci-fi.
00:42:54
Speaker
I think paranormal as well. There are some, especially at the end where I'm like, what the fuck is going on? But I do think it earns it though. Like sometimes that happens in a game Or a story. And you're like, what the fuck? But I think yeah this game earns it and keeps its tone, even as that's happening. I think. you're There was a game that did that. And maybe i maybe we talked about it. I don't remember. But I'm having this ah feeling. I'm remembering this.
00:43:23
Speaker
of um you know It started out like a murder mystery, like a thriller. And you know for for those of you who maybe don't follow that genre, you know thrillers are...
00:43:35
Speaker
They're almost like horror and murder mystery combined. So I think American Psycho is like the perfect thriller. That's a thriller movie, you know, to me. I think Jaws is a thriller movie.
00:43:47
Speaker
So, and but they also, Insomnia. ah chris Is that Christopher Nolan? I think Insomnia is a thriller movie. So there have been games where it started like that.
00:43:58
Speaker
And then it like pivoted into something kind of crazy. Oh, was it? crush Did I tell you about crime stories? but I think I did by the Adventure Game Company. So that's a game. I think I've talked about it here. It's very forgettable. So don't feel bad if you don't remember.
00:44:14
Speaker
That's a game where I really thought I was playing as a detective and I was really excited to do some kind of gritty detective work. And it just goes off. Right, right. And that did not work for that. For whatever reason, it does work in The Drifter because I think it just keeps that thriller vibe.
00:44:31
Speaker
Yes. And it bounces back and forth between these moments where you are really exploring and doing some detective work and trying to understand a situation and moments where you are being shot at and you are having to hide from things. And, you know, like at the beginning of this game,
00:44:55
Speaker
You watch somebody get murdered. You are shot at. You're thrown from a train. You watch somebody get kidnapped. You watch another person get murdered. You're thrown into a you're thrown into a river full of bodies tied to like ah a cinder block or something where you're trying to get away.
00:45:16
Speaker
And then like you end up and being chased by the police and buried alive. Like wild. wild It's so and exciting, you guys.
00:45:29
Speaker
And then there are other parts, and I think this is actually ah kind of a flaw of the game. Okay. There are other parts that are very point and clicky. Yes. they're the men yes In the middle of all that, there's a sequence where therere there's an alarm going off.
00:45:49
Speaker
or You're trying to break into a ah place. So you have to set off an alarm. Yes. To get the groundskeeper to check it out. To steal his leaf blower. To go to a different place in the city.
00:46:02
Speaker
To blow an umbrella off a ledge.
00:46:07
Speaker
So that you can go back to that place. And use the umbrella to reach the door latch. It's like there. That's.
00:46:17
Speaker
it, it's, it can be a little bit of whiplash, right? Like you're right. Something really emotional and really thrilling and absolutely buck wild happens.
00:46:29
Speaker
And you're still reeling from that. And then you're doing the most dumb point and click as puzzle. It's got a little bit of ah a humor to it. A gruff humor, you know, a cynical humor from Mick, um you know, cause he's been through some some shit.
00:46:44
Speaker
Um, And yeah, you're right. There wasn't a get the umbrella than having to steal a leaf blower and then drive ah but the rest of the way like halfway across town.
00:46:57
Speaker
i love I love stealing that leaf blower because of the character that we see. yeah I was such an asshole. I'm just like leaf blower now. Yeah, yeah. no i understand what you mean there is a different um not a sequence but a different chapter of the game that does that gives ah that gives that allows the game to be a point in click ah genre for a while right and that's when you're kind of like there's there's this moment in the whole game where things have kind of stabilized
00:47:28
Speaker
Just for a second. that and And now you have like free reign. You're not like running. You're not on a timed thing. You were just in this town. You've got places on your map and now you are doing detective work.
00:47:40
Speaker
And I thought that stayed in tone because now we're actually legit doing... Detective work. We're doing the Gabriel Knight thing. Agreed. Yeah. Talking to everyone. We're getting new topics to talk about. We're getting new inventory to talk about.
00:47:53
Speaker
I liked that a lot. I think it does ah slow things down a bit, but it has to, it needs to, because if this game was all high adrenaline, I know. Yeah. It would not be great for my poor heart.
00:48:05
Speaker
i I agree with you. That chapter that you're talking about. So there are two chapters in this game and where, um like you're saying, a map opens up and you just get to wander.
00:48:17
Speaker
They're very different maps, very different tones. um This first one, I think it happens pretty organically. and It feels yeah. It feels really... It feels really good. I think you're right. and right.
00:48:29
Speaker
I'm like, oh, I love where the story is going. it still feel It still felt grounded at this point. It still felt, you know, the Gabriel Knight thing. We're just we're getting yeah information now where things are stable and we're getting information.
00:48:41
Speaker
The previous chapter ends in it just a series of some of the craziest things in the whole game. Yeah. um That's, yeah, that is where you get buried alive. and you also find out that this conspiracy that you are unraveling is deeper than you thought it was.
00:48:58
Speaker
Yeah. um And that chapter ends... With you being shot at and like you're you're trapped in an office and trying to escape from a building where there's armed guards outside and monsters on the roof. Like it's wild.
00:49:16
Speaker
so but yeah, like you're saying in between there is you're doing detective work and you're putting together clues and you're ah most of those puzzles are about not about combining you know combining an an umbrella with a uh you know with a drill so that the umbrella spins so that you can fly into the air what like whatever but point and click stuff happens that's not an actual no that's solution guys we're no that is made up i just made that up uh it is it is
00:49:53
Speaker
Not that kind of point and clicky stuff. It is going around and the puzzles you're solving are about finding information. Yeah. And it's really effective.
00:50:04
Speaker
And there's and another sequence way later where I actually did get that sort of, i don't know if you get this sometimes, that exhaustion. There's one, only one place in this game where I got the exhaustion that happens sometimes in point and clicks where a suddenly a big new place opens up.
00:50:23
Speaker
And you're like, okay, I got to go everywhere and I got to try every door and I got to look at everything and I'm going to talk to everybody and exhaust all the topics. and yeah And it was that it's towards the end of the game.
00:50:39
Speaker
And it is tiring. I agree. No, I agree. I agree. Definitely. It's still great. It's still great. ah But yeah, I do. and And that was kind of after the pivot.
00:50:49
Speaker
You know what I mean? So not only are you changing settings, but the tone is the the story is a little bit different now. Right. It's not just a thriller, like mystery game. You're getting answers and it kind of goes in ah in a ah different direction. So this, yeah, this brand new setting, it's big, you know, and I'm like, oh, no.
00:51:08
Speaker
Yeah. Honestly, that's interesting because that's my favorite part. of an adventure game is getting the map and looking at every single do you have I told you the way I even play like the King's Quest games i probably explain ah So the King's Quest games, especially the early ones, they're definitely on a grid.
00:51:29
Speaker
I will go up and down and over and up and up and up and up and then over. i will go to every screen. um You'll map it all out. Yeah. map it all out. I want to see what's on every screen. i like i like that kind of open world thing.
00:51:45
Speaker
I think because the game is just so stimulating and because we put such a huge amount of work into that that into that ah stable moment that I was talking about when we gathering info, it almost seemed exhausting to do it again.
00:52:01
Speaker
you know You're almost getting a different storyline completely. That again, you go through something really wild. Yeah. And one of, we talked about it, that this is too big of a spoiler to say, but one of the funniest and most shocking moments of the game happens right before this chapter. Yeah, I literally, i put my hand to my mouth.
00:52:30
Speaker
I think I even said like, oh no. I froze and then I just started laughing. It was, it's the absurdity, right? Yeah. Yes.
00:52:41
Speaker
There is a, there is just a wild moment. It involves a death and that's all we'll all say about it. It is the wildest moment. It is maybe one of the wildest moments I've ever seen in a video game. Yeah. If you know, if you know, you know, and if you don't and you play it, you will. You will. You will. You'll know exactly what we're talking about.
00:53:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So right. Yeah, it's right after that. And you think you're sort of gearing up. This game has a
00:53:09
Speaker
There's a lot of vibes in this game, but one of rez yeah one of the strongest vibes that I started to get was a Stranger Things vibe. but there is that like I see that. I didn't get that, but now that you've said it.
00:53:23
Speaker
Sure. There's a moment. there's a Yeah, absolutely. yeah before so First of all, ah like just to set up the very basics of why I say this, there's like a bunch of tough weirdos ah from different walks of life that happen to team up all together. ah They have to band together to fight a corrupt, secretive institution working with movies supernatural forces. There's also, yeah, I mean, that 80s movie inspiration that Stranger Things is drawing from, from but this is in a post-Stranger Things world. but
00:53:59
Speaker
So there's a moment where you and all your your team have sort of gathered yourselves together and you're about to go on a mission. And yeah you're not...
00:54:12
Speaker
mission people you're people it's a stephen king novel you're a bunch to idiots you're just folks and you're like all right yeah are we ready to go break this thing wide open and possibly all die and it is again it is very very stranger things it's this moment that happens in every season and it it it's sort of carries through in interesting ways.
00:54:39
Speaker
I wouldn't say till all the way till the end, but for the next couple chapters. Yeah. Yes. Oh, man. Sorry. i know I'm jumping around a little bit here, but that follows another one of the wildest chapters in the game.
00:54:53
Speaker
Which is? There is a serial killer subplot. Yes. In this game. We are not going to talk almost at all about it. And to be honest, that's why it it gives you the sense of this is ah mystery. This is a serial killer mystery. This is a thriller, an insomnia type of of a movie.
00:55:14
Speaker
And yeah, we're not going to say what that really is, but to go on. Go on with your comparison. But there is a horror chapter in this game. Yes, yes. Where, man, how do I, it's going to be tough not spoiling anything at all here.
00:55:30
Speaker
But you are in a, like a freaky basement. Yeah. Chained to a radiator with screws bored into your own skull. Yeah, it's not great. And time your ah objective is obviously to survive and escape.
00:55:53
Speaker
Yeah. And that is, it's it it's totally, I mean, you could, i think you could find Stranger Things vibes in there too, but it's, that's You keep thinking this game is pivoted into a completely different vibe.
00:56:09
Speaker
Yeah. And then it pivots to something else. The interesting thing is these these things that it pivots to, they all do hold hands. Yeah. Like horror, thrillers, murder mystery. These are things that that hold hands. You can transition between them.
00:56:25
Speaker
But for whatever reason, it feels like, what? Oh, it's about this? but yeah ah but i it? You were saying you don't want to spoil it too much. Yeah. it's It's that part with the basement, kind of horror vibes.
00:56:40
Speaker
It's giving me sanitarium vibes. Right. Or one of the Harvester Games games is what I was getting too. ah Speak more on the sanitarium vibes though. So it just gave me these vibes of like,
00:56:54
Speaker
There's like this kind of experimental person who wants to use you for strange like things. It's like, what? There's like, there's dead bodies around. Cause we're basement.
00:57:05
Speaker
We're in a creepy basement. We don't, we don't know who they are. um And yeah, we're just trying to escape. And it's got that gritty kind of disgusting ah basement medical vibe, just like Sanitarium had. not in Obviously not in every chapter as we've both played Sanitarium. They're like a wildly different.
00:57:25
Speaker
But anything that was at the Sanitarium, it kind of felt that way. And it also had, you know, because it had a little bit of a serial killer, it did have that vibe of i don't It's on the tip of my tongue. If if i think about it if I think of it, i'll I'll let you know. But it's giving me a very specific kind of thriller thriller vibe.
00:57:49
Speaker
Right. So the vibe that I got, I think, strong most strongly was, again, the Harvester games. Okay.
00:57:59
Speaker
So like ah the cat lady and like, yes, like the cat lady, like not harvester. no not the game, not the game, not the game harvester, but games like burn house lane got and, yeah ah and the cat lady and such, i which often have a sequence where you're say, true like,
00:58:24
Speaker
caught by a serial killer you have to you have to escape or or trick the serial killer or whatever um this game had a very similar kind again it's hard to talk about some of this stuff but it had a similar kind of thing happening yeah um and because not dying is not some sort of alternate reality like it is in other games. Like in other games, when your character dies, he sort of either reload a save or it reloads a couple minutes earlier.
00:58:58
Speaker
and You have to sort of suspend your disbelief that didn't really happen. That was a different reality. This game, it happens for everything that happens to you happens for real.
00:59:11
Speaker
Yeah. Because you are a person who travels back in time in so in specific ways. So... If, say, you were to get killed by a serial killer, and again, I'm not saying that's... This game is so wild, what sounds like a spoiler is not. It's not, yeah. It's really just a mechanic of the game.
00:59:33
Speaker
If you get killed by a serial killer, which is not to say that's a thing that happens in this game. I'm not going to say yes sir whether or not that happens. But if you were to say get killed by a serial killer, you, for the rest of the game, are a guy who experienced that.
00:59:48
Speaker
Right, yeah. And you know, you know but that's what that person would have intended to do. and it's the same with, yeah, if you get shot by a cop or if you get, you know, or a weird soldier eaten by a monster, like whatever happens is a thing that the like you now exactly know the other person's intention, right? Right.
01:00:10
Speaker
ah Every moment that this happens, it adds layers to the game. Yeah. The biggest vibe that I got kind of early on was a disco Elysium vibe.
01:00:24
Speaker
Okay. And I get it for kind of different reasons that like, say you got the stranger things. I was getting more of ah vibe okay with certain familiar things. So like the, the two main characters ah they're down on their luck, they're gruff, they're shit at relationships.
01:00:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. and and then suddenly thrown into this thing. ah At some point you get a partner that is helping you along. And that partner is very similar to the partner that you get, ah Lieutenant Kim in Disco Elysium.
01:00:57
Speaker
It's just a vibe thing. You know what I mean? That the world is all kind of messy and weird and as is obviously in Disco. And there is a weird like kind of monster part to that. So that, that was at least the vibe that I was getting.
01:01:12
Speaker
Um, When it pivoted, I think it kind of changed. ah Then it became something else. it It no longer reminded me of Disco. But those kind of early, like, mystery investigative parts with your, you know, your tough kind of down on your luck character with internal thoughts and and echoes, that's what it reminded me of. Right. it's It's interesting. So you're that your partner that you get.
01:01:41
Speaker
By the way, I love the partner. Love. Yeah, I don't think we can. I think it is a spoiler to say who this partner is. But this partner is. Unnaturally chill about everything that happens.
01:01:55
Speaker
ah yeah like You'll see a monster burst into the room, eat a guy and explode. That doesn't actually happen, but like imagine that. something Things to that level. Yeah.
01:02:05
Speaker
And your character will be like, what the fuck? And like fall over and it's crawling on the ground trying to scurry away from what was this existential horror. Yeah. And then your partner will be like,
01:02:18
Speaker
That was weird. That was weird. Well, now what do we do Like, what? what exactly Yeah, it's very... that's It's a very strange but also kind of thriller movie character. yeah i think...
01:02:36
Speaker
Thriller movie is like 1980s thriller movie is really the best description for the drifter because it ends even with this epic how to how to describe.
01:02:49
Speaker
I like the way you described it to me off recording about the LucasArts endings. So that happens. So yeah, there is a LucasArts boss fight, which is interesting. But unlike a LucasArts boss fight, it happens a couple times. It does, yeah. Yeah.
01:03:04
Speaker
And you kind of keep going like it's it it it bounces between LucasArts boss fight and the drifter. Like I don't know how to describe some of the some of the sequences in the game besides describing them as drifter sequences because there's sequences in this game that are unlike any point in click I've ever played. Like I can't remember feeling such a high octane feeling.
01:03:31
Speaker
yeah In a point and click as I feel in some of these. Yes. I mean, I wrote it in my notes. I wrote like heavy thriller excitement with a ton of exclamation marks. like But and yet it is an adventure game. That's the interesting thing. It does feel like an adventure game, but it is one of the most adrenaline inducing adventure games I've ever played.
01:03:53
Speaker
I think we should talk about the mechanics just a little bit because it it is point andc click and it is single. ah what what do they call it? single verb point and click or whatever, like you single cursor point and click. You don't. Sure.
01:04:05
Speaker
You can't right click. You don't have a verb menu. Right. Any time you mouse over, you will get the interaction that you need. Yes. It's not like it's not like Gabriel Knight where you have a use and ah and an interact and like a tinker. I don't know. There's like.
01:04:21
Speaker
Yeah. There's buttons where they all do the same thing. That is not this. Which doesn't mean this game is simple. Right. This game is in parts very difficult and in other parts, but ah not so difficult you can't get it.
01:04:37
Speaker
Like i i don't want to, you know, some people, so some people get scared off of adventure games that are too difficult. I don't think if you were that type of person, this shouldn't scare you off. i don't Yeah, I don't think so. i There was certainly a string of puzzles that I just got in one go. Super satisfying.
01:04:55
Speaker
Always, always fun yes when that happened. And somebody asked me if they thought, because I do play a lot of ah obtuse adventure games. They're some of my favorites.
01:05:06
Speaker
They asked me if it was obtuse. I said no. no But it helps to be extremely observant. i I think there are some obtuse puzzles, like i the leaf blower to the umbrella thing.
01:05:20
Speaker
um Well, see, I don't think it is, though, because the narrator kind of tells you what to do. Have you noticed that? Okay, you're right. Yes, I did notice that there are subtle hints seeded throughout the dialogue, which is exactly what you want from an adventure game.
01:05:40
Speaker
Yeah. But...
01:05:43
Speaker
When we're talking about obtuse puzzles, what ah my thought is always, is this something a human being would ever do? Sure. And the answer is no. There's so much stuff in these games that a human being, in this game, that a human being would never do. And that's some that's one of the things that point and click games get shit from the broader gaming and game journalism communities for, right?
01:06:06
Speaker
Yeah. And those are that is present here. That there's a lot... Not a lot. There are a few sequences yeah where you have to do absolutely absurd things to... And again, those are the few times that I think the tone was betrayed a little.
01:06:30
Speaker
Sure, yeah. i I totally understand what you're saying. i don't I don't think it's as obtuse as other games. And I will say that...
01:06:41
Speaker
In adventure games, I think there's always going to be puzzles where you wouldn't do this in real life. I don't know if that necessarily deems it obtuse, but there's just no way.
01:06:51
Speaker
Even if it's as clear as like, oh, there's a loose crank here. I'm not doing that in real life. I've found a loose crank. And I never will, is the thing. And we never will.
01:07:03
Speaker
they're and speaking Speaking of that, though, there are there is a ah jerry can in this game. oh there's a Molotov. Making your own Molotov cocktail. I've done that a bajillion times. Yes. In adventure games, yeah. There are a couple of those just You know, absolutely cliche.
01:07:23
Speaker
You have to do it in every adventure game. But I love it. I can't help it. I love it. I want to put that gas in that can. Yeah. Finding some sort of alcohol and putting it on a rag to wipe off some paint. Right. Like that's always, every time.
01:07:42
Speaker
I can do those puzzles for for days. If I see even anything remotely, that that could be a Molotov cocktail, an adventure game. I'm going for it. Right. There's so the other sort of mechanics I do want to talk about. Number one is ah one of the reasons, one of the ways that they achieve there. There's, I think two ways they achieve this constant thriller vibe. One of them is that actions that you perform in the world will make
01:08:18
Speaker
Other unrelated things happen just to signify the passing of time. And it's not in that really horrible, like, bad point and clicks of the late 90s, early 2000s way, where, like, you do something and then you have to go visit every location to see if anything has changed.
01:08:38
Speaker
Yeah. It is it it is you're in the same room as somebody. You know they're working on something. Yeah. Yeah. you have to solve a couple unrelated puzzles and then they say, oh, got it.
01:08:50
Speaker
And it makes the world feel alive. And this also happens sometimes where like you are working on solving a puzzle and when you make some level of progress, somebody walks in and says, hey, this just happened.
01:09:06
Speaker
And that's one of the ways it makes it feel alive. Like it's just constantly moving. The other way is one that you you said to me, which is the narration.
01:09:18
Speaker
Yeah. The narration is something really special. I noticed it immediately. It's in that first person of the same naator character is the narrator. Yeah.
01:09:29
Speaker
And man, it's just so good. Like i I recall in the beginning, the very beginning, actually, when you're in the freight, there's a character that swings an iron bar at you. Yeah.
01:09:40
Speaker
And the character describes that happening. Like he swings the bar at me and it's just so exciting. And like, it feels like a, but it feels very literary. It feels like this is a book and this is not an interactive fiction game in, in technical genre, but it feels like it, it feels like this is what interactive fiction should be almost. Yeah.
01:10:03
Speaker
it And it gives you this insight into the character's brain and how he feels yeah about the things that are happening. And you know sometimes in games like this, especially point and clicks, a lot of crazy stuff is happening.
01:10:19
Speaker
And you're like, you have to suspend your disbelief a little bit because you're like, if this was a real person, they'd be losing their minds. Sure. And in this game, he is. He losing his mind throughout the whole game. not not just Not just literally, like we said before, like he is kind of losing his mind. yeah But also in the figurative sense, he is constantly like, what the fuck? What is happening? Why is this happening?
01:10:47
Speaker
There's this very funny moment that I remember. um We're trying to get a computer to boot and this takes place. ah Yeah, you know exactly what I'm about to say.
01:10:59
Speaker
So we turn on the computer and we get an error. And it's like, there's like no, no boob disc. Right. And he's like, what the fuck does that mean? I'm like, I hear you, my guy. i hear you.
01:11:11
Speaker
It's funny. It takes place right after the first time you see him use a computer. And he's like, he's like, You see from the backside of the, you don't see him on the, you don't see like what's on the screen, but he's like describing what's happening. And it's this sort of cliche, like, oh, it looks like this thing's encrypted. And she's like, that's the, that's the, but and his.
01:11:38
Speaker
I remember now. Another character is like overshoders. He's like, oh, that's just the boot up screen. And he's like. That's the calculator. And he's like, oh, I need a, I need a, pat ah she's password protected it. And ne she's like, that's the calculator. It's very funny. And she's like, move over. I'll take care of it. And it is this thing where this guy is hyper competent, right? Like he is a guy who is street smart and he knows how stuff in the world works. yes He's a survivalist. He knows how to survive in intense situations and settings and weather.
01:12:12
Speaker
ah ah But i I also just thought that was funny because even people who have experienced like boot discs in the time or they. So I felt too like, yeah, what the fuck is this? It was like aggravation on the ah ah for everyone who's ever felt that way.
01:12:27
Speaker
But yeah, this guy's been homeless. homeless for over four years so when he encounters stuff like a broken car he tells you how to fix it yeah he knows and when he encounters stuff like yeah like you take apart machinery and oftentimes he knows you know the various parts that make the machines right yes work because he's very street street smart street savvy But when he gets onto a screen and it happens a couple times in the game, he is as dumb as a person could possibly be. it is never not funny.
01:13:04
Speaker
It's very funny. Yeah. um The last mechanic I do want to describe, but and I think we're starting to come to the end of this. The last mechanic I want to describe is you have a you not only have an inventory like in a normal adventure game, and we're not going to do guess how much my pants weigh because...
01:13:22
Speaker
You don't end up carrying around all that, but there's a point where you're carrying around a Geiger counter and a bunch of machine parts and like that's ridiculous. Yeah. But more other than that, like the rest of the game, mostly it's you're carrying around lot of little small things. and Yeah. ah Except for when you're walking around with a leaf blower all over the city.
01:13:43
Speaker
It's just ridiculous. That's true. um This happened. But So you have an inventory, but you also have like an inventory of ideas and topics that update throughout the game.
01:13:55
Speaker
And at any point, you can go up to this inventory and click through all the various open questions that you have. And it'll be like, um you know, I need money to get out of town. and Or I saw a ghost. What's up with that? Or it seems like I'm jumping backwards in time.
01:14:16
Speaker
like... These will all be in this little tray. It looks like an inventory tray. There's like two trays. There's one for your inventory and then those ones for like topics and thoughts that get updated.
01:14:31
Speaker
And I found that so helpful. Yeah. When you learn new things about a topic, it just automatically updates. Yeah. It's so nice, honestly. And they're all written in his voice, too.
01:14:42
Speaker
Yes. Yes. they're pleasant to read. it It's just another one. It's just another one in a series of smart decisions this game has made.
01:14:54
Speaker
Yeah. but Yeah, that's a good way to put it. This this has a lot of very smart decisions. Uh-huh. Yeah. there There was one decision I wish that was smarter, speaking of like the inventory and the thoughts.
01:15:08
Speaker
The inventory is it's very simple looking. It's all in like the it's all in like gray and green and black. yeah I could not tell what I was looking at sometimes. Yeah.
01:15:22
Speaker
Obviously, when you mouse over, it'll tell you or you can look at it or whatever. But I do feel that in other adventure games, I could tell what the item was. I could click on it right away to if I needed to combine it, I could. And I didn't question it because I knew exactly what it was.
01:15:38
Speaker
In this one, all of the inventory items do look the same. And there were a few times I'm not just nitpicking. There were a few times I got a little frustrated. um like Because you used the wrong thing. You grabbed the wrong thing. And he's like, I don't know what you're trying to do here. yeah Or I have to read every mouse over. I'm like, I just want to find the thingy.
01:15:58
Speaker
i you know, I didn't have that problem. But i I absolutely. No, that's not true. I had that problem with. ah There's a point where you have a cassette.
01:16:10
Speaker
And two pieces of paper in your inventory. And all three of them look exactly the same. Yeah. I kept click grabbing the wrong one. Fuck.
01:16:21
Speaker
He's like showing people a cassette. And they're like, okay. This is also a game where you can show most people most things and they will have dialogue for it.
01:16:33
Speaker
Yeah. Not everybody, everything. Sometimes he'll say, I don't want to show them that. But even then, sometimes he's like, he'll tell you why he doesn't want to show that particular person that item. It's just another smart fucking thing.
01:16:46
Speaker
These people made a good game. oh it's designed brilliantly. The design is great. i I don't disagree about the, even though it didn't have that particular problem a lot, yeah I don't disagree about the inventory items.
01:17:02
Speaker
Lastly... This game does have in a lot of emotional weight.
Emotional Beats and Hero Moments
01:17:08
Speaker
Yes. There are... There are big things that happen. There are big things that you know about Mick Carter.
01:17:15
Speaker
I don't know if we've said his full name. right yeah I thought we had. Okay, yeah, Mick Carter. Maybe we did. I don't know. There are big things you know about him from the beginning that are all wrapped up in, I think, very satisfying ways.
01:17:28
Speaker
I think so, too. Or at least very effective ways. some of the other characters as well that have emotional beats, I think, are wrapped up in...
01:17:41
Speaker
Again, very satisfying, ah very yeah poignant ways. And like any thriller, there are moments where you're terrified.
01:17:53
Speaker
There are moments where you feel stressed out. There are moments of laugh out loud humor. Yeah. and there are legitimate hero moments that Where I just wanted to like pump my fist in the air and I've like let the energy out, right? Like there are there are moments where you get to be a hero.
01:18:16
Speaker
And it feels great. Yeah. And there are moments where other characters in your life, there's one fairly early on where a character that you would not expect to do something very heroic.
01:18:31
Speaker
It's another laugh out loud moment, by the way. um There's a character you wouldn't expect to do something heroic, does something heroic. And the about the most absurdly heroic thing you can think in that moment.
01:18:43
Speaker
Yeah. ah Do you know which one I'm talking about? don't. and I want to know. It is when you're at, I'll say that this isn't this, but it's when you're at your mother's funeral.
01:18:55
Speaker
Okay, yes. Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about now. And that at the same time is another moment where you want both laugh out loud laugh.
01:19:07
Speaker
and pump your fist into the air because it is both badass and hilarious. And it's rare for a game, rare for at least a point and click game to give you that feeling of absolute triumph and heroism and as you get at certain points in this game.
01:19:31
Speaker
ah I don't think this is a spoiler. There's a point where you get a weapon and you get to use it. Yeah. And it is just great. It is just a little sequence where you're going around using this weapon and holy shit, do you feel like an absolute hero?
01:19:52
Speaker
It's in the trailer, if that helps. Okay, yeah. Yeah, no, it's it's very thrilling and very satisfying in that way. Yeah.
The Drifter: A Must-Play Indie Game
01:20:01
Speaker
So do you have any final thoughts about this game?
01:20:06
Speaker
I do not. I just wanted to get on here and gush about it with you because it is such a good game. It's so well designed. And yeah, I just, I love it. I can't recommend it enough.
01:20:20
Speaker
ah it's It's a new game. it came out last month and it's overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. There's about 1400 of them, which honestly is a lot for an indie game. So, you know, indie games break out there sometimes from luck and sometimes because they're just too good to ignore. Something catches on, right?
01:20:43
Speaker
This is one of those games that I think is way too good to ignore. This is a game where if it hadn't caught on in this way, it would have been that sort of, it would have been ah this legendary game where people would have talked about it for decades and like, oh my God, there's this little indie game that basically one played. It's called The Drifter and you have to check it out. Like this, this I think always would have found its audience because you can't help but talk about it after you've played it.
01:21:14
Speaker
It's really, really great. Yeah. think I was like texting you while I was playing it and the the absurd moment we were talking about. Like the really, i that's what i so I texted you with like, Jesus Christ.
01:21:27
Speaker
that's what that That's when that happened. This is such a rich, I think I was asleep and I woke up to like three texts in a row of Either that or I was at work. there there Whatever it was, i i remember picking up my phone and seeing like three texts in a row you reacting to the drifter. And I knew exactly what was happening. because I bet. Yeah, I bet you did. but didnt But you actually passed me in that moment, too. Yeah, because I did.
01:21:58
Speaker
yeah I also knew that there was something that i was there was exciting things ahead for me. Yeah. so i i I was certain when I texted you that you would know what I just found.
01:22:09
Speaker
So this is similar to last year where there there this is such a rich year or for games. And there's so many games of the year contenders like already.
01:22:24
Speaker
Everybody knows what my number one is. But this has shot up, I think, to like... This is probably going to be in the top three. Oh, this is my number one. Absolutely. Absolutely.
01:22:36
Speaker
there's nothing's going to knock my number one. and You know, no one. I know it's not. Everybody knows nothing's going to knock my number one out. It would have to be like... It would have to be another game like that. You know?
01:22:50
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Or like, or like then like, yeah. Or it'd have to be something to the, like, the level. You know what? No. Because my number one game is already to the level of Return of the Oberdin. It's true. It would have to be another one. Like, you're right.
01:23:05
Speaker
Absolutely. I... What if there was another game? What if there was another Myst game that just like knocked it out of the park? No way. It happened. Even if Myst came out this year, and it was the first time we ever saw Myst, it wouldn't have knocked. but Myst is not even one of my favorite games of all time. i don't know why I'm saying that. um But yeah, my point is...
01:23:32
Speaker
the Drifter immediately shot up above some pretty heavy competition. Yeah. It really is that good. It really is So we with the Drifter again, let's go replay. I kind of do want to replay it now that I know what's behind all the conspiracies and stuff.
01:23:50
Speaker
I might boot up beekeepers picnic picnic again and get those different those kind of those different options that I can try. Yeah, i I don't know. i There's so many other games that I do want to play right now, but do kind of want to see... Again, I did get 100% achievements on Beekeeper's Picnic, and i kind of want to go back and see some of the other things on the Drifter. Like, can... There's these moments where, like, he mentions something you changed in the environment. It's like, oh, if only I hadn't done that.
01:24:28
Speaker
Yeah. And I kind of want to see what happens. I'll say this. There's a moment where you're hanging. This what won't be too big of a spoiler. There's a moment where you're hanging off of a building. And he mentions, oh, I wish I had left the dumpster open.
01:24:43
Speaker
Yes. Yes. And there is a way through that puzzle, even if you've closed the dumpster. There is. I didn't know that. But I wonder what happens if you leave the dumpster open. Had you left it open?
01:24:56
Speaker
Yes, I did. i Here's the thing, Rose, is I left the dumpster open thinking, oh, at some point this is going to happen. And then when it kept not happening, I was like, oh, well, maybe i maybe what I'll need to do later is use that dumpster to climb up instead of fall into.
01:25:17
Speaker
yeah And so I closed it. Same. I did leave it open. And then I had the same thought. Because on that screen you're talking about, you there's like upper things.
01:25:30
Speaker
Yes. There's a thing that you keep looking up at. And it's the kind of a red herring. Exactly. So I did have it open. And then I had a thought. And then I closed it.
01:25:42
Speaker
And then horrible things happened after that. But... Oh, so you did end up closing it. And then you did end up having to figure out how to get down while closed. No, I did the same thing you did. thought I needed to close it. left it open for a very long time.
01:25:57
Speaker
Yes. And then I thought... Right before. Right before you needed it open. It's so annoying. You closed it. It's so funny. And, like, there you do have to...
01:26:11
Speaker
If we've spoiled this puzzle this much so far, not we haven't spoiled the puzzle. We've just kind of spoiled the circumstances surrounding the puzzle. I might as well say you do have to figure out how to open it.
01:26:22
Speaker
Yeah. While you're hanging off the building. Yeah. But I wonder what would have happened if you left it open. Yeah, good call. And there's other moments like that where I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't done this or if I hadn't done that.
01:26:38
Speaker
Also, there's an achievement that i really thought I really thought I had in the bag, but I didn't. And I'm so sad. Beat the game in nine lives? No. It's the tea.
01:26:50
Speaker
but Oh, my God. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I really thought I offered it to everyone. To the bad guys, to the good guys, to dead people. Like, I really thought I had it. I must have missed someone, like, early on.
01:27:03
Speaker
So, Pushing Up Roses. Yes. Our discussion of the drifter has come to an end. Yes. And I think that means our episode has come to an end.
01:27:14
Speaker
It has. I'm afraid this is where we say goodbye. that Don't cry. Don't, no, don't cry, everybody. We'll be we'll
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:27:24
Speaker
be back next week.
01:27:25
Speaker
but Maybe. And not only will we be back next week, you can find us in the meantime on Instagram at saveyourgamepod. odd Oh, almost had it this time.
01:27:42
Speaker
can email us at mattandroses at gmail.com and you can find us. We're both on blue sky. And I think that's, that's where Google pushing up roses. You'll find something. i can't guarantee be good, but you'll find something.
01:27:55
Speaker
Google Matt Allcamp. I'm not the monster. I'm not the one that's a monster. I'm the other one. I'm the other Matt Allcamp. And ah leave us reviews on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify. you can know yeah We talked about this, I think, before, but you can comment on ah ah episodes on spotify now oh i didn't know that that's fun so you can go there you can you can chat with each other and you know i i do occasionally go on and read them so yeah i would love to see your comments and i always the the best way to get my attention is on instagram i will see your comments i will respond to your comments
01:28:36
Speaker
um Somebody already left a comment, good artist on Instagram. So I will see them. I will read them. Yes, that is a good way to find me.
01:28:49
Speaker
All right. So I think that leaves us with only one thing left to say. Podcast is art. An artist's effort.