![]() The supporting cast are also engaging and fantastic to talk to, each with their own worries and struggles. She’s strong and determined, and an asset to the story. Amy is a great lead because she’s likeable and relatable - she just wants to fix cars and work as a mechanic rather than worry about her illness, and she always makes time for her friends in the market, cracking jokes that can bring a smile to anyone’s face. The characters are the lifeblood of Shardlight, enhancing its plausibility while also adding to and enriching the story. The game deals with the apocalypse so nonchalantly because these characters have either lived through the bombs or have only ever known life like this. Shardlight manages to hone in on the daily struggles of the characters and creates a believable world in the process. The world of Shardlight is very simplistic, but this is in its favour - so often post-apocalyptic worlds are overwhelmed by exposition and backstory, and not enough attention is focused on the hows and whys of what’s going on at the present moment. ![]() Her lottery job takes her far beyond getting a vaccine, however, and soon she’s caught up with a rebel faction who are looking to change the face of society. She embarks on a lottery job for the Aristocracy, the oligarchy of Amy’s nameless home city, in order to have a chance of winning a vaccine for the illness. You control Amy Wellard, a car mechanic who suffers from a plague which is sweeping the nation called Green Lung. With their last release, Technobabylon, ranking among their best games, Shardlight has a tough act to follow. In Shardlight, Wadjet Eye return to the apocalypse, something previously explored in Primordia, only this time they’re looking at it from the perspective of humans rather than robots. Each new title brings with it a new world to explore and indulge in for a good few hours. Voice acting is excellent, in particular scavenger Amy (Shelly Shenoy), who is the protagonist, and main villain Tiberius (Abe Goldfarb, who played Joey in the Blackwell series).Wadjet Eye Games never fail to release consistently good point-and-click adventures that keep you on the edge of your seat, while maintaining solid puzzles and excellent storylines. Frankly, some things about the endings don't make a lot of sense, but I won't go into that as we would enter spoiler territory. There are three different epilogues depending on a choice at the last moment which isn't influenced by previous in-game decisions. I don't particularly like adventures which punish you at every turn, but in this case it would have been nice to allow the player to make mistakes and plan poorly, with negative results. For example, an evasion from a supposedly inescapable prison feels anticlimactic, and so does the revolution which has been building up for the whole game. Shardlight starts strongly and never lost my interest, but the last act is rushed. Add to this a death cult focused on a mysterious masked figure, the Reaper, and you have a compelling premise. The masses live in poverty and are plagued by a deadly epidemic, the Green Lung the ruling Aristocracy hoards the cure and distributes lottery tickets with the chance to win a treatment to those who volunteer for dangerous jobs. Shardlight has an interesting setting, probably inspired by Dishonored: a post-apocalyptic society with a Neo-Victorian style and a strong class division. While overall I enjoyed all these games, I really hope they don't go further in that direction. although the trend seems to be heading towards easier solutions: compare the Blackwell series to Shardlight, Unavowed and Lamplight City. I like Wadjet Eye games: they scratch my itch for old-school point-and-click adventures with pleasant retro graphics, competent writing and puzzles which are neither frustrating (no pixel-hunting, for example) nor so easy they become pointless.
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