Whirlight - No Time To Trip
Review
Point and click
by Quinn Levandoski
reviewed on PC
Classic Feels
Whirlight: No Time to Trip could have come out 30 years ago. Whether that's a good thing or not is going to vary a whole lot from one player to another, but there's little doubt that this is a loving throwback to a time when games were just a little bit different. Point-and-click adventure games are nowhere near dead, but really great ones are a bit hard to come by these days. Fortunately, developer imaginarylab is back with a follow-up to their cozy clicker Harry Morgan with an even more fantastical and ambitious entry into the genre.
The story starts with Hector. Hector is a character you've seen dozens of times before in other media - he's a brilliant inventor, but he's quirky! He can think up overly complex solutions for mundane problems, but he also dresses funny, has a messy house and workshop, and cracks witty lines as he goes about his day. It's not a bad thing, but it definitely borders on banal. The voice acting and writing keep the character pleasant enough, but it's a fine line between homage to character tropes and retread. He's eventually joined by Margaret, and the two embark on a fantastical adventure that, coincidentally, requires a whole bunch of puzzles to complete.
Let's Do The Time Warp
The game's narrative isn't just split across space as players move through cities, dreamscapes, and more; it's also split across time. If navigating modern-day weren't complicated enough, the tale spans centuries, and there are creative uses of bouncing between them to make lasting changes and solve puzzles. This freedom of time and place goes a long way toward keeping things fresh. It's fun to be in a modern coastal city one day, the 1900s the next, then pop way back to the time of woolly mammoths.
The whole thing feels very Saturday-morning-cartoon, and in that regard, it's great. Every location and character feels full of whimsy, and Whirlight exudes an aura of adventure, exploration, and curiosity. There's no cynicism here - no big dark turn, no heartbreak. And that's refreshing.
Puzzling
Speaking of puzzles, I find them to be among the hardest game mechanics to discuss in reviews. Are they hard? Are they easy? Fun? Frustrating? I can obviously share my experience, but ultimately, it's very subjective - possibly more so than mechanics in any other genre. Mechanically, the puzzles function here similarly to how they function in most point-and-click adventures. You'll find items as you explore, and you'll get dialogue cues about how you may be able to interact with points of interest in the environment. Items can be applied to objects on the screen to use them (if able), and they can even be combined in the inventory to make new items.
What's going to cause differences in opinion is how clear these cues are. In my experience, the game leans toward the pretty challenging side, and I had to spend quite a bit of time revisiting locations and kind of just clicking through my inventory (sometimes literally), throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Does that just make me bad at the game? Yeah, maybe! Is significant backtracking and trial-and-error a feature instead of a bug? Yes, to a degree. But there were enough puzzles that just seemed to require such overly specific lines of thinking that I found myself frustrated often enough. In its own way, this also makes the game feel like an homage to another time. It's hard, and the game really doesn't offer any assistance when things seem a bit confusing. You've just got to calm down, take a look at what you've got and where you've been, and try to think of things in a different way.
Simply Charming
However, when the puzzles click, they're often quite charming. In fact, everything about this game is quite charming. If I had to pare my review down to one word, that'd probably be it, from the visuals and music to the writing and overall story. I've talked a lot about the game feeling like a throwback, and even though the visuals are crisp, it still feels old - but in a good way! There's a nostalgic charm to the colours and busy play environments that harken back to older point-and-click games. The only visual element that didn't quite do it for me is the character animation, which seems stiff. It might be intentional, but the characters move pretty robotically, and mouth movements aren’t really even close to matching dialogue. It's a small complaint, though. Whirlight is an overall playful delight for the senses.
Whirlight feels
Point-and-Clicks are a niche genre, and it shouldn't be a surprise that this game is easy to recommend to those who already know they love it. If you don't? It's still worth checking out, but be prepared for tough puzzles that require backtracking, some confusion, and good old-fashioned trial and error. Does that get frustrating? Yeah, sometimes it does. But the whole thing is wrapped up in such an appealing package that you probably won't mind.
As always, follow Hooked Gamers on Instagram for news updates, reviews, competitions and more.
7.5
fun score
Pros
Charming atmosphere
Cons
Puzzles can be tough, and there will be backtracking
