Unforeseen Incidents review

A great revival of the point-and-click genre, bursting with all its nostalgic and fun ingredients.   

Oh, the memories of the point-and-click golden era, with LucasArts dominating the late 1990’s. Great stories, hilarious dialogue and beautiful art. Application Systems Heidelberg and Backwoods Entertainment have created a faithful homage to that nostalgia with their latest game, Unforeseen Incidents. The game is available as of today for $19.99 / 19.99 Euros / £15.49.

Amazing hand drawn graphics, lovable characters and a mysterious story to wrap it all up makes Unforeseen Incidents a must play for every fan of the genre wanting to relive those unique adventures that lead LucasArts to the gaming Hall of Fame.

Harper Pendrell is a handyman that lives in a small town where nothing exciting ever happens until a strange disease strikes its population with an alarming death rate that spreads panic onto an unsuspecting community. But after a strange woman dies at his feet with a message needing to be delivered, Harper becomes the last hope of revealing a conspiracy that involves the government and a pharmaceutical company.

Together with the town’s scientist and a tough-as-nails forest ranger, Harper will leave his quiet life in order to uncover the truth and, hopefully, save Yaletown from the dark agenda that lurks around its oblivious population.

German indie studio Backwoods Entertainment has crafted a point-and-click adventure loyal to the genre’s past and origins. Harper Pendrell is a charismatic main character with really funny comments every step of the way, built as the typical innocent and good-hearted hero who forges a team of companions with different archetypes: in this case the old scientist and the tough park ranger.

With hard puzzles to solve and situations to overcome, Unforeseen Incidents challenges the patience of players to find the right combination of items and timing in order to progress in the story. Finding the right item on each screen to interact with in order to get a new item key element will prove as challenging as The Curse of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango or Full Throttle.

With an amazing soundtrack to envelop the game, Unforeseen Incidents also has some pretty good voice acting to join the formula. The only thing that struck me as odd is the camera zoom-in during dialogues, which shows some flaws in the drawings, while also proving to be an unnecessary aesthetic decision.

The user experience and interface are intuitive, making browsing the inventory and exploration simple and enjoyable. Carefully placed bits of information and hints inside dialogue lines and the different screens not only make for smooth gameplay, but also story progression. Personally, I got stuck on two or three occasions, later finding my way after going back to previous scenarios, analyzing my inventory and interacting with different characters and locations.

But the bread and butter of this genre is always in the story and its flow, which Unforeseen Incidents nails almost effortlessly. It adds dark tones to some scenes and plot points, involving topics like power abuse, the health corporation and cruel agendas.

Unforeseen Incidents is an amazing new addition to the point-and-click genre, taking inspiration from the best titles within it and adding some personal touches to deliver an engaging, emotionally powerful and beautifully presented experience.