Resonance Review

A welcome return to the days of yore.

Just another regular day at the office...or is it?

When I was younger and sucked more at games than I do now, I found solace in the point-and-click style of games. They rarely required quick reflexes, and often you could do things at your own pace with the game's story allowing for an exorbitant amount of time to figure out the next step. Resonance, by XII Games, is a stellar trip down the road of nostalgia, but even with some new innovations, it also relives some old problems.

Point-and-click adventure games are classically narrative-focused. Everything you do is in the interest of finding out more of the plot, eked out puzzle by puzzle until the ending. There is no wandering around per se – every scene and object holds a purpose, and you'd only find yourself wandering if you do not know what to do next. Resonance stands out among the 2012 line-up not just because it follows this genre that is oft thought dead but also because its visuals resembles those games of my childhood. The graphics are 16-bit and pixelated, but as opposed to becoming a distraction for my modernized attention span, they feel welcoming and inviting. Although I enjoy what graphic rendering engines can do nowadays, it is relaxing to have a 2D scene in front of me that is fairly easy to process. Each scene is also refreshingly colorful, whether it is in a run-down section of the city or a hospital waiting room; the eye will never get bored. Aside from the characters and action revealed via the narrative, there are also animations like blinking TVs or silhouettes of traffic passing by in the foreground that keep things interesting. Also, characters all have unique appearances without being too eccentric for their setting. The game defaults at a low resolution (640x480), but its settings can be adjusted to fit your widescreen monitor of choice, which is how I preferred to play. Everything still looked great.

Ray went off to see the Wizard. It was underwhelming.

The story is no Monkey Island or Legend of Kyrandia – despite the ability to relive games of the past from when my generation was a kid, the story is remarkably adult. It takes place in a contemporary city and follows a slightly sci-fi arc involving conspiracies and budding relationships. Also in contrast to older games, the player is given control of four different characters to complete objectives. Initially, you play out a bit of the story with each one individually, but circumstances bring all four characters together and under your command. This is where the game becomes the most interesting but also the most frustrating. For those unfamiliar, point-and-click adventure games involve finding clues and objects and building an inventory to use for solving puzzles later on. To find even the most innocuous objects requires clicking on everything, and Resonance retains the characteristic of not making everything obvious. Thankfully, the trope of "pixel hunting" does not rear its ugly head here, but take my recommendation and make sure to swing the cursor all over the screen to make sure you have not missed some arbitrary object. On top of learning how each of the four protagonists' stories are connected, the creativity behind how they must interact to move along is delightful. Any task that seems obviously assigned to one character ends up being complicated and requiring team work like I have never seen in similar games.

Something I enjoyed was the way the game was modernized beyond the mature tale. Interacting with objects and characters has been given more depth by enhancing the idea of the inventory and the way the mouse is used. Left-clicking on an object makes the character at hand interact with it, but right-clicking makes him or her make an observation or look at the object more closely, which is often a way to progress. Also, each character has a pool of memories to use in conversations and other scenarios. Long-term memories automatically populate each character's inventory as events unfold, and the player can long-click on objects and drag them into short-term memory inventory or on another character. What this allows is the ability to ask various characters about objects you saw in another scene without everyone having to be together. It also prevents waiting for that one piece of dialogue to pop up so you can move on. However, as much as I truly enjoyed these extra interactions being possible, they also opened up a new fallacy: function hunting. It is entirely possible to have all the necessary objects on hand but not know what to do next because you're not right-clicking, clicking and dragging, or long-clicking the right thing.

The visuals should seem familiar. The phonograph should not.

While you are reliving your childhood memories through touch and sight, the sounds will also please you. Except for minor internal thoughts, such as when a character looks at an object, the game is fully voice-acted. The acting itself is excellent, and each actor successfully conveys individual and memorable characters. Along with a well-written script, which never becomes too convoluted or verbose, the story is conveyed thoughtfully and clearly. Except for some dialogue-heavy scenes near the end of the game, the story is very easy to follow without being patronizing. I'd only say that the actual recordings of the voices could go a step further to be integrated into their environments. Sometimes, I found myself sucked out of the fascinating world because a voice sounded like it was in the quiet room with me instead of on the street or in a large, vacuous office. It's the little things. The soundtrack fits its purpose well, but none of the music is particularly interesting or worth replaying.

The game as a whole takes a few hours to complete if you know what you're doing at every step. The length, like an old-school game, is increased depending on how stuck you become at any point. Games like this sometimes require sitting and thinking, browsing your inventory like a mad man, or even quitting and stepping away for a while to stew over the possibilities. That said, they are not for everyone. People who desire and prefer action will become bored and frustrated quickly, which is a shame because it often seems like the gaming world is veering towards a path of continual reward. In Resonance, the reward comes with every solution and step forward. In the literal sense, there is a points tracker and an achievements menu that let you know how many possible goals you've achieved. Don't be fooled, though. If your idea of reward is someone's head exploding at the end of your iron sights or a giant mechanism opening a massive door to the next area (and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that), you won't find much satisfaction here. The game's strict adherence to its genre is both its gift and curse.

After a few survival horror games, you'll be delighted to hear this subway ride is safe!

If you gain satisfaction from solving puzzles either in video games or in the newspaper, there is a good chance you will enjoy Resonance. If you like playing games with intricate and adult storylines, you are also a member of the right audience. The nostalgic but lively visuals, the great writing, and the joy of surmounting a challenge with just a few clicks of your mouse are among the qualities that make this game a delightful hit.

All images obtained from the game's website.