Online Game Review: "Travelogue"

I stumbled upon this game while browsing Jay is Games, and was expecting something moderately fun. What I got was a game that hooked me.

In this unique twist on the "Escape-the-room" genre, you play a mysterious traveler, stuck in a dumpy hotel in some nameless metropolis, wide awake at 3 AM. Your character is depressed, kept going only by the dream of a faraway place, a paradise of sun, wind and waves. Your goal is to find a way there.

The graphics are subtle. The style is a 3D-rendered photorealistic environment that seems plain and simple, but it is really surprisingly beautiful, capturing the quiet melancholy of a no-frills hotel. There is an elegant simplicity to the graphics in this game, accented by the live-action clips on the TV in your room.

Picking up a TV guide on the desk will give you a list of a few channels to select, each one very interesting. There is a music channel showing jerky shots from a rock concert, a sports channel showing clips from a soccer game, a religion channel showing a preacher lecturing about the Coming of Christ, and a shopping channel showing a dolphin bottle opener for sale. Each channel actually plays a loop of the same stuff over and over (it is a game after all), but the loops are all long and seamless, to give an excellent impression of an actual TV program. The TV element is very well-done, oh, and each channel gives you a clue to the game's solution. ;-)

The navigation is smooth and Myst-style, like Crimson Room and Viridian Room. Getting around the room can be a bit tricky at first, and at firt I didn't realize what you were supposed to do. You see, as the game starts you are laying on the bed trying to get to sleep, and in order to really move around the room you have to get up off the bed first (HINT: roll over so you're facing the door, and click on the door to move out of the bed).
As usual in escape-the-room fare, you have to click on everything and look everywhere to find clues as to the escape route. Fortunately the cursor changes slightly when you roll over something clickable, so it tells you when something's clickable and when it isn't (always a plus).

But what really makes this game is its story. The creators of this game are masters of the art of storytelling, in that they are able to convey volumes with just the tiniest bit of information. Despite knowing nothing about the main character, the subtlest elements of the game (usually little things in the narration) really give you a sense of understanding the character and his/her motives. The tone of the game is moody and melancholy, undercut with a sense of exhileration and excitement. The ending of the game conjured up a whole rainbow of emotions.

The solutions to the puzzles are elegant and fairly logical, and several of them are nothing short of ingenious. You are not required to piece anything together from just a single scrap of paper, and the narration doesn't hammer you over the head with clues, the game lays out its ideas and puzzles very cleverly. Figuring out how to tune the other stations in, where to find the third token, etc. are all very interesting and almost exhilerating. This is an easy game to get into, to feel.

Overall, the game takes about a half-hour to figure out and beat with no help. It's a nice simple adventure and a fascinating story (and no, I had no hand in the creation of the game, and if I were being paid to advertise the game I would say so :) ).

The Jay is Games walkthrough isn't really necessary, since a functional walkthrough is available from the game itself (just click on the "help" button at the bottom of the window). Still, the community discussion is good, I wrote a few things myself.

Graphics & Sound: 4.5/5 (a bit sparse but that works for this story, well-rendered, and extra points given for the TV)
Gameplay: 4/5 (points taken off for the difficulty in figuring out how to get up at first)
Story: 5/5 (just plain beautiful)
Puzzles: 4/5 (the safe puzzle was too hard, and we could have had at least some hint with the suitcase, but the rest is excellent)

Overall: 4.5/5