[h1]The Little Snowflake That Could[/h1]
My first real exposure to this game was through a YouTube video called “FLAKE The Legend of Snowblind – Adventure Game Geek – Episode 105” where the YouTuber, AdventureGameGeek, makes an excellent interview with the developer, Duje Segvic. I kind of hate even mentioning the video, since it often reduces reviews into feeling like indirect YouTube promotions, but I genuinely believe this one is worth a watch before or after finishing the game, as it helps with giving proper context to some potentially confusing design choices. All in all, I’m pleased to say that this game is a genuine labor of love, with a lot of passion and effort put into it and a considerate developer willing to hear out the fans. But that’s only half of what’s required for a game to be good. How well does the developer implement his ideas to bring out his vision? Let’s find out!
[h2]The Good[/h2]
[list]
[*] A lovely point-and-click adventure that dates back to a 2005 prototype. Surprisingly enough, it’s retro approach, both in regards to gameplay and stylistically, is still present! If you were a fan of 2000’s point-and-clicks with vector graphics, you’re bound to be hit by a wave of nostalgia.
[*] The story is surprisingly complex and thoughtfully crafted, with darker themes and lessons that resonate with all ages. Even material that hasn’t been used in the game yet hint at the wonderful direction that the developer wants to take the story, and I really hope he will be able to do so.
[*] A very interesting morality system influenced by the actions of your character. Good actions cause warm feelings, slowly turning Flake, our character, into water. Bad deeds make him feel cold-hearted, transforming him into an ice monster. I also really liked how, sometimes, the actions were completely optional, and didn’t interfere with your given objectives: You could find an item meant to solve a main objective’s puzzle that the game indirectly guides you towards, but if you care enough about the in-game world, inspecting various points of interest, you learn about other characters’ struggles. With that knowledge, the game leaves room to the player to figure out for themselves potential optional uses of those items mentioned to solve the “side-quests” without resorting to hand-holding or tying them to an achievement. If you’re successful, you’re rewarded with morality points, which feel much more earned that way. I hope that the developer takes full advantage of this very promising system, even extending into the achievements’ implications that “no good deed goes unpunished”.
[*] Puzzles, for the most part, have logical solutions and aren’t too frustrating or time consuming to figure out. If they are tougher, the game often gives you optional hints if you look for them, and worst case scenario you can always resort to a walkthrough if you end up feeling stuck or you’re not having fun.
[*] The developer already addressed the issue regarding the lack of a pause function, adding one and proving willingness to listen to the community.
[*] Aside from the music composed for the game and some voice acting from friends and family, this game is almost entirely a one-person project. The effort needed to pull this through should be congratulated, and it should also be acknowledged that this allows the final product to be as close to the developer’s artistic vision as possible!
[*] Likeable characters and charming humor.
[h2]The Not-So-Good[/h2]
[list]
[*] Despite it’s pretty lengthy duration for a point-and-click adventure of a solo developer (who mentioned in the aforementioned interview that it should take around 4-5 hours to complete, but judging from the reviews it seems it’s closer to 10 on a leisure playthrough), it is the complete first chapter of a larger story. People who are going in expecting full closure might be disappointed.
[*] While the concept of the morality system and some of its implementations are great, the game often forces the player into either positive or negative actions. You don’t get to choose between a positive or negative approach when problem-solving in these scenarios; instead, you are forced into an action to progress further into the game, which sometimes turns out to positively or negatively affect Flake. On one hand, this makes sense: it’s the first game in the series and the player needs to be introduced to the important mechanics going forward. However, it makes you feel that you’re passively witnessing Flake’s character growth instead of actively shaping it. I hope that this will be limited to the more important story beats in the following entries. Sometimes the game might offer the option to choose between a negative and a positive action, but the negative feels like it goes against the objective you’re trying to complete so you can’t really go in that route except if you’re actively trying to [spoiler] (for example, when you can insult the gate statue instead of choosing a name for him) [/spoiler]. I would personally prefer if the choices were more ambiguous, leaving room to the player to think about the potential positive or negative impacts of their actions on Flake and the supporting characters: for example, a one-time-use item you’d need to solve a puzzle could fall off the pocket of a walking character. Flake could pick it up and use it on the puzzle, but it would make him feel bad. But the player could also choose to talk to the walking character instead and try to return the item, making Flake feel good when the character lets him keep it.
[*] A few repeating animations and voice lines, with only two or three ever really being a minor issue because they add a few seconds of delay between dialogue skips (Flake making a snowball, one of Leonidis’ laugh tracks and scanning items).
[*] More profanity than what I would expect from an all-ages game. Thankfully, the profanity used here is rather light (mostly utilizing non-particularly offensive words such as “shut up”), especially compared to what children are subjected to in most media nowadays. Still, parents who don’t want any profanity in their children’s games should be aware of this.
[*] At least three puzzle solutions, while having logical thinking behind them, can go against the players’ logical thinking if it’s based on pre-established, real world rules, to the point that they might feel frustrated or almost cheated when they find them out [spoiler] (creating a huge snowball big enough to break a shed by rolling a small snowball from the top of a seemingly small slope, sticking a metallic seeming nail into a device with sparks of electricity jumping out of it, disguising a photograph as a pirate map) [/spoiler].
[*] This one is both a positive and a negative, depending on the person. I chose to include it in the “negatives” list, as it could have more negative consequences to the game’s sales. The dialogue is delivered by the developer and his friends and family. While it’s both charming and faithful to the game genre and era it’s referencing and the budgetary constraints are understandable, some players, especially the younger ones, might expect professional voice acting.
[h3]Conclusion[/h3]
FLAKE The Legend of Snowblind is a surprisingly good, nostalgic and lovingly crafted game with incredible potential going forward. However, as the first entry of a series and due to budgetary and human constraints, it also leaves a lot to be desired. For this game to come to full fruition and for the rest of the series to be made in the first place, it needs more exposure and support. Fortunately, this is a project that’s very much worth supporting.
[b]Final Score:[/b] 8.5/10
