[b]From Lex to Rex has a number of enjoyable aspects, but this medieval gastronomic adventure could have used a little more time in the oven[/b].
IN SHORT: I enjoyed my time with From Lex to Rex, and if you are into adventure games, you might enjoy yourself, too! There's a lot to like about this game. Unfortunately, there's a also a pretty severe lack of polish. While I tend to be pretty forgiving with the indies that I gravitate to, as I fully understand how challenging game dev is, there's also a level of quality that I expect from a commercial title, and this one comes up a little shy of that benchmark. I don't relish giving this game a thumbs-down, and will absolutely change this review in the future if some of the issues are addressed.
This game is a comedic pixel-art point-and-click adventure which follows our hero, Lex, a starving peasant who breaks into a castle with the dual goals of A) committing regicide and B) filling his stomach. Once inside the castle, though, a number of hijinks ensue. We encounter vengeful sorceress princesses, frog princes, dimwitted guards, and lots of cases of prince-and-the-pauperish cases of mistaken identity. It's Procession to Calvary meets Viktor: A Steampunk Adventure by way of Monkey Island. However, unlike these games, From Lex to Rex is purely linear - [b]There's no wandering about, no backtracking, and each room is its own self-contained puzzle[/b], similar to Samorost or Gobliiins.
[b]The game's strongest aspects[/b] are the art, which lovely and retro, and animations, which have received lots of care and attention. The background music, a selection of public-domain classical works, also feel like they fit the game well. There are definitely some fun humorous moments and scenes in the game, as well, that might be worth your time.
The puzzles are fine, though perhaps a tad illogical, and there are a few pixel hunts. This isn't serious. [b]However, there are a number of issues that definitely should really have been ironed out prior to release.[/b]
[list]
[*]The writing - the game was not written in English - in fact, when you first load the game, it will be in Spanish, and you must select English from the options - and the translation is definitely iffy. The main idea of the jokes definitely comes across, but there are a large number of misspellings, grammatical errors, oddly worded sentences, and just plain old mistranslations (example: instead of asking for directions, you ask for "indications"). There's also a small bit of text that was missed in the translation, so some lines or hotspots will randomly be in Spanish if you play the English version.
[*]Text glitches - While playing the game, I sometimes had dialogues cutting themself off at the edge of the screen or overlapping each other. Some text boxes appear in the wrong spot, as though Lex can throw his voice like a ventriloquist.
[*]Hotspot and inventory inconsistency - Some item combinations and inventory interactions provide feedback when attempted, but many do not, without much rhyme or reason. One item, a candle, is picked up in the third scene but used later in the game. While it is present in your inventory in most scenes, there is at least one scene where you don't have it with you, but then it shows back up in the next scene. I encountered a bug where my inventory disappeared outright, necessitaitng a reload. I also had my mouse cursor disappear on me a few times as well.
[*]The save/load system - or lack thereof. There is no way to save your progress in the game. Instead, there's a pre-defined load menu which lets you start playing from the beginning of any one of the game's 16 scenes, even if you haven't gotten that far in the game yet.
[/list]
From Lex to Rex winds up being an entertaining experience, but it's definitely pretty rough around the edges. I think all of the issues I mentioned above, however, are fixable things. I will absolutely amend my review if some effort is made to iron out these unfortunate wrinkles. Meanwhile, if you're willing to take a gamble on an indie that has a good bit going for it despite the rough edges, you might really like with this one.
