It's Grim Up North | Chapter 1 & 2

"It’s Grim Up North is flawed". There’s no getting around that. Clumsy interface, grammatical errors (and I’m not talking about the blatant slang), the protagonist walking through objects, and characters telling you to do things you’ve already done. But oh, it sure is fun anyway, init? Terry’s ad lib remarks and insults towards the other villagers, inventory puzzles that are put together logically, funny animations like Terry twirling a shotgun, and of course the hilarious combat sequences and the creative alien designs. It all fits together so well, and had me in stitches for a few hours. Those hoping for a complete game will be disappointed by the “to be continued” nature of the (non-)ending here, but as the first chapter of what I hope will become a memorable adventure-RPG hybrid series, it now has the opportunity to fix its technical issues for future episodes (and ideally patch this introductory chapter too). If not, I might start to wonder if the developers are alien imposters as well. Read my full review on https://adventuregamehotspot.com/review/1965/its-grim-up-north-chapter-1

It's a funny little game, the type that's fun to play with a casual gaming/adventure fan partner. Rough around the edges, though. Sometimes you can retrigger dialogue for events that should be flagged as completed. Sprite/background layer priority is borderline nonexistent and you'll walk on top of shelves that should be in the foreground and such all the time. Verbs should have hotkeys and/or be selectable from the top bar; cycling through them is a pain in the butt. Exits should be triggered without having to 'use' them. The brassy music can be a little grating after awhile, as well as it may fit with the theme and setting. All that said, it's decently charming and humorous, the puzzle difficulty is just right, and being able to highlight all the interactables is always appreciated. Maybe more of a $5 than an $8. EDIT CONSIDERING CHAPTER 2 Chapter 2 shows that the dev isn't really improving nor has a real grip on what people want from a game with this theming. The aliens are one way to add a twist to the Yorkshire theme, but the Mootrix bit being the 2nd half of chapter 2 was a shark-jump to be sure. The music is somehow even more annoying here and the whole thing is just, I dunno... stupid. The developer has also not improved the technical and grammatical elements of the game. There are free point n click adventure games where background/foreground elements are properly prioritized. Looks EXTREMELY cheap and hacky when you walk over something that should be in front of/behind/below/above you. There are still invisible objects that should be fully removed after they're taken and their purpose is fulfilled, yet you can still take and examine them. Still lots of typos and improperly capitalized words in the script. I just can't recommend it. Thanks for better verbs and exits, though. The combat just needs to be scrapped. It's a waste of development effort all around, and the skip option shows no confidence in it. There's no interplay between it, the other combat sequences, or the world. There's no equipment, items, skill trees, or experience to be gained. It should have been a one-off gimmick at best.

I liked this game so I am giving a positive vote, in hopes that we will be getting a Chapter 2 soon. Sure, it is a bit short and ends in a cliffhanger, (still the Steam discount price I got it was great for the game's size) but I liked the humor and the refereneces to other franchises. Also Terry is a memorable protgonist and exchanges some witty lines with the other characters in the game. It could use a bit of polishing (some graphic-collision issues, some typos here and there and one time where I had to repeat the solution of a puzzle to trigger the event to move to the next scene), but in general it is pretty good for an indie-game. Dear devs: keep the chapters coming and Cheers!

es una lástima pero el juego no atrapa. me resulta difícil seguir jugandolo. quizás es algo con los diálogos, con la tipografía, no lo sé. pero no me genera curiosidad por ver qué sigue en ningún momento y eso que point and click y pixel art es mi elección por excelencia. otra cosa que lo hace aburrido es que no hay traducción al español y, aunque prácticamente lengua madre, hay mucha expresiones idiomáticas que no terminan de hacer click para generar humor a alguien con otro idioma.

I grew up playing a lot of the old PC ROM point-and-click games in the 90s and 00s and this very much reminded me of those but obviously with a much more grown-up comedic spin to something like Freddi Fish haha. There is humour here that will be lost on people who are not or don't live in the UK but the popular culture references should get a chuckle or two out of you regardless. But if you've ever wondered what the British countryside is, it's a lot more this and a lot less Downton Abbey and Coronation Street. The controls are very rudimentary. You can play through the entire game using your mouse only with the odd keyboard prompt there to help should you wish to use them. The combat is setup in a very neat way but ultimately none of the fights require too much strategic thinking. Who knows, maybe the devs are planning on making the battles a little more difficult in the later episodes but not once did I come close to death, not even in the last couple of battles. But as a diehard fan of turn-based combat, I liked the idea of it. Just wish it was a little more challenging. There were a couple of bugs an issues that I encountered during my playthrough: - I was softlocked by the game once in a battle towards the end where the enemy died from poison rather than a direct attack which resulted in the menus just not popping up again - In Barry's pub, once I went to the toilet while dialogue was still ongoing and Barry's talking head art vanished but the dialogue would keep going - A handful of times in the second-to-last battle, the attack prompts didn't appear and I just automatically did max damage - The selection fields of the items in the inventory were a little mysterious sometimes. I found the right-hand spot on the top row particularly tricky to click and select most of the time. You'd have to click the top left corner of the box for the item to get selected - The pause menu is completely silent - There were grammatical errors and syntax issues every here and there Overall, I played through the entire game in about 4.5h and had a fun time doing so despite some of the issues I had, to the point that I might even go and back to grab the handful of achievements I missed. If you have a couple of hours to spare and want something casual to play for a few quick laughs, why not this? 6.5/10