Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries

A very good game. An interesting main charachter. And a nice little story

Sides Taken: Keats & Yeats - Yours Wilde - Mine If you're the kind of person who's gone out of your way to read Oscar Wilde at any point in your life just buy the damn game.

Started playing "Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries" and finished it in 3 hours! This intriguing murder mystery is the interactive version of an Irish comic book series published by Atomic Diner. It features Jennifer Chevalier, a young woman in Paris, faced with sudden tragedy when her father is killed. The shock of this trauma wakes her dormant special powers: she sees dead people. And none other than the ghost of Oscar Wilde is adamant to help her uncover the truth! The beautiful black and white comic book style artwork pulls you into this game, a cool mystery story filled with murder, conspiracy and intrigue keeps you playing, and the gameplay, although there's not much of it, keeps you entertained while trying to figure everything out and reach the conclusion. There are two main parts to this game. First of all, you'll have to switch between Jennifer and Oscar as two playable characters, pretty much in the same way as you play the "Blackwell" adventure game series. Because ghosts tend to gain access to places physical beings can't (or at least not unseen...), and also they often have peculiar influences on their environments which could be used in your favor. Secondly, Jennifer keeps a notebook in which she gathers clues. You'll have to find some items to help you with some puzzles, but the main part is reconstructing events, putting clues together, through the sketches Jennifer makes (oh yes, she's an artist and can draw very realistically) to uncover what actually happened. The story will take you from Paris to London and finally to the great library of Trinity College in Dublin (I went there once, it really is awesome!) You'll spend a lot of time talking to living humans as well as ghosts, piecing everything together so you can figure out what the next course of action should be. There are a couple of tricky puzzles involving tarot cards, electric lights and morse code which you might not immediately figure out. The game isn't voiced since, well, it's essentially still a graphic novel, but luckily you can adjust the speed at which the text changes so anyone who fancies themselves an actor can go "wilde" with the French, British and Irish accents. It's a short game, there's really not much to it, it's more stylistic than a flashy adventure game, but it's good for 3 hours of fun in between some harder games. And it actually made me want to read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" again...

While I did enjoy the game overall, there were quite a few things that held it back for me. The game is very short and can easily be finished in one sitting, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean there isn’t as much development between Jenni and Oscar as I would’ve liked, especially given how fun their dynamic can be at times. One of my biggest issues was the complete lack of background music, all you hear most of the time is wind and Jenni's footsteps, which made the game feel oddly empty, and the sudden menu music when loading or exiting actually startled me a couple of times because of how silent everything else was. There’s also no voice acting at all, which was particularly disappointing since the trailer clearly features voices for Jenni and Oscar that suited them perfectly, making the silence in game feel like a downgrade. Visually, a lot of scenes are very static, with minimal animation, and in some moments it really undercuts the tension, especially the scene where Jenni is held at gunpoint alongside Helena and Oscar, yet all three look strangely unfazed, as if nothing serious is happening. That said, the dialogue is genuinely funny, especially Oscar’s, with my favourite moment being the for lack of a better word, ♥♥♥♥♥ off, between him and Mrs Digby at the train station, which genuinely made me laugh. The story itself is also engaging and at one point I even thought there might have been a past relationship between Jenni’s father and Oscar based on the clues given, which kept me invested. Overall, it’s an enjoyable experience with strong writing and humour, but it feels like a game with a lot of missed potential that could have benefitted from more polish and development.

* Blackwell pero en Europa en los años '20 * Blackwell pero con un fantasma famoso * Blackwell pero con gráficos comiqueros * Blackwell pero el inventario son dibujos o unas viñetas que a veces están incompletas o desordenadas * Blackwell pero con una forma un tanto rara de elegir los diálogos Puntaje: 7/10

Scores points for being very different. Combining Oscar Wilde with the roaring 20s? Black and white graphics? The actual gameplay is rather weak for a Point-n-click, but it's sufficient. The story is very condensed, but could use some more fleshing out, especially to properly introduce the Irish characters (keeping this vague to avoid spoilers). I also feel that Oscar's character oscillates too much between lovable dandy, hint dispenser and telling Jenni to be more careful. If you're using such a well-known figure from literary history you should really make use of all the information available about his character to have him be a more nuanced and fleshed out part of the story.

Cute Little game. The art work is great, the wit is fun. Not much a game really, more like an interactive story book. Sad is doesn't have any voice over, I think that would take it up several levels. It's short and sweet, and if you can get it on sale, not a bad little time waster.