Lone Lamp

Short adventure with minimalistic aesthetics that hides something more. It’s more about clicking on objects and watching how they react. There are no hotspots or any indication that something can be interacted with. The only thing that changes your basic hand cursor are exits. Well, there’s also a slight change when you try talking to characters, but it feels a bit pointless. Aside from the black and white aesthetics, the artwork is simplistic. Everything is kept basic and free of needless items. Because you don't know what will function until you click on anything, it's helpful to have some simple art to bring out the obvious. You can typically tell immediately away what can be picked up. Unfortunately, the rest isn’t very interesting. You might see leaves falling when you click on a bush, dust when clicking on some papers, or simply hear a sound. The scenes just encourage you to click on numerous drawers and closets, none of which can be opened. The game is quite simple. The objective is to move around the town, talk to various characters and help them out, and use items on proper spots. Solutions make sense, so there's no need to experiment with insane combinations. Furthermore, your notebook records all current tasks. You also have to play a few minigames, which aren't really difficult. It might take you around one hour to beat the game. That’s not a lot, but you’re encouraged to play it again. This is connected to certain achievements and how you respond to characters. You can either help them with their problems or decide not to. I beat the game once and discovered less than one-third of the achievements. In addition, certain scenes have cleverly hidden secrets that lead to mysterious messages. Secrets look like ordinary objects in the world but unlock something when pressed in the right pattern. The problem is that finding the solution is hard. The only major problem with the game is the UI. If you open the notepad and the inventory, they won’t close on their own when you change screens. This can create issues. For instance, if you load the game while talking to a character, the conversation screen won’t go away. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a completely different location.