Embrace the darkness and come to morally gray side in this eerie, noir-flavored challenging point’n’click adventure episode about cults and demons. Good morals are probably overrated anyway.
Meet Marduk - your “classic noir” snarky and somewhat conceited protagonist. Coming from (what is hinted on) a difficult, trauma-filled upbringing, one day he decides to turn his life around in a swift 180 degrees move by making a pact with a cult. This pact gives him riches, abilities and connections that allow for a lifestyle he always wanted and an escape from the life he’s trying to forget. In return Marduk caters to the cult’s dark needs, performing jobs that would get any normal personal a life term without the possibility of parole. Marduk is aware of the screwed-up choice he made yet enjoys his life enough to continue working for them, even after having a daughter. The cult, however, doesn’t play games. It always gets what it wants, and the consequences of his decision come crushing down when they ask for his ultimate sacrifice. Unable to give them what they need he grabs his daughter and runs away. But – as mentioned, the cult does not play games, so they take his most precious thing away from him anyway. Battered and broken, Marduk is determined to do whatever it takes to get his daughter back, fully aware that in this twisted scenario – he’s the one who broke the pact. With no one to turn to he’s trying to get into the cult’s “storage” for an artifact that can help him. Cue in dark, dunk alleyways, dive bars, lairs of violent, insane people and gang’s hideouts and you’ll get the idea of the kind of adventure is in front of you. Oh, and cue in demons.
“Marduk’s Longest Night” delivers all this craziness in a unique hand-drawn style. It has a definite indie feel to it yet stands firmly on its own even in that niche. Its “serious cartoon” look goes well with the sinister feeling that follows Marduk wherever he goes, and the eyes that periodically open in the random places on screen to watch him add to the uneasy feeling even more. Somehow, the deceiving simplicity of the graphics ramps up the intensity of events and brings a slight horror element into already dark adventure.
This is a classic point’n’click with the “dialogues, pick-up/combine inventory and examine everything” way to progress the genre is famous for. Two interesting features added to this standard mechanic: one is a tablet that allows Marduk to manipulate people, and another is a book that lets him call up demons to try and get answers to his questions. Both are used only few times in this episode but seem to be an intriguing addition to look forward to as he gets to interact with more creatures. Puzzles in “The Cult: Marduk’s Longest Night” are pretty challenging. Everything must be examined thoroughly and every line Marduk has to say – paid attention to. There’s a stumper there in the middle – the biggest puzzle of the game where complexity ratchets up to a whole new level, but satisfaction from solving it (almost) makes up for it. Overall though, the seeming difficulty of gameplay (comparatively speaking) doesn’t come from an over-use of warped logic, but rather from several puzzle solutions which might be logically explained but don’t necessarily come naturally to a player instead coming across as unintuitive. Just something to keep in mind for the impatient ones.
The writing, coming through Marduk’s dry voice, is solid and works within reality it’s presenting. It’s hard to initially feel sorry for him, and he comes across as quite a jerk at times, but his cause is easy to relate to, and the plot eventually pulls the player on the side of the main protagonist, rooting for him to succeed despite not agreeing with many choices he made. The story is much bigger than what can be experienced in this episode, but the events wrap up to a satisfying degree, and there is a coherent, if a bit wild, conclusion to this part of the game with a definite bridge leading into the other.
There are nice ambient tracks that are responsive to the changing environment with the dive bar composition taking the cake. Since there is no voice-over in the game, the music (along with solid, if sparse, sound effects) works as the main medium of the story auditorily, and it does a good job building up the atmosphere without distracting from main events; there is a good balance here.
“The Cult: Marduk’s Longest Night” is a grim (with bits of dry humor), surprisingly deep adventure that will primarily appeal to those already looking for something dark-themed, perhaps with a shade of noir. It’ll also be a good fit for players that haven’t come across a challenging PNC in a while - this one will make you think hard and even try your patience a little. If you don’t have particular stylistic preferences within genre but still looking to sink your teeth into an intriguing story that will develop over the course of several episodes – give this a try, at $5.99 for 4-5 hour game time, it’s a good value for a very solid indie that might interest you enough to look into Marduk’s troubles further. Also, there are demons. So you know what to do if you like them in your adventures.
