[b] The Eyes of Dr Kautzmann by Fintan Devenney (PC 2022) [/b]
This is a very short point and click adventure where you need to get out of a prison inspired by German expressionist cinema, namely the movie ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ which you can watch below. I’m not sure why this young UK developer chose this to be their first themed game, but they have. While the game is inspired from the movie mentioned above, it branches off into its own make-believe story and lore.
https://youtu.be/-lfEp5t2FlE?feature=shared
The 2 most voiced complaints are that the handwritten notes are hardly readable which could easily be avoided if the developer was to simply add a plain text mode for each note also. The second complaint is that the one and only puzzle in the game, makes no sense, which robs players from feeling that they’ve really achieved anything by solving it.
The clues often missed by players is that the solution is NOT actually inside the prison since it has already been searched thoroughly. The second clue is that the code was implemented by the founders who also planted a sacred tree each. Its by no means a clever puzzle and personally I thought it could have been padded more. What if each founder etched their tree with a symbol and the notes inside the prison revealed the number which each symbol represented?
The other problem is that there is too much confusion at the moment, since only ACT 1 is available, as to what your location is, or who you are as a protagonist? Are you in Acorn Manor the Lighthouse and protector of the sacred trees constructed by the Voight family? Or is Acorn Manor the building opposite you, that you can see in the telescope? If so, where are we then?
Who are we inside the prison? There’s a personal diary from Herman Voight which he evidently didn’t get to continue much. There is a letter from Walter Schutlz which he evidently didn’t get to send. There is a received letter from a concerned Hilda Bawer to her taken husband and the crazed ramblings of Karl Hoffman who has collapsed into insanity from prolonged prison isolation. In all honesty, we may be none of these people, but rather we could be Dr Kautzmann himself since his glasses are left inside a drawer and we might be reading up for the first time of those who have either supported us or been in contentions with.
I’m also not convinced as of yet, that the Dr is as evil as the game would have us believe. Essentially all the Dr did was arrive into the town of Oakenwell with pamphlets promising technology (Unity in Modernity) and rescue the town from a dreadful plight of famine. Taking control, he collected the towns rations into storehouses and evenly distributed them as necessary among the townspeople. He also tried to enlighten the towns people from their mistaken pseudo-scientific beliefs in Oakenwell’s magical trees, by burning down the sacred trees the town founders had planted and were proving to be fruitless anyway in preventing famine.
How is that EVIL??? Then he locks himself and his sidekick up in a manor, I guess fearing reprisal from disgruntled and hungry peasants. Will we ever see chapter 2? I'm not sure...that's really up to the eyes of Dr Fintan.
https://youtu.be/mqUWY_x_2Vo?feature=shared
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