Many don't know it, but ARTE has had a video game center for several years now, where we have been able to try out various titles over the years, such as Type: Rider, Bury me, my Love, Alt Frequencies or even A Fisherman's Tale. This year 2022 highlights two other works, namely: How To Say Goodbye et To Hell with the Ugly. Yours truly was able to grab hold of the demos!
How to Say Goodbye
Without directly addressing the theme of mourning, the game developed by Forian Veltman and Baptiste Portefaix features a ghost. We quickly understand, via the small cutscene, that it is the person who has just had a car accident. To succeed in moving forward and going into the afterlife, we will have to accept our destiny while helping the few ghosts encountered here and there through the 15 chapters of the game.
The originality of the game - in addition to its unique graphic touch - comes from the way of solving the puzzles. Rather than moving his character, we will move a row of squares in the decor that will allow us to reach our objective. At the beginning, things are simple, you just have to go to the door which allows the passage to the next level, then the levels get tougher with obstacles to overcome, keys to recover and other joys. Nothing insurmountable that said, the game is intended to be accessible, and it will suffice to analyze the level to understand the system of rotation of the tiles and get out of it without too much difficulty.
The game is inspired by the classics of children's literature (Maurice Sendak in mind) without necessarily targeting this particular audience, which could miss the words of the title. If nothing comes to hinder the development, we should be able to guide our ghost friend by the end of the year on PC and mobile!
To Hell With The Ugly
We leave the puzzle-game with To Hell with the Ugly, which aims to be a multi-faceted game: a bit of rhythm with the fighting phases, a bit of investigation in point'n'click mode during the investigations, and a bit of discussion to understand what happened to us. We play here Rock Bailey, a young blond man with a very advantageous physique, but unfortunately a little (a lot?) stupid. The latter was kidnapped after smoking a cigarette that contained drugs, and woke up in the hospital with a beautiful cockade. He therefore returns to the places where everything happened to understand what happened.
This is when the game demo begins. Graphically, we are immersed in an atmosphere that will recall the plasticity of films and other novels depicting Los Angeles in the 50s. The play of lights, the characters, the sets... everything is strongly anchored in this rather unique imagery and helps with immersion. As if that weren't enough, a jazzy soundtrack accompanies the set to reinforce the LA atmosphere. On the dialogue side, we alternate between the serious and the quirky with confusing ease. The studio strives to transcribe as faithfully as possible the work of Boris Vian, of the same name as the game.
To Hell With The Ugly
The game's only flaw so far would be its turn-based combat system. The fights are quite basic, with a similar system whether in attack or defense. If you press the key indicated on the screen at the right time, you maximize the effects of your attack/defense, which allows you to hurt more/resist better. If the attack posed no problem for me, the defense was more complicated to manage, since you have to watch the animation of the character to see if he is preparing to attack or not. Let's bet that the system will be less messy by the game's release, set for 2023.
