Released on October 23, 2020, a week away from Halloween, Pumpkin Jack is an action/adventure and 3D platform game taking place in a fantastic universe. The game is published by Headup Games and was developed by Nicolas Meyssonnier, a self-taught French developer who worked alone on the project for more than three years.
The main menu gives a glimpse of the quirky tone of the game thanks to a fairly catchy soundtrack that fits perfectly with the Halloween theme. A narrative cinematic introduces the story like a tale; several drawings and illustrations follow one another on the screen, accompanied by the narrator's voice-over (played by Benzaie, French YouTuber).
The beginning of each chapter has a narration part.
This rather humorous introduction tells us that the Devil, bored to see humans live in peace, has decided to spread chaos on Earth. To ensure their protection against the forces of Evil, humans call on their greatest champion: the Sorcerer, a powerful mage. The latter would undoubtedly have been the hero of the story, if the Devil had not decided to eliminate him. To do this, he sends his own champion to Earth: Jack (reference to Jack O'Lantern). Described as the perfect anti-hero, Jack is the main character that we will embody, a criminal imprisoned in the guise of a pumpkin. From now on and against all odds, our mission is to allow the forces of Evil to triumph in order to maintain the chaos. From the first images of the gameplay, the cartoon design confirms that Pumpkin Jack is far from a horror game. Here, it's more of a crazy Halloween party reminiscent of the world of Tim Burton films:
First glimpse of Jack, a pumpkin in a scarecrow body.
As for the graphic style, Nicolas Meyssonnier said he wanted to recreate the atmosphere of PS2 games in 3D. The graphics are worked and current, especially since the game, developed with the Unreal Engine 4 engine, allows the use of DLSS and the activation of ray-tracing. The game remains well optimized, with or without these technologies, but the author admitted having to reduce the resolution and the details for the port of the game on Switch.
The first level allows the player to familiarize himself with the gameplay by quietly exploring the surroundings, in a twilight atmosphere. Along the course, the different movements and actions that can be done are indicated: double jump, dodge and quick attack mainly. Combat is fairly straightforward throughout the game, with each enemy requiring a certain number of hits to kill (a number that varies by weapon). From time to time, some puzzle levels require a bit of thinking or coordination (guiding a bomb from point A to point B, playing Simon, etc.)
Jack is without his scarecrow body in the puzzle levels.
Some sequences require speed and/or precision: escapes, phases in "vehicle", chases... Note, the soundtrack, dynamic and varied, adapts perfectly to the rhythm of these sequences, with for example a revisited version of La Ride the Valkyries during a race phase.
A few waves of mobs will disrupt the progress.
Several objects are hidden in each level: gifts (which are used to reconstitute a handwritten letter), crows' skulls (which constitute a currency of exchange against skins for Jack), or even a gramophone. These objects are rarely difficult to access and are often clearly visible, or positioned in rather obvious hiding places.
Each level ends with a boss fight. Apart from the combat environment and the boss itself, which are the main differences, each boss fight is made up of the same alternating phases: dodging the boss's attacks, defeating the trash mobs (enemies who come in our way), waiting for the when the boss is vulnerable, and deal damage to it. As usual, all you have to do is repeat all this three times to overcome the boss.
The accessible floor area decreases or changes over the course of most fights.
As a reward, a new weapon is unlocked after each defeated boss, the first being, for example, a spear that allows you to dash forward while hitting, or a sword that makes it easier to attack in AoE. It is possible to change weapons at any time by pressing Tab, but the game does not encourage you to use this or that weapon against this enemy. Each weapon unlocked simply feels better than the last. The fights can seem a little repetitive towards the end, because, once the different types of enemies encountered and their attacks known, we find ourselves mostly spamming the left click, while dodging from time to time. What changes mainly are the different attack movements, particular to each weapon.
The difficulty of the game is largely affordable: save points where it is possible to regenerate health are present in number in each level, and Jack also recovers life by hitting enemies. On the other hand, some jumping phases can be a little more demanding, as in many 3D platform games, and especially on older consoles.
A swamp in which the management of jumps is essential.
The lifespan of the game is quite short (about 5 hours, a little more to collect all the hidden objects), which ultimately allows the game to not become too repetitive. Each level is renewed enough to maintain the pleasure throughout the game, on the one hand in terms of design: environment, colors, general atmosphere and soundtrack, and on the other hand, in terms of gameplay thanks to new weapons and new platforms related to the specificity of the terrain. Along the way, it is possible to dialogue with different characters, in exchanges that are rather comical, absurd, or both.
Each level has its own aesthetic, always dark, but with varying colors.
To conclude, with Pumpkin Jack, Nicolas Meyssonnier succeeded in his challenge by developing this project alone, and also by surrounding himself with the right people, especially for the soundtrack, composed by Yohan Jager. The game, inspired by 3D platform games such as Jak and Daxter or Medievil as the author himself says, faithfully pays homage to the PS2 era. While remaining in the same line as these games, it offers modern and worked graphics, and takes advantage of current technologies. The handling is relatively simple and the gameplay pleasant, the management of the jumps is also quite intuitive (thanks to the double jump which saves us very often). The game may be a little short, but that's ultimately what allows you not to get bored, because it is renewed enough through the chapters. The humorous tone of this quirky universe is well balanced, between the dialogues and the narration, which brings a touch of lightness and humor to a theme that could have been much less attractive.
- Steam / Epic Games (Test done on PC)
- PlayStation
- Xbox
- Switch
