Resonance

Use of this "How Long to Beat" website seems to have gotten the ball rolling again. I just finished "Resonance" last night. Achievement!

"Resonance" is an excellent game and proof that the adventure game genre is still alive and kicking, which delights me to no end. Can't keep a good genre down! The visual style of this game has a bit of a pixelated retro look that I like. There's something comforting about a 2D adventure game. That may just be my nostalgia kicking in. Resonance revolves around the mysterious and unusual death of a particle physicist who had made a discovery that has the potential to be used for great good or great evil. A group of four individuals get wrapped up in unraveling the mystery of his death which leads to an all out search for a secret vault containing the research of the deceased scientist. What they decide to with this research could have far reaching consequences.

As is standard adventure game fare, Resonance employs an inventory system you'd expect with the additional focus on interaction via dialogue. Finding the right topic to bring up to an NPC is as important as finding the right key to open a door...or the right golf ball retriever, severed hand, magnet combo to jam into a ball of twine. (Sorry...Sam and Max reference)

Anyway, this focus on dialogue is facilitated by the option to ask an NPC about any item you're currently carrying or about entries in your Long Term or Short Term Memory. Long Term Memory entries consist of major plot points or things you've learned along the way that you're likely to inquire about multiple times throughout the game. These are added automatically as you encounter them. Short Term Memory entries are added by you. Any item or person you can interact with in the game world can be put into your Short Term Memory, and you can then ask NPCs about that topic. This adds a little something to the standard formula.

Having four different player characters also adds some interesting puzzle opportunities not commonplace in other adventure games. There are some co-op style puzzles where your people have to work in tandem to solve them, there are some standard only person X can do action Y type puzzles, some straight up puzzle puzzles, and a fox/chicken/grain crossing the river type conundrum. (When you see that puzzle, you'll know what the hell I'm talking about.)

The puzzles aren't too easy, nor are they so difficult or ridiculous that you'd pull your hair out trying to figure them out. There were only a few instances where I was stuck, and once I figured out what they wanted me to do, I was kind of perturbed. This was mostly due to the fact that Long Term Memory options, for the most part, show you a bit of a replay of that scene as you remember it. The first time you're supposed to use them as a topic of conversation to solve a puzzle came more than an hour or so into the game, so it was semi-hidden surprise functionality that got in my way. Once you know that those can be used in that way, however, it's not a problem.

One of the biggest strengths in this game lies with the well developed characters and the excellent voice acting. The writing is strong, and you instantly get a sense of who these people are. When the situation evolves, leading them to make decisions counter to what you'd expect of them, that deviation has quite an impact on you as the player. I'm not going to go much into story because you should just play the damn thing. Haha! The point is...

The longer I played Resonance, the more I wanted to play Resonance. It is a very good game that I'd definitely recommend. LONG LIVE ADVENTURE GAMES!