Many people used to think that the summer was generally more quiet in terms of game releases, but the reality is actually quite different now. If all the titles are as excellent as The Drifter though, we're not going to complain. Here's why.
Mick Carter is what you'd call a drifter, hence the title. However, he's not totally estranged from society: he owns a cell phone, he is still in touch with his sister, and it's precisely to join her following the death of their mother that he finds himself traveling clandestinely on a freight train when the adventure begins. In the carriage where he's hiding, he encounters a rather aggressive homeless man who seems to have lost his senses. Once the paranoid man has been subdued, Mick thinks he's out of the woods for good, but events soon take a turn for the worse. Having just managed to open the carriage door, the hero watches helplessly as his strange makeshift companion is shot dead by men using assault rifles. After jumping off the train, Mick lands near a squat for the homeless, where he meets up with an old acquaintance of his named Bill. Shocked by what he has just witnessed, the main character is still determined to get to his mother's funeral, but to do so, his first concern will be to find a way to recharge his phone. After meeting Grace, a young journalist investigating the mysterious disappearance of a number of homeless people in the area, things get out of hand again, and Mick ends up dead, weighted down and tied to the bottom of a reservoir. The story could have ended there, but of course, as this is only the beginning of the plot, Mick isn't quite finished with all this incredible adventure yet. For reasons he struggles to understand, just as he's about to take his last breath, here he is again at the bottom of the water. Drawing on the experience he had gained earlier, he manages to free himself and to finally reach dry land. While it may come as no surprise to the player to be given another chance (or more, if need be), Mick, well aware that he's died (at least) once, wonders what's happening to him. Unfortunately, he doesn't have time to think much about it before he's threatened again. This is the start of a mad race to understand what's going on around him, and why he's become embroiled in such a story.
As a point-and-click game, The Drifter's scenario is obviously at the heart of the whole experience, and after a promising set-up that is intriguing enough to make you want to see more, the plot fortunately loses none of its appeal right up to its ending. The narration is perfectly mastered, with a hero who intervenes regularly in voice-over like a certain Max Payne (from which he also slightly borrows the timbre, but with an Australian accent), and excellent voice acting that brilliantly supports everything else. The only drawback for Anglophobic French speakers is that there is currently no translation in their language which shouldn't be much of a problem to you if you're reading this in English. If you're not that comfortable with Shakespeare's mother tongue though, you should know that you can play the game in German too. The Drifters' story blends a number of genres, and does so with a certain talent. The gallery of characters is substantial, the plot twists numerous, and the nine chapters follow one another without the slightest loss of momentum - except, of course, when you find yourself going round in circles waiting to figure out what to do to unlock the situation. It's obviously quite common in the point and click genre, and not everyone will have the necessary patience, especially as the game doesn't include any hint system to help the most impatient. Mick does make a few comments to guide us though, such as when he tells us that there's no point in rummaging through a computer without a name to search for, but to find out how to get it, you'll have to figure it out for yourself.
[Youtube=dAJ1LQVqWWE
With a character capable of defying death, you won't be surprised to know that it should be an integral part of the experience, taking us back to the early days of the adventure genre, to the early days of Sierra games. As the more seasoned among you already know, back in those days, games like King's Quest and Space Quest regularly tricked the player into dying in excruciating agony for every misstep. The frustration at the time stemmed from the fact that this usually meant losing a good part of one's progress, making a mechanic that was intended to give clues as to what to (not) do too punitive. This explains why the LucasArts teams wanted to counter this approach by offering adventure games where you could never see a Game Over screen. In The Drifter, Mick must be able to learn from all his mistakes, which means that in all the scenes where he may die, the action will always resume a few seconds before his demise, at the start of the sequence where his life is in danger. Rather than giving the player a precise time to react, the game relies on a number of actions he can take before death strikes. This creates a sense of urgency and danger, heightened by the panic that grips the main character in these situations, but because these passages are short, they never become discouraging or frustrating. This Groundhog Day aspect of the adventure works particularly well, giving it a very special flavor not often found in a genre that has often relied on comedy to tell its stories.
In addition to these passages where death serves as a puzzle to be solved, there are of course the investigation, exploration and dialogue passages with which fans of the genre are familiar. The Drifters is obviously perfectly playable with a mouse, but it also offers a smooth experience for those who prefer to play with a gamepad. Using the right-hand analog stick, you can access a sort of radial menu that indicates the various points of interest in the area you're in. When an object or character is pointed at, the right trigger is used to validate the interaction, a logical choice to allow the player to make both manipulations at the same time. To scroll through the items in the inventory, you use the LB/RB buttons, and to access the item combination menu, you must hold the left trigger in combination with the right stick and RT to select the various items. Finally, Mick is controlled like any other video game character with the usual left analog stick, although it is also possible to skip certain moves by aiming at the exit point of an area using the radial menu and validating twice. Unlike LucasArts productions from the golden age of point and click games, the puzzles to be solved are never far-fetched, which is not to say that you'll never get stuck. It's often necessary to travel from one place to another (via the city map for example), to find new clues, chat with characters who will steer your investigation towards new areas, etc. Despite the absence of a built-in help system, progression through the adventure is never too difficult, and the experience is never thwarted by puzzles for long. Finally, a quick word on the visual side of things, which we think is really well executed, but which sometimes lacks certain cinematic transitions that, for the sake of economy, are replaced by black screens narrated by the hero. It's a pity, but it's not that big a deal, as you get used to it in the end.
[quote]
- Narrated black screens instead of animated ones
Patreon
