Video Game Review: Among The Innocent - A Stricken Tale - Free State At It's Scariest

Developer Zero Degrees Games
Publisher Zero Degrees Games
Distributor Zero Degrees Games
Where we got our copy Zero Degrees Games
Genre FPS, Thriller
Game modes Single Player
Players 1
Reviewed on

Where to buy Steam

The Stubbs

Published March 9, 2017

Like similar titles, Among the Innocent relies on in-game elements to help you piece together the story, but sets up (and closes off) your adventure with a neatly animated and well-acted voice over. There is a very distinct division between the first and second acts of the game, which is something of an issue for me. With the first half being much more grounded, while still giving you a sense that something isn’t right, the sudden total plunge into the supernatural that takes place in the second half feels weird and out of place. I won’t spoil the ending but it also felt tacked on and made me wonder if I had missed some major story elements. The actual plot of the game is linear, you need to escape the farm and a lot of the tools you need are introduced to you fairly early. There are enough moments that make you go WTF, though made me unsure if I would have gone any further if I was in the same situation. When I first played through the game I found myself a bit frustrated by some of the puzzles, not because they were hard, rather that they required me to do things that didn’t feel like natural solutions. At times the game prompts you with ghosted objects as an indicator that something can be used here, but not all the time. I spent a lot of time wandering back and forth hoping I hadn’t gotten myself into an old school unwinnable situation by using a key where I wasn’t meant to. For the most part, however, I felt like the developers hit the puzzle aspects just right, not too simple but obvious once you figured it out. There were only 2 major puzzles that forced me to look over the walkthrough included in the options. One involved a very confusing system of inserting nails into a pole, while it ended up being more trial and error even once I knew the solution, while the other meant I needed to backtrack and find elements from other puzzles I had missed. Not that the latter doesn’t have a precedent in similar titles, but it felt awkward that I had to manually retrieve the items instead of them being added to my inventory.

Graphically AtI looks pretty, it’s not the same level as bigger titles but the visuals and modeling serve its purpose. The fact that I could manually open and close doors, and move props around was a bit underused and had a unique feel that I would have like to have seen more of. The lighting in-game was a tad too dark for my tastes, I ended up brightening things up a bit so I could see slightly better but that was more personal taste than anything wrong. If anything, the lack of visibility adds to the creep factor.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the introduction to the game was fully voice acted, over static imagery and text, an aspect that sadly didn’t make follow through in the game. It would have been nice to have had some interactions or emotes from Peter. As befits the genre the sounds of the game blend into the background, not a forgettable manner but they’re there when you notice them. I won’t be ashamed to admit that there was a moment early on in the game where I quickly left a room I had just opened due to a sudden change in background music, not being able to see anything other than directly in front of me I was suddenly worried I had forgotten to pick up a weapon of some kind and was about to be attacked.

Among the Innocent is a locally developed first-person adventure thriller that takes place on an abandoned farm in the eastern Free State. Inspired by classic point-and-click adventure games, melded with a walking simulator. You take on the role of Peter York as he explores and tries to escape an eerily abandoned farm that has more going on than it first seems. Like similar titles, Among the Innocent relies on in-game elements to help you piece together the story, but sets up (and closes off) your adventure with a neatly animated and well-acted voice over. There is a very distinct division between the first and second acts of the game, which is something of an issue for me. With the first half being much more grounded, while still giving you a sense that something isn’t right, the sudden total plunge into the supernatural that takes place in the second half feels weird and out of place. I won’t spoil the ending but it also felt tacked on and made me wonder if I had missed some major story elements. The actual plot of the game is linear, you need to escape the farm and a lot of the tools you need are introduced to you fairly early. There are enough moments that make you go WTF, though made me unsure if I would have gone any further if I was in the same situation.When I first played through the game I found myself a bit frustrated by some of the puzzles, not because they were hard, rather that they required me to do things that didn’t feel like natural solutions. At times the game prompts you with ghosted objects as an indicator that something can be used here, but not all the time. I spent a lot of time wandering back and forth hoping I hadn’t gotten myself into an old school unwinnable situation by using a key where I wasn’t meant to. For the most part, however, I felt like the developers hit the puzzle aspects just right, not too simple but obvious once you figured it out. There were only 2 major puzzles that forced me to look over the walkthrough included in the options. One involved a very confusing system of inserting nails into a pole, while it ended up being more trial and error even once I knew the solution, while the other meant I needed to backtrack and find elements from other puzzles I had missed. Not that the latter doesn’t have a precedent in similar titles, but it felt awkward that I had to manually retrieve the items instead of them being added to my inventory. Graphically AtI looks pretty, it’s not the same level as bigger titles but the visuals and modeling serve its purpose. The fact that I could manually open and close doors, and move props around was a bit underused and had a unique feel that I would have like to have seen more of. The lighting in-game was a tad too dark…

Video Game Review: Among The Innocent – A Stricken Tale – Free State At It’s Scariest

2017-03-09

The Stubbs

Total - 6.8

6.8

Overall AtI is an interesting if flawed game. I can see the major beats that the devs were going for but they also feel like they missed them a lot of the time. Having said that, the game is something you can easily sit down and play through and have fun with over an evening and does leave you with goosebumps more than once. If you’re looking for something to play and are keen to support local games development (Which you should be) I would really suggest giving it a try. Geoff Burrows is actively listening to his community and is working on fixing issues that people have brought up which is more than I can say for some developers out there.

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Article Tags: among the innocent a stricken tale · featured · free state · geoff burrows · local game development · myst · Steam · thriller · video game review · zero degrees games

Article Categories: Video Game Reviews