The Journey Down: Over the Edge

Lina, Bwana, and Kito (from left to right).

The Journey Down is a free indie episodic point and click adventure game, in the style of a classical 2D adventure games. It will contain four chapters, the first of which, Over the Edge, is currently the only one released.

The game starts out with Bwana, the game's protagonist, in obvious financial need. Fortunately, he soon gets a client, Lina, willing to pay him loads of cash. While Bwana, and his sidekick Kito, are working for Lina he learns that she is researching a evil plot by the power company which apparently involves the Edge, and the world past it, an interest of Bwana's long absent father.

Over the Edge is a very enjoyable and memorable game. The most noticeable part of it is its great stylistic graphics. These graphics are somewhat reminiscent of classical adventures such as Monkey Island 2, but still completely unique. The most unusual aspect of the graphics are the main character's faces which look like wooden masks, giving them lots of character. Additionally, the game had good music and sound effects, which are quite upbeat and fit well into the scenes. The plot is also very good, and hints at a very interesting world that this chapter barely scratches the surface of.

But Over the Edge is not all good, and it does have some bad points. Chief among these are mistakes in the dialogue, mainly misspelled words in the subtitles (and their are no voice overs). Additionally their are some rough looking graphics in places, but these are not very noticeable. The graphics also have some problems when scaled, mainly causing the protagonist to look fussy in some situations. And the animations can look unnatural in some scenes.

Positives:
The stylish crisp graphics.

Negatives:
The spelling is truly horrible in some of the dialogue, and there are no voice-overs.

Summery:
A solid adventure title with great stylish graphics.

Rating:
8.7/10