Strange Antiquities - Review

When I first saw Strange Antiquities, it was part of the recent Indie World event from Nintendo and I remember it because it looked unlike anything else in that showcase. Having now played the game, was it a standout success or just something unique, but too quirky for me?

In the game you are an apprentice Thaumaturge, working alongside Eli White in the store of Strange Antiquities, but before you can really begin, Eli gets called away, leaving you to man the store on your own. This does not stop the people of Undermere from coming in and asking you for help with their various problems. You don’t need to go out and install a new roof or anything that crazy, but rather listen to their stories and offer them items that will help them out. This is where the games strength lies, in the characters that you encounter and the grand story that unfolds over the games many days. The people are what gives you insight as to the mysteries plaguing the town and some are minor, there are a few that might give you pause.

When someone comes in, you will get their name and then whatever they tell you they are there for. Someone might come in in order to get something to ensure their safety when installing a roof, hey the roof was true, or someone might seek aid in catching a thief. Sometimes they might give you a good idea of what they are after, but more often they only give you a sense of what they need. You then need to work it out, their clues and the books you have access too are all you get, there is a hint system if you get stuck though. This is where the gameplay comes in, your shop won’t be stacked with trinkets and oddities to begin with, but even when you only have a dozen items, finding the right item can be a challenge. When you find the right item, you will need to label it, just in case someone comes in for something like that again, so keeping track of what you have and where you put is also part of the challenge.

But what about if someone wants something you don’t have, well that is where exploring the town comes into play. There are a number of locations you can visit, some of them are just fun little lore builders, but others are important. These locations are often given to you via letters or dreams and going to the right spot will usually net you an item or two for the shop. But there are risks in exploring the town, namely if you are looking for a specific spot and you choose poorly, something might grab at you. This is also true if someone comes in seeking an item and you offer them the wrong thing, make too many mistakes in a day and you need to fight back.

This is perhaps the weakest part of the game, at least for me, because you are just playing Yahtzee, only with icons instead of dots on the die. Fill in the board and you can begin again before your last customer walked in, but if you fail to fill in the board, before the counter is up, you lose the days progress and need to restart again. Why this is weak is pretty simple, none of the puzzles change their answers, so if Verona Green need an item, she will always need that same item on that same day. Now there are some moments where someone will ask for items to help them, or curse someone else and you can impact how the story goes. This is also true of the final ending, as you will eventually need to follow one of a few different people in order to get to the end. Those moments will be different if you want them to be, but other wise there is usually one answer and always one answer.

That limitation also applies to the games visuals, don’t get me wrong there are some nice moments, but there is also not a lot going on. Unless you are looking at the map, you are always looking out from the store, Jupiter the cat is on the counter and the items are on shelves around you. As you move back and forth, objects sway and there is one item that tracks your mouse, but its mostly the same. The characters that come in for a visit are the most life the story sees, but even they are a bit basic. The overall look is great, you won’t mix up the postman for the crazy person, but they don’t really do much, except walk in and then walk backwards out of the story. This is perhaps the part that annoyed me, I get it was a small team who made the game, but I would have loved to have seen the backs of folks as they left the store. When you visit the locations around town, you never get to see them, you just select them on the map and then text appears and again, small team, but I feel like a few important locations getting a shot or two would have done wonders.

The games audio is mostly basic, but in this sense, it works for them. There is no talking, as its all just text on screen, but what it delivers is a vibe of eerie, but not scary. The town has issues, ravens hovering around the place and bad weather a constant, which means you get to hear rain and thunder from inside the store. Some of the items also have some nice audio queues, if you take a listen.

Strange Antiquities is a great little puzzle game, while there are days, time is not a factor, which means players of all types can take their time to solve. While there are consequences to bad choices, they never really impact the gameplay, so they are more like resets that failures. Depending on how many endings you want to go for, there is some replay value, but a lot of the options being fixed means you might grow tired quickly. For Strange Antiquities, you won’t be here for a long time, but it is a great time.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Iceberg Interactive

The Pros

Working out what items people are after, by inspecting and researching is far more fun than it seems

The story has quite a number of interesting threads that are woven throughout it…

The Cons

…but while it has multiple endings, there is not a lot of variety in the bulk of the story

The characters are great, but seeing them float backwards out of the shop feels out of place