Middle of Somewhere

Title: Seiklus
Author: clysm
Date Published: August 2003
License: Freeware; click here to download
Author’s Site: autofish.net

I originally saw the game on Home of the Underdogs, while skimming through the site for some freeware adventure games. I was rather intrigued by the premise about it being an exploratory game, as well as the nifty graphics on a featured screenshot. So I proceeded to download it from the author’s site and played it.

So far, so good. The game seems to revolve around a small white guy who, while watching the moon with a similarly-looking girl, got accidentally hit by a large meteor. This accident sends him into a strange world populated by enormous plants and animals, muddy caverns, and boiling volcanos. Seiklus allows the player to explore and interact with the elements in each of the environments, even though the player’s actions are limited to merely jumping and climbing chains or ropes. What I also liked about the exploration is I don’t ever get to die.

Pressing the spacebar allowed me to see a different screen indicating how far I’ve gone through the game, which shows a map of the entire landscape plus a percentage of how much I’ve explored. It also showed me the various “treasures” I’ve obtained, which is a neat feature. There are, admittedly, some hints on this help screen which weren’t too accessible at the start — I found myself wondering what they were for when I first started playing Seiklus, and it only came to me as I was more-or-less in the middle of the game.

Gameplay is not too difficult, even for me whose eye-hand coordination is fairly inadequate (yes, I suck at console games). Several helpful clues are scattered in the game to assist the player in leaping towards the right places and obtaining items. There aren’t a lot of puzzles that can be found in the game as well, and those that are there may be solved with some persistence.

Seiklus does not officially come with its own music, but a separate ZIP file containing chip music culled by the author from different sources may be downloaded from the game’s website. The music he/she chose works beautifully with the overall theme of the game, and thankfully does not sound too electronic, as with most console games I’ve tried playing.

The player is allowed 3 saved game slots, and the savefiles can easily be replaced by another one by just renaming the old file to the new one. However, the author warns that savefiles from older versions may not work with the new one (v1.5).

If you’re looking to explore a unique environment, or just seeking a good diversion, Seiklus is the game for you. Its unique graphics and landscape will prove to be a worthwhile adventure to undertake.

That knight looks familiar

Title: Knightsquire
Author: Buloght
Date Published: July 2006
License: Freeware; click here to download
Author’s Site: Clanworks

[SPOILER ALERT: This section of the article contains several spoilers.]

There are days at work where you wish your breaks would just come sooner. When you’d love to shove that pile of paper off your desk (ok, maybe not), and fire up games like Icebreaker to take your mind off.

If you’re looking for adventure, though, Buloght’s Knightsquire might just fit the bill.

In Knightsquire, one alternates between playing a pompous knight who’s too proud to bend (possibly because of his armor), and his trusted squire, who’s too submissive to take credit for anything. The knight has been summoned by the king for an important mission, but the door is stuck. However, his pride as a knight prevents him from resolving the matter, so he pokes his sleeping squire to get it done. Once they get past the door, though, the knight learns about what happened to the princess, and he and his squire set out to rescue her.

For a game that’s been made in a week, Knightsquire is quite an accomplishment. The graphics are well-executed, and the puzzles are not too difficult to go through. The game’s interface is also easy to use, with the player not having to switch repeatedly between the possible actions to take - most of the time, I just had to left-click to move or talk or manipulate objects. The humorous repartee between the characters also hooked me into the game.

Best of all, the game allows you to lower down the sounds and the music, so you won’t have nosy co-workers snitching on you.

The only gripe I had for Knightsquire is that certain hotspots are not as obvious as I’d like them to be. For example, I got the hotspot to go up the stairs to the knight’s quarters almost by accident - I kept getting the response about the squire not being allowed in the library every time I tried. Same goes for the orc’s cave and the bottom of the tower.

It might have been better to enable the player to, say, just click on a patch of grass outside the tower, then the character would just work his way out automatically. That way, the player wouldn’t have to hover the cursor over and over the same spot hunting for the correct pixel. Other than this, the game works perfectly well.

So, if you don’t feel like catching penguins and breaking ice blocks during your lunch, Knightsquire will make the best replacement. Just double-click on the blue cup logo and fire away.