Review of Samorost 3 (Samorost 3, 2016)
First, a little background. In 2003, a young Czech boy, Jakub Dvorsky, graduated from the Higher School of Applied Arts in Prague. As a graduation project he made the game Samorost. A simple point-and-click quest made on the Flash player engine. In it, a small creature, simply named by Yakub as a Gnome, saves his home, located on a meteor, from a collision with another flying object, similar to a snag. The game world is most reminiscent of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s story “The Little Prince”, where similar-sized planetoids were located close to each other and the hero moved from one to another.
By the way, you can play the first Samorost on the studio’s website.
After completing his studies, Jakub Dworski founded the Amanita Design studio, after which he began developing games. After 2 years, in 2005, he returned to the old project and released Samorost 2. The game has become longer, there are more riddles, the world is more complex. And all this was done better technically – more animations, a well-developed soundtrack, quality of drawing. Both the first and second games received recognition among players and critics. The cute, fairy-tale atmosphere of the game and tricky, but not very difficult riddles won the hearts of many.
Since then, Amanita Design’s games have consistently aroused interest. After Samorost they released two more projects, Machinarium and Botanicula, also well received. And so, in 2016, Yakub and his team returned to Samorost. According to Wikipedia, the new game is a remake of the previous two, although without any problems it can be considered a direct continuation. Each of Samorostov is a completely self-contained adventure of the nameless protagonist. So, what is Samorost 3??
It all starts very simply. A https://ssgame666casino.co.uk/games/ pipe falls on the lawn in front of the Gnome’s house, which at the same time allows you to listen to things and hear the sounds of the world. And the investigation into how this happened will lead the little hero onto the road of adventure.
Unlike previous games, Samorost is full-fledged. There is an inventory, there is a full-screen mode, HD graphics, everything sounds and dances. The basis of the gameplay is the same pipe. We listen to the living world surrounding the Gnome and sing along with him.
However, sometimes musical riddles are interrupted by good old point-and-click puzzles. But this time you won’t have to go online to find the passage – the game has a built-in hint function. From the pause menu we can open it at any time – however, having completed the mini-game before that.
The best thing about Amanita’s work, both previous and subsequent games, is the visuals and music. Samorost 3, in fact, is all about this. An indirect confirmation of this is that through solving puzzles the player receives “achievements”, which are displayed on a special tab in the pause menu. These very achievements are loop fragments of the music that we listened to while solving the puzzle. They can be launched – one at a time or all at once, creating unique meditative compositions from different sounds. I couldn’t resist and posted two experiments with these tools on YouTube:
Of course, there were some difficulties. I already mentioned the hint book. So, I, slow-witted, had to contact her with enviable regularity. And the mini-game that you have to complete to open the book gets boring very quickly. This seems to be a rather curious quest paradox. If you make puzzles too easy, players will complain that they are being treated like idiots. Too difficult – they will cry that only a genius can play this. It’s not easy to find the balance, and you have to give hints of one kind or another. Here, however, the book does not give a hint, but a direct answer to the question of what to do. And the thought often comes to mind that if the player has to make such concessions, maybe there’s something wrong with the riddles? However, there is one point.
The action takes place in a strange and unusual world. Local logic, and even physics, is slightly different from what we are used to. In some situations, it is almost impossible to guess what is required of the player, and therefore, without a hint, it can only be solved at random, by brute force. And you can’t make this very hint in the form of text – after all, another feature of all Amanita games is the characters who communicate in their pseudo-language. You can’t make a helper character, like in Primordia, another great quest. Therefore, a book with comics showing how to act is a forced but necessary measure.
If a character needs something from you, these clouds appear with the items necessary for interaction.
It is also worth noting that in the game you often have to wander through already explored locations, and in such cases I would like to quickly go through familiar screens. But there is no scrolling function or instant movement to the next screen. And again, just like with a book, it’s okay at first. The locations are wonderful, it’s nice to watch and listen to them – but this is only for the first two or three times. And in a situation when you don’t want to turn to a book, you rush around locations like crazy, trying to find what you missed or misunderstood – but all this has to be done slowly, while the Dwarf slowly moves his feet. By the end of the game this becomes boring – fortunately, the full completion of the game will take about 5-6 hours. In general, it is recommended to take breaks between sets.
The complaints were longer than the praise, but to be honest, I don’t have the right words to describe how good you feel while playing Samorost 3. You immerse yourself in the atmosphere of a fairy tale quickly and without question, the music is mesmerizing. At the same time, I can’t say that music comes first. And most importantly, in addition to it, there are also the game’s own sounds, which are superimposed on the music, creating a gorgeous background. The animations in the game are cute and smooth.
In short, despite some problems, Samorost 3 is a great game and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.