Daedalic Entertainment's latest game, Anna's Quest, got a same-day release for Linux earlier this week, both on Steam and DRM free on GOG. I've played a bit of the game, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far. The game has been developed by Krams Design with some help from Daedalic, and is presented in a clean and polished cartoon style that makes it fit nicely in with the German developer/publisher's other offerings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG_dZPttQH0
The game follows Anna, whose grandfather has mysteriously and suddenly become very ill. She sets out to find a cure for his illness, but is soon captured by an evil witch. This witch seems to know quite a bit about Anna, and proceeds to conduct sciency and painful experiments on Anna to be able to put the child to some unknown use. To Anna's surprise, these experiments bring out the dormant power of telekinesis in her. Through some quick thinking and with the help of a few new allies, Anna manages to escape the clutches of the witch, and is able to continue on her quest to help her grandfather.
I expect fans of puzzle centric adventure games will find much to like in this game. This is a very traditional point-and-click game gameplay wise, though with the added ability of using telekinesis to manipulate many objects. The powers can be used both on items in the scenery and your inventory, and inventory items can also be combined with each other. This provides the framework for good puzzle complexity, and after playing the game for a couple of hours, I can already say that this potential hasn't been wasted. The game starts off relatively easy, with an optional tutorial that guides you through the basics in a way that feels well integrated with the story. It doesn't take long until you're faced with more difficult puzzles though, and I was already stumped a bit on a couple of puzzles before I had managed to move on to the next location in the game.
My only gripe with the game so far, which is admittedly a minor one, is that the menu looks kind of like a placeholder. This isn't helped by the in-game font, which looks much too similar to the dreaded Comic Sans font for my taste. The game itself runs without issues in my testing though, and the Steam version has all of the included Steam features working properly.
It's good to see another Daedalic published game made available for Linux. And with a font issue that required a workaround on Linux fixed in the latest version of their go-to engine, Visionaire Studio, I'm hoping that we'll see more of their portfolio made available to us in the near future.
About the game (Official)
In a land far, far away lives a brave young girl called Anna. She lives a peaceful life in the forest with her grandfather, until a mysterious illness befalls him. And so Anna ventures forth to find a cure for him, but this world is a much more dangerous and bizarre place than she'd thought: putting her journey to a sudden end, the witch Winfriede kidnaps Anna to use her for an experiment.
Winfriede's experiment is a success – Anna develops telekinetic powers, but this is also where the witch’s schemes are foiled: with the help of Ted, a boy who has been turned into a teddy bear, and new powers she can barely control, Anna manages to escape from her cell.
Together with Ted and her new impressive ability Anna is off for an adventure in the haunting world of Grimm's fairy-tales and European folklore. Witches, ghosts, trolls and cursed princesses: no matter if you have to save them or outsmart them – they all play their part in Anna's quest to find a cure for her grandfather.
And since there's no rest for the wicked, Winfriede breathes down Anna's neck, eager to reclaim her successful experiment at any cost.
Classic point & click adventure gameplay, a good deal of black humor and a fantastic story set in a beautifully dark fairy-tale world; the game's designer Dane Krams managed to cook all this into a whimsical adventure-experience of the finest kind.
Almost each mythical creature has their own story in Anna's world and can help her on her quest – or actually needs Anna's help. And if everything else fails, her telekinetic powers are always good to provide a way out of dicey situations in the most lateral way possible.
Anna's Quest is available both on GOG, Steam and the Humble Store (including a Steam key), and is 10% off until next Thursday. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG_dZPttQH0
The game follows Anna, whose grandfather has mysteriously and suddenly become very ill. She sets out to find a cure for his illness, but is soon captured by an evil witch. This witch seems to know quite a bit about Anna, and proceeds to conduct sciency and painful experiments on Anna to be able to put the child to some unknown use. To Anna's surprise, these experiments bring out the dormant power of telekinesis in her. Through some quick thinking and with the help of a few new allies, Anna manages to escape the clutches of the witch, and is able to continue on her quest to help her grandfather.
I expect fans of puzzle centric adventure games will find much to like in this game. This is a very traditional point-and-click game gameplay wise, though with the added ability of using telekinesis to manipulate many objects. The powers can be used both on items in the scenery and your inventory, and inventory items can also be combined with each other. This provides the framework for good puzzle complexity, and after playing the game for a couple of hours, I can already say that this potential hasn't been wasted. The game starts off relatively easy, with an optional tutorial that guides you through the basics in a way that feels well integrated with the story. It doesn't take long until you're faced with more difficult puzzles though, and I was already stumped a bit on a couple of puzzles before I had managed to move on to the next location in the game.
My only gripe with the game so far, which is admittedly a minor one, is that the menu looks kind of like a placeholder. This isn't helped by the in-game font, which looks much too similar to the dreaded Comic Sans font for my taste. The game itself runs without issues in my testing though, and the Steam version has all of the included Steam features working properly.
It's good to see another Daedalic published game made available for Linux. And with a font issue that required a workaround on Linux fixed in the latest version of their go-to engine, Visionaire Studio, I'm hoping that we'll see more of their portfolio made available to us in the near future.
About the game (Official)
In a land far, far away lives a brave young girl called Anna. She lives a peaceful life in the forest with her grandfather, until a mysterious illness befalls him. And so Anna ventures forth to find a cure for him, but this world is a much more dangerous and bizarre place than she'd thought: putting her journey to a sudden end, the witch Winfriede kidnaps Anna to use her for an experiment.
Winfriede's experiment is a success – Anna develops telekinetic powers, but this is also where the witch’s schemes are foiled: with the help of Ted, a boy who has been turned into a teddy bear, and new powers she can barely control, Anna manages to escape from her cell.
Together with Ted and her new impressive ability Anna is off for an adventure in the haunting world of Grimm's fairy-tales and European folklore. Witches, ghosts, trolls and cursed princesses: no matter if you have to save them or outsmart them – they all play their part in Anna's quest to find a cure for her grandfather.
And since there's no rest for the wicked, Winfriede breathes down Anna's neck, eager to reclaim her successful experiment at any cost.
Classic point & click adventure gameplay, a good deal of black humor and a fantastic story set in a beautifully dark fairy-tale world; the game's designer Dane Krams managed to cook all this into a whimsical adventure-experience of the finest kind.
Almost each mythical creature has their own story in Anna's world and can help her on her quest – or actually needs Anna's help. And if everything else fails, her telekinetic powers are always good to provide a way out of dicey situations in the most lateral way possible.
Anna's Quest is available both on GOG, Steam and the Humble Store (including a Steam key), and is 10% off until next Thursday. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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7 comments
mulletdeath Jul 5, 2015
I've actually never sat down and played a point-and-click adventure game all the way through before, but this looks really interesting. I think I'll check it out.
2 Likes, Who?
I really enjoy Adventures, but the Daedalic-Games were always rather disappointing. The "humor" of Deponia is really strange (proud to be an asshole), even sexist and racist at times, and many riddles in most of their Games are flawed. The only good German Adventure is Book of unwritten tales, in my opinion.
1 Likes, Who?
^ I can relate to that. It's not as bad as the Runaway games or Simon the Sorcerer though, and I think the third Deponia game is a vast improvement over the rest of the series. I rather enjoyed The Whispered World (on Windows) in spite of the annoying protagonist and the awful ending, and I think there's a lot of talent at Daedalic. That said, this game was designed by another developer, and I also think the BoUT games are by far the best German adventure games (that I've played).
EDIT: That was meant to be in response to tkonicz' comment.
Thanks. Added the link to the bottom of the article.
Last edited by flesk on 5 July 2015 at 8:46 am UTC
EDIT: That was meant to be in response to tkonicz' comment.
It's also available via Humble-Store: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/annasquest_storefront
Thanks. Added the link to the bottom of the article.
Last edited by flesk on 5 July 2015 at 8:46 am UTC
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Still in the middle of Deponia 2… %)
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I really enjoy Adventures, but the Daedalic-Games were always rather disappointing. The "humor" of Deponia is really strange (proud to be an asshole), even sexist and racist at times, and many riddles in most of their Games are flawed.
Flesk, would you let us know after you're finished if any of this applies to Anna's Quest? And also whether it has a solid ending?
0 Likes
I really enjoy Adventures, but the Daedalic-Games were always rather disappointing. The "humor" of Deponia is really strange (proud to be an asshole), even sexist and racist at times, and many riddles in most of their Games are flawed.
Flesk, would you let us know after you're finished if any of this applies to Anna's Quest? And also whether it has a solid ending?
Yes, I'll report back once I've finished it. So far, I don't think there's any cause for concern, since the protagonist is a very capable young girl, who is in control of her own fate. The puzzles I've encountered can also be solved by logical thinking, and I have yet to resort to trial and error.
(I think I also owe you a review of Alum, and hope to get around to that one of these days.)
2 Likes, Who?
Yes, I'll report back once I've finished it. So far, I don't think there's any cause for concern, since the protagonist is a very capable young girl, who is in control of her own fate. The puzzles I've encountered can also be solved by logical thinking, and I have yet to resort to trial and error.
(I think I also owe you a review of Alum, and hope to get around to that one of these days.)
Thank you, adventurous Linux buddy!
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