Wailing Heights – by Bijouxdemon
Genre: Indie Adventure
Developer: Outsider Games
Publisher: Outsider Games
Release Date: Apr 27, 2016
What do you get when you cross old school monsters and ghosts, catchy tunes of differing styles, a comic book art style, and a killer mystery? Wailing Heights is one of those games that absolutely encaptures players and sends them on a Scooby Doo-esque mystery full of twists and turns. It is rich in colorful characters with a phenomenal accompanying soundtrack. Let’s delve a little deeper into this technicolor adventure into the supernatural.
The story starts you off as Frances Finklestein, manager to The Deadbeats, one of the greatest rock bands from Britain. After the band splits up, the band members disappear in mysterious ways, never to be heard from again, leaving only Finklestein as the last remaining member. After being contacted to do a show, you get lost and become stuck in Wailing Heights, a mysterious village full of hipster vampires, vegan werewolves, and swinging zombies. Being stuck in jail as a human due to an odd law, you get the power of possession to get out and solve a deeper mystery. From beginning to end, the story is phenomenal. Full of twists and turns and an ending I was not expecting, it definitely invoked feelings of an old Scooby Doo episode.
Gameplay wise, you are able to play with either a controller or a keyboard, which is great. You move around from area to area, possessing creatures with special abilities to get further into the story and gain access to certain areas to progress further, picking up clues and items, and interrogate suspects to solve the mystery. Though it seems pretty easy to get from point A to point B, the game gives you no direct hints or tips, so it takes quite a bit of brain work and deduction to get to the next part. At times, some of the puzzles seem a little too hard, but after solving them, you get a real feel of satisfaction. The game has quite a bit of meat to it, consisting of 3 acts, though the last act is very short. That, however, does not subtract from the quality of this game as the 3rd act is the final climax and leads to a fantastic ending.
Technically speaking, this game has very few issues. The only things I really have to say is that moving around can get tricky. When maneuvering around a corner or a desk, there are times you can get stuck and it takes a bit of finagling around before you’re able to get out. Along with that, when possessing bodies you have to be within range of another possessable character, but you also have to be within visible range, so it does lead to quite a bit of backtracking in the map. Aside from that, this game is extremely solid with fantastic graphics that are straight out of a comic book and a soundtrack that is absolutely to die for. I cannot sing enough praise for this soundtrack. It’s fresh, original, and definitely sets the mood for this game.
With everything said and done, Wailing Heights is one of the best mystery puzzle adventure games I’ve played in a long time. I highly recommend this to anyone to give it a shot. You can catch it on steam for $9.99 which is very cheap and if you want to pick up the soundtrack and comic PDFs for just $5 more on the store.
Pros
- Fantastic Story
- Fully Voice acted
- Great soundtrack
- Controller/Keyboard support
- Puzzles give a good challenge
Cons
- Sometimes can get stuck in certain areas
- Quite a bit of backtracking
Bijouxdemon gives Wailing Heights a Drastik Measure 9.6 out of 10 (96).
Recommendation: Definitely one to pick up and play and, if possible, spend the extra for the bonuses in the deluxe edition.
