The Almost Gone

Review

Being alive is an amazing journey, from the day we’re born to the day of our death. And we each have our own path. The truth is that our paths are heavily influenced, especially in the early stages of our life, by our family and the circumstances that come with each of the individuals in the family unit, from parents to grandparents and sometimes even beyond.  Some will experience sheer happiness, while others will face fear and sadness. The reality is, it’s a bit of both for most of us. In some cases, if the family unit is very dysfunctional, it might take a lifetime for an individual to put the pieces together, just like in The Almost Gone!

The Almost Gone is story-rich, point and click puzzle game developed by Happy Volcano and published by Playdigious and X.D. Network Inc. on Steam platform on the 25th of June 2020. The game is also available on Nintendo Switch, the App Store and Google Play.

The game consists of five chapters in five different locations, of which you, the narrator, have memories. They are your house, the streets, the apartment (grandparents), the psychiatric hospital and the treehouse.

Each of the chapters is made up of a certain number of diorama scenes. The first four chapters are the largest ones, while the last chapter is pretty much the conclusion of the story.

As you start the game, you’ll see the first diorama in the middle of your screen, with the content on the floor and the wall in front of you. By clicking and holding on the left button of your mouse while moving it from right to left or vice versa, you’ll be able to see the other sides on the room, as well as items that might have been hidden from the previous angle. By hovering around with your mouse cursor, you’ll be able to interact/search on particular objects when your cursor becomes an eye icon. You’ll know straight away which items you can pick up, and retrieving them from your inventory is very easy.

The puzzles are not too difficult and are well-designed. But bear in mind that you need to thoroughly scan each of the rooms as some of the clues/items are well hidden (especially the ones that involve numbers and shapes to open locks).

Each diorama will have arrows at the end of some walls, which will indicate to you in which direction you can move to the next room. There is no map indicator in this game, and you will find yourself going around in circles a few times per chapter before having a good grasp of the full area. It would have been nice to have a map in order to see where you are, but to be honest, it’s really not needed.

I really enjoyed exploring and rotating each of the rooms and finding clues and objects. And I like the specific colour patterns of each of the chapters, making each of them unique. In terms of gameplay, it will take you around three hours to complete the game.

Outstanding graphics and the puzzles are well-designed. The story is pretty good but the game fairly short. In terms of controls, you play the entire game with the mouse. I think the price on Steam is too high for the length of the game; you might play it through a second time to complete all achievements, but apart from that, there is not much replayability.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com!