The Long Reach

Review

General Education is a scientific research centre located in the middle of a town called Baervox in New Hamphire. It has been commission by the U.S Government to work on a secret project. Unfortunately, the funds allocated for this research are rather slim and the pressure to deliver is constantly growing. This predicament pushed the scientists of the facility to test their own discoveries on themselves, which proved to be a questionable decision. Just before the Christmas party, a trio of researchers were conducting their last experiment for the year when . . . one of them blacked out! After returning to his senses, he found himself locked on a floor of the research centre and everything looked chaotic. Did the experiment go wrong?

The Long Reach is a point and click / horror / adventure game where you play an employer of the top secret research centre who wakes up after passing out in the middle of an experiment.

At the start of the game, you’ll play Calvin, who has second thoughts about his upcoming wedding to Shelly, the team leader of the secret project at the research centre. One of his daily tasks is to buy the groceries, which is not his favourite pastime to say the least. Well, on this particular day, the visit to the grocery store was extremely painful . . . in fact, it was deadly!

From here, you‘ll be playing a scientist who takes part in the experiment, and wakes up in the middle of this nightmare.

The game is divided into three phases. In the first one, Stewart (your character) will need to figure out what’s going on in the facility and also find a way out. There will be plenty of puzzles to solve, and you’ll meet very intriguing characters, in addition to being pursued by an insane colleague. Stewart will need to go back and forth between three floors of the centre in order to successfully escape.

The intermediary phase is fairly short; more story-driven and quite confronting for Stewart, with a few twists, which is great in my opinion. The last phase will see Stewart back in the centre trying to unravel and fix the issue.

The gameplay is pretty much a point and click where Stewart has to find objects and place them on appropriate items in order to progress within the game. The objects he will be able to interact with will have a yellow outline around them. He might miss one or two small objects if he runs through rooms like a maniac. Walking makes it easier to spot these small items. He can hide inside cupboards and wardrobes, which he might want to do to escape from delusional characters who want to kill him as soon as they lay eyes on him.  The other option is to run for his life!  He will experience the occasional fright, but nothing too drastic. If he’s caught, he will die. But don’t worry, as you will restart from the last stage in which you correctly used an object in order solve a puzzle (thank God for the automatic savings!) The dialogues are pretty harsh and suit the game perfectly. You will have a few giggles too. Oh, on a few occasions during the third stage, the dialogue is also a part of the puzzle.

Great pixel art, soundtrack and sound effects. The game runs very well and I like the automatic savings when you correctly identify the appropriate position to place an object. I like the heavy atmosphere, full of suspense. The controls are really easy to use. The game, as a whole, is really well put together. I finished my first walkthrough in about 6 hours, missing a couple of achievements on the way.