➤ Encodya, the review 🎮

Writing the review by Encodya to PC we are rewinding the tape of everything we have recently concluded, bringing back the ups and downs of emotions that this point and click adventure is able to offer. The title created by Chaosmonger Studio e Nicola Piovesan, who had already worked on the animated short "Robot Will Protect You", is truly a beautiful tribute to the graphic adventures of the past that could not remain just that. His character, his personality come together with elements that approach Studio Ghibli, Blade Runner and Monkey Island. Encodya is not perfect, but it is the most beautiful declaration of love for this genre of titles that you will find on the market.

Screen

Writing the plot of a graphic adventure to be released in 2021 is no easy task. The genre has granite cornerstones that have remained untouchable for decades, and at the same time the descent into the shadows that graphic adventures have experienced in recent years has sharpened the sense of obsolescence that today's audiences often feel in front of these products. Encodya has the great merit of balancing these feelings with elements capable of snatching an emotion from the player, be it hilarity or melancholy, empathy or pity. The events proposed follow the very young girl Tina, a nine-year-old girl, accompanied by her SAM-53 nurse robot.

The setting is a futuristic and cyberpunk Neo-Berlin in which multiculturalism has impersonated the German capital (beyond the Brandenburg Gate) making it truly similar to a mix of all the largest cities in the world. All this is accentuated by the great use of Japanese-style architecture within what seems to be a reinterpretation of Neo-Tokyo rather than a new futuristic Berlin. The events presented will lead you to some dark events that lurk in Tina's past, in her being an orphan, in the nature of SAM and in the use of cyberspace as a cure for all ills. In short, a journey into emotions between easter eggs and tear-jerking moments. We are certainly not in front of a shocking product in terms of plot and themes, but Encodya is a perfectly balanced product, able to make the most of the "already seen" effect while not plastering the player. Encodya is to all intents and purposes a reflection of our society, a warning to understand where this continuous search for an ephemeral pleasure that leaves aside the simplest, but not trivial, little joys of life could lead us.

Gameplay

Encodya is a point and click adventure with a retro flavor. Everything you have learned to know in this kind of titles is present: the movement with the mouse, the race with the double click, the dialogues with the characters to deepen the lore, a large amount of puzzles, the infinite inventory and to conclude the interaction between objects. Encodya does not make any changes to the genre, in fact it tries to make the basic characteristics perfectly functional, focusing everything on writing elements such as a sense of humor and the surreality of certain actions. Precisely in these cases, or when the title is not taken seriously, the strong inspiration to the cornerstones of the genre comes out. The humor is that seen in the greatest graphic adventures and the references are wasted: from Monkey Island a Broken sword, from Tony Tough a Day of the Tentacle.

However, what makes the adventure more lively is the presence of 10 secrets scattered throughout all the approximately 8-10 hours which will need the game to be 100% completed. During our journey we stopped several times to think about the puzzles that proved surprisingly stimulating. What is striking is the excellent organization of the same according to a crescendo of difficulty (despite there is an initial and irreversible selection between easy and difficult) that accompanies the player. The user is therefore obliged to know the areas that can be explored on the map, to have a good memory and only in very rare cases have we been faced with puzzles that are really too intuitive. The dialogue, the deepening of the lore from the NPCs, everything revolves around the desire of the development team to increase the player's knowledge with respect to the narrative of the work.

Technical aspect

Clearly Encodya is not a title that aims to amaze the user with its technical level. But what we are faced with is once again a very well characterized title. The cartoon style is not invasive and indeed does much justice to the moments when the tones move over the top. Certainly in some excited phases, especially in the final, the game opens up a bit to the reduced value of the budget, but these are trifles that leave the time they find in a title like that. The audio and the excellent localization are certainly striking. Encodya does not forget the importance of sound and accompanies the player in the right way during his journey, properly supporting the scenes that need it without overdoing it. The localization (supported by the results of the Kickstarter campaign) is also of fine workmanship and is worthy of praise along with the interpretation in English. The latter, although not of absolute value, is certainly above the average compared to the production under consideration.

Comment

Tested version PC Windows Digital Delivery Steam Resources4Gaming.com

8.0

Readers (6)

9.1

Your vote

Encodya is a love hymn to graphic adventures rooted in the past but with eyes firmly on the present. The combination of quotations and original parts makes the work usable by both veterans of the genre and newbies who want to take a break from the demanding monthly triple A productions. Between noteworthy puzzles and fun secrets to discover, the player will have no dead moments in all 8-10 of the adventure. Encodya is rediscovering the little joys of life in a journey between emotions and cyberpunk, consolidating values by questioning every certainty. If you are looking for a graphic adventure that will bring back the nostalgia of the past without leaving a bad taste in your mouth, then the not-so-laughing Neo-Berlin is just waiting for you.