This is a difficult game to review. The main thing that made me buy it was the developer's previous title, Primordia, which I have very much enjoyed and recommended thoroughly. It is not an easy sell this time, but I still think there's enough to like to tilt my vote towards "recommend".


The gameplay hasn't changed much. It's still a very standard point-and-click adventure puzzle game. It's not especially difficult, but unlike Primordia the world sometimes works on crazy logic, so don't expect it to be straightforward all the time. This is justified narratively of course, but still don't be afraid to use the game's nice narrative hint system if you need it. Whatever engine the devs are using must have gotten an update since Primordia because it works much better with modern resolutions now and doesn't panic when you dare to minimize the window. The only issue I encountered was that once the game refused to close. So overall: runs well, plays well.


This is easily the game's strongest point. The artist(s) did a fantastic job adapting their already striking style to the nightmarish imagery of the world. The art is full of detail, meaning, and character. This only gets more intense in the second part of the game where they pull out all the stops and embrace the amped up insanity of their setting. The sound manages to not disappoint either. Strangeland has some fantastic music that fits the tone of the game. This time around the standout track was The Yew. It's a shame it's so short. I'd love to hear an extended version. I will criticise some of the voice acting. There are absolutely great performances like Eight-Three, but some were lacking, like the Woman. (As a side note, I don't necessarily blame the actors here. There is a lot that goes into how their voice comes out in the context of the game. It could be any number of things.) Most fall somewhere in the middle with more on the good side than bad.


Well, this is going to be difficult to do without spoilers, but it's also where most of my issues with the game are. Strangeland doesn't have a bad story, but it doesn't have a great one either. Where Primordia took inspiration from classical sci-fi, Strangeland seems (at least to this uninformed observer) inspired by psychological horror. Unfortunately, this makes it fall into some traps of the genre. Because so much of the world is surreal, it's hard to get attached to anyone or anything. Character development or growth is not really present. Half the characters are walking metaphors and the other half spout the same riddles over and over. The answers you will likely figure out far before the protagonist does. It all does tie together into a simple yet emotional story with a powerful message in the end. There is still enough there for a good plot. It's just that it's built on a bare-bones foundation.

On a technical level, I can praise the clever use of metaphors, especially when they are supported by the art. The use of different mythologies was also intriguing, and I have to give props to the effectiveness of the occasional dose of twisted dark humour. However, I can't ignore just how wordy the game can get at times. There are several points where the characters just keep repeating the same thing over and over again in different elaborate ways, as if the writer couldn't choose between four different metaphors and decided to write them all out in a row. Also, the irony of saying this in such a long-winded review that most people will probably never fully read it doesn't escape me, but that's just because I'm bad at this. Still, I will do a full-spoiler addedndum at the end that goes more in depth on my feelings about specifics of the plot and how they shaped the experience.


Strangeland is a good game, if you like what you see on the tin. It will supply a good amount of excellently-crafted horror art, which may be its main sell. It's competent at being a point-and-click puzzle game. And the story follows the themes you'd expect here. The writing has issues in terms of characterization and a lack of brevity, but the plot still holds together and delivers a satisfying conclusion. In my opinion it doesn't live up to the legacy of Primordia, but it doesn't have to. Probably worth the asking price, but if you're not sure about how much you would enjoy a psychological horror point-and-click in a nightmarish world, I wouldn't blame you for waiting for a sale.


This is mainly for the devloper and anyone else who—for some reason—wants to hear my take on the story. So the issue I danced around in my Story section is that everything that's going on is in the protagonist's head. This isn't a bad trope by itself, but it creates some challenges that Strangeland, in my opinion, failed to overcome. The main one being: you essentially have one character, two if you count the Woman. And when you fail to develop that one character, and write off your setting as just the protagonist's head, you are left with nothing but the motions of the plot. The problem is we learn very little about the Stranger beyond his self-loathing and his love for the Woman. We don't even get to see how their love came to be or what it was that held them together. There are plenty of metaphors but like the clever giant Cancer Crab, most of them are striking metaphors of events, not insights into who these people are.

The game reminds me of Jacob's Ladder and Silent Hill 2, but with all the side characters taken out and with way less insight into the main character's past. I wanted to be intrigued by this world. I enjoyed talking to Nineveh and Eight-Three. I loved untangling the convoluted ball of Norse symbolism. I liked applying my (limited) knowledge of tarot to answer Murmur's questions in the way I thought fit best. I don't want this critique to sound like I'm ripping the game's story to shreds. It's just that once you see the main message, once you realize that every single character and every single conversation without exception is tied into death and loss, those characters that intrigued you become hollow shells that you feel silly for expecting more from. They're not just made up, which would have been fine. They're all reduced to a single metaphor. This story had strong emotion. It had a personal message. It had a beautiful depiction of internal struggle. The problem is that it had essentially nothing else.

This is a difficult game to review. The main thing that made me buy it was the developer's previous title, Primordia, which I have very much enjoyed and recommended thoroughly. It is not an easy sell this time, but I still think there's enough to like to tilt my vote towards "recommend". [h1]Gameplay and performance[/h1] The gameplay hasn't changed much. It's still a very standard point-and-click adventure puzzle game. It's not especially difficult, but unlike Primordia the world sometimes works on crazy logic, so don't expect it to be straightforward all the time. This is justified narratively of course, but still don't be afraid to use the game's nice narrative hint system if you need it. Whatever engine the devs are using must have gotten an update since Primordia because it works much better with modern resolutions now and doesn't panic when you dare to minimize the window. The only issue I encountered was that once the game refused to close. So overall: runs well, plays well. [h1]Presentation[/h1] This is easily the game's strongest point. The artist(s) did a fantastic job adapting their already striking style to the nightmarish imagery of the world. The art is full of detail, meaning, and character. This only gets more intense in the second part of the game where they pull out all the stops and embrace the amped up insanity of their setting. The sound manages to not disappoint either. Strangeland has some fantastic music that fits the tone of the game. This time around the standout track was The Yew. It's a shame it's so short. I'd love to hear an extended version. I will criticise some of the voice acting. There are absolutely great performances like Eight-Three, but some were lacking, like [spoiler]the Woman[/spoiler]. (As a side note, I don't necessarily blame the actors here. There is a lot that goes into how their voice comes out in the context of the game. It could be any number of things.) Most fall somewhere in the middle with more on the good side than bad. [h1]Story[/h1] Well, this is going to be difficult to do without spoilers, but it's also where most of my issues with the game are. Strangeland doesn't have a bad story, but it doesn't have a great one either. Where Primordia took inspiration from classical sci-fi, Strangeland seems (at least to this uninformed observer) inspired by psychological horror. Unfortunately, this makes it fall into some traps of the genre. Because so much of the world is surreal, it's hard to get attached to anyone or anything. Character development or growth is not really present. Half the characters are walking metaphors and the other half spout the same riddles over and over. The answers you will likely figure out far before the protagonist does. It all does tie together into a simple yet emotional story with a powerful message in the end. There is still enough there for a good plot. It's just that it's built on a bare-bones foundation. On a technical level, I can praise the clever use of metaphors, especially when they are supported by the art. The use of different mythologies was also intriguing, and I have to give props to the effectiveness of the occasional dose of twisted dark humour. However, I can't ignore just how wordy the game can get at times. There are several points where the characters just keep repeating the same thing over and over again in different elaborate ways, as if the writer couldn't choose between four different metaphors and decided to write them all out in a row. Also, the irony of saying this in such a long-winded review that most people will probably never fully read it doesn't escape me, but that's just because I'm bad at this. Still, I will do a full-spoiler addedndum at the end that goes more in depth on my feelings about specifics of the plot and how they shaped the experience. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Strangeland is a good game, if you like what you see on the tin. It will supply a good amount of excellently-crafted horror art, which may be its main sell. It's competent at being a point-and-click puzzle game. And the story follows the themes you'd expect here. The writing has issues in terms of characterization and a lack of brevity, but the plot still holds together and delivers a satisfying conclusion. In my opinion it doesn't live up to the legacy of Primordia, but it doesn't have to. Probably worth the asking price, but if you're not sure about how much you would enjoy a psychological horror point-and-click in a nightmarish world, I wouldn't blame you for waiting for a sale. [h1]SPOILER CRITIQUE[/h1] [spoiler]This is mainly for the devloper and anyone else who—for some reason—wants to hear my take on the story. So the issue I danced around in my Story section is that everything that's going on is in the protagonist's head. This isn't a bad trope by itself, but it creates some challenges that Strangeland, in my opinion, failed to overcome. The main one being: you essentially have one character, two if you count the Woman. And when you fail to develop that one character, and write off your setting as just the protagonist's head, you are left with nothing but the motions of the plot. The problem is we learn very little about the Stranger beyond his self-loathing and his love for the Woman. We don't even get to see how their love came to be or what it was that held them together. There are plenty of metaphors but like the clever giant Cancer Crab, most of them are striking metaphors of events, not insights into who these people are.[/spoiler] [spoiler]The game reminds me of Jacob's Ladder and Silent Hill 2, but with all the side characters taken out and with way less insight into the main character's past. I wanted to be intrigued by this world. I enjoyed talking to Nineveh and Eight-Three. I loved untangling the convoluted ball of Norse symbolism. I liked applying my (limited) knowledge of tarot to answer Murmur's questions in the way I thought fit best. I don't want this critique to sound like I'm ripping the game's story to shreds. It's just that once you see the main message, once you realize that every single character and every single conversation without exception is tied into death and loss, those characters that intrigued you become hollow shells that you feel silly for expecting more from. They're not just made up, which would have been fine. They're all reduced to a single metaphor. This story had strong emotion. It had a personal message. It had a beautiful depiction of internal struggle. The problem is that it had essentially nothing else.[/spoiler]