Have just played through the first hour or so, what strikes me straight away is the atmosphere - wonderful pixel art, brilliant sound design and music. Very "The Last Door"-style presentation - which in my book is a very good thing! The writing is top notch.

Edit: Have now completed the game - a deep, thought provoking and gut-wrenching tale. Highly recommended!!

A short adventure game exploring what it is to be a plague doctor, you will get threw the game if you take it slow in about 4-5hrs. the graphics are done in the old dos style and the music is done well. The puzzles are logical and gives you things to interact with. I enjoyed the game, and if your looking for something for a short sit down, this game is for you.

I was really looking forward to playing The Plague Doctor of Wippra, as on the surface it seemed like a serious account of medieval events during one of the most horrific pandemics in world history. Promising to study topics like religion, superstition and ignorance, and the inclusion of medical puzzles and treatments, I was quite excited, and yes, they were mentioned, but ever so briefly, and in no detail.

After the two hours of playing through the game, I didn’t feel educated, and hardly entertained, but the atmosphere and visuals did provide something different, but I just wish they had explored things a bit deeper.

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https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2877986408

It’s a shame that the game is so short, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is extremely difficult to include any character development, plot lines, and depth into such a short time frame, and this proves to be the case here.

The developers try to get around this by offering us the notion that we are spending a day in the shoes of plague doctor Oswald Keller, so events are compacted into this time frame. This should still give us ample opportunity to examine topics affecting the hearts and minds of those affected, but conversations are always very brief, and lore is kept to a bare minimum. Most characters we meet only once, and they mostly only serve to aid you in puzzle solutions. Occasionally, they offer brief insight into events surrounding their lives, but they are always fleeting and easily forgotten.

I was encouraged by the start, where Dr Keller begin his day visiting a family where a sick boy waited for prognosis. The thick stench of destitution and hopelessness felt tangible whilst the doctor investigated the scene. The doctor’s character was the only real strong point in the story, and we learnt of his compassion, devotion and his willingness to put his patient’s needs above the law. I felt at that point that this game was going to be an interesting account on how the Black Death affected people’s lives, but the promising start never materialized into anything substantial.

There are brief cameo appearances by many characters, and we learn of events through brief conversations. Some are frightened for the health of themselves and their loved ones, some are scared for the salvation of their souls, and there is a strong undercurrent of religious zealousness and misunderstanding of events; Something that Dr Keller is trying to change.

All the ingredients were present, but literally every topic discussed was over in a flash and never examined. It felt like a summary, and gave a taste of life in the Medieval Ages but nothing too thought provoking.

There are options to choose answers when talking to certain characters, and after your first play through you will learn which of these characters plays an important role in determining your fate at the end. Answers given in these four instances will have a profound effect, but you can choose differently next time and perhaps get a different conclusion.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2877986457

Most of the game serves as a brief puzzle solving exercise, where talking to characters repeats conversations already had, and puzzles can be very illogical. For example, why would I sharpen a hook on a statue? Or have to interact with a bird twice, but in a short space of time, to reveal the puzzle solution. Why not tell me what I had to do in the first exchange? The puzzles can be very frustrating initially, but they get easier and more logical as the game progresses.

Most puzzles revolve around medicine, like finding ingredients to make a soothing balm, or treating patient’s wounds. We never really perform any surgery or delve too deeply into that side of things. Dr Keller examines the patient, we are told what he needs to perform the healing, we collect the ingredients and he cures them. Sometimes, it is important to perform actions in a certain order, like sterilization and cleaning, but otherwise they are just simple puzzles where finding the ingredients might involve a few other actions. Dr Keller’s bedside manner is sympathetic and caring but we never find out much about the patient and their lives and they just serve as another puzzle solution.

You can combine items in your inventory, and this will be obvious when trying, as they will highlight when practical. The GUI is a little fiddly and I did get fed up with items explaining what they were when all I wanted to do was drop it back in my inventory. Items need to be examined before you can pick them up, so be wary of that, as they can be missed. There is an option in the settings to turn on highlighted objects on scene. Some of these objects can be hidden and part of the solution is revealing them, so I guess that’s why they advise you not to do this.

There is the option to fast track out of areas if you can see the exit, which was welcomed.

Unfortunately, there are no chapters to start from after the game finishes. You will need to start a new game, but a replay can be completed in forty minutes or so.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2877986488

The pixel art is very indicative of the times and manages to relay a thick atmosphere and ambiance. There is no voice acting, but there are noises made like babies crying, animal sounds, and general sound effects. There is a wonderfully somber tune playing in places and moments of drama are sounded well.

The Plague Doctor of Wippra was an interesting idea, and I loved the setting and ambiance surrounding The Black Death in medieval times. It’s a serious and dark adventure, attempting to look at how difficult treating patients could be with so much fear, ignorance and religious zeal present, not to mention the danger of being treated as a witch for performing your duties!

The title did pack quite a lot in to its brief outing, but everything seemed superficial, and over too quickly, and although I didn’t hate it, I just think there could have been so much more, and it was a little disappointing in the end.

It was a shame that the narrative was so thin, but the puzzle elements were still not enough to rescue the game either, and although it looked impressive, I don’t think I could recommend unless you were looking for something different in a point and click adventure, and didn’t mind its cursory fashion.

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This copy was obtained through my steam group

I liked the story and the atmosphere, but I didn't enjoy the gameplay, many of the puzzles were presenting a problem that didn't need an additional step, and to be fair, all adventure games are guilty of that to some extent, but I really felt the chores were seemingly extending the game with no narrative direction. The game was shorter than expected, and I actually don't mind the endings, I just figured you would have more content in between, I was actually just getting into the vibes when it ended. I think the game needed another hour of context, just to have more investment in the character. I would say the story is only 90 minutes, but some of the moon logic puzzles could maybe push it over 2 hours. Now, the dialogue choices will have an impact on the endings that you get, but I got 3 different conclusions with no special cutscenes to make them unique. You could replay it for those small differences, but again, the reward for doing it is not big enough.

On a more positive note, I thought the game handled the music really well, not just the choice of songs, but also using silence when it was needed, even the ambient sound effects made it uneasy to play. I thought it was kinda cool how gloomy the game was, this might be the only adventure game that didn't make me laugh once, even unintentionally, seems like you took the theme very seriously.

Unfortunately, even though you can enable optional hotspots, I still found myself doing a lot of pixel hunting WITH hotspots, most of the quest items perfectly go into the background, and a few of them I could not even see at all. I can tolerate a certain amount of moon logic, but I still don't understand why you went with some of these puzzles, I mean what was that thing with the b___, that is some heavy game logic. I didn't like how many puzzle segments you packed into a small area, I think ideally you want to keep introducing more exploration into the game so it does not get boring, but most of the game takes place within a couple of backgrounds.


(+) The choice of music and how you used the silence worked very well for me. The only small thing, I think some of the sounds needed a higher volume, but overall I think the atmosphere here is the best part of the experience.

(+) I think the story was interesting, I started to really enjoy it about the same time the game ended, I was hoping to follow the character through more twists and turns. The game takes its theme seriously, it's actually kinda rare to play an adventure game that does not make occasional jokes, even horror games do them a lot. The game establishes very fast what a horrible time it was for everyone, and I think you could have played around with that tension for longer.


Puzzles/interactions - even with the hotspots, I missed a lot of items, I don't think the game was visually clear at all. There were a couple of really redundant puzzles, just creating a problem that the character could solve on the spot. Some moon logic here and there, the "b_r_" puzzle felt completely random. The zodiac puzzle hints can be interpreted in multiple ways, I think it's misleading.

Content/Locations - so much about adventure games for me is exploring and looking at new backgrounds, the more puzzles you try to pack into a small area, the less I enjoy the game. The story still works for what it is, but you just not making a big impact on me in 90 minutes, I was willing to follow the character, but it ended so fast. For the endings, unique cutscenes would be better for replay value. Overall, I think the game needed at least another full section of puzzles.

Overall Thoughts: 6/10

While not a bad narrative with a good atmosphere, I felt like you artificially stretched a game that was already limited. Adventure games are also about exploration and experiencing the world, and if you put so many puzzles into just a few backgrounds, how can I be excited about navigating the same area over and over? Unfortunately, the adventure bar is very high for me these days, I wish you gave me a little more to work with.

This is one of those "I wish there was a neutral option" kind of reviews. The game itself isn't bad, the story is pretty decent and seems really interesting, and for what it is, it is a fun little game.

My biggest gripe with the game is it can be a bit tedious to solve some of the puzzles ( I think another comment mentions how you have to chase a bird from the garden, to the front of the building, and back to the garden again just to get a feather, and how that feather is used to place some blood on the crack in the wall to draw out the leeches as if you couldn't just dip your finger in the blood and place it on the wall, but anyway ) and it can be frustrating to deal with.

My next biggest issue is just.. the ending. One moment I'm playing the game, the next the ending is staring me in the face and I'm sat here wondering what happened. To go into more depth; You try and do right by all the characters so they'll vouch for you when you're on trial, and then realise that you can only have one person vouch for you anyway. You choose to stick to your guns about your convictions and end up hung straight away, which made me sit there in stunned confusion thinking I'd done something wrong, and then I replayed the game and chose to renounce my convictions and got the same ending screen, this time saying that I eventually die to the plague anyway.

The ending comes about abruptly and feels rushed. One second you're interacting with everyone, the next you're on trial, and then you get one of two endings and in both you're dead. Didn't feel like a very satisfying conclusion and just left me feeling sour about having paid for the game.

Overall the game is good, but the tediousness to some of the puzzles (that really make it feel like they're trying to pad out the gameplay time), the sudden ending, and the base price makes me need to downvote it. Luckily I got the game on sale so I don't feel too scorned as if I had paid full price, but I still wasn't thrilled. For the length of the game, I feel it could be cheaper, even the sale price isn't that good really, but if you want to play this go ahead, it's not the worst.

It's a good but short adventure that would be perfect as part of an anthology or twice as long. And this makes this game similar to the Last door anthology even more than the similar minimalist visual style. It has a great, unhackneyed setting of the plague of the late Middle Ages (it's funny that this fall suddenly gives us three such projects - A Plague Tale: Requiem and Pentiment are still ahead). She has a very charming protagonist - an ordinary doctor who saves the lives of ordinary and noble people with the limited means that he has. There is an interesting and eventful game space that is extremely delicate with logic and its mechanics. Not once in a game do you make an airship out of a sunflower and matches, everything is maximally subordinated to the logic, the tasks required of you, the game is very smart in this regard.

There is a sense of convenience in the little things, for example, game design items that you have examined and that will never be used cease to be active, without cluttering your head, but at the same time fulfilling their function - giving an idea of the game world. I remember this wonderful mechanic for the first time in the first Black Mirror and then I thought that the very next day after its invention, all point-and-click quests should do this, it is so elegant, correct and immediately solves a bunch of problems of the genre. But no, for some reason only a few developers repeat this, and thank you very much for having it here. You enjoy this pace, this thick atmosphere, lively characters, and then the game ends in an hour and a half ... And I was left hungry, man, as if they promised me a huge delicious cake, but they gave me a small piece. And yes, I understand that for an indie developer, a project of this size is a huge job. I rather still hope that this will be only the first episode of some plague anthology from this author, being able to appreciate a good game. I see the talent and I want to feel it more, I don't want to leave this deep dark world.

This was a little boring of a game. I am a history buff so I thought the subject matter might be interesting but it wasn't. The plot was slow and plodding and as soon as there was some tension it was over. The puzzles were quite bland and sometimes irritating. I think there are a lot better options for short point and click games. I would save my money and time for something better.

I bought this game due to the intriguing cover art, and I have to say that I loved it. It was a little short, but I think that that was a wise choice, as it adds to the story rather than dragging it out forever. On top of this, the puzzles were intriguing but not too hard, which made gameplay very engaging but not demotivating. And the music score in it is absolutely astounding! I've had it on loop for a while now, and it's gorgeous. So yes, buy this game and recommend it to all your friends.

Not an easy case for me: I really love the art style and the music. Reminds me a lot of The Last Door Season 1 & 2, some of my favorite horror point & click adventures. It's very low res, but in a very atmospheric way. It works almost like a well written book: The lack of visual detail leaves a lot of room for imagination. Basically the brain does some kind of upscaling. At least that's how this works for me and why i love well made low res pixel art graphics like this.

But that's graphics and the game has more to offer: A story. And here it gets difficult for me. Music is great and the story feels very authentic, but not very exciting to be honest. It's like a playable history documentary, not really an exciting adventure. And it's quite short.

If you like pixel art adventures and don't want to be immersed into the virtual worlds for many hours: Give this a chance. It's a good little game, but it's not an epic adventure or something like that in any way.

A great (but quite short) story about the plague. Really enjoyed it. 8/10