bad 1h30 to finish

I really did not like this point and click game at all. I absolutely despised the character you play as, the voice acting and I found it so incredibly unfunny that it made it so painful to actually finish playing the game through.

As for the rest of the game, it is not a terrible point and click or anything, but it still honestly surprises me this game has such good reviews as it does.

It is a short game with a fairly successful animation. The story unfolds in the form of a puzzle and makes you think about what to do next. Enjoy.

✅jazzy music

➖Lip sync issues
➖No achievements
➖Suffers from moon logic

Game World: The entirety of The Journey Down: Chapter One (TJD1) takes place upon a few different areas near a boat harbor owned by the main character Bwana and his brother Kito. The areas range from a boat, a small restaurant, to a yacht. As Bwana you must go between areas to solve puzzles, kind of like the old point-and-click (PnC) Sierra/LucasArts games with a heavy mixing of Grim Fandango.
I found the game world to be charming. The Jamaican/Rasta vibes make a cold industrial city feel welcoming, carefree, and different.

Narrative: The story is fairly simple but definitely leaves open a big part of the plot to chapter 2. Your goal here is to repair an old plane so you can escape with a book that details how to get to an illegal part of the world where some big mystery is. Obviously you won’t touch on the larger parts of the overarching narrative until the later chapters, so the player is informed of this mystery, but the core goal remains to escape quickly.
Bwana is very one-dimensional in the sense that can be described as the Jamaican surfer vibe, nothing gets him down and he can solve any problem. I like the writing for Bwana and Kito, but they are still not as fleshed out as Manny from Grim Fandango.
Overall, while the narrative hints at something bigger, what is delivered to the players in Chapter 1 is a small portion of the pie. In a way, Chapter 1 could be considered introducing the players to the world and characters, but it almost feels like it should be a demo, or perhaps combined with Chapter 2.


Length: TJD1 is a pretty short game, I was stumped many times and still managed to beat it in under 2 hours.
Controls: This is a point-and-click adventure game, so it's only left clicking and dragging for controls.

Mechanics: The mechanics are fairly simple, but the issue is the difficulty of these mechanics. As the player you roam the environment clicking things to obtain items and either use those items or combine them in your inventory with others to get through challenges. At its core, JD1 has the same mechanics as other point-and-click adventure games with nothing really new here.

Difficulty: A big problem with PnC gales like LucasArts/Sierra is the puzzles tend to walk a fine line between “This makes sense” and “Moon Logic”. After wandering aimlessly for 20 minutes with no idea what to do, you start to think if maybe the solution isn’t as obvious as it should be. Sure enough, I ran into numerous cases in JD1 where I had to use a guide because there is no way I would have thought of doing something like that. How the heck would I ever need to know about fishing up a crab to scare a dog? Or using literal engine oil as extra virgin olive oil? I did not enjoy the puzzles due to many cases of dumb logic.
Quality: I found the graphics to be very well done for a PnC game. The entirety of the game takes place at night, so the nighttime reflection on the water, the art of the backgrounds, and nighttime shadows - all well done. Animations like lip syncing can definitely be a bit spotty, but overall the game looks good.

UI: Pretty basic, you just move your mouse cursor up or down to access options or item menus, respectively.

Performance: No issues on my desktop PC:
i9-13900KF | RTX 4090 | 64GB RAM | 1440p @ 240hz | installed on SSD
Sound Effects: Not very noticeable honestly. The voice acting is also just okay, nothing bad, but just a bit lifeless. Bwana and Kito both have some good VA’s though.

Music: Great Jamaican vibes here. I found the music very relative to Bwana as a character, and just generally good for setting the tone.
None, no achievements, no choices, no branching paths. Puzzle games tend to have the worst replayability, so not a big surprise.

JD1 almost feels like a concept or a demo. I say this without playing Chapter 2, but I feel like the first game falls short in providing meaningful narrative and is instead used as a type of introductory course to the games world. The only major plot points occur within the first and last 15 minutes of the game. Everything else in the middle can be construed as just puzzle fluff.

This was a tough one to rate. In the end I decided on a No because of the cost vs content available with zero replayability. If PnC games interest you, definitely wait for a sale.

You can find my curator page here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Synik_GR

This review is more or less for the entire series.


This is up there with the best point n' click games.

Unique artstyle, great music and funny characters.

A blast for any fans of the genre.

The only issue here would be the pricing, which is a bit much. I'd have to recommend waiting for a sale, even if the series is really good.

Let's be honest, this isn't the best quality game out there, but man this one stuck with me as one of my favorite point-and-click experiences. The characters and themes are a delight as they are something we don't see everyday in modern games. If you're into point-and-click games, definitely give this a try. 8/10

6/10

This is a very traditional point and click adventure game in the style of old Lucasarts games. The developers have stayed very pure to that style of game and haven't gone out of their way to add much in the way of modern quality of life improvements. The game also leans into some of the old obscure puzzle solutions which will have you trying everything with everything (which is extra frustrating when you aren't sure you've actually found everything in the first place). Having said that, if you are OK with that style of game then there is a lot to like here with an interesting graphic style, world building and story. The game shines when it puts you in urban environment, but it's a little underwhelming graphically when you reach The Underland. The writing isn't outright funny but it is amusing and there are enough compelling characters to keep you coming back. Out of the three chapters I'd say 2 is the strongest whilst the 3rd is the weakest. This chapter has a lot of heavy lifting to do in terms of setting up the characters and main story but doesn't really let you explore much of the world due to being quite limited in game area. Some of the puzzles are pretty obscure as well.

Short but sweet, loved the opening to this amazing series :D

it is a fun, chill and goofy game. I recommend it