Strangeland is a much familiar old-school type of point and click game that takes place in a very interesting setting where everything is not as it seems. Our character, whose name we don't know, finds himself in Strangeland - a place that lives up to its name due to everything in it being different and bizarre in some way. Even dying is not permanent and our character just returns back to the entrance to continue what he was doing, and that is to try and rescue a woman that is special to him.

Those who are into standard point and click games will find themselves at home here. Strangeland has all the common features of the genre - interactions with parts of the environment on every screen, multitude of puzzles, inventory for objects that can be used later and combined, and dialogue with NPCs in order to progress the plot. Most puzzles here have a logical progression, although at times it can be tricky to know what to do next as a few tasks might require some logic leaps. Thankfully, the game has a dial phone, where our character occasionally listens to someone who simultaneously guides us and badmouths us at the same time. This dial phone has a function to get a hint from said individual that can point us in the right direction, so it's a very nice addition that's much appreciated. Most of the game happens pretty much within the same few locations, and so backtracking here or getting lost is pretty minimal.

Perhaps one of the sections that was a tad annoying was a fight with a certain creature that I won't go into detail explaining. It requires usage of items with specific parts of the creature's body in order to hurt it, but you only have about 5 seconds to use the right item after each one, which means if you fail, you die and are brought back to the start of the area and need to walk to the place of the fight again and keep doing the trial and error. For a game like this where you have to scroll through items you have and where it's not immediately obvious where on the creature you can click, having this section be under a small time limit felt a bit irritating and didn't really add anything other than making us walk to the fight again and again.

As far as story, setting and characters, the game shines with creativity. And as can be expected, a place and plot as strange as this isn't going to explain everything, so you'll still be left with many questions even after completing the story. In that regard, I do wish the ending would've explained a bit more, as it feels a bit as though the game just said goodbye to me before I was ready to let it go. But, at least there are still enough small details in the game to make you think - little hints and signs here and there that you have to pay attention to and might miss the first time round. Perhaps this whole world is in the dark pits of the main character's mind and it's his subconscious way of coping with trauma, or perhaps it's some form of hell or purgatory or some other parallel dimension. Nevertheless, even in a dark and grotesque setting such as this, there are light-hearted moments and jokes full of dark humour.

The breathtaking visual style of environments and character designs and animation fits this unusual setting perfectly, which is full of surrealism and resembles the works of art by surrealist style artists. We really need more games done in this style! The music is generally ambient and not very noticeable. The voice acting is great and every line of dialogue appears to be voice-acted.

The game is kind of on the shorter side (a single playthrough should take around 5 hours or so), so you might want to get it on a discount if you prefer the length of the game to justify the price. But if you are a fan of point and click games or games set in very unusual worlds, then it's certainly worth getting.
And a big bonus is that the dev is very active on the forums and seems to be helping people when they have any questions or need help.

Strangeland is a much familiar old-school type of point and click game that takes place in a very interesting setting where everything is not as it seems. Our character, whose name we don't know, finds himself in Strangeland - a place that lives up to its name due to everything in it being different and bizarre in some way. Even dying is not permanent and our character just returns back to the entrance to continue what he was doing, and that is to try and rescue a woman that is special to him. Those who are into standard point and click games will find themselves at home here. Strangeland has all the common features of the genre - interactions with parts of the environment on every screen, multitude of puzzles, inventory for objects that can be used later and combined, and dialogue with NPCs in order to progress the plot. Most puzzles here have a logical progression, although at times it can be tricky to know what to do next as a few tasks might require some logic leaps. Thankfully, the game has a dial phone, where our character occasionally listens to someone who simultaneously guides us and badmouths us at the same time. This dial phone has a function to get a hint from said individual that can point us in the right direction, so it's a very nice addition that's much appreciated. Most of the game happens pretty much within the same few locations, and so backtracking here or getting lost is pretty minimal. Perhaps one of the sections that was a tad annoying was a fight with a certain creature that I won't go into detail explaining. It requires usage of items with specific parts of the creature's body in order to hurt it, but you only have about 5 seconds to use the right item after each one, which means if you fail, you die and are brought back to the start of the area and need to walk to the place of the fight again and keep doing the trial and error. For a game like this where you have to scroll through items you have and where it's not immediately obvious where on the creature you can click, having this section be under a small time limit felt a bit irritating and didn't really add anything other than making us walk to the fight again and again. As far as story, setting and characters, the game shines with creativity. And as can be expected, a place and plot as strange as this isn't going to explain everything, so you'll still be left with many questions even after completing the story. In that regard, I do wish the ending would've explained a bit more, as it feels a bit as though the game just said goodbye to me before I was ready to let it go. But, at least there are still enough small details in the game to make you think - little hints and signs here and there that you have to pay attention to and might miss the first time round. Perhaps this whole world is in the dark pits of the main character's mind and it's his subconscious way of coping with trauma, or perhaps it's some form of hell or purgatory or some other parallel dimension. Nevertheless, even in a dark and grotesque setting such as this, there are light-hearted moments and jokes full of dark humour. The breathtaking visual style of environments and character designs and animation fits this unusual setting perfectly, which is full of surrealism and resembles the works of art by surrealist style artists. We really need more games done in this style! The music is generally ambient and not very noticeable. The voice acting is great and every line of dialogue appears to be voice-acted. The game is kind of on the shorter side (a single playthrough should take around 5 hours or so), so you might want to get it on a discount if you prefer the length of the game to justify the price. But if you are a fan of point and click games or games set in very unusual worlds, then it's certainly worth getting. And a big bonus is that the dev is very active on the forums and seems to be helping people when they have any questions or need help.