CYANIDE & HAPPINESS: FREAKPOCALYPSE

In its sixteen years of existence, more or less most of you will have caught the eye of a comic-strip from the webcomic Cyanide & Happiness. This is one of the most un-politically correct comics ever to appear, with humour that knows no bounds, as it touches in an (often offensive) way on sensitive issues of our modern society, such as racism, sex (mostly homosexual), abortion, violence of all kinds (physical/psychological), and even necrophilia.

Undoubtedly, its humor is not for everyone, on the contrary, it is confronted with countless detractors, but that doesn't prevent it from having millions of daily views and fanatical supporters at the same time. The consequence of all this is the creation of a successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised the not inconsiderable sum of $575,000, in order for the first game bearing its name to see the light of day. And in a genre that hasn't really thrived in the last... twenty years, namely point 'n' click adventures. Admittedly, as fans of the genre, we were delighted with the choice of the development team Skeleton Crew Studios, however the end result leaves us with a rather bittersweet taste.

The game is set in modern times and presents a common situation in American schools. Our hero is Coop, a teenager whose life hasn't exactly shown him its best face. Belonging to the "nerd" category, Coop is subjected to non-stop bullying from any being breathing on earth. From the muscular bully of the school, to the snob (but gorgeous) rich girls, to his irritatingly "gorgeous" popular classmates, to his teachers, they never miss an opportunity to lower his dignity to the floors and beyond. Living in this incredibly sad and cynical environment, Coop is tasked with a rather impossible mission: to find a chaperone for the famous prom night, considered the Alpha and Omega of a senior American student's life.

With the vast majority of his classmates paying no attention to his existence, it is likely that his quest to find a date is doomed. Nevertheless, Coop doesn't give up and tries to win the favour of his classmates by undertaking to run all sorts of errands, many of which border on the sadistic. Makes sense, otherwise what kind of Cyanide & Happiness would this be? Of course, towards the end of the game, after a series of unfortunate events, things change drastically, as prom night is the last thing on both his mind and the rest of the inhabitants of the town of Netherton.

Unfortunately, it will be a while before we find out exactly what happened, because Freakpocalypse is only the first part of the three that are scheduled to be released. As such, 95% of the game is taken up with a series of chores, which don't seem to go anywhere beyond setting up a few extreme situations like the ones we see in the comics. The truth is that the lack of any real goal or coherent plot beyond the vague "find a prom date" doesn't work to the game's advantage, which feels quite chaotic and anarchic.

Undoubtedly, the creators' goal of making a game that would be very much like comic books hits a bull's-eye, with dialogue full of profanity, "adult" innuendo, outrageous characters (like the professor who dresses as a sexual slave or Coop's nymphomaniac grandmother) and even more unheard-of situations. In this aspect, we'd say Freakpocalypse is excellent. Every screen in the game is filled with objects that we can interact with in order to receive Coop's relevant "cancel" comment, and there are dozens of NPC's whose sole reason for existing is to throw the appropriate insulting line at Coop's face.

As is usual in such productions, where humour is the main pillar of their existence, sometimes it is hilarious, very aptly pointing out serious issues of an over-consuming society, sometimes not, although in general this is purely a matter of personal taste. Where we have the biggest complaint is in the implementation of the puzzles, which are ridiculously easy. The main chores we've been assigned to are classic point 'n' click puzzles (inventory-based or via tree dialogues) and are listed in detail in our notebook, which gives unnecessarily many hints for solving them. Occasionally at times, Coop's own comments provide the solution on a plate, with many of the items we need being located either on the same or adjacent screen, making things even easier.

Out of the main chores, there are a few... side quests that don't play any role in the main story (like buying condoms for a kleptomaniac guy), but if we solve them, we get a better rating at the end of the game, as well as some new costumes to dress up Coop. However, the side quests take a little more work to complete, but don't imagine it'll take more than three minutes of thought to figure it out.

It's obvious that the main focus of the Skeleton Crew Studios people's work was to flood the player with a series of animated comic strips, similar to the material they are inspired by, rather than to build an adventure game that will challenge the player with its puzzles. Combined with its very short length (about three hours if you bother with the side quests, otherwise it's even shorter) and its cliffhanger ending appearing right at the point where Freakpocalypse starts to get interesting, they sum up an experience rather disappointing for the promises made by its Kickstarter campaign.

At least, on the technical side Freakpocalypse is very good, with the webcomic's typical simplistic design line coming to life beautifully on our screens, with rich environments, well-done animation and extremely bright colours. Special mention must be made of the voiceover, which is truly amazing, completely interwoven with the dozens of lines of dialogue written, and many characters are capable of eliciting laughter just by the tone of their voice.

To sum up, it's probably a bit too early to draw a safe conclusion about Cyanide & Happiness: Freakapocalypse, as it's practically only the first (and introductory) chapter of a larger game. But since it's normally sold as a full product and not as an Early Access title, we have to judge accordingly. So if you want to try a casual game, with writing that appeals to adults who aren't bothered by shock dialogue and outrageous situations, then Freakpocalypse will have you covered for as long as it lasts. But if you want to play a proper point 'n' click adventure game, then turn your eyes elsewhere. In anticipation of the next episodes...