NEAR-MAGE

Probably some of you may remember Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure by Stuck in Attic, an adventure that made a very good impression, especially in terms of its amazing graphics, but also some of the characters it introduced. Besides, it gave birth to a new "universe", the Kittehverse (with clear influences from the existence of Kitteh, the adorable black cat of the same name), to which the Romanian company's newest creation, Near-Mage, belongs. An adventure game in development for several years (Stuck In Attic's team is a small one, hence the long development times of its productions), which according to its Kickstarter campaign, promised an amalgam of adventure and RPG elements, with an emphasis on narrative, puzzle alternatives and characters.

No doubt, it's quite an interesting approach, being an attempt to renew the classic point 'n' click recipe that has been attempted many times in the past. However, does Near-Mage manage to be the... source of rejuvenation that the genre needs? The answer is in the following lines.

The storyline of the game takes us to the USA of the present day, where the protagonist is Illinca "Illy" Vraja, an 18-year-old girl who, although she was an excellent student at school, has a high IQ and seems ready for great things, has not yet decided what her professional future will be and spends her time playing video-games (that reminds me of something). Her parents are sounding the alarm, trying to find out what Illy might be interested in, however, as it happens in such cases, their efforts hit a brick wall.

Her life is about to change when, on an ordinary day of "preaching" from her mother and father, she receives in her room (through the window) a parchment sealed with red wax, which comes from her great aunt Domnica, who lives in Transylvania. What did the letter contain? An invitation from her aunt to spend the summer with her in the small town of Sighisoara. With no other plans in mind, Illy decides to visit distant Romania, perhaps this way she can put her mind in order and decide what she wants to do.

Only there, Illy will completely change her perception of the world she knows: on the one hand, with Domnica's help, she will discover that behind Sighisoara, there is a whole new world called Rakus, hidden from the eyes of "mortals", which is full of strange creatures and has a great school of magicians !() and on the other hand, that she herself has the ability to use magic. So, out of nowhere she is invited to attend a school of magic, and later finds herself in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy that puts not only Rakus, but all of humanity in danger.

If the story so far reminds you of something from Harry Potter... you're absolutely right. The influences are obvious, however in Stuck In Attic they attempted a different approach from JK Rowling's world, incorporating elements of Cthulian mythology, always with a humorous twist, just as they did in Gibbous. However, the overall result, while possessing some interest, is not particularly impressive: the plot develops relatively slowly, and even when the much-needed revelations about who or what is behind the conspiracy are made, they turn out to be rather predictable and formulaic. It is obvious that the developers put more emphasis on the implementation of its mechanics and the different approaches to solving the "puzzles" than on creating a story that will be etched in the player's mind.

As for the mechanisms we mention, these are none other than the ability to create spells. In a way, this feature is one of the main attractions of Near-Mage, as during the game we will attend classes (just a few lines of speech and three questions to answer, don't imagine you have to take notes) on an element (earth, water, wind, fire, soul and blood), with which we can combine three of them and make a spell. The game allows us to take the lessons in any order we want, but regardless of our decision, we will be forced to take them all in order to become a proper "wizard". This freedom is one of many that the game provides, as the entire Near-Mage setup is based on the logic of undertaking and completing quests, which are often more than two or three at a time. Aside from the main quest "Become a Near-Mage" which always remains active, as we wander around Rakus and Sighisoara and interact with the various characters in the game, we activate more quests that more or less have the ultimate goal of helping them with something they ask us to do.

Depending on how we choose to communicate with them and solve their problem, there is a relative influence on the evolution of history, but not to a radical degree. The backbone of the story remains the same, just differentiating some of the dialogue, whether or not certain characters help us, and which path we end up with. The losing bet in all of this is found exactly where the game "bets" more, namely in the creation of spells. There are a dozen of them, yet Near-Mage trips itself up by both allowing their use only at predetermined points in the game (specifically, whenever Illy's medallion glows) and by allowing all quests to be completed without the use of any spells.

For the first one, I'm not discussing it, it's very disappointing that there is no possibility to "tease" the (crowded) world of Rakus with our spells whenever we wish. Let's just say we're getting over that. For the latter, we wouldn't have as much of a problem (after all, it's all about choices - a player might not want to play as a mage) if there was at least a rudimentary challenge in the puzzle department. Unfortunately, this is at a very, very low level. The logic of the puzzles is based on talking to this or that character, collecting a set of items or visiting the location in question and... that's it. There's almost nothing that isn't "given away" by the game itself, either in the quest journal or as a hint from our interlocutors (even the flying Mitzkits, the game's messengers, just tell us where to go next), perhaps in an attempt to make it accessible to more people.

However, we are talking about extreme hand-holding, where the term adventure can't really be adopted in Near-Mage, but rather that of the visual novel. To think that there isn't even an inventory. Sure, there are items we can take, but there is no way to manage them: if we have them in our possession and click on the hotspot we need to use them, Illy will do it automatically, without thinking twice.

In general, this is where the biggest issue of Near-Mage lies, as there is a lot of material and clever ideas (some spells are very imaginative), but there is no proper environment to make the most of them. It seems like the idea the Stuck In Attic people had was of a much greater scope, but they did not manage to execute it as they wanted and ended up with this visual novel/"RPG" hybrid, with the term "RPG" in quotes, because there's no trace of Illy's evolution (XP at least), unless anything that dubs objectives as "quests" qualifies as an RPG.

It goes without saying that not everything is wrong in Near-Mage: the dialogues are well-written and with a great sense of humour (and a very good voice-over to add), several of the characters we meet are excellent, both in appearance and behaviour (see Haralambus), and the scripted connection achieved with Gibbous and Romanian folklore is quite successful (no spoilers). Also, the fact that we can change Illy's appearance (hair, clothes, etc.) is fun, but practically has no substance. Like most parts of the Near-Mage world, which is visually stunning and full of "life" (one of the most beautiful "adventures" we've seen), but has very little interaction with the player other than what is necessary for our quests.

In summary, Near-Mage is a missed opportunity. By no means is it a bad game: it has enough content, good ideas and a nice story. However, the low difficulty level of the puzzles and the minimal need to use the (even predefined) spells constitute an experience that may make the player have fun for the 8-9 hours or so it lasts (and another 8-9 hours if for some reason they liked it so much and want to relive it with other options or for achievement hunting), but in the end they will not be left with anything memorable. And in a year that has seen the release of Rosewater, Old Skies and Kathy Rain 2, all "traditional" adventures, Stuck in Attic's revamped offering is very hard to match against them. Hopefully the next game in the Kittehverse will follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, or if placed on the same logic, there will be more opportunities to capitalise on its beautiful ideas.

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