REVIEWS

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL WILL NEVER DIE!

For some unclear reason, this adventure, although it has been out for a few months, had escaped my attention. Probably the reason is that it coincided almost simultaneously with the release of Crowns And Pawns and Voodoo Detective (I can't believe I'm saying that about an adventure game), so somewhere along the way it "fell by the wayside". But when the review code arrived in my hands and I decided to give it a chance, now that the summer releases are a bit more sparse and there's more time, I realized what I've been missing for so long. Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die, the one-man project of Finnish musician and cartoonist Valtteri Tavast, is an ode to rock 'n' roll culture and the unfulfilled dreams of a career that never happened.

Harsh truths.

The hero of the adventure is Teddy, a... teddy bear rocker, who suffers from a midlife crisis. Being unemployed, alcoholic, broke, and with absolutely nothing to lose, we find him almost dead at the beginning of the game in the toilets of a miserable bar due to a diabetic seizure. After we manage to give him the life-saving subcutaneous dose, he gets the bright idea to bring back the old glory (?) of the glam rock band he maintained in the 80's, reuniting all the old members for one last "reunion" tour. Only this is not an easy task at all. On the one hand because no one is interested in watching a mediocre band that doesn't have a single serious song in their repertoire on the other hand because real life is relentless and rock 'n' roll doesn't pay the bills.

Of course this doesn't faze Teddy, who is so determined that he gets involved in a series of hilarious sequences, the result of some really stupid decisions and plenty of alcohol. It's worth experiencing for yourself, without spoilers, what's about to happen to Teddy and his animal-shaped cohorts, as Valtteri has thought of and implemented everything that could happen to a low-end hard rock band in an almost Spinal Tap-like style. And the length of the game, which ranges between eight and ten hours, is truly impressive, considering that the game doesn't belly up anywhere and manages to keep the player's interest high, who can't wait to see how much more grotesque situations can happen.

Don't worry guys, all the big bands started from some basement rehearsal room...

Excellent work, which is accompanied by brilliant, sassy and phlegmatic writing in its dialogues, with inside jokes being thrown out by leaps and bounds, where of course how much you "get" them depends on your relationship with the rock and metal music scene. If your knowledge goes beyond Scorpions and "Nothing Else Matters", then you'll enjoy Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die much more than you might imagine. Personally, I had a silly smile painted on my face throughout the entire game, and there were more than a few times when I actually laughed at its incredible and completely unpolitically correct set pieces.

However, the adventure part is not on the same level as the writing. Without being bad or resorting to moon logic situations, the puzzles in Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die hover at a low level of difficulty. Primarily this is due to the fact that there are few locations to visit in each "chapter" (although overall the game has a lot of variety - from bars, rehearsal rooms and hospitals to... Las Vegas) and a limited number of items. The absence of a hotspot indicator and hint system pass completely unnoticed, as where to act at any given time is obvious, while the friendly one-click controls make things a lot easier. Most of the times we get "stuck" somewhere is when we have to combine in our minds what animal our interlocutor represents in order to use the corresponding item or when we have to chat with him again, after some actions have been taken beforehand. Nothing impossible though, and the various mini-games have the option to skip if for some reason they are too difficult for us.

The Devil couldn't be absent from such a game, could he?

Clearly, the aim of the game is not to inconvenience the player, but to offer a hilarious point 'n' click adventure under a rock 'n' roll prism, and it succeeds in doing so perfectly. After all, just looking at Valtteri's design perspective is enough to make you laugh. All the characters in the game are great, the animals that represent the various personas in the story are carefully and aptly chosen according to their professional (and non-professional) status, while the various environmental details and pastel colours create a very pleasing result to the eye.

Obvious pun is obvious.

As for the sound aspect now, the truth is that we would expect something more, as a "musical" adventure. Of course, the hard guitars are the ones that dominate, however there are no licensed songs (obviously), while the original songs that come out of our speakers and accompany our efforts are nothing memorable. Come to think of it, this may have been done on purpose to keep up with the Teddy's band music! On the other hand, the lack of voice-over hits a bit hard (we'd certainly like it to be added via patch in the future), and even more annoying is the "quietness" caused by the lack of several sound effects. Sure, we would have liked there to be more sound vibrancy on each screen, but I guess the game's budget didn't allow for more. Besides, let's not forget that this is a one-man job and that in itself is a pretty big accomplishment.

It goes without saying that we will "play ball" with this label.

To sum up, Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die is an adventure worth trying at some point in your life, especially if you are a rock culture lover. It may not impress with the ingenuity of its puzzles, but its satire of rock music's clichés and misconceptions is so successful that I doubt there will be anyone in the future who does it better. Born To Lose, Live to Win...

RATING - 78%

78%

Hard as a Rock

A sassy adventure that will touch rock and metal hearts everywhere.

Γιώργος Δεμπεγιώτης

Lover of action, shooter, adventure, RPG's and sometimes racing games, he prefers mainly single-player gaming. Every now and then he breaks out into a multi, but he doesn't overdo it.

2 Comments

  1. Τόσο κολασμένα ενδιαφέρον που θα παραβλέψω αυτή την φορά τους ζωόμορφους χαρακτήρες. Wishlist!

  2. To ήξερα πως θα το γούσταρες Ζώρζ, η κριτική σου με βρίσκει να προσυπογραφώ με μεσήλικους ροκεντρόλ αφρούς στο στόμα.

    [USER=102905]@manofsorrows[/USER] ήμουν κι εγώ αρκετά επιφυλακτικός σε περίπτωση που είχαμε κάποιο μετά βίας κεκαλυμμένο γιαπωνεζό-furry-πανηγυράκι, αλλά ευτυχώς το εύρημα έχει περισσότερο να κάνει με την ευκολία της απόδοσης των χαρακτήρων παρά κάποιο ψυχικό τραύμα ή διαστροφή του δημιουργού. Εγγυημένη διασκέδαση και όπως έγραψε ο Ζώρζ, ευχάριστα μεγάλη διάρκεια!

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