WILLY MORGAN and the Curse of Bone Town

Manos' excellent essay of a few months ago may have been very apt (which I would gladly co-author), but as it turns out in practice, adventures this year had several surprises in store for us. On the one hand we had the very good Beautiful Desolation and the equally interesting VirtuaVerse, on the other hand we had the remarkable return of Revolution Software with the, unfortunately still full of bugs, Beyond A Steel Sky, while the announcement of the upcoming Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice was the icing on the cake. In the midst of all this, another adventure of merit is added, Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town.

Admittedly, we had heard little or nothing about this particular game. I'm not sure if it's a flaw of the Italian producers, as traditional adventures coming from that country are rarely widely known (see Detective Gallo, The Hand of Glory), but undoubtedly Willy Morgan is worth to be heard, as it's a little gem that will offer smiles to adventure lovers everywhere. Even if it is short-lived.

The story of Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town starts off on a good note. We are set in the present day, where the eponymous hero is a teenage boy with rather nerdy features (skinny with huge bone-rimmed glasses and a bookworm) who happens to be the son of Henry Morgan, one of the most famous explorers of the century. For ten years, Henry Morgan has been missing after a mysterious expedition he undertook, with his trail literally disappearing. Willy is residing in his family home with his mother when one morning (around 2am that is) the postman brings him an unexpected and rather overdue letter.

Specifically, the pre-decade sender of the letter is Willy's father, who writes to him to go to Bone Town, a picturesque town they often visited as a family when he was a boy, and the Dead Man Inn, where he will request to stay in room 09. Willy's surprise was immense, but his curiosity was even greater, leading him to decide to visit Bone Town immediately and unravel the mystery of both his father's disappearance and what is so special about this town.

Upon arriving there, Willy Morgan will find that Bone Town has few inhabitants anymore, and most of the buildings are either abandoned or poorly maintained by their owners, left to their fate. And the situation is quickly becoming suspicious: the innkeeper will repeatedly refuse to give him room 09, even though it is available, and Willy will soon realise that someone is watching him. His investigation will lead him to an interesting discovery about his father's secret movements: Henry was searching for the priceless treasure of the pirate William Kidd, part of which is presumed to be buried in this town. But locating the coveted "X marks the spot" is no easy task, as the map revealing the exact location is broken into nine pieces, and without them joined together, it is impossible to find it. Consequently, Willy embarks on a quest to collect all the pieces of the map in a town where an old shared history binds its remaining inhabitants.

But this is where we stop, as we wouldn't want to give away the whole plot, which unravels with remarkable mastery. Without presenting anything impressively original (very difficult in today's world) or completely avoiding various "conveniences", Willy Morgan offers a well-written story that manages to constantly draw the player's curiosity without boring them with too much information. Even when it is revealed what is going on in the area and what the relationship between the residents of Bone Town and William Kidd is, the story doesn't lose its momentum until the finale. A finale that feels more like the closing of the first book in a trilogy than some shameless cliffhanger ending and leaves clear promise for a sequel (or more).

Starting with Willy Morgan, the first thing that strikes the prospective player is how much thought has been put into the so-called "quality of life" features. Practically nothing is missing and the player feels comfortable with it from the first minute. The mouse controls are simple (left click for use/combine, right click for look/examine), the inventory appears and disappears at the bottom of the screen at will with the scroll button of the mouse, the space (or the corresponding button on the top left) shows all hot-spots, while double-clicking takes you directly to the next screen, provided you have visited it at least once. In fact, when we visit Bone Town shortly afterwards, we have the city map at our disposal, which instantly takes us to the location of our choice, which is actually very convenient considering that there are twelve different locations where we can act. The fact that only ten save slots are provided might have been a disadvantage in some other times, in practice we don't need more than one, because it's impossible to run into dead-ends, and there are no action elements at all that would lead to a game over screen.

The action of the game is divided into three imaginary chapters. In the first one we are in Willy's house and we try to build a makeshift bicycle in order to reach Bone Town. This chapter has more of a tutorial role, as there are very few rooms to visit and the objects are relatively easy to find, which doesn't mean we don't have to rack our brains at all - quite the opposite.

In the second chapter we find ourselves in Bone Town, which shares most of the game portion. There the design is open-ended, where we can visit almost every building in the town from the start and solve the puzzles in any order we want - except for one. The puzzles are primarily inventory and object-based, while most of the hints come through dialogues with the city's inhabitants, and also through regular use of examine, where Willy voices his thoughts aloud.

In general, the puzzles are of moderate difficulty and their solution depends on observation, sharpness and the inspiration of the moment. We wouldn't say that we got stuck somewhere for a long time, but in no way is the game a mere walk in the park, a result of Bone Town's non-linear design that forces us to apply combinatorial thinking. There are instances where the solution is right in front of our eyes and others where we have to put our imagination to work, but nothing too sophisticated or unrealistic. But as soon as there is a strong feeling of satisfaction when we solve a puzzle that we have been walking around for a long time, it means that the adventure has achieved its purpose.

Finally, the third chapter brings back the linear design of the first, with the puzzles being relatively easy compared to those of Bone Town, but maintaining a decent level and leaving a bittersweet taste because they lead to the conclusion of this very nice adventure. An adventure that, depending on your experience in adventure games, can last from four to five hours, undoubtedly far from satisfying as a number, but certainly "full". Personally, despite the short length, nowhere did I feel like I was playing an unfinished game, while at the same time enjoying every minute with it, even when I thought there was no indication of how to proceed further. The folks at ImagineryLab have formed a correct opinion of how a point 'n' click adventure should be made.

Closing the review with the technical aspects, Willy Morgan is plain beautiful. The environments are designed with care, elegant lines and excellent colour schemes, while the 3D models of the game's characters are distinguished for their careful animation and their apt implementation, so that they work seamlessly with the environment and don't look out of place. The soundtrack doesn't fall short of the visuals either, of course, with the actors doing a very good job on the voice-over part, without sounding overdone or lazy, and the soundtrack accompanying the action as it should, with a variety of musical themes that don't distract us.

Therefore, Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town is an excellent adventure worth playing for those who are fans of the genre, even if the most likely scenario is that you will spend just a few hours with it until you see the credits. We just hope Willy's adventures continue.