WHIRLIGHT – NO TIME TO TRIP

Some of you may remember Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town, a relatively short and nice adventure game released about six years ago. Maybe not, since six years is indeed a long time, and the world was quite different in 2020. In any case, this adventure was the debut effort of the Italian studio Imaginarylab, and it was a commendable first attempt, one we hoped would be followed by a sequel. That didn’t happen, as our neighbors decided to move forward with developing a new idea, which took shape in the form of Whirlight – No Time To Trip.

An adventure game about which, admittedly, we had already formed some initial impressions, thanks to a demo that was released about a year ago. However, we didn’t expect it to end up being delayed for so long. In hindsight, we can see that the delay was worth it, as Whirlight is one of the most pleasant surprises of recent years, perhaps placing Imaginarylab among the development teams that can truly do justice to the niche genre of point-and-click adventures.

The game’s basic premise isn’t new: it draws heavily on the concept of time travel, presented in a blockbuster style strongly influenced by movies like Back to the Future and adventure games like Day of the Tentacle. It goes without saying that, for the most part, Whirlight is a humorous adventure, with many of the events unfolding in a tragicomic manner, yet without straying from its “lighthearted” tone.

The central character of the game is Hector May, an inventor whose innovative ideas have failed to win over the general public. As a result, he scrapes by on the edge of poverty, hoping that one day he’ll come up with the one and only invention that will secure his place in the pantheon of history. This idea emerges right from the very first minutes of the game, where we experience one of Hector’s dreams, which could be described as bizarre, to say the least. In fact, I don’t recall ever playing an adventure game that starts off so unusually, with the dream sequence feeling more like… an acid trip. This is by no means a random comparison, since Whirlight is set in the happy year of 1962.

After Hector wakes up from his “journey-like” dream, based on what he saw, he realizes that his mission is to collect a series of miscellaneous objects in order to build a peculiar device—one that… even he doesn’t know exactly what it will do! In the end, that doesn’t really matter: the dream must come true. However, there is a serious problem with the whole process, as the key component of the invention, a device for “liquefying” light (!), is in the possession of Theodore, a “rival” inventor, who, according to Hector, has stolen both the idea and the patent itself.

So, a solution to this problem has to be found, which is eventually resolved (we won’t spoil how, of course), except that, after a series of funny coincidences and incidents, Hector ends up traveling to the future—specifically, to 1990! There he meets Margaret, a dynamic sculptor, who, despite the paradox unfolding before her, decides to help Hector find a way to unravel the mystery of his time travel. Of course, this is only the beginning of the adventure, as events develop rapidly and the future looks very bleak…

Overall, Whirlight’s storyline is interesting, and on the whole, we’d rate it as quite satisfying. As we mentioned earlier, the idea of the game isn’t original, nor does it make any effort to hide that fact; however, it handles its (now) hackneyed theme cleverly. Aiding in this are the lead duo, Hector and Margaret, who are very likable, each with their own distinct personality that truly “shines” throughout the adventure. Hector is brilliant, with a tremendous knowledge of physics, but he’s a dreamer and a little clumsy; Margaret, on the other hand, is down-to-earth and decisive, with a special passion for motorcycles.

The two of them will face a series of challenges, divided into three distinct chapters. In the first chapter, we control only Hector; in the second, we take on the role of Margaret and in the third, their “forces" combine, and we’ll need to control both of them to solve the game’s dozens of puzzles. And when we say dozens, we mean it, as Whirlight is one of the longest adventures we’ve played recently, while also being one of the most puzzle-heavy games of its kind.

Whirlight is not an easy adventure: at every turn, there is a challenge we must face, and the fact is that, beyond the first part of the game (Hector’s dream, that is), we almost always have more than two or three main objectives going on simultaneously. Especially once we visit Verice Bay, where most of the action takes place, the game becomes quite open-ended, with the puzzles being interconnected and, often, not all that obvious. I admit that the game caught me off guard, as I didn’t expect it to challenge me so much in some cases, which is due, on the one hand, to the various possibilities opened up by the constant management of time (e.g., in the second chapter, we can fast-forward time whenever we want, thus dividing the day into morning/evening/night), and on the other hand, to the occasional lack of sufficient, meaningful hints. There is a Diary that records our basic objectives, as well as some sketches (!) that theoretically offer a little help, but it isn’t updated very often, and its role ultimately resembles a reminder more than a regular journal.

However, in the end, the challenge was very welcome, and I found some of the puzzles to be quite imaginative, especially in the third chapter, where several of them will remind you of the approach taken in the unforgettable Day of the Tentacle. Generally speaking, the main focus of the puzzles lies in the proper management of items, though there are also those where we need to choose the right dialogue with specific characters in order to proceed. Simply put, these are the minority, as Whirlight prefers to keep us busy figuring out what to place where, and at what point in time. It’s a time-travel game—did you expect anything different?

It’s worth noting that, although it doesn’t feature as much dialogue as other recent adventures in the genre (see Foolish Mortals or Kathy Rain 2), the ones that do exist are sufficient to adequately sketch out some interesting characters, such as the “poet” Klein and the card collector, as well as a few famous personalities who are initially located outside of space-time…

That said, this doesn’t mean there aren’t some “missed” opportunities, with characters who could potentially have played a more significant role. If we were to continue on the topic of the game’s negative aspects, we’d say that some puzzles require a lot of imagination or could be solved in a more logical way (like the puzzle in the laundromat). As part of the whole, however, they make up a small percentage, so we wouldn’t say that Whirlight is seriously marred by a handful of puzzles that might be a bit more challenging.

However, we must give credit to the artists at Whirlight, as this is one of the most beautiful adventure games we’ve ever seen. Especially when it comes to the locations and their implementation, few adventure games surpass it, and there are moments when you’re truly mesmerized by the riot of colors. The characters, on the other hand, aren’t particularly impressive, with their design and animation merely reaching satisfactory levels. The voice-over, however, makes up for it, being absolutely professional and spot-on for every character we encountered.

As for the controls, the game won’t pose any problems for players, as it uses one-click gameplay (combined with drag-and-drop), and even the hotspots appear when you right-click. However, when it comes to dialogues, it would be better if the font didn’t turn "grey” whenever our conversation partners have more to say—something that happened a few times and can lead to wasting several minutes. Combined with the incomplete implementation of the diary, these are the main areas where Whirlight falls short in terms of usability, but they can be fixed with an upcoming patch.

To sum up, with a playtime of over 12–14 hours, backed by a series of high-quality adventure-style puzzles that often give your brain a real workout and a well-crafted story, Whirlight – No Time To Trip comes highly recommended to all fans of adventure games.

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