Developer: Daedalic Entertainment
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
platform: Mac, PC
The Night of the Rabbit – Preview
It’s an important year for Daedalic Entertainment. With the closure that the third Deponia game should bring, the point & click-publisher will be losing its biggest franchise.
Time for something new, then, and that’s exactly where The Night of The Rabbit raises its long-eared head.
Story
The Night of the Rabbit tells the story of little Jeremiah Hazelnut, a twelve-year-old boy, determined to realize his dream of becoming a full-fledged wizard. His only problem: the real world doesn’t take kindly to things like magic, fairy folk and other mystical mumbo-jumbo.
This wouldn’t be much of an adventure game if things would turn out the way they’re expected to go, though.
So as you might have guessed, it doesn’t take long before Jerry -as he’s nicknamed- stumbles upon Mousewood, a world where magic is used in more ways than our young hero of the day initially had in mind.
What follows is a story drenched with weird, yet likeable characters who all spout have their own semi-philosophical lines.
It’s a bit like playing a modern take on Alice in Wonderland, except Jerry’s much more pure and naïve than Lewis Carroll’s protagonist ever was.
Graphics
I’ve said it before, but when it comes to creating a believable world, there’s no one more suited than Daedalic. Each of the company’s games could teach our modern-day gaming industry a thing or two about art design.
Every single character, background and even random objects, look as if they’ve been taken form a child’s bedtime story.
There’s just something magical about it all. In the Night of the Rabbit’s case, there’s a sense of bewilderment when one moment you’re looking at a forest full of hidden statues, hinting at local folklore, until the screen shifts and a gap between the trees reveals a dull, gray city, hidden behind the green foliage.
The forest in this example, feels like a refuge, a place where Jeremiah can live out his wildest dreams until the summer holiday ends and he’s forced to enter the bland life at school once again.
The game’s seemingly build with such jarring moments in mind, using the scenery to locations akin to a child’s special hiding spot, the one place where a twelve year old boy could act out his fantasies to their fullest.
Sound
The game’s soundtrack breathes mysticism. Bombastic and magical tunes go hand in hand with Jerrry’s descent into his personal Wonderland.
Truth be told, the music reminded me of games and movies like Trine and Harry Potter, both franchise that -just like the Night of the Rabbit- focus on discovering a fairy tale-world where wonder and bewilderment looms behind every corner.
Gameplay
Point & click says as point & click does, there’s really not much new to add to the formula. Pointing and clicking only gets you that many possibilities.
That said, the three-or-so hours I played The Night of the Rabbit did manage to captivate me. Puzzles so far ranged from ignorable introductory riddles, to smarter puzzles that demanded a fair bit of interaction with both your brain and the environment.
As is customary for the genre nowadays, objects can be combined in your inventory and talking to various npc’s will net you plenty of hints about what to do next.
It’s still difficult to get a proper idea about where The Night of the Rabbit is heading. There seems to be more to the story than what I’ve seen so far, with more heroic exploits yet to come for Jeremiah Hazelnut. But if this latest preview is anything to go by, it’ll most certainly be another great addition to the adventure-game-scene.
Conclusion
The Night of the Rabbit might very well turn out Daedalic’s next big hit. The art design -as always- is spot on, creating an interactive fairy tale reminiscent of classics like the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.
I honestly can’t find a single fault in what I’ve seen so far. Puzzles and riddles are inventive, there’s plenty of charm to go around and the game succeeds in breathing life into a world that rivals those of even the best children’s books.
If this is what the future holds for point & click-fanatics, there’ll be many bright days yet to come.
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