Developer: Chaosmonger Studio
Publisher: Assemble Entertainment
Platform: Mac, PC
Tested on: PC
ENCODYA – Review
Point and click adventure games such as Deponia and The Wolf Among Us have been quite popular and talked about. They all feature an interesting story combined with some puzzles. Now there is a new game that joins this genre called ENCODYA. This game is set in the future and follows the orphan Tina and her nanny robot S.A.M 53. ENCODYA was developed by Chaosmonger Studio and published by Assemble Entertainment and we were able to test the game and find out more about Tina’s story.
Story
ENCODYA plays out in Neo Berlin, in the year 2062, following a girl named Tina who lives on the street after both her parents passed away. Luckily, she has her nanny robot S.A.M 53 who was assigned to her at birth. He helps her out with scavenging so she can survive. Tina is very creative and turns what seems like regular junk into useful objects for her to use. As you progress further in the game S.A.M 53 and Tina discover something that will change their lives forever.
The story in ENCODYA continues nicely as you play the game. You’ll discover different things about Tina’s past and her parents, while you interact with the world. There are also plenty of different characters to meet and interact with, some of which even have their own backstories.
Graphics
ENCODYA has an interesting 3D art style which works really well for most of its setting but not that much for the human characters who end up looking quite eerie and even a bit creepy. The game also includes many different places and locations which you can visit but are all still in the same city. These places all share the same futuristic theme with neon signs all over. Background characters are well-designed for being backdrop material. You won’t see that many double character models.
You can control either Tina or S.A.M 53 and this is shown quite clearly by the icons at the top. However, this is not the only thing that changes, when you click an object/person, the icons it shows to talk or to interact with also change depending on which character you have selected.
Sound
The background music in ENCODYA consists actually more of ambient sounds than actual music. Although you can hear a few tracks here and there, the ambient audio is often louder. These sounds make the environment of the game feel more realistic, with sounds going from passing vehicles to floating adverts being heard while standing anywhere. There is also some well-done voice acting in the game, featuring a range of human but also robotic voices.
Gameplay
ENCODYA is a point and click adventure game where you take on the role of Tina and her robot S.A.M 53. As you start the game, you get a little bit of backstory to explain where you are and who Tina and her robot are. There is no tutorial level, but this isn’t necessary, as the controls mostly speak for themselves.
Since ENCODYA is a point and click adventure, you’ll logically mostly be clicking to control the game. There are also a few other shortcuts such as M to open the map and I for inventory. One not so obvious thing that can be done while controlling the characters is that you can double click to speed up walking or immediately go somewhere. This is handy because at normal speed Tina and her robot are really slow.
As said above, you can play with both Tina and S.A.M 53 and you will really need to switch between both since some characters refuse to talk to robots and others refuse to talk to humans. There are also a few things that Tina wouldn’t be able to reach or S.A.M 53 is too big for. So, you’ll have to determine which character is best to use for different scenarios.
In the game, you’ll pick up a lot of stuff that seems like junk but somehow, you’re able to use them in surprising ways. When you have your inventory open, you can select an object and then click on another one to combine them which is a feature in most point and click games. Of course, you can’t combine everything and Tina or S.A.M clearly let you know this by saying things such as “it doesn’t work this way”. Sometimes you really must try out everything because it isn’t always obvious what you can combine. There are also a few cases where you pick up things that you are totally not going to use. This might be to throw you off but is also kind of annoying when you are trying to search for a solution and have half an inventory of useless things.
Sometimes it’s also hard to see what you can pick up, and you really must hover with your mouse above everything to be able to find something. In the controls, it does say you are supposed to be able to press space to see items you can pick up, but this doesn’t seem to work. This is kind of sad since it makes it easier to miss small items that can be picked up unless you go around the whole screen with your mouse.
Conclusion
ENCODYA is a pretty fun game where you’ll have to spend time looking for solutions for problems that appear. The art style is certainly interesting and you get used to the creepy humans quickly. Story-wise the game is certainly quite original when it comes to the environment since combining Germany with Asia has not been done before. The two main characters are quite likable and you encounter a lot of interesting figures on your journey through the game as well, so you certainly won’t be bored while playing this game.
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