Developer: Act Normal Games
Publisher: Act Normal Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Rauniot – Review
It feels like isometric point-and-click games are a rare treat these days since they’re not as popular as they used to be. Fresh indie developer Act Normal Games has a passion for post-apocalyptic themes and it shows in their debut game: Rauniot. Like the developers and the setting of the game itself, ‘Rauniot’ is Finnish. The word means ‘ruins’, as that’s what the world has been reduced to in this rather grim but interesting adventure that will test the limits of your puzzle-solving skills.
Story
Rauniot is set in an alternate universe where our society came to a rather tragic end in 1975 when natural disasters caused widespread chaos. With earthquakes striking unexpectedly and the oceans rising to wipe out entire cities, it wasn’t long before humanity worsened the problem by starting wars over decreasing resources. Several nukes were fired, and as a result, pollution and radiation became a new threat. Babies were born deformed, folks resorted to cannibalism, and it was a whole mess. The events of the game itself are set several years later, with the survivors trying to rebuild any sort of community in this harsh, new world. Aino, a young woman who has managed to find a group to call her own, is one of these people. Now, another member of the group has gone missing after being sent on a mission to retrieve a special locomotive that could innovate their transports. Aino is sent after the missing member, to either find out where he has gone or to recover the locomotive herself. Obviously, this is a lot easier said than done.
Graphics
One of the biggest draws of Rauniot is its unique aesthetic. The game’s isometric point of view lends itself well to showing off the massive amount of details in the environments you get to explore, while frequent close-ups of the characters mean you can also enjoy the nice animations and designs. The game also uses an interesting traditional art style for your notebook and some special flashback sequences, which makes these items stand out in a positive way. A clever use of color and lighting brings the atmosphere of the game to life and enhances the feeling of walking through a wasteland, with the older technology of the 70s being a large part of the look. It’s clear the artists knew exactly what they were doing, and nothing quite beats the look of those original big box computers. The only criticism we should mention is that the way items blend with the rest of the environment can make them extremely hard to see. They do glow when you hover your mouse over them, but the hitbox tends to be so tiny they’re super finicky and the glow is at times extremely subtle. This causes unneeded frustration because it’s ridiculously easy to overlook an important item.
Sound
Rauniot continues to pay special attention to the atmosphere they want the game to relay with its sound design. The game has little to no music, aside from a very ominous ambient track here and there. Instead, you’ll be accompanied by the sounds of a post-apocalyptic world. You’ll hear wind rustling against sheet metal, crows waiting to feast on a corpse, distant gunshots, and so on. It manages to be unsettling without trying too hard, drawing you in easily. The game has voice acting, all in Finnish, which fits the setting of the game. As far as we can tell, being unable to understand the language itself, the voice acting is performed well and we enjoyed listening to it. The translated subtitles very rarely had grammatical issues.
Gameplay
Rauniot is a classic point-and-click adventure, where you need to explore various places and solve puzzles to progress. You have an inventory system, so you’ll be picking up items whenever you find them to use along your journey. The puzzles here can be quite hard and sometimes rather technical, having to do with the technology you find in the destroyed world. The game gives you no hints and doesn’t hold your hand. While this caused issues sometimes, we eventually found the joy of figuring out a solution weighed up against the frustration we initially experienced. The game rewards exploration with interesting flavor text and encourages you to look around as much as you can. Diehard explorers will be able to find quite a few hidden items as well. Backtracking will be required a lot, but the game has an easy fast travel system where you can teleport to any place you’ve already been to on the map.
When you’re not trying to solve puzzles or soaking in the game’s terrific atmosphere, you can interact with the other characters you meet in the wasteland. When you do, various dialogue options are presented to you. Again, a lot of this is optional but it manages to flesh out the world and characters in a nice way. While the story is linear, a few hurdles can be overcome in different ways so the player is encouraged to use the various save files to explore more options. Overall, the gameplay is minimal but enjoyable.
Conclusion
Rauniot is a game that pays more attention to its setting and narrative than its gameplay, so keep this in mind when considering if this is your cup of tea. We can say it’s effective at conveying the post-apocalyptic mood and keeping the player engaged, though the puzzles can be a bit confusing at times. Still, this is a thought-provoking journey we were more than happy to embark on.
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