Clover: A Curious Tale PC
Published by: Blitz Game Studios
Developed by: Binary Tweed
It’s not often that a new adventure game is released at a budget price, but that’s exactly what Clover: A Curious Tale is. Priced at just £5.95, you might be forgiven for thinking that Clover certainly doesn’t have that much to offer but as it happens it’s actually a pretty good adventure game, with a refreshing art style, that represents an absolute bargain at its lowly asking price.
In Clover you’ll play as the rather down in the mouth Sam who has recently been orphaned. Sam lived with this mother in the land of Sanha but she died when the ship she was on, the Jingo, came under attack and was sunk. You’ll gain control of Sam as he learns the news of his mother’s passing and that he has to find what remains of the ship. The game has a real melancholy feel about it and a lot of the characters you’ll encounter are definitely in dire need of a good cheering up.
Clover: A Curious Tale isn’t a point and click adventure game. It seems rather odd that you can’t chose to control Sam using the mouse. Your options are simply to use the keyboard or to play with a gamepad. Personally I preferred to use a gamepad but playing the game with just the keyboard wasn’t as uncomfortable as you might think. The game is played from a side-on perspective so you won’t have to deal with potentially troublesome camera angles.
Of course what makes an adventure game is the quality of the puzzles. Clover certainly doesn’t disappoint on that score. The puzzles, for the most part, are logical. However, that’s not to say they are easy. In fact Clover has its fair share of challenging puzzles and there are times where most will be completely stumped until some serious thought has been given.
Probably the main criticism of the game is its length. It’s a game that can be finished in under five hours (of course this is dependent on the time required to solve the more difficult puzzles) and some may be disappointed with that. Had this been a full price game the brevity would have been unforgiveable but for the low asking price it’s difficult to consider it as a problem. On a positive note, the game has multiple endings which gives some much needed replay value to the experience.
Whilst Clover isn’t a stunningly beautiful adventure, it definitely has a wonderfully refreshing medieval flavoured watercolour look about it that manages to impress. The characters and the various environments you’ll encounter are fairly simplistic in nature but this oddly enough manages to add to the game’s visual charm.
Clover is subtitled and you’ll always be aware of who is saying what as both the speaker’s name and portrait are displayed alongside the dialogue. The text is easy on the eyes as it’s nice and large and for the most part you’ll get to read the text at your own pace as a key/button press is required to move the dialogue forward. In short deaf gamers shouldn’t have any problems with Clover.
Clover: A Curious Tale is a fairly entertaining adventure that’s well worth the asking price. Some aspects of the game may seem a little crude and there’s no denying that the storyline could have been more interesting. It’s also a shame that the game is rather short. Still, the multiple endings help to give the game replay value and for as long as it lasts, Clover is an enjoyable experience.
(Click the letter or here for details)