The evolution of the adventure game genre over the course of the last 30 years has been quite remarkable. Despite most games having broadly the same control scheme and functionality as Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge did in 1991, many modern adventure games have introduced many elements which have shaken up the formula, from simple things like hint systems to entirely new forms of gameplay. You could easily argue that Disco Elysium is an adventure game, or indeed L.A. Noire. Kentucky Route Zero is another great example where the medium has been transcended. Whirlight: No Time to Trip however is almost dogmatic in its back-to-basics approach, giving an adventure game experience that very closely mimics one from the early 2000s.
You predominantly play as Hector May, a slacker, inventor and dreamer, who has invented many things but everything has turned out to be a flop. The game opens somewhat in medias res without any kind of establishment to the universe and initially is exceedingly dreamlike, and uncovering dreams from reality is almost part of the adventure. Hector lives in the town of Verice Bay, which visually reminded me a lot of Puerto Pollo from The Curse of Monkey Island. Hector is building a new invention which he hopes will provide his breakout moment, and along the way he meets artist Margaret Harck, who you also play as for part of the game. Together they embark on an adventure across the town, and later once the invention is complete, across time.
Whirlight is a capital A adventure game through and through, and very much in the classic style. Left-click moves the character around the environment, while right-click allows for different items to be inspected or picked up. You can combine various items in your inventory, which will then be used to solve one of myriad puzzles. Examining items will usually give you a line or two of flavour dialogue and maybe a joke as well. The one aid to modernity is the ability to hold down a key to see all intractable objects on the screen, which prevents needless pixel-hunting or scanning your mouse over the screen randomly wondering what’s clickable and what isn’t.
What unfortunately has not been modernized are the puzzles, which alas are badly afflicted by that oft-troubling disease; adventure game logic. Many puzzles will involve doing frankly bizarre things and combining objects together which logically should never go together. Working these out is often an exercise in frustration, particularly as there is no in-game hint system at all, something which a lot of adventure games have tended to implement these days to get around some of the more outlandish solutions. In the olden days of course you would have had to have called the tip hotline (LucasArts famously joked about having one), and most players these days will need to resort to guides, but the game should give you the necessary tools to solve its own puzzles.
The writing is fairly decent and reasonably funny, I didn’t get many big laughs but I raised a smile fairly frequently. Similarly the game does look quite unique, merging what appear to be fully 3D rendered characters with static, pre-rendered 3D backgrounds. The 3D environments appear to have additional depth as a result, almost making it look like the characters are walking around a diorama. I remember seeing this previously done in Trüberbrook, although that was created using physical modelling and photogrammetry rather than pre-rendered CGI. There are also a great variety of custom animations whenever characters interact with objects, usually in quite theatrical ways but it adds an element of physical slapstick. The music is also nicely fun, whimsical and fantastical when necessary, but not best in class.
Whirlight is a game squarely aimed at point-and-click adventure game aficionados and those who are very familiar with the quirks of the genre. For a new audience there is not much here to help ease the player into it, and the frustrating puzzle design will be a key stumbling block for many. The era of accepting the “monkey wrench” as a suitable solution and not simply the developer trolling the audience is long past, even with easy access to guides. Nonetheless the writing is enjoyable enough and the busy environments are stuffed with additional detail and descriptive dialogue if you want to wade in. Whirlight is whirligig of nostalgia and colour coupled with a back-to-basics adventure game design.
