Is Whirlight – No Time To Trip the best-looking point and click adventure known to humanity? I think so. That’s subjective, of course, but considering this is the next adventure for the team behind Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bonetown, it’s bound to be a head-turner.
Check out the Q&A with imaginarylab
imaginarylab is a small team of 3D artists and a software engineer, and they know how to stand out in a predominantly pixel art market, with the occasional cell-shaded outing as a bonus. Not that anyone is complaining – far from it. However, you can’t help but drool at the stunning high-resolution graphics. Think about the first time you saw the opener for Broken Sword. It looks like that, but 3D rendered.
Anyhoo, you can’t evade quality gameplay by adding bells and whistles, but spoiler alert: Whirlight – No Time To Trip is, indeed, a decent point and click thus far, and it won’t disappoint in the way of absurdity, in-jokes, and bottomless inventory space.
Set in Verice Bay, Italy, you don the tasteless shorts of Hector Day—an eccentric inventor who is quite simply brilliant but ahead of his time. In this early preview, we delve into a lucid dream inspired by Dali, seemingly the source of Hector’s ideas. Fast-forward 20 minutes or so later, and we’re back in his time, the early 1960s, and he sets about creating the invention he dreamed of.
Naturally, a fair share of hiccups prevent him from simply picking up the parts and leaving the house. Knowing full well he’s in a dream, he can’t escape it until he’s solved some abstract puzzles that mostly make sense, though they are unlocked linearly. Locating a can opener to open you-know-what is a no-brainer, though some of the other solutions in Whirlight – No Time To Trip are madcap.
I couldn’t help but admire the visuals throughout – more so, the individual animations for each interaction. This isn’t a set asset library that’s rinsed and repeated; the actions are unique and entertaining and make the experience all the more immersive. However, I initially found it challenging to process the voice for Hector. In short, it had more to do with the absurd lines he says rather than the performance, and after the dream sequence, I affixed the ‘Vote Mayor Machado’ badge to my chest.
Whirlight – No Time To Trip follows in the same steps as Willy Morgan in that it’s a slapstick affair and amusing. The linear element of the puzzles bursts the bubble a few times as there’s not much flexibility to experiment, as if the path is set in stone. Again, it’s entertaining, but let’s hope there’s a tad more freedom in the full game when it’s released in 2025.
The bottom line? Unless you have your time machine to hop forward in time, wishlist Whirlight – No Time To Trip this very second so that you’ll get updates as and when they’re released. This looks fantastic.
