Finally, I’ve gotten around to playing the Foolish Mortals demo, and it was worth every minute spent. Alright, so it was a short demo, but if this is in store come 2024, it’ll be worth waiting for this point and click adventure from Inklingwood Studios.
Set in the 1930s and off the coast of Louisiana, we play the treasure hunter, Murphy McCallan. They aren’t a battle-hardened swashbuckler of any sort, but considering what Guybrush achieved, anything is possible. Anyway, like the infamous pirate, Murphy gets involved with voodoo practitioners to track down the treasure, potentially solving a mystery.
That mystery involves the heiress of Bellemore Manor and her taste in men. Ok, that’s leaving it ominous, but in the brief setup, Foolish Mortals manages to plant a few seeds of doubt, Rashomon style, on who the heroes of this ghost story are and whether we’ll see some double-bluffing. In short, a lot of people go missing, and Murphy will likely be the person to uncover all these truths (and find the treasure?).
Foolish Mortals Demo
The first thing that caught my attention was the illustrations. In the full game, there are 70+ hand-drawn locations, 100+ items to interact with, and all the characters are fully voiced. Drawing comparisons to the voodoo link, Foolish Mortals reminds me of Voodoo Detective – another gorgeous point and click I’m taking far too long to play [read ‘not enough time’]. The characters and backgrounds are beautiful.
The gameplay is as familiar as any other adventure. A cursor will direct Murphy through town, and any interactive points can be clicked on, or from the inventory at the top of the screen, items can be dragged onto other objects/NPCs. Like most modern point and clicks, there is a hotspot indicator should you get stuck or resort to pixel hunting.
Whether it’s my point and click experience, sexy big brain, or perhaps all of the above, the puzzles in the Foolish Mortals demo weren’t particularly challenging. That’s not a negative, but it was easy to push through the game with few hurdles. Don’t bring that up when the game comes out, as I’m sure it’ll be very different by then, and there’ll be plenty of head-scratching.
For now, download the demo on Steam and give it a go. Point and click fans will love Foolish Mortals, and I don’t doubt it’ll be on your wishlist. Maybe it already is…
