Rose Cottage Demo Preview

How many game journalists/bloggers/procrastinators do you know who create their content on the floor? That’s the origin story of this paragraph, as the Rose Cottage demo made me fall off my chair. Never have I seen a point and click adventure that is as gorgeous as this.

An element of that death-defying fall came from a lack of expectations. I’ve been following Hollow Lane Games’ progress whenever I loiter X (seldom), and the last time was a teaser with a snippet of artwork. Sure, it looked good at the time, though that’s like imagining a game to be anything like the cinematic trailer promoting it.

The Rose Cottage demo is a stunner – a beaut – a real looker. Seriously – can we actually interact with what’s on our screens? We sure can, and man, it looks sublime in its 4K glistening presentation. Hhmmm… What? Ah, yes – it’s a game, isn’t it?

In Rose Cottage, you play Detective Inspector Edward Barrington. It’s the Victorian age, and he’s a splendid what-to-do chap assigned a missing person’s case. After grabbing his bits and pieces (not a euphemism), which masquerades as a sneaky tutorial, he heads off to the Hollow Lane Mortuary to investigate.

It’s not just a missing person, but multiple persons – all of the staff have suddenly vanished. On top of that, the person who assigned him the task was Thomas Gray of the mortuary, who was also his father-in-law. Unable to return to the establishment himself, Thomas informs Edward that he’ll be able to get in through the unlocked cellar door.

After dragging one’s jaw off the ground and admiring the illustrations, it becomes clear that more is afoot in this mystery, and the Rose Cottage demo teases just enough to indicate what is to come. There are no spoilers here; try the demo for yourself.