Edna & Harvey: The Breakout

The first title ever released by Daedalic Entertainment, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout is a story that began an iconic studio’s journey into the world of indie video games. Daedalic has crafted quite the niche for itself with point-and-click adventure games. However, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout is still quite different from other titles in Daedalic’s long list of properties. This game is a pretty simple adventure that saw its first inception from the creator’s college project.

Originally only available in Germany, the English port of the game allowed it to be exposed to an even bigger audience in the west. However, the translations were quite lackluster, so the game received quite a few negative reviews. Regardless, it still has a large audience that is committed to Daedalic Entertainment, even till this day.

Story

Edna & Harvey: The Breakout follows the life of Edna, a young woman that is trying to escape from a mental hospital along with Harvey, her toy rabbit. During the early hours of the game, there is no context provided concerning how they got themselves in this predicament. In order to escape, Edna and Harvey band together with some of the other inmates in the prison. The other friends you’ll make have some useful abilities that will help you in your journey. In a weird sense, thanks to their own mental issues, they are actually very helpful.

In the story, Edna attempts to clear her father’s name when she discovers that he was wrongfully killed for murdering the son of the asylum’s owner Dr. Marcel. To successfully do this, Harvey the toy rabbit gives Edna the ability to relive events in her past through an ability called tempomorphing. Dr. Marcel and Edna face off against each other and eventually, the player is forced to make a decision between having a normal life at the cost of losing Harvey or otherwise.

The game poses a compelling albeit unconventional story. This makes for an interesting adventure with Edna and Harvey.

Gameplay

You will play as Edna in this 2D cartoon world. At the bottom of the screen, there are some verbs that can be clicked on in order for Edna to interact with an item in the world around her. As you progress, you can combine some effects and items to create a new response. Figuring out the useful combinations are important in traversing the various levels within this game.

Most of the stuff in Edna & Harvey: The Breakout can be interacted with, so it makes for some fun and replayable missions. Even stuff that doesn’t affect the story can be manipulated for the fun of it. This is great when you want to cause some mayhem by defacing cars in the world around you.

Pros

• Fun gameplay
• Replayable
• Interactive
• Interesting characters

Cons

• Confusing story
• Weak English translation