Unusual Findings

That "retro" is in fashion is nothing new, we could even ask if it has not already become a sort of seal of approval for any production or project that sees the light, and video games are not the exception. Mainly from the film and series industry, we are witnessing a revival of the 80s that, although it can generate nostalgia, in many cases (and I say this personally) also causes an adverse effect and feel TOO MUCH melancholy for what has already happened. Luckily, the latest title from the Cordovan studio Epic Llama brings us Unusual Findings, a game that exploits not only retro as a narrative/world-building resource but also manages to recover and pay a fair tribute to the best adventure games of the 80s and 90s.

About the game

It's Christmas time in a small rural town, and the friends Vinny, Nick, and Tony aren't thinking about the gifts. Instead, they use a cable decoder to try and decipher the locked channels to unlock the age-restricted channels. But instead of that, they intercept a disturbing emergency transmission from a spaceship that crashed out in the woods.

When they go out to try and find the aliens, a colossal creature emerges in the woods. Now they are facing a huge threat, not only for them, but also for their friends, families, town, and even maybe the world. From this starting point, we will have the possibility of interacting with different spaces of the neighborhood in which we find ourselves in order to devise a trap to stop this space visitor.

Appealing to the will of the trio of friends who are not afraid of the unknown, we will begin to get to know the different inhabitants of the area (each one more particular than the other). The mechanics are based on the classic point & click graphic adventure gameplay, where we must unlock different instances that will enable us to reach new places and, consequently, the possibility of collecting items for our adventure.

Oldbut new

We mentioned that this game is a homage to the retro gaming golden era of point-and-click games like Monkey Island, and the entire decades of the 80s and 90s. Even the title of the game is a reference to one of the biggest modern hits that's a homage to the 80s, Stranger Things.

Unusual Findings shines and manages to stand out in that the reconstruction of the "retro" goes through not only the references to classic works of pop culture (books, movies, video games, etc.), but the construction of the characters, and what they go through, is a crucial part of the engine of the adventure: one is discovering and getting to know each of the characters in greater detail, what subjects move them and make them curious; it could be video games, kissing a girl for the first time or simply the fact of going through that path from childhood to adolescence.

Review: 8.5/10

Filled to the seams with poignant references, clever easter eggs, and even licensed music like Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", Unusual Findings boasts heavy 80's influences while furthering the point and click genre by staying true to its roots.

Pros:

• Excellent writing and soundtrack
• Interesting characters
• Nice puzzles

Cons:

• Gameplay can sometimes feel too linear
• Sometimes difficult to navigate the character's dialogue options