Alchemia is a new animated point-and-click adventure from Springtail Studio (Tomas K. and Julian Winter) creators of the the Haluz series and published on hard copy in the UK by Lace Mamba Global.
In Alchemia, you play as Noses (the same character from the the Haluz series), a little man who shoots a bizarre looking mechanical creature (Lootpecker) from the sky. Feeling remorseful he then agrees to help Lootpecker’s soul find another body in the nearby megapolis. Primarily Noses’ objective is to help his unlikely new companion replace his robotic body but once the creature is up and running, he then has other problems to solve.
For the most part, Alchemia plays out like any other point’n'click adventure although most of the puzzles are logical – very little in the way of inventory based solving.
Alchemia is actually a succession of flash scripts containing impressive degrees of interactivity. Each chapter or level is contained within one script and therefore there are no save slots .the game will automatically move on to the next chapter or, if you quit the game you can type the name of whichever chapter you wish to play in a pop up search bar contained in the bottom menu (so long as you can remember it from your last session ! otherwise you will have to go to the program files for the chapter listings. 19 in total I think). The menu displayed along the bottom of the screen also contains :
Walkthrough, Full screen and Sound options as well as a humorous Manual, About, and Exit.
The walkthrough itself is comprehensive although a little to readily available, maybe a progressive hint system wouldve been better. For the most part you are aware of your objective in each screen but it was all to easy just to select the walkthrough button instead of thinking it through for another couple of minutes.
Although, that being said, there was a puzzle towards the end were you had to click on the same button 33 times(!) to solve and I’m afraid there was a likelyhood that I couldve given up on that one had I not read the instructions. All the other puzzles, I found were pretty logical and with a little reasoning could be solved.
What little in the way of inventory items you collect are held in a left menu bar from where you will have to drag an item to where it belongs in the scene to progress.
The story behind Alchemia does maybe fall a little short with the majority of the game occupied with repairing the mechanical creature and then what seems like some further puzzles patched on to the end. I really feel the developers missed an opportunity with the storyline after creating such endearing characters in a beautifully crafted world that blends nature and mechanics perfectly.
What you will remember most about Alchemia, after playing, is the gorgeous artwork, presentation, fun puzzles and sensitivity that make up the short story – similar in styling to a child’s book. The puzzles are new and unique and will encourage a lot of lateral thinking and problem solving.
