Amanita Design is back with a title like only them can do. The creators of Machinarium, and more recently Chuchel and Pilgrims have released a new adventure game that will put your brain to the test. With as usual a magnificent graphic style, the adventure of Creaks is a UFO in the video-game landscape.

Lore

Our story begins in a small room where solitude and silence reign. Our hero discovers a hole in his wall and while leaving to explore the tunnel which is hidden behind, he finds himself in a giant underground mansion. As it turns out to be impossible to take the same path to get out of this strange world as the one we used to enter it, we always go a little further. The start of an original and captivating adventure.

This is a 2D game with graphics far from the race for messy pixels. The designs are made by hand and it is a small, lively masterpiece.

Game

Creaks tells us a story with the help of brilliant art direction and perfectly composed background music. The game does not offer us any text, whether written or oral. The dialogues that we overhear in the corridors of the mansion are in a language that we do not understand and yet, we need no more than we become attached to this improbable adventure and its expressive characters.

Creaks is a “puzzle-game”. Our adventure in the mansion takes us from room to room, looking for a way out (to begin with), then a way to help the inhabitants of the mansion.

The game mechanism is simple: “monsters” are present in the different floors of the house and when they are lit, they turn into objects. You do not have the possibility to fight with these monsters and the slightest contact will ensure certain death.

It is therefore a succession of enigma where we will have to use the light wisely to bypass the enemies that block our way.

While it might seem simple on paper, the puzzles get tough. The learning curve is well done and we learn as we go how to solve our puzzles.

I still fell for 2 or 3 puzzles (much less than on The Witness let’s be realistic), but the solution is simple each time if we take into account the environment around us and that we prepare our actions in his head before testing them live.

The main story is spiced up with very short mini-games with simple gameplays hidden in paintings that must be found while exploring the mansion.

The strong point of the game is truly the original universe in which we venture with pleasure. We wonder how a building like this can exist, who is the giant monster that is outside, who are these inhabitants and how no one can have met them before us.

During our walk, we spend our time looking at the decor full of details. The rooms are full of objects, often animated, to give us a feeling of life in this mansion which could nevertheless seem quite empty.

Lifetime

It will take you a few hours to complete the game (around 6 hours). You can redo the levels as you see fit, and admire the paintings you find while trying your hand at the mini-games again if you want. We want to stop in the middle of the house, take out a book and stay there for a few hours …