Among The Innocent: A Stricken Tale Review

What is it? A South African developed first-person thriller/adventure game with devious puzzles. It is set on a farm in the Free State, where you are stuck after a rockslide blocks your only escape. – Reviewed on PC

Verdict: Good local effort into the walking simulator / puzzle genre.

Among The Innocent is a first person puzzle solving adventure game, FPPSAG for short, where you have 2 main objectives: escape from your current location while trying to solve what happened there.

In true adventure game fashion you need to use anything that is available to find your way back home. To make things a little easier the inventory system will place highlights of which items can be used where, making some puzzle solving easy. Other puzzles are deviously tough, requiring you to pay attention to the smallest detail. And even then, when you get stuck, you can tweet the Dev directly who will help and assist!

The game makes use of a realistic physics engine to open and close drawers, doors and items. It is also applied to the pillows and cushions around the game, for no reason other than because the developer can. Best pillow physics ever! There is, thankfully, no platforming in the game that makes use of the physics, and if I remember correctly I only ever had to jump once!

The pace feels achingly slow at times, purely because I want to get to the next puzzle and solve this thing already. However it suits the game perfectly. Graciously the map lets you fast-travel to already discovered areas, for if I had to travel back and forth as much as is required in the game by foot, I would not have played this to the end.

The game is short and sweet and clearly sets up the Stricken series. It can be completed in just a couple of hours, depending on how good you are at solving puzzles. The story is firmly planted in the mysterious and takes a turn to the surreal. But don’t let that put you off – it is better for it!