The Descendant Review – new interactive movie makes a ponderous take-off

We’re right in the middle of an adventure games renaissance, and it’s in part thanks to Telltale Games: after a couple of experiments that varied in terms quality – such as Tales of Moneky Island or Back to the Future – they revisited the formula of an interactive movie with the release of The Walking Dead. The characteristics of the games were simple: interesting narrative, not-too-high difficulty, and, above all, the principle of meaningful choices, decisions, and consequences. Those choices didn’t always carry much weight, but you couldn’t really be sure about that until you finished the game the second time, following a different path. It was inevitable that Telltale’s ideas would eventually serve as an “inspiration”; among those inspired we can surely count the Swedish studio Gaming Corps – the authors of the episodic adventure game, The Descendant, which has just went live.

Only a chosen few were allowed to survive the nuclear holocaust and the subsequent climatic changes on Earth. A couple of thousand people were sheltered in underground Arks; hibernated in a cryogenic sleep, they were supposed to wait until our planet becomes habitable again. Janitors, waken up by the Ark’s computers if needed, were tasked with supervision of the entire process. Centuries go by, the shelters begin to open, and people start new lives in a more hospitable environment. The exception is Ark-01 – firmly latched vault that doesn’t respond to any calls, and so a rescue team of two is sent to investigate. Let’s admit it: this isn’t an incredibly original concept for the background of the story – reference to Fallout is quite obvious; it’s a shame that the devs didn’t approach the theme of apocalypse in a more creative fashion.

The color palette is reminiscent of Borderlands.

Throughout the game, we assume the roles of two characters. The central figure is Donnie, a techie whose task is to find the Ark-01 janitors and learn what had happened with the hundred and eight inhabitants of the shelter. The other character is one of the janitors – Mia. Along with a partner, she was waken up by the Ark’s computer a couple of years after the vault had been sealed. Centuries separate the stories of Donnie and Mia – the woman witnesses the events whose results Donnie discovers while exploring the Ark. The idea of such division of narration is very interesting; it’s unfortunate that – at least in the first episode – the end result is nothing spectacular.

There was an emergency once in the game, and the heroine started to jog – what a welcome change!

This game isn’t a typical example of point-and-click genre, and, as I hinted above, the inspiration from Telltale’s productions is pretty apparent. There is no inventory – the character can carry only one item at a time. In order to simplify the gameplay, the developers decided that interactive objects will only be activated contextually; for instance, a toolbox can be just a part of the scenery not indicated in any way, but as soon as the character finishes the right action, it will become interactive, allowing a new action to be commenced. However, most of the time, only a simple information will appear stating that there is nothing of interest; alternatively, the character can make a short remark on the given object; other times, we can encounter an item that’s required for completing a task. Those items are always in the vicinity of the current location, so there’s no need to go back half the base to see whether a 2” wrench will suffice or you’ll need a 2.5”?

The puzzles are supposed to be simple, and they indeed are. All we need to do is hover the mouse over the activating icons while maundering around the rooms – the character has to approach an object in order to activate it. This isn’t a bad solution, but I was a bit annoyed with the pace; the characters really like to take their time wandering around, and there’s no way to toggle sprinting, or at least some mild jogging.

Simple cable connecting puzzle.

A couple of times we’ll stumble upon puzzles involving a switchboard or cooling valves – the task is to connect the wires in the right order and adjust the valves. Those shouldn’t cause a whole lot of trouble neither for the veterans of the genre nor for the newbies.

Too bad that most of the game’s locations don’t have such a gloomy mood.

A certain question is unavoidable at this point: is the lack of challenge of the puzzles the price that we have to pay for the quality of the plot and authors’ vision of the future? After only one episode, the answer cannot be univocal. The graphics make for a pretty solid first impression – they are seemingly much better than what Telltale has been giving us for years – but pretty soon boredom sneaks in. I found the dialogues to be rather bland, rendering the characters flat. The voiceover was also underperformed – their speech is emotionless, inanimate and sounds artificial. This is a small project so we can’t expect a blockbuster zest, but mundane characters sluggishly prowling through a derelict bunker not even trying to be likeable is hardly what I call exciting.

QTEs occur a couple of times. They are totally unnecessary and serve no purpose.

Also beyond my comprehension is why the devs utilized quick time events in this episode. They don’t introduce any change of dynamics (such thing simply doesn’t occur) – seems to me they only serve as a filler so that the players can take their eyes of the rambling characters. It’s also hard to say if the limited-time decisions that have to be made on a couple of occasions will hold any weight ; will they truly affect the relations of the protagonist and the NPCs? I haven’t noticed anything like that in this episode, but an icon informing that a character has remembered my reply appeared a couple of times. But I presume a branching-out storyline can’t really be expected from the first episode, which takes about 70 minutes to complete.

Ark-01 janitors’ cryochambers.

Characters lacking charisma and emotion, simple puzzles and an idea for a setting that was virtually cloned don’t seem to be foreshadowing a brilliant future for Gaming Corps’ game. But contrary to my rather negative opinion thus far, I am not yet looking for nails for The Descendant’s coffin. After an unexciting hour of playing comes an interesting plot-twist that can make the next episode a much better experience – following a mediocre introduction, the time for the real story shall come. The snowballing events will accelerate, more characters ought to appear, and their relations should become increasingly complex. I do hope that the decisions I have, and will have made are going to influence the story, directing it into a different route. I’ll be happy to see what happens next, but at the same time, this will be the final chance for the game to get me onboard. Will the Swedish devs come up with some brilliant ideas or are they just going to become an indistinguishable part of the background? After all, why play a copy if the real thing is already there, made by Telltale? I’m waiting for the second episode, but I’m not exactly holding my breath.