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Review: Samorost

At a Glance

ESRB Rating: NR - Not Rated
My Rating: Everyone
Genre: Point and Click Adventure
License: Freeware
Fun-O-Meter:
Release Year: 2003
Review Published On: November 10th, 2023
Played on: Thaddeus

Available on:

Windows
MacOS

Available from:

GOG.com
Itch.IO
Steam

Areas of Concern:
  • Nothing of note.


How to Save and Pause:

There isnt a way to save your progress, which makes sense as this game can be completed in less than twenty minutes. On the other hand, you can pause by clicking on the star in the upper right corner of the screen.

Time needed per session:

Since youll need to complete the game in one go, plan on spending twenty minutes playing it.

Does this game pose issues for Christian players?

No - this is a great game for Christians
The only thing I can see being an issue with this game is the fact that a character is shown smoking.

Screenshots

[view screenshot]
Lizards and goats

[view screenshot]
A noisy tree

[view screenshot]
Buttons to push



Game Overview

This is the first game in a series of games about a gnome who lives on an asteroid made out of a very large piece of driftwood. His first adventure began when he spotted another driftwood asteroid coming towards him - to prevent a disaster, hell need to find his way into the other asteroids control room and force it to change direction.

Gameplay wise, Samorost is a typical point and click adventure game. Instead of controlling the gnome directly, youll just click on things that look interesting and the game will respond however it feels appropriate. For example, clicking on a button or switch will likely activate something, while clicking on a character might have them do something. Every puzzle in this game revolves around clicking on something at the correct time, so pay attention to what your mouse indicates is clickable.

You also wont encounter any inventory puzzles or need to backtrack during this game, so just concentrate on moving forward.

This is a good introduction to the Samorost series, and its free to boot, but this price tag does come with a small problem: theres not that much game here. There are no Steam community features, nor does it take very long to solve every puzzle, and there isnt even a proper ending.

Perhaps the best way to view this title to look at it as a playable demonstration, rather than expect it to feel like a complete game - sort of like how many classic shareware games would give you the first chapter for free.

Points of Interest

6 puzzles to solve

Not counting the first screen where you start the game, this entire adventure lasts a total of six screens. The tricky part about this is that most of these puzzles require you to not only figure out where to click, but when you should click. There are also often objects that can be clicked on that dont move the story forward, and some of these can be a bit amusing on their own.

Concerns and Issues

Smoking

One of the early scenes portrays a man smoking something herbal via what appears to be a hookah. There doesnt seem to be any indication that this refers to anything more serious than fantasy tobacco, but Ill let you be the judge of whether or not this is something to worry about.