A Golden Wake Review

"Charming and Roaring 20's"

Campaign

I find that these days point and clicks have received a bit of a renaissance in terms of the new standards they are achieving with an old formula. A Golden Wake feels like something of the old with the pixelated graphics and basic play. Though it really is quite clever with the way it presents itself and passes time along. What's great about this narrative is that you can clearly see the world and landscape changing around you as time changes. Playing as Alfie whom fell in some bad luck at New York took things into his own hands and went out to make his mark. He accomplished this by heading to Florida during a time of great prosperity. It's amazing to see the sort of things that we get done as Alfie, the character is just dead set on getting things done no matter what the cost. While it seems like honest and good work you always have a feeling of some darkness overshadowing what's going on. This clearly becomes more visable overtime as you can see the world descend and time fly by. Whether things change towards the mob or times get tough there never seems to be a boring moment in the Golden Wake. When playing through the game you'll have to use a mix of charm and puzzle solving in order to make your way to the top. Puzzles aren't too difficult within and vary with some rather interesting ones. For the charming puzzles fit into that a bit, but you also have to be able to work people around in order to be a social climber. Bribes and other tricks are also not out of question as Alfie does his best to achieve whatever it's he wants while be an interesting character to play as.

Gameplay

It's your typical point and click game filled with a strong narrative surrounding a not too common historical era. There's apparently many famous locations and people you run into though I'm not too well versed in the area aside from the experience within the game. I will say it has intrigued me on the matter and I'll have to research it a bit more. The graphics look great for the pixel style they went with, at times I did feel as though there could have been a better job on the faces in order to make it feel more lively. Will also mention it didn't upscale to my monitor size which was disappointing though it'll look glorious on anything on high definition. The actual movement was neat as well in this as you were never walking and more of less always on the go. From jumping into chats or driving about it seemed focus was on keeping things going as was shown with the change of times.

The Conclusion

A Golden Wake takes place in an era of time which many other stories just don't seem to cover. It's got all the crazy experiences of those that take place in wars or gangster times and takes a calmer approach to it. The graphics looked charming as I love the pixelated style that some games use, just wish there was some more minor details present especially with the people. The scenery was fascinating and changing of times that was clearly noticeable was a great addition to add extra depth to a great story. There are also many historically accurate points that many people of a certain type will gain benefit from while playing through. A Golden Wake is a solid point and click backed by a great story of a time that makes it unique. For all that went down I still believe Alfie was an interesting character that did what was needed despite the harsh changing world.

A Golden Wake for PC
Review code provided by Wadjet Eye Games

Rating Overall: 7.2