The McCarthy Chronicles: Episode 1

Yes, it does look a bit like it.

A very long time ago, I said I'd talk about independent games in this journal, and then I covered about two of them in the last year (both of which I wrote). But here's one now. I downloaded the Adventure Game Studio-made The McCarthy Chronicles: Episode 1 when I saw it on IndyGamer, because of what I perceived to be a striking similarity to the Chzo Mythos. However, after actually playing it, I can say that even though the AGS text will now always remind me of being chased by Yahtzee's randomly-appearing abominations in space, this game is really very different - though I have to admit I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to jump out at me when I was wandering the hotel you spend most of the game in alone.

This is only the first episode of what's eventually to become a much larger series, and it only has just about enough time to set up the plot before it ends. Atmosphere is definitely this game’s strength – it uses a few overlays on the screen to create things like rain effects and a grainy film look, and the decision to make it entirely black and white really gives it a film noir feel. In particular it has a lot of detail in its sound, like the change in sound of footsteps depending on the surface, which was a very nice touch.

It was also a pleasant surprise to hear voice acting in an independent adventure, although after initially appreciating the gesture, I found myself skipping it almost immediately. It suffers greatly from being read very slowly in a lot of places, and McCarthy himself (voiced by the author) sounds rather like he was recorded somewhere where he was trying to keep his voice down and not wake the people upstairs. I sort of understood the mood that he was going for, but a lot of the time the characters just sound bored! Having said that, Sarah stands out as the most not-bad of a fairly bad bunch, and in general I think it got rather better as the game went on.

The animation was nice as well – McCarthy’s sprite reminds me of a combination of Indiana Jones from Fate of Atlantis and Bob Foster from Beneath a Steel Sky. And while the game’s short, it’s definitely got me interested to see where the story goes in subsequent chapters – having been hammering away at my latest project for nigh on three years now, I can certainly see the appeal of releasing something episodically and getting feedback and reactions on each part, before putting it together into a complete story.

Download here