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An invitation to hang out at a creepy derelict factory sounds like a one-way ticket to Murder Town, but for you it's nothing out of the ordinary since you've been called yet again to photograph the graffiti art of your friend "Stinger". Of course, when you show up and he's nowhere to be found, that should probably set off a few red flags and have you running for the hills... but then we wouldn't have the basis for URBEX, Psionic's moody-broody point-and-click horror adventure, and that would be no fun at all. You might not have brought much with you apart from your trusty camera, but hey, it's not like anything will go horribly, horribly wrong and you'll be forced to run for your life, right?
Click to interact or move around, and moving your cursor to the top of the screen causes your inventory to drop down. Be warned that although it doesn't occur anywhere else, a certain pair of objects in the third chapter have contextual mouse movement, forcing you to click and drag to move them around. The game is broken up into chapters, and will save your progress at the start of each one, so if you fail or, uh, die, you'll be booted back to the start of the last one.
Since the game is divided up into chapters, it does a good job of continually moving you forward with a series of self-contained puzzles instead of having you back-track in circles, wondering what you missed. This also means, however, that the game just isn't that difficult, and it's hard to escape the feeling that you're strictly on rails rather than actually adventuring. It doesn't help that a lot of the challenge that is there is due to some awkward time escape sequences and hunting down interactive zones that aren't well represented visually. Fortunately, the atmosphere and oppressive design is so top-notch it draws you in almost immediately, and the secret areas, documents, and other collectibles provide incentive to explore and replay. Despite some rough patches in design, URBEX is a creepy adventure with a satisfying length and campy storyline that makes for an enjoyable experience. |
