Resonance (PC) Review

A particle physicist has died. His assistant had just finished talking with him on the phone about some research notes and how they needed to be destroyed, with Ed desperate for a hasty decision not to be made, scarpering across town to prevent all the hard work from being obliterated by his superior. After all, a sudden bout of guilt and concern over the potential threat that his work could be used for was surely something worth discussing properly, right? However, as initially stated, death befalls the great mind, leaving his powerful technology to an unknown fate. It is up to his trusted cohort, Ed, to make the final choice on whether to keep the project alive or not. When arriving at the partially destroyed laboratory, should he simply rescue what is left and ensure the wrong hands are not there to pick up the pieces, or rid the world of what could prove to be something disastrous if used maliciously? It is a tough choice to make, for various reasons that play out as the story progresses, with numerous shocks mixed in to spice events up.

Along the way, three other characters are encountered as fate decides to play its part and bring the lives of four random folk together - the researcher (Ed), a journalist (Ray), a police officer (Bennet), and a medic (Anna), who also happens to be the niece of the deceased genius.

Resonance is not the atypical adventure romp, with it not just being a case of controlling Ed from start to finish and merely interacting with other non-playable characters. Right from the off there is the option to choose from four individual scenarios that can be worked through, seemingly innocuous and unrelated to one another. Then Ed meets the niece of "Uncle Javi" (his boss) whilst riding on the Tube, they then both come across Detective Bennet at the hospital where Javi has been rushed to, where news reporter, Ray Abbot, overhears part of a conversation he should not have been privy to, and follows the trio, before finally actually joining forces with them. Four people, all from different walks of life, brought together for the adventure of a lifetime, all with their own motives…motives not fully revealed to one another, or those in control of them.

At first, it can be rather daunting having to switch between each of the four, and keeping a check on who has what item in their inventory. Thankfully, there are only a few situations where stumbling blocks may be encountered in relation to this, and even then they are easily remedied. Switching characters is as simple as highlighting their profile pictures at the top of the screen and choosing the relevant face, but there is also the ability to get others to tag along so that they move from location to location when needed, rather than having to manoeuvre everyone separately, thankfully avoiding frustrating situations. After all, not all four are required for each place visited, and, in fact, having a detective around, for instance, when someone is possibly doing something illegal is indeed likely to prevent them from talking openly. There are lots of moments like that, and there is a strong sense of satisfaction when overcoming a scenario from using actual logical thought processes, rather than simply working through numerous permutations of 'item-person-object' to see what combination works to progress the story.

For anyone that gets a little lost, though, there is the option to pick up very handy subtle hints for where to go or what to do next by talking to other members of the group, but points are deducted for doing so - yes, points. The game rewards for immediate solutions, thinking outside the box, making particular key decisions, and so on, with a 'perfect score' at the end also being one of the plentiful supply of achievements to acquire en route to the climax of this suspenseful thriller.

Not only is there this highly impressive multi-character technique that already makes this point-and-click adventure stand out from the crowd, there is a special 'memory' aspect, whereby key events get stored in each character's long-term memory for access in tricky moments, whilst a certain amount of things from the nearby vicinity can be committed to their short-term memory for use in solving puzzles, getting more information out of anyone encountered during the journey, or even distracting people in order for other members of the team to sneak past. The fact that events can play out in pretty much any order desired, with multiple endings and ways for specific scenes to unfold, just adds to how refreshing Resonance really is. This is a definite breath of fresh air in a genre full to the brim with uninspired copycat products.