Unforeseen Incidents (PC) Review

Players take control of Harper Pendrell, somewhat of a nobody in the grand scheme of things, but a person quite handy in terms of sorting out problems for people, especially when making use of his invaluable multi-tool device. Little does he know, he is about to be called upon to fix one heck of a huge issue, unravelling the mystery behind gruesome deaths that have been taking place. He stumbles upon a dying woman, and his life is changed forever, trying to figure out the original source of the disease that is running rampant, and how it can possibly be stopped in its tracks.

Unforeseen Incidents takes a darker stance than is normally the case for the genre, yet it does not quite go down the route of Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today, but there are still some tragic scenes included. Thankfully, a lot of light-hearted humour drives the story content along, with plenty of entertaining general banter between Harper and the various characters he interacts with. Visually, it takes a hand-drawn, painted, noir comic book style for the most part, which really does work in its favour, except when zooming in for close-up conversations, as the imagery gets a tad too blurry and indistinct at times. Also, sometimes walking animations come across as a bit too stiff and unrealistic, but it is a minor quibble in what is otherwise a gorgeous game.

As far as point-and-click adventures go, this really does nail the formula perfectly, with staple inclusions working as well as in some of the classics, such as the Broken Sword series - from an easy to access inventory, to simple manipulation of the items collected along the way, and intuitive conversation control for those all-important moments where key information needs to be extracted from non-playable characters. The script itself is overwhelmingly engaging on the whole, though, so just as much fun can be had looking around aimlessly, talking with anyone and everyone - which is a key factor for lifting this above many generic genre mates.

It is not completely hitch free, though. There are, for example, some instances where a solution to a conundrum seems quite obvious, only with gamers being faced with a necessary trigger - or triggers - needing to be activated before progress can actually be made, which grates, but thankfully that sort of situation does not crop up too often. Unforeseen Incidents is no short affair, either, so the balance struck throughout between witty talking, mysterious goings on, and smart puzzles and situations to overcome is fantastic indeed.