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It is almost as if the game knows it should be embarrassed by the character’s visual and audio depiction, because there is a disclaimer on boot up about ‘stereotypes.’ Rather than fix the character, we get a ‘sorry if you were offended’ message. Foremost is a racist caricature that runs an Asian/German fusion restaurant.

Within these subplots there are enough situations that caused me to raise an eyebrow. I struggled to figure out what the game wanted to say – media manipulation is bad, social media is a drug, populist idealogues are a gateway to fascism – these are bullet points that are littered across the story but with very little binding agent to make this conspiracy theory plot compelling. The universe itself seems quite boilerplate. The story, writing, and voice acting were not able to justify my investment. I might have been more forgiving of this if I had wanted to see where Encodya was going to go. These things are standard of an old-school approach, and I am not a fan, but others won’t blink at their inclusion. Other times the player will have to reinitiate dialogue with characters until all the options are exhausted to progress the story. There are other moments where a player is going to find themselves try every item in their inventory to brute-force a puzzle (or use the hint system the game’s concession to modern game design). By this I mean that there are pixel hunts where the player needs to sweep their cursor across the screen to find the one interact point. Whether people are going to enjoy Encodya seems to come down to how much of the nonsense they can tolerate from a ‘no-nonsense’ point-and-click adventure. The music also has a Bladerunner Vangelis twang to it, which seals its tribute to the Ridley Scott film. The backdrops hark back to the Lucasarts’s Bladerunner – the static art’s colours and renders are very much in line with that 90s SVGA aesthetic.

Encodya’s gimmick is that the player is required to switch between Tina and SAM to be able to talk to certain people, or to access certain elements.

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This is done by moving through a series of static/scrolling screens, talking to people, picking up items, and solving puzzles. Tina holds some secrets in her past and it is down to her and SAM to unravel them. It is set in a neon-soaked Berlin, a city crumbling under corrupt politicians and pointless bureaucracy. The story surrounds Tina, an orphan, and her robot friend SAM-53. Items are collected, people are spoken to, stories are told, and characters develop in a manner that could have been ripped from the genre’s heyday of the 1990s. The original soundtrack, specially created for ENCODYA, makes the exciting, crackling atmosphere even more tangible.Encodya, built by a small Estonian developer Chaosmonger Studio, plants its flag firmly in the ground as a no-nonsense point-and-click adventure game.

In keeping with the games by which it was inspired, ENCODYA is packed to the brim with tiny details, easter eggs, and a fully-fleshed out world to explore.

The cinematic cutscenes and the futuristic art and sound design bring the story of ENCODYA alive.

Special, randomly generated puzzles provide a unique gaming experience and present you with great challenges.

Your journey will take you to more than 100 locations where there is a lot to explore and discover.

Over 34+ non-player characters bring the world of ENCODYA to life and provide a varied and exciting story.

Explore the dark cyberpunk world of ENCODYA in 2.5D with 2 playable characters.

You can, of course, read my ENCODYA review, but here are some of the key features:

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Published by Meridiem Games, a physical release will be coming later this year, which features a beautiful box that contains exclusive artwork, a set of postcards, plus a cut-to-shape cardboard figure of Tina and Sam-53.

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Encodya pc review