Violett Review

On the surface, Violett seems like a cute, innocent little point-and-click adventure game based around a remarkably emo little girl, who has a somewhat striking resemblance to Coraline, creepy protagonist from her namesake film. Breaking past the surface reveals something actually quite sinister indeed.

Violett is your typical grumpy teenager, who, like Coraline, has been dragged to a new shady-looking house in the middle of nowhere, and in the midst of her sulk and angst discovers a whole new, magical world in this unfamiliar home. It’s very reminiscent of Coraline and even The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; with a lost youngster transported to a strange realm, one that, although bright and cheerful in appearance, is seething with danger and evil.

Although this game is a point-and-click adventure, this sort of interaction doesn’t really sum up the gameplay itself. There’s a lot of pointing and plenty of clicking, but that’s not just it. Most of the interaction within the game requires lots of sweeping movements, dragging and dropping; which, with a mouse, is frequently difficult and oftentimes frustrating/borderline infuriating.

The artwork of this mysterious world is pretty pleasant to look at. Cartoon-based graphics allow for lots of detail in the madness, without it being too demanding on your GPU. The look it has about it pulls in memories of Pan’s Labyrinth, particularly the way that you’re looking at something initially quite cheerful, like a funfair or a circus, and then suddenly you begin to notice things moving in the shadows, and malicious eyes peering at you out of some nook or cranny in the background.

 There is no real communication in Violett, with the little guiding you might need appearing in the form of pictorial speech bubbles from the residents you come across, or a subtle mouse indication in the corner to give you some aid if you’re stuck. And being stuck will probably happen... a lot. The puzzles in the game are really quite obscure, and it is definitely not obvious what you should be doing, or where you should be going next. Real die-hard fans of point-and-click adventures and puzzle games will probably enjoy the challenge that this brings to the table, but others may find this just a bit too random for their liking. Trying to flip over a bottle, to trap a fly so that the attention of the eyeball in the teapot is no longer following you and you can escape without him blasting a bunch of steam your way is one of the more straightforward situations you will come across.

It’s truly a quirky find, and with lots to collect, and interesting pages to discover detailing some of the creatures you encounter, adding a little bit of oomph to what is otherwise a fairly flimsy plot. The music is very catchy, and perfectly atmospheric, the melody just the right amount of cheerful yet haunting, and actually makes you feel quite alone; it can be quite unnerving!

Violett is the epitome of casual gaming, don’t expect a life-changing experience here, but do expect a mildly entertaining puzzle that you can pick up and put down when you need a break. For the price this game is on offer for at the moment, you can’t really go wrong, and if you’d like something to mess around on then this might just be the thing. However, if you’d really like to give it a shot, it is available on both Android and iOS, and with the controls being as clunky as they are, this would probably make it a hell of a lot more fun to try. It’s actually much cheaper as an app game too, nearly a third of the price in fact, and my recommendation would be to pick it up on one of those devices. You could potentially play it on your phone, but the screen size would be a serious detriment to the game, so really this is best on a tablet. 

So overall, Violett is an okay game on the PC, albeit with some really strange puzzles, but a lot of the negative points about it could easily be solved by playing this on a tablet, or a touchscreen PC instead.