The Night of the Rabbit Preview

The Night of the Rabbit doesn't really give much away with its title, other than the likely involvement of rabbits of course.

Daedalic Entertainment have gifted us with another point-and-click adventure game revolving around the young and impressionable Jerry Hazelnut. Jerry dreams of being a magician, and one day stumbles across a mysterious suitcase through a series of guided events and ends up summoning the rather dashing Marquis de Hoto, a tall, red-eyed rabbit dressed to the nines.

The Marquis de Hoto explains that he is a rather experienced magician, looking to take on an apprentice, and he's chosen Jerry to take on this exciting role! Off we are whisked into a parallel world where some things are quite similar, but others are most definitely not.

The 2D scrolling environments are exquisitely drawn, with a luminescent light encompassing everything, adding oodles of charm and character, and I felt like a little nine-year-old engrossed in my storybooks all over again.

Making the most of the interactive elements in the scenes around you is paramount, as is appropriate for any game in this genre. For example, that rogue empty drinks can on the pathway to the crossroads is integral in the construction of an item that will drastically change Jerry's universe. Fortunately, early on there is the inclusion of a magical item which helps to point out important features in the world, making it difficult to miss anything you might need and preventing you from becoming too stuck and frustrated.

The controls are very simple, right-clicking on items to interact with them, and then left or right-clicking again on things in your inventory to either use, or inspect them closer, respectively. The ease of navigation is brilliant and lets you become fully immersed in the story; you may even forget you're playing a game!

You'll need to pay real attention to what is going on though, as not everything is as it seems. Certainly the intentions of the Marquis de Hoto are called into question, and the world has a sinister undertone that should not be ignored.

The voice acting in The Night of the Rabbit is fantastic, and the various well-spoken British accents just fit perfectly into the game as a whole, endearing the characters to you in a way that only excellently scripted games can. Combine this with beautifully simplistic background music, think solo violin and plenty of atmospheric percussive instruments and you truly feel swept off to the English countryside. It's the sort of thing that would not be out of place if the stories of Enid Blyton were brought to life in game form.

It is rare to come across a game so impressive, and honestly I was very pleasantly surprised to find such a jewel in the rough. I don't want to ruin much more of the story for you, as denying you the joy of discovering it yourself would be a crime, but would urge you to try this as soon as you can. For me, this is one of those games to keep tabs on, and its release date of May 29th, 2013, cannot come soon enough!