Demetrios - The BIG Cynical Adventure Review

Demetrios: The BIG Cynical Adventure – because that's what gaming needed. More cynicism. Coming to us from developer/publisher COWCAT, the game describes itself as a “full length adventure game” that's “packed with silly humour”. Wait a minute, I thought this was a cynical adventure?

Discrepancies aside, Demetrios is a point-and-click adventure where we take control of the hapless Bjorn, a Parisian man who runs an art and antique shop – selling all sorts of curios that the museums either don't want any more or have dismissed as fake. Something interesting has recently fallen into his lap: a large statue of an animal head that has been adorned with a peculiar tablet engraved with a lightning bolt. The plot really begins one night in Bjorn's apartment – thieves break into his house, knock out Bjorn, and pilfer the prized tablet. This leaves us with the standard but nonetheless intriguing videogame set up; you're on a quest to get back the mysterious MacGuffin; it's basic, but it works. Adding intrigue is the blossoming relationship between you and your neighbour, and, quite skilfully, the question marks that hang over some of the characters – are they lying to our faces, are they honest? You never can quite tell in this game, and that's what makes the plot gripping.

Point and click adventures live or die on the strength of the writing, and Demetrios: The BIG Cynical Adventure thrives. This game utilises a goofy, silly, yet sometimes puerile sense of humour – there's excrement, urine, and semen jokes aplenty, but the game never feels juvenile or dumb due to the tight pacing of the game's story and because it executes these jokes subtly, instead of beating the joke over our heads. The script appears to have been translated over from French – some character names and untranslated objects betray this, but the script never loses anything at any point.

The script is, overall, punctuated with the other side of its comedy: when the game isn't making jokes about scatological functions, it instead plays it super goofy. For instance, our hapless hero can die or achieve game over in many ways, and the game encourages you to find them all: you can stick your finger in an electrical socket, take a leak in a policeman's potted plant, or when confronting a dangerous man, you can pretend to be taking a student survey – which he promptly shoots you for. All of these situations are very funny, and they add to the replay value of the game – a second play of the game will no doubt be used to collect everything you missed.

However, at large, there's something oddly jarring about Demetrios and its story at large. The jokes and observations provided by the goofy protagonist provide laughs and comic relief, and the music is mostly very jaunty and upbeat (not dissimilar to something you might hear in a garden supplies commercial or the like), but it comes at odds with the darker elements of the plot. The story begins and stays light-hearted but it becomes clear to the player that Bjorn is in increasingly big trouble, and his tone never really changes – I understand that his characterisation is that of a big oblivious doofus, but there just seems to be an odd discord between that tone and the progression of the game. The title will spend much of its time with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, but when things do get serious, Bjorn never really follows suit, and that makes for a slightly strange reading of events.

Perhaps the most stellar part of this game from the very beginning is the visual style it takes on. Demetrios looks cartoonish in the best way, very much like a French cartoon that's been imported over for English markets: the feel is indistinguishable. In terms of actual looks, though, it's beautiful. Colourful and expertly drawn, this title is a treat. The cutscenes are presented in comic book form – dialogue appears in speech bubbles, and each scene is played out in a different panel of the comic book: this is an idea which has been played out in games before, but Demetrios executes it well, so it never feels jammed in. As such, the colourful warmth of the game really helps to invite players in and make it feel comfortable; you could definitely play this one with a blanket and a mug of hot chocolate.

As has also been mentioned, the music is upbeat and cheerful. At times, this is odd, but again, this extends into the impression that Demetrios wishes to make as a game. It's happy-go-lucky and lovely, and as such, the music of this game creates an atmosphere that is like sinking into a hot bath; it fills you with warmth.

That really says it all about this game; Demetrios, despite branding itself as “cynical”, is a lovely adventure and acts as a nice revival of the bygone age when point and click games ruled. This game is well-paced, well-told, well-drawn, and well-wrapped together with humour that's on the right side of dirty.