Mexico, 1921. A Deep Slumber. Review

Videogames often draw inspiration from real life by using a historic moment, like a war, as its setting or exploring alternate histories small changes could have caused. However, these titles are typically removed from the actual historical facts, preferring to focus on creating an enjoyable experience. Other titles, however, take it upon themselves to teach their audience something, sticking close to how things actually happened, as is the case with Mácula Interactive’s debut title, Mexico, 1921. A Deep Slumber., which takes place after the Mexican Revolution and explores the sudden murder of President Obergón.

Though we play through a short tutorial as a harassed detective after the aforementioned murder, the game proper starts soon after as we hop into the perspective of Juan Aguirre, a young journalist recently promoted to the job. Eager to show his stuff, Juan takes on the tasks of a recently fired individual, Gregorio, which leads him to meet Archivelo, the archivist of the newspaper. What is supposed to be a quick jaunt into the cellar of his office soon turns into Juan learning he’s to be the scapegoat of a propaganda piece meant to discredit the new President! Not too keen on this change of career, Juan teams up with the intrepid Archivolo to find out exactly what’s going on around the newspaper. To help him on his way, the new — and weirdly knowledgeable — archivist gives Juan his old camera, ordering the newcomer to take pictures of anything and everything he finds pleasing and interesting, while also bringing the real facts to the people of Mexico. The city is in a deep sleep and it’s about time for this nap to end.

The games is sometimes nice enough to warn about points of no return

The game plays similarly to a lot of 3D adventure games in that you are given a limited area to explore filled with items of interest and people to chat with. As you pick up every interactable piece of paper and bother your coworkers to no end, you’ll slowly find clues related to your current task and collectibles that give fun little details on Mexican culture. After you gain your camera, you can take pictures of mandatory key items, as well as optional trinkets or just because!

The camera is one of the focuses of the game, as it is an older model and requires a bit more effort than our modern handheld miracles do. Every time you want to take a picture, you must use the device’s viewfinder to find your target, then set the level of zoom and aperture, finishing off with picking the correct lighting. Once all three sections are good, you can take the picture and add it to your collection, though that's only for the “key” pictures. You can take and save as many blurry images as you like if the mood so takes you.

You'll have to fiddle quite a bit to get images into focus, just like in real life!

As any aspiring journalist should, Juan has a knack for spotting interesting items and conversations. This skill, appropriately titled “Nosey mode”, will highlight people and items you can interact with, as well as show items that can be photographed to gain collectibles. While being nosey, the colours of the world will become a darker sepia tone, making spotting the bright points of interest easier, but it also highlights possible conversations you can “accidentally” overhear. Once found, all you need to do is find a spot where your chattering target doesn't see you — indicated by a lighter section below the speakers — and be all ears.

The visual design of the games is both rough and interesting. I get the feeling the game is trying to mimic the style of murals and other pieces popular during the time period, which does work in some regards. The world has this oil painting-esque weight to it and the skybox looks great… but on the other hand, a lot of the animation and character designs are not to my liking. Especially Archivolo, who seems to have gigantic palms and a slightly creepy half-lidded stare. But this is an indie title and a historic one at that, so I’m not expecting stellar 4k fully rendered moustache action.

You can eavesdrop only in designated snoopy-zones

Regretfully, Mexico, 1921 does have a fair few bugs, one of which was game-breaking for me at least. In general, interacting with anything can be a chore, as you’ll have to do a little meandering dance to find where you can actually push the interaction key. There are also some typos and discrepancies in the text when compared to what is said. While playing, you may notice some points of interest show up in Nosey mode, only to disappear right after. I later learned these were often clues locked by some plot development or another, making it more annoying than harmful. However, the game also does not seem to save your data properly (which is weird since it has no save function and only one save). In the second proper level in the game, I had to end my session and pick it up later. Upon loading the game, I noticed I still had all of my collectibles and had, according to my journal, talked to everyone of significance, but as I peeked into Nosey mode, everyone was, again, highlighted! This made finding the next crucial plot point somewhat difficult, to say the least. The biggest issue, however, also ended my playthrough a few hours into the game.

As I met an important contact at a local festivity, I was told to look into the activities of some suspicious types protesting the President’s actions. As soon as my instructions ended, I naturally slammed my finger on the Nosey mode button, only to notice the tell-tale dimming of the colours was not there. Sure, the people and points of interest were highlighted, but something was strange… luckily I was able to keep playing and grabbed a few photos and info. Until I ran into the final piece of info I needed, a couple whispering near the line of protesters… As I could not enter Nosey mode properly, I could not listen in on their discussion and was therefore hard-locked out of progression. I reloaded and even started from scratch to no avail.

Um... hola?

After about an hour of experimenting, I was able to break through the issue by loading in and not talking to the person supposed to give me my mission. From there, it was smooth sailing… until a few stages later wherein I fell through the floor while talking to some students (I can relate, talking to people is nerve-wracking) and then found myself soft-locked as a key NPC did not load in. Enough was enough.

I really wanted to like Mexico, 1921. A Deep Slumber. as it’s fascinating to learn more about local histories from the point of view of the people whom it affected most. However, due to the aforementioned bugs, I was out of luck. The game until then seemed solid enough, if a bit janky. At its current price point of £16.75, I cannot recommend getting this game if there is a risk it simply won’t work. I wholeheartedly hope this is something unique to me and not a general bug, so if you find it on sale and don’t mind the risk, I do think it’s worth a look if you’re interested in history.