Richard & Alice Review
By Omar (@siegarettes)
- Richard & Alice
- Developer - Owl Cave (Ashton Raze & Lewis Denby)
- Publisher - Mastertronic
- PC (Direct from Developer, Steam)
- Rating - N/A
Does RIchard & Alice need to be a videogame? Visually rough, running on the conventions of nearly archaic adventure games, its presentation speaks of a more handicraft approach in a landscape where indie megaliths are quickly approaching the visual flair and polish of their big budget counterparts. By contrast R&A’s artwork is basic, representational. The soundtrack is part composed works and royalty free, and I suspect that a version of Adventure Game Studio is running underneath.
What’s left to hold it together then, is its writing, an element that videogames have often been anemic of good examples.
A post-apocalypse story, R&A eschews the usual candidates of end bringing for an infinite snowstorm. In a world where freak storms and weather patterns populate the news, where the threat of nuclear winter has receded from the pop consciousness, this leads an air of immediacy to R&A.
Framed within conversations between the titular characters, two prisoners underground, R&Ais really the story of Alice and Barney, her five (“and a half!”) year old child. Many games shy away from child characters, or leave them a neglected presence. Especially in environments of moral depravity, it can be difficult to balance the story in a way that prevents it from feeling exploitative.
Remarkably, writers Raze and Denby have written a child character that not only acts and speaks like a child (instead of the tiny adults usually prevalent) but have accomplished it in tandem with creating a female-centric narrative focused on themes of motherhood.
It works so naturally that I didn’t realize how novel this actually is until I sat down to write this. Alice is playing a high stakes game of game of parenthood, where all her anxieties, fears, and frustrations are exasperated by her and Barney’s real vulnerability. It works for the most part due to the writers’ believable script. Conflicts feel immediate and tangible, and dialogue plays out naturally. There are a few hitches (Alice seems to be the only one speaking in a UK dialect?) but for the most part it simply works.
Its also dark. R&A has some distressing scenes and moments that manage to emotionally gut punch you without getting caught up in the detailed depictions that videogames seem to almost fetishize. At the end of polite society, people break down, they do horrid things to each other. Richard & Alice isn’t shy about showing you them, but its not here to give you a spectacle of it.
Where R&A falters is on the mechanical side. While for the most part it follows a logical sequence of actions, there are few moments that felt circuitous as well as a troublesome pixel hunt. To give credit, the puzzles often feel obvious when you find the solution. It doesn’t feel blatantly off, but it breaks the pacing in a narrative heavy and otherwise concise game.
This is where I begin to ask myself if Richard & Alice needed to be a videogame. It could have easily been a short story, or barring that, it could have fit in a visual novel format, allowing more space for the artwork and eliminating problematic puzzles.
Thankfully, the format works well enough. The duo have created a small, but detailed enough space to add just enough to justify the format. The small notes give you an idea of the kind of hell people have created in the wake of the disaster. The storm feels appropriately oppressive. The mechanics do enough to involve you with the narrative. Its a space that functions closer to that of a stage play than the industry standard cinema style set pieces. They put enough to suggest a sense of setting and leave the rest of it to your imagination.
Richard & Alice works, and it works because it is a game, not despite it. In a space that’s becoming synonymous with retro throwbacks and remarkable polish it feels rough, but more importantly focused and personal. It’s a reminder of the interesting work that takes place outside the realm of homage and Kickstarter darlings. Games that tackle subjects that are personal, emotional, and unexplored.