Review: Armikrog brings back the old-school point and click adventure

Point and click adventures were abundant on PCs back in the '90s, but the genre is back for one more round thanks to the release of Armikrog.  Armikrog was released for the PC last year, but now it is out for consoles. We got a chance to review the Xbox One version and it's safe to say that point and click adventure games are better suited with a keyboard and mouse. A controller doesn't feel so smooth in comparison.  Before going into specific gameplay details, let's first talk about what this game is about. Armikrog was created by Mike Dietz and Ed Schofield who both worked on Earthworm Jim. The game was successfully funded via Kickstarter back in 2013 as a lot of people wanted to see an old-school point and click game.  Not only is the genre old fashioned, but the presentation harks back to the '90s too. The game uses stop motion animation that looks similar to the Wallace and Gromit series. It's great to see this style of animation used again since most cartoons are just all CGI now.  The story is simple yet engaging enough for you to play until the very end. The main character is named Tommynaut and he's in search to find a way to save his dying planet. While he is out in space, he unfortunately crash lands on a planet called Spiro 5 and is locked up in a fortress called Armikrog. Tommynaut is not alone in his adventure as he is with a dog named Beak-Beak. Both characters are playable and you can swap between the two at anytime. Beak-Beak can walk under small doors and do other things that Tommynaut is unable to do. You need to use both characters in order to solve the many puzzles that await you.  Even though the presentation and story is charming in this game, the main thing that disappoints me about it is the actual gameplay. The game is not very user friendly because it doesn't tell you how to play it. I had to guess what the controls were as it never tells you.  Sure, this game is a point and click adventure, but I didn't know both characters were playable until I mashed the Y button on Xbox One. I also didn't know what to do for the first five minutes of the game because there's no tutorial to tell you how the game mechanics work.  The game also doesn't give you an indication on the type of objects that you are able to interact with. It took me several minutes to find a very very small lever on the ground that I had to use to open a door. The problem with the lever is that it was hidden in a dark place obscured from the camera's point of view.  Not to mention using a controller to play the game is not the best thing in the world. It just feels cumbersome playing a point and click style of game on a controller. It's not as smooth and easy if you were to use a mouse.  All in all, Armikrog on the Xbox One is not a very good game to play due to how unfriendly it is. It fails to tell you what to do and the game mechanics are never explained to players. You might enjoy this game more if you love point and click adventures, but everyone else should avoid it.  Verdict: 6.0/10