Games worth discovering

If Sierra still existed they’d need to call their lawyers – Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard Quick Review

1K View2022-12-25

PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it if you are into old-school, point-and-click adventure games. If you aren’t this won’t be for you, as it leans heavily on the style of the later iterations of the King’s Quest series. I personally love this game genre, so I was picking up what Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard was putting down as soon as the main title screen booted up.

TIME PLAYED

I played Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard for three hours, and that seemed to get me about a third of the way through the game.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• CD-ROM love, baby. If you weren’t there, it’s hard to describe, but I can’t deny the magic of early ’90s CD-ROM games that sported full voice-overs, orchestral music, and full-motion video and animation. Owlsgard, without question, put me back in that groove.

• Charm and humor for days. With its animated, anthropomorphic animals that spout pithy one-liners and an epic quest to save a peaceful land from being overrun by machines, Owlsgard seems to have been inspired by Don Bluth-era Disney in all the right ways.

WHAT SUCKS

• English as a second language. Unfortunately, there were times that the dialogue was a bit off—as in I could tell that it wasn’t written by a native English speaker because the syntax wasn’t right. As an example, early on in the game, the main character is near a group of characters waiting around to hear a royal proclamation. The main character exclaims, “Why is there such a concourse here?” as opposed to something more natural like, “Why are all these people here?” or “What’s up with this crowd?”

• Pixel art issues. There were times when the sprite of the main character, Finn, looked fantastic and other times where it was a pixelated mess. This issue was apparent on the main overworld map as well.

• Leans a bit too heavily on the classics. As my headline insinuates, Owlsgard really dips into the Sierra and Disney wells a bit too deeply for my liking. I get inspiration, homage, and all that, but this game steps over that line a few too many times in my estimation to be considered wholly original.

💬 Are you going to play Beyond the Edge of Owlsguard or skip it? Let me hear what you have to say in the comments below!