The Prince of Landis

A simple, short adventure game with a cool concept. It doesn’t really have the features or presentation of a fully professional project. Some standard game settings (resolutions, languages) are missing or implemented in a clunky way. There are some errors in spelling and writing here and there. Some story objectives aren’t clear. However, solutions tend to be pretty straightforward and the map is just compact enough that you can look around to find anything you need in a reasonable timeframe. The story follows a boy in rural Oregon. He’s violently bullied at school and is raised by a single alcoholic father. Near the game’s beginning, [spoiler] an alien (aka “the guest”) crashes near his place and they meet, beginning a peculiar partnership where the boy gathers supplies and food on the alien’s behalf. [/spoiler] The process of [spoiler] the guest [/spoiler] asking you for things, and you seeking them out is basically the entire game. Overall you’re sent on about 4 errands and after that the plot wraps up quickly. I completed this game blind in about 90 minutes. The aesthetics of the game are decent. The drawn art shown in cutscenes is charming. The sprite-based art for the top-down overworld gameplay is also nice but there isn't really much flash to the environment. Hardly anything in the way of animations. The music and sound design were decent, but nothing stuck with me as being memorable. The setting of the game is cool, being in this backwater rural american town. The game world isn’t very interactive beyond the elements that advance the plot though. Aspects of deeper lore to the setting and its characters are vaguely alluded to at points ([spoiler] the main character’s deceased mom, the main character’s dad’s past, inter-character conflicts in town, etc [/spoiler] ) but seemingly never satisfyingly fleshed out. Certain progressions in the plot can be done in 2 different ways, presumably leading to different (minor) consequences to secondary characters. There seemed to be at least 2 different endings to the game, of which I only experienced one. The game definitely ended too abruptly. Like, it’s fine to end where it ended but the sudden freeze mid-cutscene that begins the credits is jarring. Overall, I think this is a passable experience. I wasn’t blown away, but I don’t regret buying and playing it. Is it the best $6 you can spend on Steam in terms of polish and content? Definitely not. But it’s an interesting little indie experience nonetheless.