Developed by the Russian studio New Game Order (formerly known as ComonGames), The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day is a 3D Point & Click adventure, with a strong storyline and quite ambitious direction. It’s the first episode, released in late 2016, and it took 4 years until we finally got the second chapter.
In a world where humanity has long perished, robots have replaced us, maintaining their own evolution. Inspired by our way of living, these machines work, learn, and socialize with each other remarkably resembling humans and their daily life. RT-217NP is a prime model of its kind, a robot whose curiosity allows him to grow at his own pace. He wanders around the city repairing and building tools, which he can sell to keep his curiosity alive.
The robots are not entirely free, and just like us, they built a hierarchy. The USS is the main frame controlling every activity, as well as distributing updates to every robot across the world. However, RT-217NP denies such updates, and instead embraces the evolution by himself, which will bring him the most uncertain revelations across his path.
The story behind The Uncertain can be seen as basic, but as the game progresses, the plot becomes more and more riveting. Last Quiet Day is the first episode, focusing on the robot’s side of view and the big mystery of what happened to humanity. The placement of events delivers an intriguing narrative and characters end up being quite interesting.
One of the strong points of the narrative is how RT-217NP sees and understands some of humanity’s objects. Art and contemporary items become the most fascinating artifacts for this intuitive robot, who tries to understand the reasons why some of us still prefer vinyl records over digital music. Other interactions will also be funny and entertaining, as we look upon a robot’s opinion on the most basic things.
When it comes to the gameplay, we can safely say this is an adventure driven game, with a classic take over the Point & Click genre. We control RT-217NP in specific areas, where we can interact with objects by looking at them, collecting, or just use them in a particular way. The puzzles weren’t left off, and there’s quite a few, all different and original. In one way or another, they add the necessary difficult rhythm to this adventure, creating just the right amount of a challenge.
The overall difficulty or challenge of the game is basically nonexistent, which affirms my take on this adventure being completely narrative driven. There isn’t any form of backtracking, and every clue you’ll need, can be found in your current location. Thus, always pushing the adventure onwards, and will definitely prove to be a good direction for players who dive themselves into the story, with no time for mediocre backtracking and mindless object gathering.
The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day likes to keep it fresh, and in some sense, it does. We rarely see a Point & Click with driving sections, and we have quite a few of them here. Although they are somehow repetitive, we drive, or should I say, we fly an aerocar.
The flight feels just like driving through linear segments while avoiding trees and jumping across rocks. The game delivers an idea of an open field, but it’s actually very scripted towards where you can move. There’s even some chases evolved, inspired by classic arcade titles.
Unfortunately, the chases can become somehow clunky, and that’s not the only place where we feel dragged behind when it comes to gameplay. The controls while moving with RT-217NP also feels stiff and heavy. It’s not fluid at all, especially when running, where its control sometimes becomes locked. It’s hard to understand if this was just lack of polishing, or just a tough time working with Unity. I tend to blame Unity a lot, especially in this case when I see so much detail put into the game’s design.
Aligned with its main story, the visual design is one of the strongest points of our adventure. Each area is really well depicted, bringing alive the small little details of the times where humanity once ruled the world. There’s a solid atmospheric vein present in each segment, yet, avoiding violence or excessive apocalyptic themes.
It succeeds in delivering an original idea of the intended world, with genuine attachments and locations looking absolutely amazing. The small cutscenes are really well rendered and attractive, adding a much smoother pace to the adventure and an overall characterization.
The soundtrack is also another strong point, with a few music tracks made exclusively for the game, and all of them intensely atmospheric. A mix between post-rock and a smooth classic vibration, combining in a great OST that could very well be a part of a movie.
There’s barely anything The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day does wrong, being a really interesting and peculiar game. The story alone may be more than enough for you to try it, and since it was free not so long ago, I’m certain you already own this indie Point & Clicker. If you can ignore the stiff controls and wonky movement, it’s a guarantee you’ll enjoy it and be sure to keep your eyes out for the second episode: The Uncertain: Light At The End.
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