The Man From Fugue State

Amnesia is a pretty common theme in video games, or at least if was until a few years ago. It would seem like most developers stopped using it recently, but you can still find it every now and again. Granted, it can work wonders if it’s used right, and there are countless variations out there to make each experience feel somewhat unique. Hence, it’s all about the quality of the writing and the story as a whole.

The Man From Fugue State is a point & click adventure game in which you play the role of a man waking up with no idea about who he is or where is he going. While the graphics might look pretty rough at a glance, it’s the dialog and the puzzles that make the game engaging, so you can pretty much forget about everything else. Some decent artwork wouldn’t hurt either, but it shouldn’t mess with the overall atmosphere.

It all starts when the main character wakes up on a train with no memory of who he is or what his purpose in life is. After a bit of shuffling around the train carriage, he finds a wanted poster for a bandit called the El Marcado. As it turns out, El Marcade likes to terrorize the city of Tumbleweed, which is where the train stops when it reaches its destination.

The game world is open to exploration from the moment you reach town, but you shouldn’t expect too much space either. You can enter a few buildings and interact with every character you stumble upon, and it’s actually quite fun to engage in dialog, given the fact that you are allowed to make a wide range of inquiries. Dialog is actually a great way to solve puzzles, because the characters usually provide you with all the clues you need.

The rest of the game is all about tracking down the items you need to come up with a solution to every riddle. Some of them can be combined, while others are just useful to find new information about what you should be doing next. It can be quite tough for a newcomer to the genre, especially if you haven’t touched a point & click before, but it doesn’t take long to understand the basics.

Although The Man From Fugue State might not look like it, it’s actually a very funny and intriguing game, at least if you are a fan of adventure games. The writing is solid, and the story is pretty engaging from the first few minutes.