Wagner And The Third Light: Episode 1

As it was proven so many times over the years, graphics have nothing to do with a game’s ability to keep you engaged and even make you forget how much you’ve been playing it. On the other hand, bad graphics are much more obvious when the rest of the game is not good enough, which is why it’s better to aim for a balance between the two. Granted, the task is much easier nowadays than it was a decade or two ago.

Wagner And The Third Light: Episode 1 is a funny point & click adventure game in which you play the role of a detective trying to solve an apparently simple case. The game’s main attraction is the humor and the intriguing story, because the graphics are certainly nothing to write home about. In fact, the characters are nothing but a couple of untextured polygons scrambled together.

As the name gives it away, the main character’s name is Wagner, and he is a private detective trying to make some money. Although he usually deals with jealous couples and the like, he now receives a much more interesting case, one that involves a shipwreck. Thus, your job is to find out the one responsible for the accident and bring him or her to justice.

Most objects can be examined if you really want to hear Wagner say a few words about them, but only some truly have some sort of purpose. To do so, you only need to click on the desired item and select one of the available options, which is both intuitive and simple to do in any situation. Unfortunately, the annoying part is that the game is very linear, so there’s no real freedom to approach the case in multiple ways.

As for the level design, each scene is full of interesting objects, but they are not very pretty, so you are usually looking at empty polygons most fo the time. However, the overall landscapes sometimes have the power to create an intriguing atmosphere, although that’s not always the case. There’s also a very short and rather repetitive soundtrack playing in the background.

All things considered, Wagner And The Third Light: Episode 1 is obviously not a masterpiece, but it manages to keep you engaged from start to finish if you give it a chance. The story gets pretty interesting toward the end.