Port Valley Demo

Point & click games are designed to captivate the audience through story and puzzles, because the gameplay is usually as dull as it can get. The formula has evolved a bit over the decades, but it hasn’t changed all that much, which is why the genre still has a decent fan base to this day. Hence, it’s always nice to see developers come up with new stories and puzzles for people to solve.

Port Valley is a retro point & click adventure game in which you get to experience a town from three different perspectives, although the main character doesn’t really change in the process. In fact, you play as parallel versions of the same character, except that he has different jobs. Other things change between difficulty levels as well, each one of which affects the overall plot and how you approach it.

The main idea is that the main character is fed up with his boring job and wants to do something about it, except that there’s something stopping him: the mayoral elections. Depending on the difficulty level chosen, the candidate changes, so you get to see the city in a different light every time. Not only that, but your interactions with certain characters change as well, and your choices can have an effect on the story too.

In the gameplay department, things are not very daring, which means that the mechanics are as old as the sun. You can pick up objects, store them in the inventory, as well as combine them in order to solve puzzles. Speaking of which, the puzzles are pretty classic as well, although it often happens that you have to obtain items from other characters. Thus, dialog plays an important role as well.

The writing is not bad, although you have to be comfortable with the main character breaking the fourth wall on a regular basis. This can be fun sometimes, but there are also times when it’s pretty repetitive and annoying. As far as the graphics are concerned, the pixel artwork is quite beautiful, even if sometimes it lacks detail, especially when it comes to the backgrounds.

In the end, the fact that you have to experience the story three times in order to understand the full picture makes Port Valley an interesting concept, even if it’s not quite done yet. Hence, it’s definitely worth a shot, especially if you enjoy puzzles and a bit of humor.