Midnight Swamp takes us back to the past, to the world of point-and-click adventures we used to play long ago.
In this dark adventure, you, as the main protagonist, gather twigs, scoop water from streams, pick berries, all to brew a cup of tea and relax by the lake before going to bed. In the middle of the night, you are awakened by mysterious laughter. You exit the tent and notice a mysterious figure watching you from the lake. As you approach, it leaps at you and you lose consciousness.
You wake up in an unknown swamp, full of strange creatures, and the only voice of reason comes from a cat sitting in a tree (familiar?) who asks you to go to the castle and visit the king who will give you all the answers. The game is full of references to popular fiction, so you will kiss frogs, visit a Witch in a house made of cookies and candy, fight Medusa, and flee from Tin Soldiers.
Since this is a point-and-click adventure, expect to collect numerous items, combine them, and solve various puzzles to progress. The puzzles are logical and meaningful, and you will immediately guess what you need to solve them. But it requires solving a few other puzzles to gather everything you need. The characters you meet will give you hints on what to do next, all hints will be found in visible and less visible places, and although you may sometimes feel lost and not know how to solve a puzzle, you just need to slow down a bit, think, and the solution will come.
Although you can ask for puzzle solutions, there is much greater satisfaction when you experience that "AHA!" moment - and believe me, there will be plenty!
I intentionally don't want to say too much about the story development, as this game deserves to be tried so you can uncover the mystery surrounding you yourself.
The graphics are beautiful, hand-drawn with detailed characters and locations. There isn't much animation, but what is there is well done. There is no voice casting; all conversations and thoughts are presented textually. There aren't too many sound effects, and they are basic, from the rustling of grass, breaking branches, boiling water, and the music is appropriate for the situations, and although everything is drawn, wandering through the dark swamp or ancient temple brings a certain degree of discomfort.
My only complaint is that there is no touch screen option on the Nintendo Switch, making selection difficult at times, especially when you need to press small switches that are next to each other.
The game isn't too long; I finished it in about 3 hours, but I must admit that it might be the best 3 hours spent gaming recently.
Midnight Swamp is currently priced at €7.99 on the eShop, and I recommend it to anyone who loves point-and-click adventures or just wants to take a little break from the aggressive games that bombard us from all sides.
The Nintendo Switch copy of the game for the review was provided by the publisher Sometimes You.
