“We’re all mad in here”

Have you ever had to escape from a mental asylum?

That experience will come in handy when you help Edna escape from her padded cell in the Point & Click Adventure “Edna & Harvey: The Breakout”.

As a child I loved to play the Lucas Arts Adventures, like “Monkey Island”, “Indiana Jones” and my favourite, “Day of the Tentacle”.  They were funny and you had to be smart and patient to solve them (especially in those pre-internet days).

After “The Curse of Monkey Island” though, I had a hard time finding any Point & Click Adventure that could excite me. Most of the games were just to linear, to simple or not even slightly funny.

Luckily a German game development company, Deadalic Entertainment, has raised the bar again.

“Edna & Harvey” was the first of their games I tried –  and what a pleasant surprise!

The story

Edna, a young woman with only a medical patient gown to wear, finds herself imprisoned in a padded cell. Luckily she is not alone. Her best friend Harvey is at her side – a stuffed, blue rabbit and pyromaniac. She was put in a mental asylum by the evil Dr. Marcel. She got locked up as a child, after here father faced the death penalty for presumably killing Dr. Marcel’s son. And now, several years later, Edna has finally come to her senses. She decides to break out from the mental asylum, escape from Dr. Marcel and proof that her father was innocent.

It is a very dark story, with surprising turns and an unexpected ending.

The humour

Despite the dark story, the game is full of humour. It is a form black humour that can easily stand any comparison to the humour of the Lucas Arts franchise. It shines brightest during the witty dialogues between Edna and the other inmates of the mental asylum. The intelligence and irony with which the game makes a mental asylum into a parody of our society, got me smirking and laughing my way through the adventure.

The characters

“Edna & Harvey” has the most memorable characters of all Point & Click adventures I have played so far. Every inmate has its own story and character traits (and probably their own fan clubs by now). To give a few examples: There is depressed Peter with his maniac girlfriend Petra. The beeman in his bee costume, who is actually the only sane person in the asylum. The Aluman, wearing a tin foil hat to protect himself from attempts of mind control.  The fan’s  favourite, Drogglejug, who always seems to know just the right thing to say.

And of course the great protagonists Edna and Harvey, that make the game into an unforgettable experience. The are always cooking up some mischief and their sarcastic comments on everyone and everything are hilarious.

The gameplay

What I cherish most about the game, is that it is not at all easy to solve. The puzzles are never linear. You really will have to look everywhere for the answers, you might need several tries for a puzzle and you may even have to take notes of the clues. This high level of difficulty was deliberately built into the game. You are meant to live the frustration and feel the effort it takes to break out of an asylum.

Another amazing  feature of the game is, that you can interact with almost everything you see. Every view from the window, potted plant, stain on the wall, object on a shelf, sign on a door, … elicits a comment from both Edna and Harvey. This mechanic is not relevant to solving the game, but creates a great feeling for the characters of Edna, Harvey and their view on the world. The developers have my heartfelt respect for putting such an immense effort into creating this rich atmosphere.

The art style

The graphic design of the game was the reason I bought it in the first place. The 2D cartoon style reminded me of those games I loved in the 90s. And I was not disappointed. Every scene of the game is drawn with so much love and is full of details. If you take the time and look closely, you can find funny details and geeky references everywhere.

The Deadalic franchise

The best part about this adventure is, that after finishing, you will want to play more games like “Edna & Harvey” – and you can! Deadalic has developed a bunch of different games, that are all unique, full of surprises and all worth playing.

Psst…

Don’t forget to unlock the secret leopard mode of the game!