The Journey Down: Chapter One

[b]The Journey Down: Chapter One[/b] is without a doubt an enjoyable point and click adventure game. It showcases a story of two Caribbeans – Bwana & Kito. Together they run a gas station. Though that doesn’t go that well, which results in debt to an electric company. Eventually they are visited by a woman – Lina – who searches for a journal authored by Kaonandodo. Name that is very close for the brothers, as it is a name of their father. Journal is meant to help Lina reach the Underland. And that’s how it all leads to Bwana promising the freshly met woman to get to the place. That however requires repairing an airplane, which has not lifted to the skies for ages. All in all – the artwork definitely has a lot of uniqueness. The jazzy vibes going on in the background work fantastic for the world we’re landing in. And the voice acting is on point. Plus the humour is absolutely top tier. The area you see might be small, but as it is with point & click games, you’ll have some backtracking. Puzzles are quite enjoyable. Interactions with all the characters are also very fun. One thing you could nitpick on is the fact the game is not released as one full installment, but in form of thre…

A small point-and-click Indie game from 2013 with an Afro-Caribbean setting. The story is ok and the game mechanics are fine as well. The art style stands out the most and is quite unique. Their inspiration from African heritage stands out quite well. The background Jazz score accompanies the game excellently and meshes well with the overall theme. The character animations and cut scenes are done well. As with any game of this genre, you will end up navigating the same places quite a lot of time, but that's a feature of this genre. The conversations with the NPCs provide quite the set of clues and it's good to pay attention to them. The puzzle solving element is good and is a bit varied too. There seems to be scope of achievements in terms of trying out certain combinations - but we still have trading cards. If I do have a gripe, it's just that getting all the free card drops in a single play might not be feasible. Otherwise, it's a fun way to spend your weekend. I do recommend getting and playing the other 2 parts for this game. - 7/10

This game is a real gem. At first I hestiated to get it, mainly cause the artstyle of the characters seemed curious to me, but as it was on sale for 12€ for all 3 chapters, I gave it a go. And what can I say, after playing it, I love the artstyle and I love the characters, especially Bwana & Kito. This game has such a charme and a really good vibe. The puzzles are all logical and not to hard, I never got frustrated. Just 1 times I got stuck a bit, I tried everything I could, just to find out that I've overseen an item, after checking a walkthrough. This game has no option for highlighting items, so that maybe the only con for me, but maybe I'm just spoiled from other games, and it's not really a problem. This first chapter is a bit short, but 2 & 3 are longer, and together they had the perfect lenght for a P&C adventure imo. Overall it's a really chraming game, and I had a really good time playing it. So can I recommend this game? Yes absolutely! And if you are hesitate about buying this game, just listen to Bwanas % Kitos wisdom... "Hey Bwana, you sure this is a good idea, man?" "No" "Let's do it!"

I've finished all three chapters and enjoyed them quite a bit. The story, music, and characters are all memorable. Puzzles make sense, and the humour is great. Recommended!

I still recall the original freeware game from 2010 or so, at the time it was a nice surprise to know it was getting a commercial remake. Of course the character design gets noticed first, with its inspiration from African wood sculptures and carvings, like puppets from a stop-motion production, on top of a lot of Afro-Caribbean elements, but after a while the noir atmosphere starts to get appreciated as well. The renewed graphics stay faithful to the original style while updating it in HD (some locations look like the same renders now in a higher resolution, which is not a bad thing). It's a bit inconsistent, as some backgrounds feel more tri-dimensional, while others more "painted" which causes the characters to stand out more, but in general it's pretty good to look at. The voice acting is especially great, with the biggest praise to the main characters. The only notable issue is the quality of the recording of some minor characters. I originally hoped the part remade from the original freeware release would be followed up by more within the same game but, even if it adds a few new locations and characters, this is by all means a remake of that, ending with the same cliffhang…

Great art, great story, great game.