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…

7/10 - A charming, little point-&-click adventure.

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.

Overall a pretty good adventure & point and click game. Charming, fun and usually not too hard. I checked a walkthrough a few times though.