Wednesday 8 July 2020

Wayne's World [Review: Hylics]

Hylics is a role-playing-game with a surreal plasticine vibe. You play the role of Wayne, a man with a plasticine croissant head as he explores his world, meets strange beings, beefs up his stats and prepares to take on an evil plasticine warlord.

At least, that's what I think is going on. The back story is a mystery - you can talk to the many inhabitants of this world with their uniquely shaped heads, but while a few will hint or trade, most will reply in a poetic gibberish.

The plasticine world is equally mysterious and this makes it a baffling pleasure to explore. It's a large, jumbled mess of islands, buildings and dungeons.

There are also villains and monsters to fight. Combat is turn-based and there are a range of weapons to buy, spells to learn and objects to use in battle.

You will die a lot - this is part of the game. Death takes you to a plasticine plateau where you can rest, add hit points and make sandcastles before heading back through the portal and rejoining the fray.

Although Hylics may look like a low-tech 1980s game it was actually written in 2015 by Mason Lindroth.

Wayne can recruit three band members on his travels - literally as it turns out. That's Dedusmuln on the theremin.

Hylics is available at a very cheap price on Steam and will give you several hours of satisfyingly different JRPG gameplay. Just don't expect anything to make sense.


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