Is Amanda the Adventurer an education in fear?
I have a soft spot for horror revolving around cursed media. Movies like The Ring, the recent Mr Crockett, and the hilariously bad but still enjoyable Stay Alive all feature some sort of entertainment that’s corrupted to the point of endangering the audience. It’s niche, but I like it. Amanda the Adventurer plays with this theme in an enjoyable way, with video tapes that affect the world around you whilst telling the story of a mysterious child disappearance.
You play as Riley, who receives a letter from their seemingly deceased Aunt Kate. Kate has left you her house, including the contents of the attic. She warns you about the tapes she’s left there, but knows you’ll certainly be curious enough to watch it. Going through it puts Riley in danger, and only by finding out what may have happened to the titular Amanda will allow them potential freedom.
Amanda the Adventurer is a tricky game to categorise. If I had to narrow it down, it’s a horror-themed puzzle game in which you watch tapes to try and solve puzzles in the attic which then reveal more tapes to advance the story. If you solve additional, hidden puzzles, you’ll discover other tapes that reveal more about what was going on behind the scenes of the TV show you’re exploring. Reaching an end to the game isn’t too challenging, but getting an actually satisfying conclusion requires a lot more effort from you.
Really, the game is split into two parts: solving puzzles in the attic, and watching and interacting with video tapes. Whilst watching a tape, Amanda and her sheep friend Wooly will ask you questions. Your answers can push the videos in a couple of different directions, especially later in the game, but for the most part force you down a certain path with Amanda getting increasingly irritated if you don’t choose the option she wants. The way these tapes play out isn’t scary as such, but they feel unsettling thanks to the stilted, late 90s 3D animation that’s used. The occasional visual and auditory glitches serve as good ways of enhancing the atmosphere and discomfort you’re meant to feel.
You need to pay attention during these videos though, as what happens in them informs the puzzle you’ll need to solve in the attic. An early example of this is in the first tape where Amanda will give you instructions on how to make an apple pie. When the tape finishes and you turn around, you’ll find an oven on the table behind you. If you follow the instructions Amanda gave you, you’ll find another tape to continue your journey. These puzzles weren’t horribly taxing, but did feel good to solve, and this extended to some of the hidden ones around the attic.
The thing is, you’ll end your first playthrough after about 45 minutes with a less than satisfying conclusion. This is because you’re expected to play through Amanda the Adventurer multiple times. When you finish a run, you may find you have new information for your next attempt that could give you access to new puzzles, new tapes, and maybe new ways to interact with the videos.
This is the point at which you can quickly decide if this is the game for you. You’ll probably get the same bad ending a few times as you try to figure out what to do differently each time. If you’re the sort of person that enjoys experimenting to try and find different paths through a game, then you’ll probably love Amanda the Adventurer. If you want to be able to play through the game without feeling like you’ve wasted 20 minutes, then you’ll likely find yourself frustrated.
Amanda the Adventurer doesn’t respect your time. This is fine for what the game is trying to achieve, but that will likely put a good few players off. There’s still a lot to enjoy here, as there are some really neat puzzles involving numbers, hidden codes, and even alchemical symbols. When I knew roughly what I was meant to be doing, I enjoyed playing and finding new secrets. The flip side is when I couldn’t tell what to do differently and had to go through a whole run again just to start over, I found myself more than a little irritated. I can see internet sleuths being into this sort of thing.
There aren’t a huge number of scares, but you will feel uncomfortable as the video tapes glitch here and there, showing you odd images and occasionally blaring out eardrum shattering jumps — if I had headphones on for one of the endings I think I’d be deaf now. This is meant to give off those analogue horror vibes, and it does a good job of that a lot of the time. Obviously this effect is lessened when you’re watching the same tape for the third time, but when it hits, it does well.
The presentation is solid, albeit not outstanding. The attic is small but objects of interest stand out well enough to draw the eye. I didn’t much like the cursor being used for puzzles as the controls seemed very twitchy and there’s no support for analogue movement with the sticks. It’s either full speed or stationary. You can tell this was built for the PC first. Amanda’s TV episodes use the same shonky early 3D style quite effectively thanks to the off kilter art and animation. The live action tapes are well acted and seem to fit the world well, which also goes for the sound in general. Voice work is solid and distorted in the way you may expect a 25 year old video tape to be. On the whole I liked how the presentation was put together, even if the controls made things take a touch longer than I’d like.
Amanda the Adventurer is an interesting and enjoyable puzzle game. It feels quite unique in that the puzzles are hidden just well enough to make this quite challenging, without giving you anything to directly compete against. Again, many players will find this a frustrating experience to make real progress in, but persevere and you’ll find something worth exploring.
Amanda the Adventurer is available now on PC, Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo Switch.
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