Rauniot is an interesting post-apocalyptic story with an objective genre vibe to it.
Rauniot is an isometric top-down post-apocalyptic point-and-click adventure game that takes place in the Northern parts of Finland, the game was developed and published by Act Normal Games, which attempts to bring an adventure story to a point-and-click objective style of execution.
Starting out in Rauniot, we are shown a cutscene in which we are somewhat introduced to our character and an unknown character, the player is shown that this character does indeed have an objective and it’s the player’s job to investigate the last seen location of the target.
Stopping at an abandoned gas station is where the adventure actually begins. However, it would be wise to go through the manual and it can be found on the starting screen; it will look like a magazine of the game. Within the manual, you will find keys and explanations as to how the game is laid out on your keyboard and mouse.
Although to skip ahead of that, most of your interests and item use will come from just the mouse itself. Clicking around the screen will make the character will move in the direction you have chosen, while moving the mouse around will also highlight anything of interest. Prompting a small dialogue explaining what the character is investigating, be vigilant though because sometimes, what looks like a random pile of trash might actually contain something useful for the road ahead.
In the spirit of objective games, Rauniot plays as just that, minus having a list of random objects to look through until you find the key item for the next phase of the game, Rauniot does not do this though. The game has you manually looking over the environment and what’s contained within its apocalyptic setting.
Although this is a fun aspect of Rauniot, it seems to be missing something vital, and it’s not a hint button, although that would be a cool aspect. However, a hint button would also take away from the game’s challenge, but something in the game itself feels missing. The ambiance of the game feels accurate to its setting but lacks an overall feeling of emptiness or devastation.
The environments, although pretty and interesting, are very detailed when depicting broken glass, rubble, and the overall urban decay one would expect from an end-of-the-world situation. Aside from that, the game does not make it easy to progress and there is no hint as to what to do next, everything is up to your inquisitive eye.
As for the character herself, she is quite edgy, and when it comes to face close-ups we only ever see her eyes gazing around while talking to herself. Interactions between the character and her self-deduction of what is being seen or investigated seem a bit slow.
Like Rauniot is trying to build tension but not really achieving it, it would prompt the player to skip the interactions altogether to get to the point. A small side note, while all the game’s interactions are in Finish, they are translated into the language of the player’s choice.
The character feels a bit too casual for the environment in which she is being cast, and challenges although this kind of game is understandably challenging, it sometimes feels as if it’s trying too hard to stump the player. Some challenges feel like they take a lot longer than they should to search for the key items to move to the next stage.
With Rauniot‘s environments and general settings, the game does feel like it is a bit lazily built or rushed to get put together. We’re all for a simple UI but leaving everything up to the point-and-click aspects of a hidden objective game seems a bit underbaked.
Especially considering our day and age in gaming advancement and experience over the years. Now, the appeal of the game would be its top-down style of view, however, the game loses momentum with its slow progress and revealing tactics like games of old. Rauniot feels like it pulls too hard on the apocalyptic themes and close-up character interactions to carry the interest of the game unless it’s mainly meant to be a visual experience.
The game would benefit from a little more such as being able to keep your item bar open to keep track of what you have and what could be used, or maybe even a hint section that will compile clues from what you’ve investigated around the area or environment, which can guide the player to a useful tool for the new section.
The game feels somehow incomplete, as if there was room for more but the game would suffice with what it has kind of vibe. The game is playable but with a slow delivery of information and overactive pauses in between interactions.
It goes from ‘Oh, it’s trying to build suspension and interest’ to ‘Get to the point already’. The game’s concept is good, the story is interesting and the theme behind it is kind of hardcore, and it has the opportunity to be the next big point-and-click objective game.
However, for a game telling an intense story, a little bit more work could have been put into the character interactions, information delivery, and information storage. The game itself looks fine and moving from place to place, which includes fast travel, is overall a common experience and not much to write home about. Moving on in Rauniot, although challenging, isn’t impossible, but take into consideration that the longer you play and the longer you search, the less you will begin to see and pick up on.
Taking a step back and a break from the game seems necessary after a while as not finding what you need to move onto the next stage can get frustrating, this also again plays into the game’s challenge of needing to find key objects.
If it becomes too challenging and is hidden a bit too well, the player might become frustrated and give up on the game altogether, adding a hint or some sort of clue compiler that even just mildly gives a clue as to what comes next would help this process out a great deal.
Overall, Rauniot is an odd but interesting concept that can benefit from some more love. While visually the game is pretty and displays a nuclear war-torn world quite well, it does sometimes feel a bit slow and interactions could use less suspense-building pauses in between and more of a snappy delivery, Rauniot is a good game but could use something more to set itself apart.
