2019-05-01+Official+PlayStation+Magazine+-+UK+Edition

090

INFO

FORMATPS4

ETA 17 APRIL

PUBHEADUPGAMES

DEVBTF

TRÜBERBROOK

Not quite a model adventure

T

he most dangerous part of most

holidays comes from navigating around

the vomit, pee, and poo in the hotel

pool. The need to cancel the apocalypse

and prevent the multiverse collapsing around

you doesn’t usually crop up over the all-you-

can-eat buffet. But then real life isn’t a point-

and-click adventure inspired by The X-Files,

German folklore, and a love of dinosaurs...

After winning a free holiday to the dreary

West German town of Trüberbrook, a prize

even the locals find surprising, physicist Hans

Tannhauser is keen to have a good time despite

the somewhat depressing ’60s surroundings.

His stubborn desire for holiday fun leads our

accidental hero to stumble onto conspiracies

and otherworldly weirdness.

CASUAL CONTROL

While the point-and-click genre isn’t as popular

as it was back when Guybrush could turn

heads with a cynical quip, Trüberbrook neatly

modernises the adventuring. Making use of a

DualShock 4, life couldn’t be easier. Holding

u highlights anything on screen that you can

interact with, finally killing off the need to

mine-sweep the screen in case you’ve missed

an obscurely hidden clue. Hovering over one of

these highlighted items brings up a D-pad menu

from where you can examine,

use, or manhandle the object.

The control setup takes

the stress out of the puzzling.

Secure in the knowledge the

game’s not hiding anything you

can focus on thinking through

the item-based conundrums.

But this setup also means

Trüberbrook isn’t as taxing

as the classics of the genre; if

you were weaned on Monkey

Island and Grim Fandango

there’s little in these German

mountains to hold you back.

However, this does match

the weirdness of those ageing

classic adventures on occasion;

you’ll meet a sailor scared

of water, befriend a lonely

computer, and drug a cat

because... well, that would

bespoilery.Therearesome

Take a break and

go to a gig; there’s

a three-song set

mid-way into the

adventure.

excellent moments – a hunt

for ancient languages written

onto a cave’s walls that need

to be torch-lit in the correct

order, and a numeric telegram

message with missing figures

stand out – but on the whole

you’ll casually bumble to the

game’s quirky conclusion.

KUMA-META-TA

There’s a lot of joy to be had

getting to that finale, though.

Just meandering through

the game’s scenery is a joy;

this is a beautiful adventure.

Created from a combination

of real-life miniature model

sets and digital puppets,

Trüberbrook looks and feels

like an interactive stop-motion

animation. There’s an elegance

andplayfulnessfewgames

JUST CLICKS @IanDean74

“TRÜBERBROOK LOOKS AND

FEELS LIKE AN INTERACTIVE

STOP-MOTION ANIMATION.”