Tom Auxier talks about the mixed success of the indie game Dark Scavenger and its ambitious attempt to do turn-based combat, RPG decision making, and ludicrous comedy all at once.
"At its heart Dark Scavenger resembles one of its titular characters: it has traveled the galaxy, collected discarded scraps of gameplay, and fashioned them together into a functional, if a little ambiguous, title. It takes the adventure game’s hidden object credo, Mass Effect’s faux choices, and the JRPGs turn-based combat system and taped them together with a crafting mechanic. You, as an unnamed protagonist, explore static screens filled with hidden objects. Click on one, and you’ll be given a choice that’s not really a choice: do something stupid, or make one of your allies do it. Do you want to drink this strange, bleachy substance, or do you make Zeus the Thunder God do it?"
Mikhail Madnani: "Dark Scavenger is well worth the low asking price if you don’t mind the nostalgic take on 90s point and click adventure games. Fantastic writing, dark and bizarre humour, and a nice level of replayability make it an easy game to recommend."
Twinfinite writes, "Dark Scavenger is a delightfully strange hybrid of RPGs, adventure games, and card games, and now it’s available on Steam."
There has been a consensus among much of the mainstream gaming industry that point and click adventure have been dead since the late '90s, but that isn't even remotely true. While the mainstream adventure genre has veered pretty heavily away from the point and click roots with games like L.A. Noire and Telltale's brand of adventure games, the indie scene has kept the point and click torch burning for years. Most indie point and click games stick very close to the classic style of the '90s and don't do much new, but Dark Scavenger from Psydra Games is something a bit different; a hybrid of point and click and role playing games.
