1954 Alcatraz

1954 Alcatraz is a point-and-click adventure game following the story of a man attempting to escape from the island of Alcatraz.

TL;DR at bottom

Gameplay:

As stated above, 1954 Alcatraz is a point-and-click adventure game by Daedalic Entertainment, the developers known well for their adventure games, like Deponia. This game’s story reflects their skill of story telling and adventure game production, although not to the exact same scale. The game follows a man and his wife who are working together to escape from the Alcatraz prison. One feature of gameplay that surprised me is that you actually play as both the man in the prison as well as his wife on the outside. You get to work on escaping inside the prison and prepare for helping your character to escape from the outside.

Point-and-click adventure games can’t get extremely complex, but that is the appeal of them. You have many dialogue choices with the different characters that you meet, and you can make different choices that will affect how the story plays out. You can inspect the environments around you and your character will comment on them. These kinds of things are pretty typical for an adventure game like this, but it is still welcome; it allows for more in-depth world building and exploration.

7/10

Graphics:

The graphics in 1954 Alcatraz are not the greatest. The game came out in 2014, so the graphics have become a little outdated by this time. However, it still has appeal and a certain style that adventure games tend to capture. For example, Telltale’s The Walking Dead series is nowhere close to the graphical standards that we often expect, but it holds a certain charm and style within those graphics. The character models are really strangely shaped and designed, but again, it is a part of the style of graphics. There are also some animated cutscenes, which are a welcome addition and help build the story. The graphics aren’t awful and the environments are actually quite pretty.

6/10

Music/Audio:

1954 Alcatraz has full voice acting, which is always a great addition to any game. The voice acting is very well done and each character has their own personality and voice to go along with it. The music in the game is subtle, but it matches the atmosphere nicely. The song that played alongside the introductory cutscene was great and it made it feel much more serious, as well as creating a good introduction to the game. The sounds effects are pretty good as well, and they are not super simplistic or lacking in some places, which helps with immersion into the game world.

8/10

Conclusion:

1954 Alcatraz is another great adventure game from Daedalic Entertainment, and is lots of fun to play. The story is interesting and exciting and the characters in the game are quirky or funny, making the dialogue more enjoyable to listen to. The graphics are decent, and the environments are designed very well and are nice to look at. The game takes cues from many typical point-and-click adventure games, but it still implements them nicely. This game was really fun to play and experience, and I suggest that you check it out for yourself.

7/10 – Recommended

TL;DR

Pros:

+Great story

+Challenging puzzles

+Funny and interesting characters

Cons:

-Slightly outdated graphics

-Buggy (developer abandoned)

Check out my gameplay of 1954 Alcatraz below to get a better idea of the game.