Wesley Fenlon | Not with a bang but a whimper.

The point-and-click adventure genre, once made great by the brilliant minds at Lucasarts, fell on hard times as the 20th century drew to a close.  In the 1980s and 1990s, designers like Tim Schafer poured heart and soul into some of the cleverest, funniest video games in the history of the medium.  As a result, games like Grim Fandango, The Secret of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, and practically every other graphical adventure released by the company are still fondly remembered to this day.  And Lucasarts was hardly the only company occupying the adventure space — Sierra had been there from mid 1980s, and their long-standing King’s Quest series was a pioneer for the genre.

When Lucasarts abandoned point-and-click adventures after Escape from Monkey Island in 2000, the well had pretty much run dry.  Occasional releases like Syberia help fans get their fix, but it was clear the golden age had passed.  These days, Telltale Games seem to be the unofficial guardians of the genre.  Their approach is a little different — by taking pre-existing licenses and building seasonal, episodic content around them, they’ve managed to release accessible bite-size chunks of adventure gaming at reasonable prices.  In some cases, there’s a definite trade-off; it’s hard not to look back on the classic 2D animation of Sam & Max Hit the Road when playing the decade-newer, but uglier, Telltale adventures.  Still, their heart is in the right place, and the success of Sam & Max, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, and Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures has paved the way for a miniature adventure renaissance.  And a point-and-click resurgence, no matter how small, is always a good thing.

It becomes a great thing when those adventure games feature lovingly-crafted, luscious hand-drawn backgrounds and classic 2D animation, resplendent in high definition.  That’s why I’m so excited about The Whispered World, a German production that has ripped its beautiful fantasy aesthetic straight out of a fairy-tale.  I’m not sure I’ve ever played a game that looks like it could pass for a Miyazaki film, but The Whispered World looks like it could be a first.  It’s hard to say how the narrative will stack up.  It could be trite, poorly-acted, and wholly disappointing.  Maybe the puzzles will be bland and uninspired.  Maybe the in-game animation, which looks a little jerky in the new German trailer, will be a total letdown next to the incredible background artwork.

Or maybe The Whispered World will be a modern classic, a fitting tribute to a legendary genre, a game that emphatically demonstrates how to bring fantasy to life in playable form.  At any rate, that’s what I’m hoping for.