When it comes to narrative, point-and-click adventure games - the story has to be the thing you need to connect with. When it comes to Lamplight City, the setting and place seem familiar, but aren’t at the same time - and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how it was different from the world that I currently live in.
Lamplight City showcases a steampunk-ish world where you play a detective who is following a routine case, with your co-worker. Someone has been breaking into a flower shop and sort of… well… not stealing but not exactly purchasing items. Nobody wants you to be investigating, it seems, and nobody really cares about this strange case - but you have a job to do, so you are going to do it.
That is until your partner dies. And it’s sort of your fault, due to decisions you made, so you need to now figure out exactly who killed him, despite losing your job - oh and did I mention, he is currently haunting you? Yeah, the game gets weird fast.
Anyway, playing as Miles Fordham, haunted by his partner, you need to solve an actual mystery after a time of not solving much - which takes you on a weird quest to find out if Voodoo is real if people are pretending to have fake lives, and so much more. The game itself plays like a point-and-click adventure, allowing you to explore around a map, click objects in rooms, and talk to individuals to progress the story. When you start questioning someone - as opposed to talking to someone - the mode on the screen changes, giving you a more detailed look at the person’s face and what they are saying, allowing you to pick options to drive the conversation forward.
While talking about the narrative, it is worth mentioning that Lamplight City is beautifully voiced, giving each character their own accents, voices, personalities and so much more through the dialogue that you can hear them speaking. This is a great addition to the game and brings so much depth to the story itself - using inflections on the words that are being presented to you, which you can read and listen to as you play.
The story itself is quite strange, as previously mentioned, some aspects feel familiar while others feel odd and strange, giving the game a mysterious vibe. The speech and story are slow-paced, giving you time to slowly work your way through the story and get to know the different characters as they interact with you. Discovering the mystery that lurks in this town is just a part of the job, but what is really important is figuring out what happened to the killer who took the life of your partner. Maybe then you can get your head back in order.
