Lair of the Clockwork God

Genre: Graphic Adventure / Platformer

Players: 1

.

Review:

Lair of the Clockwork God, released on multiple platforms in 2020 including Nintendo Switch, is a game that has players swapping between two characters, each stuck in a different genre – one controls like a traditional Platformer character, and one plays like a character in a Graphic Adventure game. Together, they must combine their abilities to get past the game’s various obstacles and save the world from the apocalypses. Yeah, plural, because apparently this time around every type of apocalypse is happening all at once.

The writing in this game is absolutely top-notch, with some of the best humor I’ve seen in a game in a long time. Lair of the Clockwork God is extremely tongue-in-cheek, skewering videogame tropes right from the opening logos. One of the two protagonists, out of pure principle, absolutely refuses to do anything involving jumping, while the other won’t do anything that involves picking anything up. Why? Because that’s not anything a respectable protagonist of their genre would do! Characters find themselves in numerous loony predicaments based on videogame tropes, with each making clever little fourth wall-breaking comments about it, and of course you can expect to see a plethora of fun references to a wide variety of videogames too.

The presentation here is good, using a decent pixel art style, with a good and varied soundtrack that does an excellent job representing the sorts of videogames being referenced here. There’s nothing that stands out as being truly as outstanding as the game’s writing, but the rest of the presentation still holds its own.

As for the gameplay, I admit I’m a little disappointed. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s quite good, but it’s not really the blending of two genres that the premise would seem to imply. I’d say that this game tends to favor the Graphic Adventure side of things far more than the Platformer side, and not only is the platforming often a bit underwhelming as a result, but the constant need to swap back to the Graphic Adventure style of play slows the pacing down tremendously… while Graphic Adventure fans may see the occasional forays into Platforming as a somewhat shallow distraction from the real meat of the game.

Having said that, at the very least I can say that the Graphic Adventure elements here are overall pretty fantastic, and mostly avoid the problem of “Sierra Logic” that often plagues the genre (puzzles with odd, esoteric solutions that no sane person would ever figure out on their own)… but there were a few times I found myself at a loss for what I needed to do next and resorting to getting help from Google. Oh, also, I should mention that the game currently has a bug that causes one of the playable characters to briefly become buried in the ground when he jumps near the other, though the developers are apparently aware of it and presumably working on a fix.

Overall, Lair of the Clockwork God is a fantastic Graphic Adventure with Platforming elements that doesn’t quite fulfill the promise of a blending of those two genres, but it is so well-written and genuinely funny that it’s easy to overlook the game’s flaws because its good qualities are so very good. If you’re looking for a solid Graphic Adventure with a fantastic sense of humor, definitely give this game a look.

tl;dr – Lair of the Clockwork God is a game that has players swapping between one protagonist who plays like a Graphic Adventure, and one who plays like a traditional Platformer. The platforming here kinda’ gets the short end of the stick, but this is easily forgiven with how absolutely fantastic the game’s writing is, with a hilarious wit and sense of humor that makes it one of the funniest games on the Nintendo Switch. If you’re looking for a blending of genres, this game may disappoint you, but if you want a solid Graphic Adventure that’ll have you laughing, you should definitely give this game a try.

Grade: B+

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Graphic Adventure Game, Funniest Game

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}