Resonance is the latest game from independent adventure game publisher Wadjet Eye, who over the years has put out the likes of The Shivah, Gemini Rue, Primordia and the Blackwell games. This game is an s-f adventure where you'll get to control up to 4 characters.
The gameplay is aided by a very straightforward interface with left-click for action and right-click for looking, and 3 inventory slots (one for objects, and one each for short-term and long-term memories). This "memories" interface gets to be clever and annoying at the same time. At its best, it lets you ask other characters about plot-points or specific background objects for clues or progressing, but when you're stuck you'll find yourself trying to put everything you see in your short-term memory folder so you can see if that was what you needed to ask about.
Some of the puzzles are really quite clever and never fall in the "slider" or "jigsaw" pattern, giving great variety. They can be however, quite challenging, but never overwhelming. One of the problems of the 4 character interface is that, while it is easy to change characters and have them trade objects between them, there is something of a loss of abstraction when you need to do it, as I'll explain. While some of the characters have their specific uses (for instance only a police detective has clearance to access the city archive at the police-station, or a doctor to a morgue), they never communicate with each other regarding what they need, despite being very communicative outside of gameplay. This makes the player feel a bit like a puppetmaster who's just making characters get objects or go to places they had no reason to go to, if not for another character needing it, although in-game they never discussed it. Strangeness ensues due to only one character having a cell-phone, and never using it to call any of the other playable characters asking for things - this clearly was a missed opportunity and it definitely broke my sense of immersion.
The characters themselves are quite endearing although they're unfortunately stereotyped (computer geek, hot latina doctor, tough guy cop, black freelance journalist). With 4 characters in an indie game, it'd be hard to make them very fleshed out, but I felt just about enough was done. They're certainly all very well acted though, which definitely helps it take off to another level of presentation.
The graphic style has the classic looks that work quite well, with the animations being quite decent, and there being a lot of locations in the game (although with never more than 3 screens each, and not many objects to interact with).
The story has a science-fiction sheen to it, although it never translates into gameplay (you won't be battling robots or aliens, assuredly). It isn't mind-blowing (although there's an unexpected plot twist) but it was definitely very enjoyable. The music is decent but never extraordinary.
In all, this is a very good, very focused game. The gameplay has a certain feel of excellence, and it's really quite enjoyable to play. It just might be one of the best recent old-school type adventures.
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