Encodya | PC Review

Encodya is the first big point and click adventure game released in 2021. It’s also the first game developed by Chaosmonger, and is published by Assemble Entertainment, who also brought Leisure Suit Larry back to life. Chaosmonger describes their debut as “The sweetness and creativity of Studio Ghibli in a Blade Runner alike setting, with the humor and game style of Monkey Island…” That sets quite a high bar. They ran a very successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019 and the end result is finally here.

Welcome To Neo Berlin

Encodya is all about Tina and her robot Sam. Tina is a nine-year old girl (almost ten!), living alone with her caretaker droid Sam on the streets of Neo Berlin. Neo Berlin is close to a dystopian nightmare, and it’s not really a place where a little girl should be living alone, even with the help and protection of a hulking droid. However, this is the situation you find yourself in, and the game starts with you having to find food somewhere. That’s not where it will end, though. Tiny Tina has a huge adventure ahead of her.

You’ll See Things You Won’t Believe

The first thing you’ll notice is how stunning this game looks. While Chaosmonger didn’t copy the Studio Ghibli style, they certainly managed to channel it in, especially in the design of Sam. The whole city looks great, and it’s always such a delight to see how developers manage to make a dystopian city look so amazing. 

The soundscape certainly helps with setting the mood here. Neo Berlin is a dark city and the synths add to that dreariness in a beautiful way, just like they did for Blade Runner. The voice acting is done very well too. Almost every role is voiced, and it brings you closer to the characters. And there’s always the option to click through it, if you want to go through the dialogue faster. This all makes Neo Berlin and its inhabitants really come to life.

I Want More Life

As with almost every point and click adventure game, the controls are very straightforward. You can point and click and one mouse button makes you look at things, while the other interacts with them. You have an inventory with your items, and also a sort of quest log that keeps track of what you need to do. Both are integrated into Sam. 

You can switch between Tina and Sam whenever you want, but you always have access to whatever it is you’re carrying. For instance, Tina can get into small spaces, whereas Sam can reach higher and is stronger. But some characters refuse to talk to a robot and some items are too heavy for Tina. The story can be divided into two segments of two chapters each, with the game making some interesting U-turns in the second half especially, and Sam’s role changes accordingly. To say anything more would be spoilers!

More Human Than Human

Sam can also give you hints, should you decide to play in the Normal mode and not the Hard mode. But he can only give you a limited number of hints, so use them wisely! In the Normal mode, you can also use the spacebar to highlight items that can be picked up. I found this less useful than I would’ve thought, as there are many items hidden in cupboards or trash cans and such. Movement is very easy too, as you click where you want to go, double-click to run there, and you can double-click on exits to immediately go to the next area. All in all, Sam and Tina make an easy to control, inseparable duo.

A Girl And Her Robot

The theme of a kid and their dog/car/robot is not an unfamiliar one in pop culture. It’s a buddy tale, often a comedy, and it’s a very relatable story. The entire Transformers franchise is built on it, although that might not be a good example of how to do it right. Encodya is also a very relatable tale. The game uses the tropes of Cyberpunk well, creating characters that you really get invested in, and all the while winking to some real-life happenings and people as well. The finale even got me a bit emotional and I was not expecting that. 

Like Tears In The Rain

It wasn’t all sunshine and sprinkles, though. There were a few puzzles I couldn’t figure out. Mainly it was because I missed an object somewhere, and it wasn’t really telegraphed where I needed to look, but one or two puzzles were also suffering from a tiny bit of moon logic. And unfortunately, I ran into a bug that corrupted one of my save games, causing me to have to replay part of the game. I got in touch with the developers about that, and I expect it to be fixed with a patch by the time you read this article. While this gave me a bit of frustration, it did not take away from the enjoyment of the game.

Conclusion

Chaosmasters deliver a really good game as their debut. Despite a few minor annoyances, I loved playing this game. I enjoyed being in the company of Tina and Sam, and needed to revel in the good-naturedness of the story and the characters. Encodya was just what I needed to play. It gave me 12 hours of joy, fun, good intentions, and mind exercise. It’s a massively accomplished debut that promises a lot from this fledgling studio and I hope we get to enjoy many, many more of their games in the future. Go out and explore Neo Berlin. I have to go and find some oil for my robot now.

To hear me talk more about Encodya, be sure to listen to Episode 331 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:08:04 time stamp.

This review is based on a PC copy of Encodya provided by Uber Strategist for coverage purposes.