Set in a subterranean city called Underfoot, Girl with a Heart of is the story of a girl who loses contact with her parents after an attack on the city. The plot is a lot more complex than I am letting on, but to divulge any more on it would ruin the narrative surprises this title has in store for players. The game plays a lot like the Broken Sword titles and is a point and click adventure which is driven forward by interactions with town folk. Its unique story and colourful cast means that this game isn’t a simple clone though.
Unlike most point and click adventures which have you following one unique path, this game gives the player a lot of choice in regards to influencing the reactions of the many characters this game has. A simple yes or no can be detrimental to your efforts later in the game and you have to view the bigger picture when dealing with some individuals. Unfortunately though, the game doesn’t really highlight this fact to the player and I found myself being locked out with any conversation with some characters earlier in the game. This oversight left me wondering whether this was developed by en ex-girlfriend in an attempt to highlight how much I suck.
Speaking of pre-marital relations, this is a title which has been pretty much whored out to many a platform. I was unfortunate to play this game on the iPhone at first. I have played through every Broken Sword release on iOS and have been astounded by how intuitive the developers made the game for such a small screen. Girl with a Heart of, on the iPhone seems to be developed for players with the finger size of a 6 month old. Trying to click on one of the many conversational texts is damn near impossible. More often than not I clicked on the wrong button and offended a characters very being. Now I know socialising feels like a battle for some but I don’t think the developer intended to make dialogue so tedious. After about 10 minutes of this I switched promptly to an iPad which give you a lot more screen real estate to at least offend a characters very being by choice. But not everybody will have this luxury so I really hope this issue can be fixed in an update.
Considering just how out there the plot is, it’s a shame that the creators didn’t take the same risk with the visuals. It would have benefited from quite quirky design but the game just looks bland. The art style plays it very safe in terms of backgrounds and character design, which just doesn’t do its unique premise justice.
This was a difficult and frustrating game to review as you can tell the creators wanted to create something different but it just went wrong at some point. The focus was mostly placed on the story with everything else such as basic interface design being put on the shelf. No doubt this is a game for people who enjoy a good point and click adventure but it just doesn’t come close to a few of the mobile adventuring gems out there
