Is this the future of point-and-clicks? – review of the game “There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension”

There is no game here! There is no bad game, only good fun

For the sake of rectification – “bad” was released by Draw Me A Pixel in 2020 for personal computers and phones, and in 2021 – for Nintendo Switch. This is both a plus and a minus, because although everyone has a smartphone, and the Switch is suitable for indie games, typical Xbox and Playstation players may never hear about it. I admit, I would not have found out about it myself, if it weren’t for youtuber, who deals with game design – Adam Millard. He recommended this game to me and I thank him very much for it. It took me about 6 hours to finish the title, and the truth is, if someone is smart, they will be able to complete this position in about 4-5 hours. It’s not that long compared to the new AAA open-ended games ( AC: Valhalla , I’m looking at you!).

In our home country, the game has never been very popular, no marketing campaign, only a few influencers have recorded something about it and with small views. No wonder, this production does not even have a Polish language version or unofficial Polish. A pity, because in my humble opinion everyone should play or at least watch this “niegame”. Ubiquitous humor, an interesting plot, jokes from the industry beloved by players remind the potential user that indie games can be just as good as Triple-A. And nowadays, with the sheer volume of premieres in eShop and Steam, you can forget about it.

Gameplay is supposed to be missing, but there is too much of it

From a basic point of view, it is a normal point-and-click puzzle game. All the time, you only click or drag with the mouse on various sprites and pixels. However, the deeper you go, the more ideas appear in front of the player. When at the beginning we only move things from the bottom of our screen, which symbolizes the fluid inventory, we will be halfway through the hints in the game HUD, or even in the end credits. I don’t have the heart to write about solving puzzles here, you’d better figure it all out yourself. Greater satisfaction guaranteed.

We will not find here the combination of items worthy of old point-and-clicks, but the game copes with this problem better.
In this production, we will solve puzzles in various ways: by turning the TV to see what is on the back of the board, or by opening lootboxes. Exactly, we’ll open lootboxes here as well, just take it easy, it’s probably the first time in a long time that the chests will be helpful (not at first glance), and they’re not just here to get an armor skin for a horse. Anyway, there will also be a joke about typical zeld-like RPGs. The number of such ideas is huge and everything sticks to the whole.

As befits a point-and-click, a hint system also appears here. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I used it several times. The first time I did it, it was the funniest thing I had heard in a long time. The first time you pressed the clue in the background, the crowd started to buzz negatively! The title is aware that we don’t want to use hints to move on. Hilarious situation.
There was one thing that annoyed me, namely too quick or too slow hints from the narrator (and more about them in the subsection below). Sometimes he said something that was going to help us a few seconds after the level started, and often he didn’t say anything until the first activity needed to move on. It is very out of the rhythm of the game. Moments in which we find solutions ourselves by thinkingout of the box are the best, and we often don’t want anyone to tell us what we do.
Throughout my gameplay, I encountered one bug, but due to the fact that it was at the end of the game and it was enough to reset the application to fix it, there is no need to describe it.

A masterpiece worthy of Russian voice actors

And don’t get me wrong with that subheading. It’s just a rolling jokethat appears throughout the gameplay, but that’s about all I will say. Better discover it yourself. Voice acting in this game is really good and it drives the story. I’ll try not to spoil too much, but if someone wants to come in clean, better beware. We are playing this game and the game is aware of it. The player takes on the role of a game user who just wanted to play something. TING: WD doesn’t let him have a good time from the very beginning. He directs glowing arrows to the exit or simply blocks the “Start” button with a metal cover. Once the potential buyer gets inside, the story gets even more interesting. The production is home to Glitch, who has his own personality and wants to do something with the world … Something, because what exactly, everyone will have to find out for themselves! In any case, we will move to different dimensions thanks to the Lord of Error. These are, of course, very good fakes of other well-known productions. The personality of the game itself, because it is our narrator, influences the player a lot. We want to help her find a home, rest, get Glitch, solve her mystery, and although the game will be very eager to turn it off throughout the story, we still want to finish our work. Really well written character, or I could actually write code. If someone is a fan of jokes, be it from the gaming industry or the Internet, he will definitely not be bored here and will get a positive, good fanservice. The interesting plot is complemented by typical verbal biscuits or a lot of references to pop culture. Not even Rick Astley. These are, of course, very good fakes of other well-known productions. The personality of the game itself, because it is our narrator, influences the player a lot. We want to help her find a home, rest, get Glitch, solve her mystery, and although the game will be very eager to turn it off throughout the story, we still want to finish our work. Really well written character, or I could actually write code. If someone is a fan of jokes, be it from the gaming industry or the Internet, he will definitely not be bored here and will get a positive, good fanservice. The interesting plot is complemented by typical verbal biscuits or a lot of references to pop culture. Not even Rick Astley. These are, of course, very good fakes of other well-known productions. The personality of the game itself, because it is our narrator, influences the player a lot. We want to help her find a home, rest, get Glitch, solve her mystery, and although the game will be very eager to turn it off throughout the story, we still want to finish our work. Really well written character, or I could actually write code. If someone is a fan of jokes, be it from the gaming industry or the Internet, he will definitely not be bored here and will get a positive, good fanservice. The interesting plot is complemented by typical verbal biscuits or a lot of references to pop culture. Not even Rick Astley. solve its mystery, and although the game will want to turn it off throughout the story, we still want to finish our work. Really well written character, or I could actually write code. If someone is a fan of jokes, be it from the gaming industry or the Internet, he will definitely not be bored here and will get a positive, good fanservice. The interesting plot is complemented by typical verbal biscuits or a lot of references to pop culture. Not even Rick Astley. solve its mystery, and although the game will want to turn it off for the entire length of the plot, we still want to finish our work. Really well written character, or I could actually write code. If someone is a fan of jokes, be it from the gaming industry or the Internet, he will definitely not be bored here and will get a positive, good fanservice. The interesting plot is complemented by typical verbal biscuits or a lot of references to pop culture. Not even Rick Astley. The interesting plot is complemented by typical verbal biscuits or a lot of references to pop culture. Not even Rick Astley. The interesting plot is complemented by typical verbal biscuits or a lot of references to pop culture. Not even Rick Astley.

The sound is out of this dimension

Soundtrack do There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension is the perfect accompaniment to gameplay and graphics. From 8-bit music at pixel levels, through music from 80s movies, ending with hip-hop! The variety is huge and everything fits where it should be. And although the key starts calmly and slowly, the farther into the forest, the more songs, really good songs. You want to buy all the sound on Steam to support the creators who weren’t there anyway. As for the sounds from the game itself, it’s also good. Each use of an item is signaled by a chirp sound associated with a given tool. As for the audio curiosities, it is worth adding that each time you press “quit the game” you can hear the aforementioned narrator, who suggests such things as, for example, “Don’t forget to uninstall me!”. Just wonderful! Immersion until the end!

Is it still point-and-click? So a summary

I’m not going to reject my hypothesis, everyone should play this metag at least once. In this production we can find a lot of majestic characters, good quality sound and a lot of jokes. At the beginning, I was afraid that I would get bored. After all, this is another point-and-click adventure, as the descriptions on the Internet indicated. After the first 20 minutes, I realized that this is not the case at all. Point-and-click is just a way of moving objects. The gameplay is so extensive and ingenious that we immediately forget that we are just moving the elements to the right places. There are so many layers that sometimes when we put one thing in the right place, we forget that we are playing point-and-click. We move, for example, into something pacman-like. The world and the plot are written so well

PS: Wait until you get to the music level. This is a masterpiece!