Point and click adventure game
Something’s wrong in the library. As the librarian, it’s up to you to figure out what it is. Rendered in beautiful pixel art, The Librarian is perfect if you’re a fan of point and click games.
If you regularly play point and click adventure games, then you’re probably familiar with Thimbleweed Park and Photographs. Both of these games feature detailed pixel art by Octavi Navarro. The Librarian is his latest solo project and is packed with charm.
Artistic adventure
Adventure game heritage
Point and click games have been around for years, and generally involve clicking or mousing over objects to get clues or combining them to solve puzzles. Octavi Navarro’s involvement with Thimbleweed Park is an apt one, as that game was designed by Ron Gilbert, a veteran point and click developer.
With The Librarian, Navarro takes the fundamentals of the genre and streamlines them. Click the mouse to move Liz, your character, around and explore. Hover over an object for a brief description, and click on it to use or examine it. Drag items from your inventory onto an object or part of the screen where you want to use it.
Compelling story
A mysterious owl appears in your bedroom with a note stating that ‘something is wrong in the library.’ Once you head there, you discover someone or something has murdered everybody. TheLibrarian suggests a murder-mystery is afoot, but what follows is both stranger and more ambiguous.
The opening note is also the only instance of text within the game world. Everything you learn is through environmental storytelling. This makes The Librarian feel less like a traditional adventure game and closer to an exploration game like Gone Home.
High quality on low specs
The pixel art graphics look detailed and excellent in motion, but the game only needs low system specifications to run. We were able to run it with no issues on Windows 7, although a minimum of Windows 8 is recommended.
Beautifully realised short adventure
Even if you’re not already familiar with the work of Octavi Navarro, The Librarian is a no-brainer. It’s free, and the only downside is the short playtime (about 30 minutes). Otherwise, if you’d like a similar game experience that lasts longer, then The Last Door should scratch that itch.
