Spiderweb

Hey...
what an adventure!
This took me about 20-25 minutes to exit the deadly cave with the huge spider! But what a great adventure it was!

Ok, in this game by Zorga we leave the dark atmosphere of eldritch horror of the repent loci series to wander the wilderness as an unnamed girl that is looking for mushrooms (oh I had 16 of them at the end of the game, dunno their use since I never had the opportunity to make anything except collecting them). During this first part, that is a sort of tutorial, we learn the mechanic of the game that is a sort of crate-puzzle but with boulders instead of crates. You know this kind of game don't you? Press action to pull the boulder in that direction, and make a path to collect mushrooms.


Can you see me? Oh there is just a single outdoor area but I love the aestetic... wish it was bigger, really!

Ok, that's it until you will be trapped (and it is mandatory to progress the game, so I was a bit puzzled when I was not able to find the next goal.. heh I just needed to be captured!) by a large spider. No, wait, a HUGE spider! I don't think this is a spoiler since the title of the game, duh!
By the way this spider is rather friendly since it leaves us some food (michrooms of course!) and a free hand to collect it and eat. But hey, we are not stupid, we know that the beast wants a fat meal, so it's time to flee! Here's the first original puzzle in which we have to free the right hand using the the commands to move the left hand: there are droplets of water that are used to pass the spiderwebs, each drop of water means passing one web, so mind that and free your hands! (if you fail you can restart the same puzzle as many times you need, until you are successfull)

But this is just the beginning! Now it is time to escape the lair of the spider! Here puddles of water are still useful since they permit to walk over spiderwebs (you can take 9 douses of water) without being stuck. But that's not all! There are some campfires (as explained on the tutorial) that provide lightning and can let the spider see us! Some can be moved, all of them can be estinguished using one of the doses of water... there are also some spots with light entering from the ceiling, and cleary these light sources can only be avoided! What can I say? The light effects in this game are top notch and they are also part of the gameplay.

Yes, moving in darkness is the best way since the spider cannot see you BUT he can still find you in the darkness if you are unlucky! If this happens, do not worry, you just have to free your hands once again (and it's pretty cool to see how the puzzle changes every time!). Yes, this means going back to square one, or your cave/cell, and it took me three tries to exit the cave (but you can save anywhere, and anytime EXCEPT when standing over a spiderweb! So you can exploit this and use just one try, I guess!). Anyway in the cave there are also some remains and hints about the story of the spider, play and see by yourself if you're curious, but mind that escaping is the primary goal!


During the game you can find some interesting bits of informations about the huge spider and its story. Now mandatory, but interesting!

Verdict
spiderweb is a short and simple game that is also quite refined: I liked the light and water effects, the transparency of the trees and the beauty and originality of the simple graphics. Well there aren't many characters and dialogues (uhm why would you speak to a giant spider?), but there are also no typos and bugs (except maybe for the impossibility to save on some situations like standing on the webs!).
The puzzle are all very well laid out and difficulty increases gradually until the part in which you get near the exit... that's the most difficult part(I was snatched TWICE by the spider when I was sprinting for the exit... because yeah, the sunlight coming into the lair from the only access betrayed my presence! And that was after figuring out the perfect path to avoid being entangled in the spiderwebs).

Only one question... what are the mushrooms used for?
Maybe our unnamed girl ate them when she went home. Well better eat some muchrooms than being eaten by a huge spider for sure!
For a short game this is extremely well done and presents some different situations and puzzles. Nice graphics and atmosphere complements this interesting stand alone short scenario.

4/5 - well worth half an hour of my time.