radiolength

Hello
and welcome to the review of a brand new game: radiolenght. This game has a lot in common with Pen Pals, another walking simulator set in an imaginary world about relationships and sad moments with cute custom graphics. Ok, so now you know more or less what you can expect from this game.

In this game we play as Chel, a girl that lives in a bizzarre village called radiolenght, and that is determined to leave everything behind, I mean she has to leave he house, her town and go away from there... but first she has to go and meet Remi, a friend that will accompany her during the travels. The duo of protagonists reminds to me Pen Pals, even if Pal's role and relationship with Gag the panda was quite different from Chel & Remi's, but I don't want to spoil the story since the friendship is relevant to the plot.


Most people in this game are really unpolite! I am sure that those chairs were stolen!

About the gameplay let's say that we've to explore the world, talk to people and solve a couple of simple fetch quests. Nothing complex at all even if sometimes it's all a bit obscure: you simple receive a message that you cannot progress further because you have something to do, but it's never explained what! So you will be forced to explore and talk to everyone (items and inanimate objects rarely provide some kind of descriptions, and are never useful to progress the story). In some cases (like in the hospital part) you not only have to find a particular person but also trigger the dialogue several times, insisting until you get the information you need to proceed. Obviously this sometimes is a bit annoying since you have to look everywhere until you realize the right course of action (I mean there are some parts that are probably just false paths, like a location you cannot access due to a negative sensation... but I think there is no way to access that place!).

Visually the game is stylized but very cute, I liked some of the custom graphics because they really give character to the game: some areas are dark and with few dull colors while others are more colorful and brilliant (like the protagonist's friend that is originally of a bright yellow color, but later things change. For some reason both the protagonist and friend seems to have heterochromia), and clearly colors have a lot of meaning. Charsets are cute, but there aren't many different kinds (all are girls, there are nurses, and the only unique ones besides the protagonists are the mayor and two secretaries).


Oh no, I guess I'll have to stop the game and the review here, then! Wait, no I'm just joking!

Mapping is really bare bones and often repetitive and probably the bad looking maps have a lot to do with the uncomfortable situation of the protagonist, since there are really few places that are "ray of lights" in that grey dull world. For example the aspect of the hotel (where the friend resides) is fairly better, colorful and pleasant, unlike the hospital that has many similar rooms populated by weird nurses.

This uncomfortable situation is also stressed by the dialogues of most characters, that are rude and/or depressed, and only few of them have something pleasant to say. So the apparently bad mapping is probably for a certain point of view a stylistic choice (there are also weird things like characters that suddenly disappear like ghosts, or a room with many televisions that make a "blip" noise if you interact with them. But like in Pen Pals I think that you have to find your meaning to the things you see and experience here). Finally music. Well, no! It's totally absent, there are some sounds here and there but no music. Pity because that could have given more character to the game, but this is probably another stylistic choice, I guess!


Nah, I don't think so! I can save anytime and you can't really die in this game...

Final Verdict
Ok, for a first game, radiolenght isn't a bad game at all even if I didn't like some choices, for example the absence of music and some maps that have no sense/use/beauty, and cutting them out would not have changed a lot, except maybe for letting me waste less time wandering around (I mean in the hospital some rooms are locked, so you simply cannot enter there... it could have been a solution). Also there is no sense of direction or instruction, anyway I still liked the experience because there is a moving story represented here. Also the custom graphics are very cute and nice, and it's refreshing seeing a custom personal art style. Also, no bugs or mapping errors, no game breaking occasions, so I guess that it wall well made even if it lacks that *something* that would make the game more memorable to make it stand out. Game is quite short, took me about an hour to complete, but because I checked every corner, when I was unsure about what I had to do next!
In the end a decent first submission, with some good aspects and some less successful parts. I played it to the end but... I kept thinking that expected a bit "more". Well, for now it's ok, maybe better luck next time!