Creaks is the latest game from acclaimed Indy developer Amanita Design, who previously brought us Machinarium among other titles. From the moment I saw a screenshot of the game I knew it was something I had to play. Amanita always makes beautiful and polished games, but this clearly looked like their most ambitious title to date.
The story is relatively thin on the ground. You play as an unnamed protagonist who finds a hidden passage behind the wallpaper in his room. Naturally, he enters this passageway out of sheer curiosity and is met with a crumbling underground maze inhabited by bird people who are at odds with a giant six-eyed monster.
The story plays out through actions rather than any dialogue, but it is so well put together that characters motivations are clear at all times. The game also manages to convey humour in this way along with an undeniable charm. I found myself wanting to know more about the world with every short cutscene that played out.
Creaks is a puzzle game. Starting off simple enough and growing in complexity throughout, the world has been crafted with the utmost care and attention. The developers have done an excellent job of teaching you the basics without a tutorial thrown in your face and each new element to expand the problem solving is introduced at the right time.
The gameplay itself isn’t difficult at all. Running, pulling switches, jumping over small gaps automatically with a tap of the X button and eventually the ability to turn lights off with a gadget is all you will be asked to do. The difficulty comes in assessing the situation and figuring out what moves are required to manipulate the world in front of you.
That does bring me to one of the only real negatives I have with the game. While the puzzles have been expertly crafted, there will be times where you get yourself in a bit of a muddle. In situations like this, I feel a hint option would have been welcome. This can be negated by using a guide, which I will embed below, but something built-in would have been a nice touch.
Another strong aspect of the experience is the audio. A games score is not something I usually pay much attention to, but the music by Scottish composer Joe Acheson is superb and the way the beat and tone change as you solve a puzzle is so uplifting and legit makes you feel smarter. A tall task indeed.
So the gameplay is great. The music is great. But what really stands out the most about Creaks is the art style. The whole game is beautifully hand-drawn. The level of detail in the world is a real sight to behold and while unfortunately, you can’t interact with the vast majority of it, I still found myself visually scanning every area, soaking it all in.
Creaks also manages to nail its trophy list. Complete the game, find all the secret rooms, collect all the paintings and complete the various easy mini-games that appear in a few of the paintings. Do this and you will have a nice new shiny platinum. To make life easier the game has a very generous chapter select which will place you within a few minutes of any missed rooms or paintings. Expect the game to take you between 5-7 hours and I’d place the difficulty around a 4/10, with the ability to lower that to a 1/10 and half the run time with a guide.
Overall, Creaks was an absolute joy to play. I could argue that it maybe lasted a little longer than it needed to but at no point did I stop having fun solving puzzles or being wowed by the beauty of the world. The story may not be one that lives long in the memory, but the characters left an impression on me and I highly recommend this game to any fans of puzzle platform games.
-VDZE ✌️
A review code for this product was kindly provided by the publisher. Reviewed on PS4 Pro.
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