Developer: Draw Me A Pixel
Platform: PC (Reviewed)
Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Draw Me A Pixel
Crushed In Time is a puzzle adventure game and a spin-off of the There Is No Game series. Developed and published by Draw Me A Pixel. This review was done on PC, but it will be available on iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch later in the year.
Crushed In Time puts you in the role of a player who has broken the fourth wall and needs to fix a glitch within the game to find a missing character. You play alongside Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, but more as an omniscient viewer who can interact with everything around you. Though there’s so much more to this game as you play. What seems like an average point-and-click adventure at first quickly turns into quite an intriguing adventure with some really interesting mechanics.
My favourite part about this game would definitely have to be the mechanics that work so effortlessly, especially with the puzzle-solving the game requires. Rather than a traditional point-and-click game, I’d describe this as a point-and-stretch/drag game. You can interact with various things on the screen and stretch them in whichever direction you want to move them in a certain way, make them jump, or even spin them. The more you progress through the game, the more interactions are introduced that work together with the stretching mechanics to unlock new areas and progress through puzzles.
This mechanic is unique and super fun to mess around with because it gives you a refreshing way to solve puzzles. Rather than the usual point-and-click games where characters walk over and interact with objects, here you can make the objects interact on their own. The physics-based mechanic was such a great way to set it apart from other games.
With this mechanic comes a great level of puzzle solving. You follow sequences where you’re required to solve puzzles in the most absurd ways possible, which honestly gets you to think outside of the box. This may be preferred by some, while others may find it to be a bit of a roadblock. However, I do like that the game offers hints, and the hints are merciful. Within each section, some items have two or three hints that act like little descriptions to guide you on what you need to do next. You can use these hints anytime and even unlock them all at once, allowing players who are truly struggling to get some guidance.
Some puzzles take paths that may not make much sense at first, from using sheep dust to make Sherlock sneeze to whacking a painting onto Emma’s face for her makeup. The game has a next level of creativity, and I loved how, as the story progressed, you started to understand the importance of facing characters in the right direction to catch something or even timing a catch properly. The mechanics and gameplay are excellent, and I enjoyed them from beginning to end.
The narrative itself was also really intriguing. The game starts with Dr Watson receiving a mysterious letter from someone named Emma and becoming curious about who she is. Sherlock and Dr Watson leave London to find Ms Emma, but upon discovering who she is, they encounter another mysterious person who takes them on a crazy time-travelling adventure. What I liked was how the game started to unravel itself as you travelled through time and were introduced to mechanics like using wires to trigger actions, almost like coding the game during its beta or alpha stages.
You follow this narrative through cutscenes and dialogue exchanges between the characters. This Sherlock and Watson duo is extremely goofy, and rather than Holmes being your over-the-top know-it-all detective, here he’s much more childish and dumbfounded. Watching the interactions between the duo is silly yet charming, and they bring a lot of humour to the adventure.
The visuals feature bright, cartoonish art with great detail, almost like watching a Sunday morning cartoon. At times, Sherlock even reminded me of Inspector Gadget. I also liked how certain sequences switched between 3D models, 2D artwork, and even 8-bit visuals. The visuals are complemented by talented voice acting that really pulls the atmosphere and vibe of the game together. The distinct voices suit each character perfectly, from Dr Watson’s more grounded and manly voice to Sherlock’s perky, sophisticated voice that contrasts nicely with him. Emma also has an elegant voice that matches her character. The story is bizarre, filled with humour, and all the more enjoyable because of it.
The sound design was also excellent. The stretching and pulling interactions were especially satisfying, feeling elastic and bouncy while still sounding distinct depending on the object. A suit of armour clanks when pulled, while a door creaks as it swings open. The music also has a great range, from whimsical detective-style tunes to the strange wormhole and otherworldly dimension tracks that fit each segment perfectly.
Crushed In Time is a brief adventure that took me roughly 8 hours to complete, but the range of puzzles you encounter makes it feel like it lasted much longer in the best way possible. Every time you felt like you were becoming familiar with the mechanics, a new chapter would introduce something fresh that made you think even harder. It’s a creative, charming, and genuinely unique puzzle adventure that constantly surprised me from beginning to end.
Crushed In Time is a genuinely creative puzzle adventure that constantly finds new ways to surprise you. The combination of its unique stretch-and-drag mechanics, clever puzzle design, bizarre time-travelling story, and charming humour makes it stand out from other point-and-click adventures. While some of the puzzle solutions can be a little obscure at times, the helpful hint system keeps things moving. From start to finish, I had a great time with it, and if you’re looking for something different that isn’t afraid to get weird, I’d definitely recommend checking out Crushed In Time!
Overall: 9/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
