Developer: Cotton Game
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Switch
Genre: Adventure, RPG
Publisher: Cotton Game, Asmik Ace
Sunset Hills is a narrative puzzle game. This game was developed by Cotton Game. The game is published by Cotton Game and Asmik Ace. A few games similar to this game would be SEASON: A Letter to the Future, The Star Named Eos, etc. This review was done on the PC, but the game is also available on the Switch.
Sunset Hills is a single-player game where you play as a writer named Nico, who begins his journey on a train to go off to meet his friends. Upon his journey, Nico meets a number of people who share their stories and concerns with him. Nico does his best to help the people he meets, alongside experiencing the beautiful life and memories he cherishes. As you play out through the story, you get to know more about Nico and find that he’s an ex-solider. Nico takes on this journey in a beautifully depicted, Victorian-inspired point-and-click adventure game.
The controls to Sunset Hills are extremely easy to get a hang of. Mostly all the interactions are done through using movement keys and pressing the button on your mouse. Interactions are kept simple, such as picking up items, reading leaflets, looking at items and so forth. Also, when starting the game, an instruction popup is shown, which highlights keybinds. Mostly, everything that is interactable is accompanied by an icon. The game is mainly point and click but immerses the player into the beautifully crafted world that writer Nico is set off into. Additionally, I love the dynamic movement, where you can move back and forth through the still locations, which makes the character walk in and out of places. The dynamic movement between the still backgrounds makes it seem like Nico is truly exploring the different areas he encounters.
The art style for this game is stunningly pleasant. Hand-drawn visuals where even the cursor of the mouse resembles the paw of a dog. An array of colours and lighting are used to create this beautiful game. I love how the visuals of the game resemble that of a scrapbook, which fits with this ‘detective’ like feature. The animations each character has added to the atmosphere of this game and additionally make for great expressions, especially when the dialogues are not voiced. The details in the sketch line work that create the various locations that Nico explores are eye-catching. The game almost reminds me of the Snoopy comics with similar visuals. The visuals are a great blend of 2D and 3D elements that create an attractive world. There are some instances where you can see a mix of 3D scenes animated with 2D elements, for instance, when Nico walks up/down a staircase (almost making him seem paperlike), which adds more charm to the game. The creativity behind the visuals is everything because all the details match one another. For instance, the bag that Nico carries is both the interference menu and inventory, and this use of design is a great detail that I love about this game. In addition to the visuals, the soundtrack is extremely soothing. In some areas, you get a mix of jazz-like beats, but then other areas are filled with immersive sound effects to bring the setting to life. Sound effects truly embrace the different locations of the games, from tweeting, birds, branches breaking, and the jingle of the suitcase to the mumbling of other characters. I really enjoy the various toned dog/pup sounds, especially when two are bickering at each other, which sounds like a real bark-off.
Now, Sunset Hills is heavily dependent on storytelling and allows players to pick dialogue options whilst interacting with NPCs. The interactions Nico has with other people within the town help build the story and put your deduction skills to use. In the sense of this game, it is highly important not to miss out on interacting with anything, as it can be an essential piece of information that can unlock further interactions to help you progress. In some ways, the game does involve going back and forth, but it is not done in a way that gets too tiring-almost every turn brings you a new discovery. Some of the interactions that can be done in the game really make you think outside of the box, and others are ones you would not expect. Near the start of the game, there was a poster by the train station, and it read ‘Please call..’. At first, I thought nothing much of it, but after meeting with the fruit salesman, I found out that you could interact with the poster even more to find the phone number that needed to be called. Instances in the game like these made keeping a lookout for everything so much more worthwhile.
I think something I found to be so charming about this game alongside the visuals was the memory segments that were pieced artwork sequences recalling a past memory of Nico’s. The game is very cinematic, where transitions between gameplay and cutscenes are done flawlessly. In between these transitions, the game does a great job of creating a nicely depicted story. Of course, it is a narrative puzzle game, and the aspects of the puzzles were not something too easy, which was enjoyable. A lot of the puzzles needed the player to pick up on the context, which comes effortlessly through interacting with people and items as you explore. I would say that the puzzles for this game were not ones that dragged or made me think why it went to such lengths to get here, but rather made complete sense which is needed from a good narrative puzzle game.
Sunset Hills is a story-enriched puzzle game that gets players in the shoes of a writer named Nico. Nico embarks on a journey where he meets several new people and reminisces on old times. This game gets players to think outside of the box and use deduction skills through every interaction in order to progress onwards. Sunset Hills features a relaxing, cosy atmosphere with beautiful visuals and a melodic soundtrack. The game embodies a perfect adventure and puzzle-solving game. If you want to try out a fun, remarkably stunning game, then be sure to check out Sunset Hills.
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!!!!
