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The Journey of AutUmn is a point-and-click game set in an exotic world completely hand-painted and crafted by an indie team of two, with full audio in German. The puzzles are well-made and not too easy, with a skip function that shows up in a handful of them as well. There is a hint system that aids the player along if needed for adventure progress.

The premise of the game is interesting, as not is only the world wildly imaginative, the inhabitants are as well, including android characters who have set missions and purpose. Time and interactions with nature have brought about new meaning for these otherwise lifeless AI bots. Existential purpose and the forever elusive human concept of a soul is explored in this game as well.

The artwork is absolutely stunning, and certainly some bizarre scenic screenshots can be found on the store page to browse. Everything was hand-painted on wood and further digitized for use in game. You can see all of the physical brush strokes and the integration into the game was done really well.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3285262365

While the game is not perfect, as some of the interactive pieces seem somewhat finicky and the game did crash on me twice, I did have a great time and the game seems to offer a bit more that I have yet to explore. Fortunately there are manual save slots and I have a few segmental backups to be able to go dig around other options without too much ado.

Classic P&C adventure. You can press space or corresponding controller button to toggle the interactive pieces of the scene, so as to not need to click everyone just to try to find out.

You can play the game using just the mouse. There may be a couple of buttons to use on the keyboard but they are optional. The game does support controller, which I did not test out.

Amazing artwork, very original and creative, grotesque at times. An amalgam of bizarre art that fascinates the mind.

The music does phase in and out (especially if you get stuck in a particular area or puzzle). The sound effects are appropriate. Almost every animated action and reaction has proper association. Not "out-of-this-world" like the rest of the game, but also not unpleasant.

This game does require a decent amount of reading through the dialogue if you are playing in English. If you are playing in German, I suppose the audio adaptation may provide an more immersive experience. If you are requiring another language, then you are SOL (as of July 2024).

Game's set price of $15.99 US is not unreasonable for a game of this magnitude that certainly took countless hours to put together. It's a true indie project done by a team of two. The gameplay is fairly standard and while a skilled puzzle solver may take not very long to run through the game, it took me almost 10 hours for my first play through. (Game's own estimate is 6-8 hours).

Currently during the 2024 summer sale, it's at $11.99 (25% off), and that's quite reasonable.

If you are not sure if it's truly something you want to buy, you can still try out the demo, which is the first chapter of the game. (Estimated play time is about 25-30 minutes.)

The Journey of AutUmn is a fun point-and-click adventure set in a whacky world that is completely hand-painted. This is a true indie project that deserves a bit more attention and support. The developer is very active and responsive to questions or concerns. The puzzles are interesting and well-made. Some bugs are present, but not hindering the player experience. Try the demo and experience it for yourself.

Final score: 8/10

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.