By, posted on 01 May 2016 / 5,206 ViewsWailing Heights is one of the first games I've played that actually shows a good understanding of modern British sub-cultures and utilises them as a central theme. It’s flawed in places, but from start to finish Wailing Heights is so endearing that I was left feeling that this microcosm of Britishness - warts and all - was truly brilliant by the end.So what is Wailing Heights?

Apr 30, 2016  This is my Wailing Heights PC Game Review with Wailing Heights PC gameplay. Body hopping through Hipster vampires, intelligent zombies. Wailing Heights is a town inhabited by ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and other undead creatures. It sounds scary, but it’s actually a fairly friendly place, as long as you’re dead. It sounds scary, but it’s actually a fairly friendly place, as long as you’re dead.

It’s a 2.5D adventure game set in a horror town of the same name. You play as Finklestein, a member of an old pop band called the Deadbeats, who attempts to finds his/her (you’re able to choose your gender) way out of a weird town. Early on in the game Finklestein is given a device which allows him to take control of other characters through the simple fact of learning their name, what they hate, and what they love. Singing a song that includes references to these three things allows you to explore the town as this new character and opens up new options.You start off by taking control of a ghostly lawyer, who is aptly called Shoul Goodman ( Wailing Heights is full of puns like this), and must try to free Finklestein by finding a law book which contains information on what should be done with regards to humans in Wailing Heights. As is the case with most adventure games, things aren’t as easy as they initially sound, and you end up having to interact with numerous characters across town in order to find out more.This chapter teaches you the basics perfectly, pushing you to ask as many questions of characters as possible in order to find out who you can control and what abilities they possess which may come in handy.Throughout the course of the game you’ll control four different horror creatures: a ghost, a vampire, a werewolf, and finally a zombie.

Each creature has its own ability, which is useful to varying degrees. The zombie, for example, allows you to communicate with other zombies, so their basic groans become actual words, while the vampire is able to reach high places.Each creature you control also has a nifty back story and a fair amount of personality.

Disgaea infinite iso. Take the werewolf; he has an alpha male personality and, accordingly, is constantly trying to show off to the ladies at the local pub and prove he’s bigger and better than everyone else. This charade comes off as annoying at first, but as you get to know the character more he becomes quite endearing and likable.The presentation is stunning. Everything is hand-drawn and as a result each area exudes style.

Small, subtle things underpin this sense of style and flesh out the game world, from the AB-negative lattes that are sold to hipster vampires, to the guts and different drinks that are served up at the zombie theatre.These presentational strengths filter into the sound effects and music. Each character has a genuine, regional British accent, which plays on Wailing Heights' quirkiness, and the soundtrack consists of music produced by local talent exclusively for the game. Each track is catchy and fits perfectly with the environment it’s been created for, helping to make the long trips back and forth between characters and areas enjoyable rather than laborious.In being an adventure game, Wailing Heights inherits a few flaws from the genre. It took me around 6-7 hours to complete the game, and whilst that sounds great for an indie adventure title, a large chunk of that total playtime was a result of my being stuck in the middle portion. As with most adventure games, you reach a point where you can’t continue unless you use a specific item in a specific place.

Wailing Heights is no exception, and as a result I needed to speak to every NPC in the game as each different creature whenever I was stuck. This drove me insane and almost forced me to stop playing, but I'm glad I didn't.Wailing Heights is also very janky in places, with animations sometimes looking clunky and the sound frequently changing in volume (there were times when I couldn’t hear what a character was saying as they were drowned out by environmental noise). Whilst I'd usually lambast these technical issues, it’s weirdly charming in Wailing Heights, perhaps because of the game's unique vibe.All in all I’m glad I played through Wailing Heights and kept with it to the end. It’s an eccentric title but its quirks and flaws somehow make it even more charming and quintessentially British. I look forward to what Outsider Games is able to come up with next because Wailing Heights was a uniquely enjoyable experience.

Reviewed on PC The DeadbeatsWailing Heights is a town inhabited by ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and other undead creatures. It sounds scary, but it’s actually a fairly friendly place, as long as you’re dead. Sadly for Frances Finklestein, former manager of rock band The Deadbeats, if you’re alive, you’re breaking one of Wailing Heights’ laws. This is an old-style point and click adventure game, with a body-swapping twist.Arrested at the start of the game for having too much of a pulse, Finklestein must escape his (or her, you get to decide) incarceration and get back to the land of the living. Luckily, a possession wheel quickly comes into your. This is a device which lets you swap between bodies, but in order for it to work you need to know the person’s name, know something they hate, and know something they like. These vital pieces of info are then worked into a song, which allows you to take over the mind of your target.

While normal adventure games have you scavenging for items to combine to solve puzzles, Wailing Heights has you asking the right questions to find out the right information.Back and forthThe challenge comes in possessing the right body to find out the correct information. For example, to reach the back room party of the Ruff Rider pub, you’ll need to be a werewolf. But to find out the secret password, you’ll have to be a ghost and use your special ability to eavesdrop on the password when no one knows you’re listening. This is the core loop of the game, changing between various characters and experimenting until you get what you need. It’s a fairly novel way of doing things, but also highlights one of the game’s main flaws.In order to possess another character, you have to be within earshot of them. The game’s locations aren’t that far apart, but running back and forward only to find you don’t have the right character for the job is a tedious process.

There were also instances where I had forgotten where I had left people, meaning even more time spent walking around instead of actually playing the game. Of course, having to physically be next to someone to body swap makes sense from a story perspective, but from a game perspective it’s too clunky.Not only is Wailing Heights a melting pot of different creatures of the night, it’s also apparently inhabited by people from all corners of the British Isles. It’s not a very big town, but you’ll hear accents from Scotland, Ireland, North England, Southern England, and everywhere in between. Some of the voice acting is good, some of it’s not so good, and the same can be said of the writing. The humour is hit and miss, and often hinges on the delivery of the character. The large bulk of the actual narrative is told through a comic book style with a voiceover.

This medium is also used to convey the backstory of each character you’ll possess throughout the course of the game.Music on my mindMusic is a big part of the game, and you’ll be hearing a lot of it. Again, the different songs have varying quality, ranging from cringe-worthy raps up to catchy rock n roll tunes. The songs you need to possess other characters will play every time you do it, and the short snippets will become boring pretty quickly. Three main characters will be your bread and butter for a good chunk of the game, while others will become available towards the end. You have the aforementioned ghost, a lawyer with the handy ability to read people’s minds. There’s also the werewolf, who can turn into wolf form and track scents with his keen nose.

There’s the vampire, who can turn into a bat and fly up to out of reach places. You’ll use their special abilities to find out new clues, but after a while I was just using them to move around quicker.Wailing Heights is a game with a unique idea that quickly falls into the same old adventure game traps. It doesn’t take long to fall into the gameplay loop of simply selecting all the dialogue options until something works, and the constant backtracking isn’t fun. The character design, and the hand-drawn artwork in general is good, and the game stands up on its variety. There are better adventure games out there, but the music-focused nature of Wailing Heights and its British quirks might be enough to make it worth a look as an alternative.