I don’t normally go for point and click adventure games but Wailing Heights [1] is combining a lot of stuff I like. Graphic novel styled artwork, a monster village filled with vegan werewolves and hipster vampires, and the promise of a musical adventure in both gameplay and story.
You wake up in Wailing Heights’ prison as Frances Finklestein, former manager of the greatest 60’s rock band, and have to find a way to escape this purgatory. You’re quickly introduced to the “body-hop”, a musical mechanic that lets you jump between characters and escape your cell, but you still have to find a way to free your own body. Given that this is an adventure game it’s not going to be as easy as simply finding a key.
Exploring the Heights, interacting with characters and “borrowing” their unique abilities, you’ll explore a story created by Kevin Beimers (Hector: Badge of Carnage [2], Schrodinger’s Cat [3]) realized through that gorgeous comic art style. But the music, critical as it is to the experience, is still a bit of a mystery. You can get an idea of the vibe they’re going for in the announcement trailer above but exactly how it all figures into the gameplay is still a secret. It sounds great, though, and very much a unique soundtrack for an adventure game if it holds to this style.
Hopefully much more will be seen (and heard) from Wailing Heights at the upcoming EGX [4] show in the UK where Outsider Games [5] will be showing it off for the first time.