Viktor, a Steampunk Adventure Review

Just let me go to the Emperor (don’t mind this gun) and I can guarantee you will not get fired.

In a steampunk version of Austria-Hungary, Viktor was just a lonely street sweeper before he was unjustly fired. Done with these jobs and seeing that the current Emperor is not doing better than what he envisions he can do, he goes for that job. Surely someone that had to deal with being a regular citizen would be better to rule than someone that has been on the throne and never had to have lowly jobs. For the people by the people, right?

The characters are charming. Everyone in this universe is an animal of some kind and the humor is deeply embedded into how everyone speaks and interacts. Bouncing off nicely to how Viktor himself is. On top of the regular citizens, you will find some references to real people, or fictional people, that also play a part in Viktor’s story. Even when you get past the area and will never see them again they often stay in your mind. If someone mentions one of the first characters you meet in the game, you might actually remember them. On that note, the art looks really nice. Something akin to coloring books while also getting in detail where it needs to be. With the character designs going for an appealing cartoonish look.

The puzzles Viktor encounters has a nice balance of being hard and easy at the same time. You are given a logical way you can get past the puzzle with you left to figure out how to get to the necessary end. What separates this from other point and click games, however, is that a good amount of these puzzles have multiple ways to solve them. One of the first ones you will come across is very early in the game where you have to figure out how you can get onto a dirigible. Viktor needs a ticket, but he doesn’t have enough money on him to buy a ticket. So you have to just find out how to get or find enough coins right? That’s not all if you talk with everyone. You can also find out a way to get clothing to dress up as a Scottish Jew athlete. Or you can try your hand at racing and winning a bet with the guard taking tickets. These alternative solutions are not at all hidden as the game does directly tell you. So if you don’t like to race, you have two other ways to get that desired ticket. Early on, it would also be favorable to go through the other solutions as well, as later on they do mention items you could have gotten in previous areas.

The only thing I wish was that some puzzles didn’t require you to call Martin, the local hint giver, to get Viktor to have the correct conversation starter. While it does make sense in the universe, as Martin is Viktor’s psychic friend that he often goes to for advice, it goes against what other games have taught players to expect. As other games usually make it optional rather than having progression going through it.

The voice acting is certainly weird, but it works. Not counting the narrator at the beginning, each character rambles in their specific accent they have. This is smart to do as it does go around having bad or subpar voice acting while also giving each character their own voice and where they most likely came from easily. There is really only one that didn’t work for me which was due to it sounding more like it was saying words than the usual rambles that the other characters have. For the music, I absolutely loved the music they decided to include as each do go well with the areas they were included in. If you like specific ones, you also can see if you can find them as Viktor has a gramophone and you can choose to switch to your favorite record at any time.

Verdict

Viktor, a Steampunk Adventure is a short, but sweet, story as Viktor goes on an adventure to get another job. With charming characters, humor tied to almost every aspect, and multiple ways to solve some of the puzzles, this does a good job to stand apart from the rest. If you have a free afternoon on your hands and just want to play through an entire game or like point and click games, consider picking up Viktor.