Release Date: 25/04/2017
Played On: Win
Available On: Lin / Mac / Win
Time Played: 2h 15m
Progress: Completed
Developer: Atmos Games
Publisher: Armor Games
I might be talking out of turn here from a position of ignorance, but I've always seen point-and-click adventure games as one of the most accessible genres to make. It's partly because tools like Adventure Game Studio exist, which sells itself on the premise that anyone can use the program to make an adventure game, but also because they seem to be one of the most prolific genres around.
Even that notion has a few holes in it though, as perhaps they seem prolific because people have been making adventure games for a very long time. They've been a present part of my entire gaming life, as some of the first games I ever played were adventure games on my Commodore 64.
However, these days it seems like there is little barrier to entry if you want to have a crack at making a point-and-click adventure game. It's why I think I've played so many terrible ones over the years, because it doesn't appear to take a whole lot to make an adventure game. Of course there are examples of genres that are probably easier like Visual Novels or Hidden Object games, but there are loads of other genres that seem infinitely more difficult.
I find myself on this train of thought, not because I want to diminish the importance of quality adventure games by saying they're easy to make. In fact, I think it works in the opposite direction, as the really good adventure games stand out and show how deep the genre can go. It's why I loved Thimbleweed Park, which showed how detailed and creative a modern day adventure game can be.
So even though Pinstripe wasn't the best point-and-click game I've played in recent years, I want to stress that it's definitely on the good side of the spectrum. It might even be on the better-than-good end, as I very much enjoyed my time with it and found the entire experience worthwhile.
Much like Visual Novels though, I tend to find myself rating adventure games on their presentation and story-telling more than anything else. Unfortunately, aesthetic preferences are not something that can be predicted or even dealt with at all when you have a vision for your game. The art in Pinstripe is consistent and well presented, but it never really clicked with me and I found myself noticing more little bits I didn't like, as opposed to parts I felt sat well with me.
I honestly think that art style is something that's incredibly subjective and impossible to criticise with any authority, but there has to be something to critique about the time and effort spent. To that end, I think it's objectively possible to have an assessment that goes beyond personal preference. Pinstripe doesn't really speak to me all that well about its art style, but I have to compliment it for having any style at all. There's a consistency to the theme and surrealist design that holds the game together nicely and provides a recognisable identity, so I think it's presentation is strong.
The same can be said about the voice acting and audio mix, which I thought was a bit spotty and at times the mix had me lifting my headphones off to avoid blowing out my ears. Sometimes there's some nice subtly mixing on a vocal line, but other times the distortion is turned way up and nobody seems to have noticed the gain bump at the same time. This inconsistency meant that whenever certain characters showed up, I would either skip their dialogue, or remove my headphones and just read the subtitles.
Ask me any day and I will always choose bad voice acting that's mixed properly, over incredible voice acting crippled by terrible audio balancing. It's one of those things that seems to be often overlooked by smaller budgets and smaller studios, but at the end of the day I expect anyone publishing audio to at least run it through a Limiter filter to avoid blowing up speakers.
What's more (and this is definitely a personal thing), I was a little disappointed to find that YouTube twat-bag Pedetid had voiced a character in the game. Thankfully I don't think it changed my opinion of the game, as he only shows up a couple of times and can be easily ignored, but it still made me feel a pang of disappointment. Of course, it's entirely personal taste, but I liken it to when I start watching a movie and the Weinstein logo appears on screen… it sucks a little bit to be reminded of rich people who have behaved badly and abused their power. I feel bad for the developers, as I don't know what the circumstances were when they hired old Felix to do some lines, but I can't help backing away a little when dickheads show up in my entertainment.
Moving on though…
There' an interesting surrealist story going on through Pinstripe that will probably interest certain people more than others. On the surface it's about a father questing forth to rescue his daughter who has been kidnapped by the bad guy: Pinstripe. I honestly didn't get too deep with this one, which may just be ignorance, or maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind. Either way, it was only after the fact that I read something about the game touching on themes of alcoholism and abuse. Upon reflection it's easy to say that those themes are there and the surreal story did provide plenty of indicators that helped you understand what was going on, but I didn't naturally interpret the game that way, so it felt a little out of place.
Although I don't want to sound like a broken record, I have to again highlight that my interpretation of the story is not a criticism on the game, as it was down to what I got out of it, not due to the quality of the game. The thing is though, I always prefer to interpret abstract and surreal art in my own way without being told what something is "supposed" to mean. I feel like it's impossible to connect deeply with something when you're told how to connect, and in fact it's better to reach your own conclusion as it will be much more personal and meaningful.
So my initial experience of Pinstripe was tarnished a little when I read that how I felt about the game had not been the intention of the writer. It made my experience feel "wrong", which is dangerous place to be in when thinking about anything creative. However, as much as my Pinstripe experience ended up in a bit of a funk, I think it's largely because it worked as a surreal adventure game that left a lot of things open for interpretation. Is it the developers fault that I didn't understand what they were trying to say? Perhaps not, but then I feel it's up to a writer to leave the meaning open and ready for anyone to approach, rather than designate a correct interpretation that diminishes any other versions.
Now, I don't know if the creators feel this way at all, so don't get me wrong. The "correct" way I'm talking about came from a couple of different web sites that summarised the plot, as well as the Wikipedia page for the game. I hope that the creators are loving the fact that there are alternative ways to receive their game… even ways that they had never imagined. After all, I believe that is more of a compliment to the game, than being able to say that everyone walked away with the same experience under their belt.
Thus, I find myself a bit confused about Pinstripe and how I feel about it. I definitely enjoyed playing through the story and solving the relatively simple puzzles along the way. At the end I did have some watery eyes as the story touched me a little bit, which is also thanks to a decent soundtrack to support the feels. Most of the characterisations are polished just enough to make them interesting, while leaving a few questions unanswered. The entire game is well made, aside from some technical difficulties with the audio mix and a few personal gripes over aesthetic choices.
On the other hand, those audio glitches were very real and a big inconvenience. The art didn't grab me personally, so as much as I'd like to be objective and compliment the fact Pinstripe actually has a unique aesthetic, it was still very average to me. Sure I missed what might have been the more literal meaning of the story, but I got something out of it in my own way and I feel satisfied with that, but maybe it wasn't as surreal as I had given it credit for, and maybe it was just badly written so I didn't know what was going on.
Mostly though, I don't think any of those things really matter because I do end up settling on the fact that Pinstripe is an above average adventure game. The genre may be accessible thanks to tools that mean almost anyone can put together an adventure game, but it's nice to play one that actually cares. What elevates the good from the chaff, is the willingness to go the extra mile and the fact that choosing the adventure game genre was not due to ease of access, but a fondness that suits the story trying to be told.
It's clear that Pinstripe was made with all the best of intentions and there's a lot of unique and interesting elements that leave me glad I played it. However, there's lots of room for improvement and I hope that the next attempt will be a step up in the world of point-and-click adventures.
We need passionate developers to continue pushing the genre forwards and keeping it relevant. I'd hate to see point-and-click adventure games go the same route as top-down RPGs where every single one of them looks like a basic RPGMaker game, which is my dismissive way of saying: terrible.
I'm sure that if every personal taste element clicked well, I would love Pinstripe rather than just like it. There's nothing wrong with being divisive either, so hopefully I'm an aberration and most players will have a better than above average time.