Available since April 9, The Procession to Calvary is the work of one man – so to speak – that of the British developer Joe Richardson, who has made a specialty of using famous tables in his games, through decomposed and articulated versions. Backed by these unique visuals, both sumptuous and ridiculous, is a point'n click ultimately quite trivial, but which stands out thanks to an omnipresent humor and very well balanced. But enough spoiler, everything will be explained to you in the video above or, if you prefer a silent version, in the text below!
The title I'm going to tell you about today is called The Procession to Calvary, it's a point and click and a point and click that could be said of long ago, in many ways. Because if he managed to attract my attention, it is first of all thanks to his rather unusual visual style, which consists in cutting and reassembling paintings by masters of the Renaissance. And just for that, it's a game worth seeing.
The Procession to Calvary is the third title by Joe Richardson, an independent British developer, who has forged a very special identity in just a few years. His thing is to mix point’n click, collage and absurd humor in a cocktail as confidential as explosive.
Supported this time by the Superhot Team, Richardson offers here a sequel to Four Last Things, his previous game, established in the same wacky universe where characters and environments are all from famous paintings. The result is a patchwork-like work, which merges and articulates around thirty canvases, many of which come from the Flemish school from the 14th to the 18th century. With Rembrandt, Bruegel, Vermeer or van Honthorst.
I can already see some of them spinning on tiptoe, so I prefer to reassure you right away: The Procession to Calvary has nothing of the afternoon at the museum with Mamie Josette. Because if Joe Richardson has chosen to rely on classic works, it is to better reclaim them, but above all to better divert them into the great whirlwind of a monthypythonesque adventure at will.
We thus embody a woman knight, whose only passion comes down to zigouiller everything that goes under his elbow. Only here, the holy war between the north and the south – who knows, who cares anyway – is over, and our heroine is deprived of her right to knock out brave guys with arms round. She will therefore propose to one of the two sovereigns to go screw up the one opposite so that she can continue her little game of massacre.
It’s the start of a journey of about five hours in a point’n click as original in form as classic in substance. We move through a succession of tables, we interact with certain characters or certain objects thanks to an action menu, and we collect key items to solve the different puzzles of the game. In other words, the regulars will find their marks, while the title avoids the neophytes the trap of logic games with rather coherent puzzles, based on observation and I was going to say, on common sense.
Except that common sense in the world of Procession to Calvary never really matters, and that's what makes it so interesting. Based on a colorful medieval and religious imagery, Richardson's game invents a world completely beside the plate, bathed in ridiculous violence, where Jesus becomes a street magician, where peasants roast themselves for having swallowed tools and where madonnas sell t-shirts bearing the image of the crucified.
"It is systematically stupid but it is always unexpected," said the poet. And this is an observation that applies very well to Procession to Calvary, which succeeds in generating, descriptions, dialogues and poignant situations with each new scene, all against a background of classical music. Always very fair in its valves, the game even manages to break the fourth wall, while making fun of its somewhat cheap development and its small technical shortcomings. The icing on the cake, even if it is far from an obvious game, Joe Richardson does not hesitate to use the absurd to place a few more or less subtle pikes on themes of society, be it democracy or religion.
So as long as you carry your love for Sacré Graal on your shoulder, and that English or old-fashioned Gothic fonts do not scare you, The Procession to Calvary could well succeed in snatching you smiles by the dozen – and when we talk about games , it is not that common after all …
