Graphical point and click adventure games are something I personally have a strong weakness for. From the first game with Leisure Suit Larry, through what many consider to be the golden age of the genre in the mid to early ’90s with Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, to Guybrush Threepwood’s quest for the Big Whoop and the madness of time travel the day of the tentacle. LucasArts was my temple and both Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert were the gods of my childhood. A dedication that continues and is very much alive today. A flame of love that never goes out.
Unfortunately, and as most of us know, the point-and-click genre didn’t fare well when the new millennium dawned. The transition to 3D just didn’t work and, apart from the grim fandango swan song, it never seemed like the creators of the time knew how to push the genre forward and avoid stagnation. Now, twenty years later, the situation is completely different and traditional point-and-click adventures have been transformed and reimagined by subtly adopting and implementing bits and pieces from other game genres.
In this exciting environment resides Sunday Gold. A game that manages like no other to mix and match elements from different genres and forge something of its own that also exudes style. Team17 took a whole pot of concepts and ideas and mixed them up into an oddly delicious soup that works surprisingly well. Point-and-click elements blend seamlessly with turn-based strategy, puzzles, and various mini-games that combine with the clever design to create a tasteful entity.
It’s a gritty and desolate London that greets you as you begin your adventure outside The Jolly Hangman pub. The rain is beating on the cobblestones, and warm light shines through the store’s dirty windows onto the shiny stones of the sidewalk. A lonely, homeless and destitute man sits on the sill of the pub in front of his cardboard house next to an alley blocked off with heavily fortified iron gates.
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The year is 2070 and you are Frank Barber. A modern-day Robin Hood who seeks to justify his criminal activities by stealing large corporations and wealth to give to the less fortunate, living on the fringes of society. Perhaps most notable is Frank himself. Indebted to disreputable people, he lives day by day, week by week. Constantly looking for new money, enough to enable him to continue his violent life of blood and ill-gotten gains.
At Sunday Gold, the target is Hogan Industries. A big company with a really bad reputation and millions worth of information on the black market for anyone who can get their hands on. Easier said than done, of course, and together with their friend Sally and their new acquaintance Gavin (a former employee of Hogan Industries) they plan a raid on the office building. And so begins an incredibly filthy journey into the darkness that quickly sinks its claws into you and lets the hours fly by at breakneck speed.
Frank is the soul of Sunday Gold, and while you don’t necessarily like him or identify with him, his moody demeanor is captivating, thanks to dark, natural dialogue and absolutely phenomenal voice acting. He’s one of three characters you control throughout the game, and you’re also introduced early in the adventure to computer genius Gavin and wild, snooty Sally, who mostly lets her knuckles do the talking.
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This is a motley trio, to say the least, and each of the three has their own specialties and skills that complement each other. Frank is the muscle of the party and is an expert with firearms and hand-to-hand combat, but he also has a keen eye for detail and can be used to pick locks and spot details in the environment. Sally is the tank and healer with incredible abilities to cover, heal and even buff others. She is also very angry with her fists and has no problem giving a few slaps when the moment calls for it.
Finally, there’s Gavin. A certified genius who is fluent in computers and electronics. It’s perfect for hacking closed systems or terminals to disable everything from locks to surveillance systems. He’s the prankster of the bunch, capable of delivering devastating blows that knock back unsuspecting enemies with various status effects. Gavin is also the weakest mental link in the gang and the one most easily negatively affected by adversity and stress.
After all, psychological well-being is at least as important as health aspects. A mentally unstable character can act independently. Escape to other rooms and attract unwanted attention or even attack other members of the group. In other words, something you want to avoid at all costs, and it can definitely be an endless battle at times to keep a good vibe between the three of you in every round and especially during battle.
Clashes with enemies are of course an inevitable part of the adventure. But with a little ingenuity and skillful use of each character’s actions each turn, it’s possible to minimize the number of clashes that occur. The battles themselves take place in turn order, like the rest of the game, and different actions cost different amounts of action points. Everything from first aid for wounds to shooting with a rifle. The focus is purely on actions, and there is no need to consider movement or position.
The fights are just very fast and agile, with a lot of emotional impact. In the expanded battlefield, the comic book style is even more evident and all actions are accompanied by crisp animations that enhance the action. It’s really addicting, and the difficulty increases rapidly until you’re forced to dance a delicate waltz between defense and attack. The combat also serves as a great change of pace from the rest of the game, which is more focused on problem-solving and exploration.
All three characters level up individually, and each has their own skill tree where you can spend experience points to upgrade inherited traits or acquire more and new ones. There’s plenty of flexibility and opportunities to customize all three to suit your own playstyle. And while you can’t completely reprofile Frank, Sally, and Gavin, it’s enough to give them a more personal touch. Each of the three characters also has a unique trait that acts as a recurring mini-game. Gavin hacks terminals, Frank can pick locks, and Sally moves heavy objects by focusing her energy.
Aside from the above, Sunday Gold’s main game focuses on detective work and problem solving. In addition to combat, action points are used to move your three characters through each scenario, where you have to investigate everything from lockers to computers to bloody airstrips, or engage in dialogue with more or less friendly characters. Each action will cost you points and at the end of each round there is always a risk of enemies spawning, especially if you linger in the larger rooms for too long or are careless and make yourself visible to cameras or other surveillance equipment.
In other words, efficient thinking pays off, and there’s never any real time pressure when it comes to stock picking. Also, many scenes have more than one possible solution or alternate events, which in turn can earn you extra experience points. Something that is always very desirable. As for the difficulty of the puzzles, they never feel impossibly difficult, just delightfully challenging, and each one feels like a small victory. It’s constant micropulses of endorphins that keep you going.
In other words, Sunday Gold’s game variety is brilliant and offers a lot more than what we’re used to from a traditional point and click adventure. However, not every aspect of this motley range of goods is unproblematic. There is a chance that during your time in Sunday Gold you will encounter situations where your preferences are at odds with what the game expects of you. Some elements of the game work less well than others and can feel a bit forced or even half-assed at times.
But with its gripping narrative, engrossing main characters, and wild mix of pulp noir and wonderful thug-filled future dystopia, it’s hard not to choke on joy at what Team17 has accomplished here. The atmosphere is often almost overwhelming and you’re struck from the start by just how captivating this pale, pulp-noir take on a future London is. It’s Disco Elysium bumped to eleven, full of adult themes, violence and gore. She’s fit, strong and as British as can be, with hypnotic dialogue throughout.
It’s hard for me not to love Sunday Gold. The fateful, powerful atmosphere that never lets go, the to-the-point design, the varied gameplay and just the right amount of RPG fit perfectly with the perhaps simple but oh-so-engrossing story on paper. The dynamic between the three main characters is phenomenal, the dialogue is fantastically written and the mature pulp noir style makes me laugh.
It’s been a long time since the hours of a game have passed so quickly and Team17 have a regular hit on their hands with Sunday’s Gold. So go straight to the store, buy it, play and enjoy it.