The Devilry Reservation is a 2D Adventure game in which we take on the role of a disgraced detective who gets sent on menial tasks as punishment for an unknown reason. We kick things off by being driven down to a run-down-looking area of the city and told to solve two complaints in an apartment complex. The first involves a wide-scale water leakage, while the other is a noise complaint. It sounds mundane, but this complex is called the Devilry Reservation for a reason. This is where mystical creatures that have chosen a life of coexistence are being kept from the human eye. Vampires, demons, and even multidimensional beings are but a few of the individuals you’ll be meeting.
As soon as you step into the building, you will hear a thumping sound and likely wonder what on earth that is. Thump, thump, thump, then the bass drop. It turns out a group of ghouls are blasting HardBass. That perfectly sets the tone of the title. Despite the eerie visuals, the people inhabiting this place provide a strong contrast with their cheeky and playful personalities. This is not a horror game nor one that involves much of any puzzle solving. It is closer to a visual novel as most of your time will be spent in conversation and exchanging favors for information. You can permanently affect a few things, so don’t go messing around with the fusebox like I did. After plunging the apartment into eternal darkness, that likely taught the electrician not to trust electrical wiring to someone without a face.
Yeah, the lack of eyes and a mouth isn’t due to the cute Atari-styled sprite-work. We are a rare Faceless creature who can pry into other’s minds. Doing so would cause harm to those affected, meaning our Detective isn’t keen on using it in a building full of potentially world-ending powerful monsters. We also possess an astral projection ability, allowing us to see through nearby solid objects. I hope these unique aspects of our character are used more in future episodes. Minus knowing a person’s name before asking them, they never come into play much. That said, our remarkable height is touched upon in-game. We frequently bump our heads into low-hanging lamps. Do it enough, and the bulb explodes. It’s little wonder I never saw the electrician again. He probably burst a blood vessel off-screen.
The entire duration of Episode 1 is spent in this Devilry Reservation, interacting with its denizens. Given that, it features a surprising amount of background variation. There’s a full-blown cabin and raging snowstorm inside of a specific room, for example. You never know what to expect next. It is the Devilry Reservation’s strongest motivator. The second being how memorable everyone is and how you grow to care for these goofballs. Our attachment makes the moments when things get serious significantly more impactful. In total, this adventure lasted me around three hours. I spent time doing nonessential tasks and kicking over random objects for a Steam achievement. It isn’t terribly lengthy, yet it left me craving to experience this strange world further.
Now, for the elephant in the room. For as much text as we’ll be going through, it’s unfortunate that the English translation is error-prone. There are many occasions where they use a comma instead of a period, alongside some occasionally strange wording. It is minor and perfectly legible, yet a small look over from a native English speaker could go a long way. Another nitpick is we can’t exit the PDA with the mouse cursor. We need to press the escape key. Speaking of the PDA, it allows us to save at any time and features a neat codex to add more background lore to this world’s known species. You can also view any current tasks should you get stuck or forget.
When it comes to the chunky pre-NES graphics, it suits the theme perfectly. An additional benefit is that much is left to the imagination with the low micro detail. It feels surreal and distant from our own reality. The Devilry Reservation never states when it takes place, but I like how it adds small characteristics like CRT computer monitors and the classic Punk look of the Ghouls to infer it. Although the music has a limited number of tracks, it is typically of good quality. When I remembered our original goal was to solve a noise complaint and had to turn off the HardBass, it was with great hesitation that I kicked the PC tower to shut it off. Turns out the Detective hadn’t the foggiest on how to use a mouse to hit pause or considered unplugging its power cord, hilariously enough.
With how short this title is, I won’t go into any more of its gags, but they remain entertaining throughout. The Devilry Reservation ultimately succeeds with flying colors in endearing us to its universe and is a strong opening in this seven-episode series. For five US Dollars at full price, this is an easy recommendation to those who love Telltale-styled narrative adventures. It lacks the branching paths of their big budget studio counterpart, yet scratches that same itch while having their own identity. I’m curious to see where they go throughout seven episodes and whether they can hold the spark that made this introductory scenario great. Whatever the case, it all starts here. In an apartment complex filled with nightmarish creatures that one wouldn’t mind living in by the end.
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