Review Date: April 12, 2010
Developer: mif2000
Publisher: Alawar Entertainment
Price: $9.95
Platform: PC
Genre: Adventure
Though it bears the same name and basic story, mif2000's interpretation of William Shakespeare's classic play Hamlet is decidedly different from the original. With quirky characters and goofy plot twists, this isn't the play you remember from English class. But while the game's peculiar sense of humor and charming cartoon visuals are wonderful, the frequently frustrating difficulty level will turn off a lot of players.
"O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!"
The game starts off when a scientist from the future travels back in time and accidentally squashes Hamlet's titular lead, thus getting caught up in the events of the play. He sets off to rescue Ophelia, Hamlet's girlfriend, and along the way takes on the likes of Polonius and Claudius. It's all very silly and includes plenty of laughs. The game is almost entirely silent, and does an excellent job of moving the story along solely through the actions of the characters.
The game's divided up into several acts, each of which features a number of different scenes. Unlike most point-and-click adventures, you can't actually move your character, instead you can simply interact with the environment in a variety of ways. There are plenty buttons to push, switches to pull, and rubber duckies to find.
Each area has a puzzle that needs to be solved in order to progress. These run the gamut from trying to figure out a password or pick a lock to waking up an old man. There's quite a lot of variety to the different tasks you're given and the game even throws in the occasional boss battle for some extra challenge.
"All is not well; I doubt some foul play"
Unfortunately, these puzzles are, for the most part, very difficult as the game gives almost no direction for what you're supposed to be doing. You can click on your character to get a brief hint, and there's a recharging hint system that gives some further details. But this takes quite some time to charge up, and in the meantime, you'll be stuck randomly clicking around the stage trying to figure out just what to do. This isn't the case for every level, but it is true for most of them.
To make things worse, a number of the puzzles require super-fast reflexes to solve. These are most relegated to the few boss battles in the game, but they are incredibly frustrating.
It's almost worth playing through all that frustration though, in order to experience the game's whimsical cartoon style. The flat, colorful, 2D visuals are downright charming, something that's made all the better by the game's goofy sense of style. Classic characters from the play have been re-imagined, and you'll see everything from a space alien Polonius to an evil rock star Claudius. It's done so well that even if you're unfamiliar with the play, there's still much to enjoy.
The Bottom Line
With a fun premise and charming visuals it's a shame that it's so hard to fully enjoy Hamlet. The majority of the puzzles in the game are simply too arbitrary and frustrating, so much so that it sucks much of the enjoyment out of the game. As much fun as the idea of facing off against a guitar wielding Claudius sounds, the end result is sadly an all too frustrating experience.