Breaking the 4th Wall: A Mysterious Point-and-Click Adventure

I ran across this gem by accident, actually — an AI told me about it.

This is a point and click adventure game, That’s a genre we hardly ever see these days, past their heyday in the 80s and 90s. The last one I can think of is Disco Elysium, the excellence of which makes it a hard act to follow.

Breaking the 4th Wall follows Adrian, a man paralyzed by crippling anxiety. Getting out of bed is a struggle. Just leaving his apartment is a victory. He will do anything to avoid talking to his next door neighbor. The sorts of things natural for most people, like buying a ticket for a train, become surreal efforts.

The three scenes released so far all play out in indie comic-like panels. These panels are actually views from video cameras (as becomes explicit after a certain point in the game), so as Adrian moves around, he might appear in more than one of them at a time. Each has clues as to what Adrian should be doing in order to conquer a fear and move on to the next puzzle in his life.

This game is on the Steam store, listed as being released last December and requiring Windows 7 or better to run. It isn’t actually available on the store. The website for the game (www.breakingfourthwall.com) doesn’t seem to be hooked up, the developer, Mashigene Games, doesn’t appear to have any internet presence. Publisher 11Sheep does list the game, but there is no further information than what we have.

It is available on the Google Play store, and I was able to get it downloaded and running on Bluestacks. And I gotta say, I love this game — what there is of it. The way the comic panels look reminds me of Bryan O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim books. I loved those books. The puzzles are a little challenging, but not impossibly so. The animation is amazing. I just like everything about it.

It’s too bad it’s so short. The entire first chapter — which is all that exists, as far as I can tell — can be completed in 20 minutes.

Pros: The game is short, but the puzzles are challenging and the animation is amazing.

Cons: The game is short, and there is no further information about it.

Oh, about how an AI came to tell me about this game — that explanation is going to have to wait until Blaugust. Sorry.