Rosewater

I adore Point and Click games, altough it is an underground genre, it's still good to see that the few developers who developed point and click games since forever, still haven't moved on, and keep making these type of games. One of these developers being Francesco Gonzales, better known as Grundislav Games, who developed eight Ben Jordan games, and three bigger, standalone point and click title, the third one being the newly released Rosewater that is by far his most ambitious, and may I say best project, he ever made.

We follow our main character, Harley Ledger, who just arrived to Rosewater, to work at a newspaper upon receiving a mail. Her first job is to write an article about the great and sensational Gentleman Jake, also known as Jake Ackerman, but as most simple stories start, Harley eventually stumbles upon a bigger task, and she's asked to find the missing fortune of Dr. Bennet Clark by none other than Gentleman Jake. 

Gameplay wise, there's bunch of clever additions to the game that is Rosewater. Most point and click games, usually have side characters, that waits for you to finish stuff for them, but not in Rosewater, as you can borrow their stuff during some scenes, like Danny can shoot down objects, Gentleman Jake can give you his hat, Nadine can help with creating medicine, or potions, Phil can help you in various stuff but mostly blowing things up. That aside, Harley also have the ability to picklock locks, and altough this mechanic isn't seen more than 3 times in the game, it still got its own minigame puzzle. 

Rosewater also heavily relies on characters and their stories, as the way you talk to the members of your posse reflects which social events you get on your way, there's a low and a high social event, and each reveals something more about a character, getting to know them better. Phil mostly like stuff that supports the revolution, a subplot of Rosewater's story, Nadine likes everything that isn't illegal, and mostly empathetic, Danny likes if he is in the limelight, and Jake likes if you feed his ego. We also have Lola Johnson, who is easy to satisfy, as she doesn't like to be talked to, so... just don't talk to her and you should be fine.

Lastly, I would like to mention the phenomenal voice acting and animations Rosewater got. From actors such as Gevin Hammon (known from TWD as Kenny), Dave Fennoy (known from TWD as Lee) and also Roger Clark (known from Red Dead Redemption 2 as Arthur Morgan), on the actresses side, we have Cissy Jones (known from Life is Strange as Joy Price or as Delilah from Firewatch) or Vivian Lu who voiced the dub for Kang Sae-byok in Squid Game.

on the animation side, we have beautiful fully rotoscoped animations, with bunch of cinematic closeups, and even some highres environmental elements, completely going overboard as point and click games go with a pixelart art-style, and they hook you in from the get go.

Overall, Rosewater is one of the best games that the point and click genre could offer, it has humour, action, and a captivating story, that does not feel short in any of the three acts, the puzzles are also have been nailed where they don't feel too easy, and also they aren't too hard. Some hints were needed in the final act, mostly at the map puzzle, but at the end of the day, Rosewater was everything and more I looked for in a point and click game.

My biggest concern that I have with the game was the 100%, which recquired me to beat the game from start to finish at the very least 18 times, which was a chore to do and figure out, but it's not anything to complain about if you aren't a completionist like me.