Spirits of Xanadu is a new puzzle game with horror elements by Allen Trivette and Lee Williams, that releases Thursday, March 26th, 2015. I had a blast playing through it and I think you will too.
Developer: Allen Trivette and Lee Williams
Price: $14.99
Platform: PC, Max, Linux
A Review copy of Spirits of Xanadu was supplied to us
Spirits of Xanadu has a definite uneasy feel to it, super dark and abandoned, but with the feeling that you’re being watched. It’s not your typical horror game by any means and after a while the scare factor loses its edge, but the story remains intriguing enough to keep you playing.
The game takes place in an alternate futuristic 1980’s, and looks just like many of those movies imagined space travel would look like back in those days. 2001: A Space Odyssey, I’m looking at you.
In Spirits of Xanadu, you’ll be tasked with getting the Xanadu’s engines up and running, turning the power to the ship back on, replacing servers for the ships computers so you can set the coordinates back to Earth, and finally repair the stasis pod so that you can travel back to Earth in a state of hypersleep.
In the game you’ll encounter three different types of Robot Enemies. The Recreation Bot, Fly Bot, and Pill Bot. The Recreation Bot runs up to you and detonates due to an unstable battery pack, which is kind of sad because all he really wants to do is play basketball with you. The Fly Bot flies around and incapacitates you with electroshock like a cop with a taser. And finally the Pill Bot patrols around the ship with two big cannons attached to the front. The Pill Bot is the only enemy that you can deactivate by flipping a switch on its back, and that’s kinda cool if you’re looking to play stealthy.
Spirits of Xanadu can be completed in about an hour if you know what you’re doing, although I admittedly got the bad ending because it was the only easily discernible ending. Once I beat the game I immediately started my next playthrough in hopes of finding the secret to a better ending. There are reportedly three endings to the game according to the developers, and I’m sure I know at least one more of them. I just need to figure out how to trigger it.
There are plenty of collectibles to be found, including audio logs, incident reports, and torn out pages from a work of fiction that I believe has something important to do with one of the alternate endings.
My favorite voiced character has definitely got to be Solomon Agnew. Voiced by Ben Britton, Solomon Agnew is always entertaining, whether he’s sending a drunken message to his significant other, babbling incoherently, or just being charasmatic when talking about his research in an audio log. The other characters have great voice work, but I’d really like to have a beer with Solomon.
Check out the trailer below:
The Final Word
Spirits of Xanadu has its shortcomings, including the graphics, but the visuals can be quite charming and the story and audio logs trump any bad things I could say about the game. The game is quite short so I feel that’s one major factor to consider. The thing that’s bothering me so much thus far, is that I can’t trigger an alternate ending. Sticktoitiveness is a virtue, and one that I’ll soon master because Spirits of Xanadu keeps me coming back for more, I only wish it were longer.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
