We’re only a few weeks away from the fourth anniversary of Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town, one of my favorite adventure games of 2020, and if you were wondering what the folks at imaginarylab have been doing since; well, you are about to find out just like I did. Whirlight – No Time To Trip is an amazing new PnC adventure game currently being developed by the same studio, and while we still have months to go before the 2025 release date, I recently had the opportunity to play an early demo of this charming adventure and gather some first impressions.
Having previously worked at Sierra Online and LucasArts back in the 90’s, I have a strong background in PnC adventures, and four years ago, I was blown away by the art design of Willy Morgan; a game that was obviously inspired by the Monkey Island pirate games. Well, it only gets better in Whirlight, a new PnC adventure where you get to play as Margaret and Hector, an interesting combination of artist and inventor heroes that are tasked with saving us from something. The demo never really gets that far into the story; in fact, if you played the demo for Willy Morgan back in the day then you’ll know exactly what to expect.
In Willy Morgan, the demo had you searching your house to find all the parts needed to repair your bicycle so you could ride into town. In the Whirlight demo, you are searching your house/lab for a way to get a giant robot arm to release the keys to your scooter so you can go into town. Naturally, there is an elaborate series of puzzles involving a fisherman, an iced coffee, an hourglass, and a feisty Pirahna that you’ll need to solve in a fairly linear order to accomplish your goal. The entire demo can be finished in less than an hour, but there is still a surprising number of places to go and things to do that only hint at the imaginative potential of the full game. Gameplay is very traditional, as you explore wonderfully designed scenes, collecting everything that can be taken and examining all the rest for witty banter as Hector reflects on his surroundings in an almost-non-stop inner monologue that helps to pass the time as we explore.
Whirlight – No Time To Trip maintains that same quality-of-life gameplay we got in Willy Morgan where the entire game can be played with just a mouse. The left button interacts contextually with any hotspots, and those hotspots can be revealed by clicking the right mouse button, so you don’t overlook anything. I used to think this was “cheating” but considering how amazingly complex these graphics are getting, it’s almost a necessity unless you just want to skim every inch of your screen with your cursor waiting for something to happen. The mouse wheel accesses your inventory bar where you can combine or chose items to use in the environment.
During my hour-long demo I did manage to come across a few stumbling blocks when it came to the flow of the game. There are a couple of totally random solutions you will figure out by trial and error, but nothing as outlandish as those obtuse puzzles from the 90’s, and given the limited inventory, limited locations, and limited hotspots, even if you do get stuck it’s not terribly difficult to brute force a solution by exhausting the few choices you have possible. Whirlight also requires a bit of backtracking, since actions in one scene can have interesting results in adjacent screens.
The overall presentation was exceptional with captivating scenery, lush, detailed environments, great textures, impressive lighting, smooth animation, a minimal UI that keeps you immersed in the game, and some fantastic music and voice acting – at least from the two guys in the demo. As silly as it sounds, one of the most visually striking moments of the demo (for me) were these little geysers that spouted these purple nebulous puffs of gas that rolled and expanded so smoothly.
Overall, this is a great first-look at Whirlight – No Time To Trip, and 2025 can’t get here soon enough, as far as I’m concerned. We’ll be covering this game as more info is released all the way to final review next year, so stick with us for all the latest news about this delightfully imaginative adventure game. Meanwhile, go check out the demo for yourself and see if this is something you might enjoy.
