Review | Sarawak
Sarawak may be a short game by today's standards - being finishable in about 90 minutes - many may consider it only fit for mobile devices. However, Sarawak reminded me a lot of the 2014 mobile hit, 80 Days, as Sarawak is a literary-based point and click masterpiece. This is in large part thanks it’s narrative stylings similar to a Telltale game and an illusion of choice as convincing as the best Bioware RPGs. It is a refreshingly slow-paced game that stands out from the usual fast-paced norm. However, the most important requirement for a literary heavy title is that it needs to fully immerse you into the world. The developers must ensure you are hanging onto each word in your hopes to uncover the truth. In this regard, Sarawak certainly did not disappoint.
Welcome to Oxford, this semester we will be studying…(pause for effect)… MURDER!
Sarawak is a prominently text-based mystery game that puts you into the shoes of Mia and takes you from Britain's well-known Oxford University to the Sarawak region of Borneo. This comes after Mia's mother has been implicated in the murder of an Oxford Professor that also happened to lecture Mia. Her purpose now is to stay headstrong and ascertain the truth; is her mother a murderer, or is there something more to all this? Thus, her investigation leads us on an international adventure, full of mystery, puzzles, beautifully designed scenes, and plenty of reading.
The text in Sarawak is done beautifully; you never feel overwhelmed by it; as each paragraph slowly entices the reader to continue to unravel the plot. The execution creates positively vivid images for your imagination. You can feel a connection to these places; from the heat emanating off of Borneo's harsh sun to being able to hear the dreary corridors and overarching libraries of Oxford University. This is less of a visual novel and more of interactive text-based adventure, and this means you must use your imagination quite a lot. Sarawak does use drawn scenes but, not too often, and when the visuals go beyond text it is with a modest art style, which only presents essential information. This all excellently creates a precise tone, while giving more in-depth and emotional explanations in its great writing.
Sarawak's personalities all convey a sense of individuality; you can never assume their next line of dialogue, but they genuinely feel like people you could come across in everyday life. Though you are simply reading text without the aid of voice-acting, it is as though you can feel these character’s sentiment in every word. You will find yourself not only feeling a bit of sympathy if someone is suffering a plight but genuinely feeling empathy towards them. You can see these people talking longingly about an unrequited love (we have all been there). Vivid pictures are painted of these people such as; the young lady embracing her youth and living life to the fullest and dying her hair bright neon pink. But this does not change the fact she fell in love with her tour guide (someone who has a power dynamic above the tourist just like a Professor would have over their students).
Moving on from the carefully planned, structured, well delivered, surprisingly alluring and charming story the writers have done so well in crafting and instead focusing on the more interactive elements of the game. First, you will find there are choices throughout the game, while I cannot be certain that each option leads to a different outcome or if it is simply an illusion of control, I can say I was happy with the choices I made throughout the game and the outcome they seemed to bring about. They act as a nice break between the dialogue to remind you that this is a game; they never feel unnecessary or like they have been placed there just for sake of something different. They add more conviction to Mia’s character, painting her as a bright opinionated, passionate and quick-witted woman. This also makes the player feel connected personally to both the story and Mia. The other video game-y part of Sarawak(albeit infrequent) are the puzzles. They do not take up much of the game but when they appear; they are a welcome break from the dialogue and still make your brain work. You will come across more of these if you do not just follow the main story. There are various opportunities to branch away from the main story, go and discover bonus lore by engaging in the stories of less significant characters. However, these subplots still feel eventful and interesting. These puzzles range from simple enough to solve rapidly to being quite the conundrum; although that being said, they never felt obtuse or as though they are put in place to stop you from untangling this mystery. But for those who may find some of the puzzles are too challenging or get in the way of the narrative, there is often a skip option.
Sometimes all you can do is watch the sunset.
Sarawak is a delightful journey of a woman trying to untangle the truth behind the murder of an Oxford Professor. The writing is solid with enough puzzles, choices and side characters to keep you interested. Simultaneously, it is short and thus may not keep you engulfed for days, but that means it is paced nicely. There is enough here to warrant a revisit and trying different choices to see how conversations and events may have ended differently. The joy of Sarawak comes from the art design being minimalist and yet still enough to keep you engaged beginning to end. Though the ending may feel abrupt for some, it ended at just the right time for me. This is one of the best narrative enterprises you could find yourself venturing into, which gives me much hope in Cowleyfornia Studio’s next game.
