Aurora: The Lost Medallion Demo Impressions

Demo code used with many thanks to Keymailer.

Aurora: The Lost Medallion is an upcoming hand-drawn point&click adventure game developed by Noema Games.

Introduction

With its hand-drawn visuals Aurora: The Lost Medallion reminds me heavily of the Broken Sword Series and the Deponia games and one of my favourites in recent years, Some Distant Memory. Sci-fi is a relatively rarely used setting in the genre, making the game even more fun.

In Aurora: The Lost Medallion, we play as Aurora, an adorable red-haired little girl. She and her friends live in the Cave, where they are raised by intelligent machines and prepared for the mysterious “Pilgrimage.” Each of the children has a Voice to guide them, except for Aurora. The Voices give the children their purpose in society, whether they should be warriors, scientists, or even simple cooks.

Aurora must challenge the rigid society of the Cave to gain the title of Pilgrim and embark on an adventure to answer the unsolved question of her origins.

Gameplay

Aurora: The Lost Medallion is a classic point&click game; all the interactions and movement are done with the mouse. We can run and teleport by double-clicking the left mouse button. We also have a tablet for messages and journal notes, and tasks. The Journal is automatically completed by meeting other characters. The Inventory is on the screen’s lower side; again, items are used with the left mouse button.

Aurora’s possible actions are displayed on something resembling a wheel, and she has the option to touch/ take and use, speak, and observe something. When something is of interest, the wheel is accessible with all the actions. If an action cannot be performed, Aurora will comment on it. 

Within a dialogue, the reply options are given on the side of the screen and are chosen again with the left mouse button. The conversations are fully voice-acted, which was a pleasant surprise since the last few games I played weren’t. I had almost forgotten how much voice acting helps with the world-building within a game. 

Art style

Aurora: The Last Medallion is a hand-drawn adventure in a somewhat comic book or children’s illustration style. At the very beginning of the game and at later stages, we have snippets of the story, introduced by static illustrations, almost like cave drawings. The story of the Cave, the Voices, and the Children sounds like a legend, and hopefully, in the full game, it will become clearer what it is actually about.

In the demo, we see the children living in the Cave, each has its personality and power. An essential part is the voice acting, which is on point. Not only is the voice acting good, but it’s also appropriate. Each of the children sounds and acts like a real child would. Also, the character designs are adorable.

The soundtrack is somewhat minimalistic, adding to the atmosphere without distracting from the dialogue. Something simple and yet so impressive is that, at specific points, the music fades out, allowing the characters’ voices to carry out like they would in an actual cave. You can even hear the echo of sound and steps when Aurora walks.

The Demo Itself

The demo of Aurora: The Lost Medallion is a game of hide and seek, allowing us to meet the other characters through Aurora, learn a bit about the story and explore the Cave. We see where our characters live – main rooms, kitchens, storage, garden, etc.

Aurora is playing the villain, a creature called the Vulture, a role she is very protective of. We also learn that the main gate of the Cave can only be opened by the Caretaker or the Commander’s Pilgrim bracelet, but that has never happened before. The game of hide and seek within the game is a very clever way of introducing players to the story and game mechanics without giving away too much. At the same time, hide and seek is a very in-character activity for Aurora and her friends. 

Some Side Notes

Even in the demo version of Aurora: The Lost Medallion we have a settings menu, where we can add subtitles, change video and audio settings and make the game performance, in general, more to our liking. Another thing to note is the implementation of not only automatic save, but also manual save.

Also, the demo has Steam achievements!

Final Thoughts

I am excited about Aurora: The Lost Medallion. My initial impression that it looked like games I’ve played and loved in the past proved correct. This game has all the characteristics of some of the best classic point&click games – story, game mechanics, world-building, a sense of humor, and even a sense of wonder, something essential for a good sci-fi adventure. The developers are promising around 12 hours of gameplay for the final version, and I, for one, can’t wait.