Game: Ebenezer and The Invisible World
Genre: Action, Adventure, Platformer
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam (Windows), PS4 &5, and Xbox)
Developer|Publisher: Orbit Studio | Play On Worlds
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US Everyone 10+
Price: US $19.99 | UK £17.99 | EU € 19,99
Release Date: November 3rd, 2023
Review code provided with many thanks to Stride PR.
Christmas Comes Early
Christmas comes a little early this year in the form of Ebenezer and The Invisible World. It is an action-adventure game that acts a sequel to the famous Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. I have to say I was genuinely intrigued about this game when I was kindly offered to review it. I have always been a huge fan of A Christmas Carol and its many interpretations over the years through books and on screen. I’ll even admit I kind of dug the Kate Winslet song What If, based on one of the many film adaptations.
If somehow you never got to experience this classic, it’s a tale of the selfish, rich old man, Ebenezer Scrooge, who has little interest in the wellbeing of his workers or people in general. But after a visit from the spirits of past, present and future, he sees the error of his ways and turns things around. It’s a timeless tale of redemption in that it’s not too late to do good, no matter how old you are.
Ultimately, the values of kindness and love win. To this day, The Muppets Christmas Carol is an annual tradition in our household, particularly the director’s cut version with the missing song included. If you know, you know. I went into Ebenezer and The Invisible World with cautious expectations since I really wasn’t sure how you’d adapt this story into a video game. But I’m happy that I was genuinely surprised. Ebenezer and The Invisible World is pretty magical. However, on launch, it is held back by some glitches.
Christmas Carol Sequel
Set after the events of A Christmas Carol, you take control of Ebenezer Scrooge. Ebenezer has turned things around and is doing good in the city of London. But that is not the case for everyone else. A young man, Casper, has inherited his greedy father’s business empire and rather than do good for the troubled workers, he appears to be continuing his father’s brutal legacy.
Like A Christmas Carol, he too gets a visit from three spirits, which appears to set him on the right path. However, a fourth mysterious spirit shows Casper an alternative path, a path that will unlikely lead to the redemption Casper truly seeks. In a desperate last bid, the spirits appeal to Ebenezer to set out on a quest to help Casper see the truth and set him on the right path all in one night.
A More Complex Version of the Tale
As far as plots go, it’s not bad. It’s essentially a more complex version of the tale you know and love but sticks to the story’s core values and gets the job done. Playing as a kinder Scrooge was quite the delight, still trying desperately to do good even when a situation seems dire.
What I found most amusing is that this is an adventure game where you are playing possibly the most spry old folk in gaming. He is capable of running, jumping and hitting bad folk and spirits with his cane. Scrooge has certainly found youthful vitality since his redemption. If you are familiar with the source material, you will love the nods to the original story, such as familiar characters. Or if you are totally new, you can still enjoy it. You really should check out the original plot.
Streets of London
Ebenezer and The Invisible World presentation is excellent. Using a hand-drawn art style, the city of London feels vibrant and alive. Even though you are navigating basic platforms, in the background, you will see detailed Victorian houses well-lit and decorated for the festive season. In many early scenes of the game, you will even see background NPCs walking around and getting on with their day.
The atmosphere is further amplified with its use of sound. You’ll hear Scrooge’s footsteps as he runs through the streets as a calming soundtrack plays. It is not all just snow and London streets. You’ll encounter many more environments, from a mysterious observatory to a creepy asylum and even make a stop in the spirit world itself. A lot of care and attention has been given to the art style. I could not help but admire its small details.
Exploration and Quests
Ebenezer follows the typical template of an adventure game. You have a main quest to follow with clear instructions in the menus if you forget. To progress, you must acquire new abilities to reach previously inaccessible areas. Expect plenty of backtracking to familiar locations. Although you often won’t have to travel too far thanks to the use of a fast travel hub, which lets you ride on a spirit train to reach old areas.
Controls are easy to pick up. Enemies consist of a mixture of mortal villains and spirit enemies. A feature I liked here is when you defeat the mortal enemies, they fall over stunned, whereas a spirit enemy will disperse as if exorcized from the mortal world. Your weapon of choice is a cane to start, which is strangely effective against spirits. Before long, you unlock many interesting weapons. Such as new canes capable of longer range and more unique weapons like a giant axe and some familiar chains. You’ll also find various trinkets like belts and watches, four of which can be equipped at once to buff your stats.
Call on Spirits to Aid You
If you still need a hand in combat, you can call on the aid of the spirits. At the cost of your spirit meter, a push of a button will summon them into combat to give you some aid in tricky spots. Combat is, for the most part, enjoyable. But there were times when enemy placement felt a bit cheap, like having them hover on the edge of platforms, making it hard to get around them. Like a famous Castle series, you have these floating spirits, which are just the worst.
Once you start to unlock more tools, this does become more manageable. The early game can just came across as a bit cruel in terms of difficulty. On death, you’re sent back to the last save point, which is often very far away, leading to some tedious repetition.
A Good Feeling
As you explore, you will encounter several spirits needing assistance offering side quests, which usually involve simple fetch quests or defeating enemies. On completion, you are rewarded with a new spirit to recruit into your party to assist in combat when called upon. There is plenty of incentive to explore the map, seeking out secrets and missed items. Though you will backtrack frequently, I didn’t find the experience tedious, thanks to the enjoyable gameplay.
It’s always quite a blast to revisit an area with better equipment and remove previously difficult enemies. The game offers a decent challenge. That feels steep to start but gradually levels off as you begin to upgrade and always maintains a satisfying level of difficulty. My biggest praise is I just felt good playing this game, much like watching or reading the original tale. It really brought the Christmas joy outside of the season.
Niggles
I really liked Ebenezer and The Invisible World, but one can’t ignore its many issues during the review process. Some of which even hampered gameplay. The most significant ones were that the game crashed when exploring specific areas on the map or saving at a certain spot. This happened on at least three occasions,
Another big issue is I couldn’t upgrade my health or spirit meters at specific vendors as the game locked on the menu, meaning I had to close the game to get out. Less significant problems included a slowdown in performance, occasionally during combat. Jumping and attacking sometimes isn’t very responsive. There was also one area underground where a black box hovered on the screen till I left the area.
Hopefully, all of this will be ironed out with patches. But they were still present for me following the game’s launch. With glitches like these, I usually would walk away from the game. Yet still, I found myself drawn in thanks to its hopeful vibes. I just hope its issues are sorted out sooner rather than never.
Conclusion: Humbug
Ebenezer and the Invisible World is a surprisingly good adventure game that really captures the joy and spirit of its source material. Though it takes on the familiar exploration formula, its unique approach to combat and beautiful art style make this something quite special.
However, while I do recommend it, you may want to hold this on your wishlist on Switch until all its issues are ironed out. In a way, the game needs to go through its own redemption story, hopefully before Christmas arrives. Once that happens, which I like to believe it will, this will be a wonderful adventure that’s not just for Christmas but any time of the year.
Final Verdict: I Like It
