Game: Watch Over Christmas
Genre: Adventure, Point & Click
System: Steam (Windows, macOS & Linux)
Developers | Publishers: Dionous Games
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $10.39 | UK £9.99 | EU € 10,39
Release Date: December 21st, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Dionous Games.
Watch Over Christmas is a story of a young boy who has one night to save Christmas set in an epic 2D point and click adventure journey. You are probably thinking to yourself, it is a little late for a Christmas game review. Not at all! I’ve been playing the game over the holidays, and it’s been the perfect time to play such a game. So before you put those decorations away for another year grab your Santa hat and have a read.
Watch over Christmas
It’s Christmas Eve, and the game’s story follows a 12-year-old boy named Cisco who learns that Santa Claus has been kidnapped by the evil baddie Krampus. Cisco embarks on a long journey across six chapters plus a prologue and epilogue to rescue Santa and save Christmas. Cisco must save Christmas with the help of Kosmos, the Christmas spirit, in the shape of Cisco’s old teddy bear and a few other friends.
Save Santa Claus
Watch Over Christmas is a full-fledged adventure game clocking in around 12-15 hours for a first playthrough. The game is designed with all the elements of classic point and click adventure games with a modern twist.
It is a typical point and click game. You have a bar at the bottom of the screen that is your inventory. Anything you click on and collect goes into your bag/inventory; you click and drag on an item in your inventory to use it.
The Puzzles
The puzzles, on the whole, are challenging and pretty logical. Clues for most of the puzzles are in the environments of the game. So if you keep your eyes peeled, most are easy enough to spot. However, some of the other puzzles are a little obscure.
A section of the play in the game reminded me of the Lost Woods in Zelda; if you go the wrong direction, you end up back at the start. Only in Watch over Christmas, you talk to magic mushrooms, giving you hints on what direction to go. If you don’t follow their hints, you’ll be walking around the forest lost for days. Unfortunately, there isn’t a dedicated standalone hint system in the game, and at times, I did feel that one should be included to help the player a little on their adventure.
Quirky Characters
There are plenty of areas for Cisco and Kosmo to visit on their quest to rescue Santa Claus. I particularly like the Yule forest and the funfair, which you visit early in the game. In addition, there are many quirky characters to interact with and gather clues from on what your next move should be.
The story is interesting, and it certainly pushes you on to find out what happens and does Cisco manage to rescue Santa. The game is full of humour, between Cisco talking to the camera in 4th wall mode and corny questions and answers you can choose when interacting with the characters.
Visuals and Controls
Graphically the game is delightful, full of colour and gives off a festive feel. It reminds me of a pop-up book. Music is appropriate and in keeping with the season the game is set in. However, there isnt any voice acting at this stage in the game’s development.
I did feel that it needed voice acting to lift the game’s story a little. It’s fine that the voice acting is missing for now, but it would add more to the game if it were there. I have read that the developers are working on the voice acting to add it later.
Controls are mainly via the mouse and it all works fine, though be prepared for a lot of clicking. The game menu does say that a controller works with the game but neither of the two controllers I have for my laptop wouldn’t work with the game.
Conclusion
Watch over Christmas is a delightful point and click game. The lack of voice acting is noticeable but once that’s added it will give the game that extra pizzazz that the game is lacking at the moment. You certainly get your money’s worth in regards to the length of the game, it is a long one. With plenty of puzzles to complete and lots of quirky characters to meet it is an enjoyable game.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot 