The Doom Of The Pond

It's a bit like Whitby on Goth Weekend

THE DOOM OF THE POND

(Furillo Productions, 2021)

Oh man, but do these guys do some whacky stuff! Sometimes they dabble in multiple choice adventuring, like the recent The Dark Veil. Sometimes they do vaguely arcade-adventurey things like Federation Z and its soggy follow-up Federation Underwater, both of which show promise, but end up being pretty odd. Then there's the oddest-looking of them all, The Void Bringer, which I'm saving for a later time. Needless to say it looks batspit loopy.

I wish, I wish... for a great big fish

I've noticed one thing about their games though. They often include little sub-games where you fight an opponent by just tapping a key as fast as you can. The same is true here. I think the Furillo boys are more adventurers at heart, not quite so up on the arcade side of things.

I remember these cars from the '80s. Think it's a Fiat, though it looks a bit Lada-y too

Anyway The Doom Of The Pond looks highly unique. It's another multiple choice affair but with rather an attractive interface, with a few more options than you'd normally expect. Though not quite as many as a Wilson/Hogarth quest of old thankfully. It sounds good too with constantly playing tunes. This is the sort of stuff we like!

You pick up caricature postcards randomly as you go, including Sir Clive at one point

Best check the plot belatedly. It's set in Bernard Valley (who?) in the retro-tastic year of 1980. You play Peter Parrish (Spiderman?) and you are callously abandoning your two unwanted pet turtles, Arroyito and Pozolon (I'd call mine Gamera if I had one) in the village pond. Sounds bizarre enough, but clearly things are about to go seriously wrong for Peter in a B-Movie/Swamp Thing stylee.

What lighthouse? Whyeagle's nest? Where chain? Ah, I hate adventures

It all starts off very promisingly. Furillo excel in the graphics department and the presentation is so good, things are off to a flyer. Yet there aren't many options, the main ones being Search/Get, Give/Use, Eat/Drink and movement directions. But it's quite nice to have things simplified for you for a change. Now to wander around and take in the fetid stench of The Pond.

Bob Ross combined with Daley Thompson. Terrifyingly fluffy hair

Be prepared to die a lot. If you don't dig dying, this game ain't for you. It's pretty much a death lottery when you choose which path to take. Not quite heads or tails but not far off it. This seems a shame as most of the 'fun' of an adventure is being able to wander around freely to start with, before tackling any actual problems. No such luck at The Pond, it's a harsh tarskmarstar and no mistake.

Quentin Tarantino's last few films were duds and he went to live in a cave

I got to a certain point after dying umpteen (I counted them) times, but the game then insisted I defeat 7 monsters in battle before going any further. Bit annoying, but I gave it a crack as the game handily grants you a 'Monster Hunt' icon as well. So you press fire as fast as Daley ever could, over and over. But sometimes the creatures just flee, and sometimes you lose, and therefore die, for no discernible reason. Only occasionally do you accidentally snare one.

Well at least it's quite a pretty place to die. Apart from the smell...

And it was at this point that I gave up for now. I've ended up feeling a bit disappointed with this game as it promises so much and really looks like an entertaining twist on the adventure genre. Reminds me a bit of Star Heritage which I reviewed waaaaay back in Part 2 of this site. With some tweaking here and there it could be great, but as it is, I found it too frustrating. Let's hope Furillo go again and work on this idea to produce something even better.

POND-LIFE PERCENTAGE

78%

A tale of what might have been. All set up for a great fun time, but not quite getting there in my book.