Game Review: ‘Foolish Mortals’ Is a Ghoulish Delight
Foolish Mortals is a new point-and-click adventure game developed by the indie game developer and publisher Inklingwood Studios. Throughout your journey, you’ll take on the role of Murphy McCallan as you explore an island known as Devil’s Rock that lies just off the coast of Louisiana. You’ll encounter a colorful cast of island locals, ghosts, gators, and more as you uncover the mystery of what happened to the inhabitants of Bellemore Manor.
At its heart, Foolish Mortals leads you through the journey of a ghost story dealing with mystery, murder, and tales of a hidden treasure. Due to the nature that this game primarily focuses on intricate point-and-click-style puzzles and a wholly engaging plot, I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum while I focus on some of the broader strokes of the story.
Foolish Mortals is currently only available to play on PC and can be purchased either through Steam or GOG. If you’re more of a handheld player and you own one, this game can also be played on the Steam Deck.
Finding out what happened to Abigail Bellemore and her brothers takes up a pretty good chunk of the game’s four acts. Before you can dive into that, you’ll encounter magic spells, ghosts in the manor, and what happened on a fateful night over thirty years ago.
While the plot is very important, it’s the character moments that help make the world feel alive and lived in. The game takes inspiration from Disneyland’s “Haunted Mansion” attraction that has graced the park for nearly 60 years. The New Orleans feel is alive and well in Foolish Mortals, and while the game doesn’t play out exactly like that theme park attraction, you can feel its influence all throughout the game.
Foolish Mortals is a hauntingly beautiful experience
Foolish Mortals is a four act game, with each part of the story being broken up into sections that have a clear beginning and an end, with very little overlap in regard to puzzles in each act. As you begin your journey on the island of Devil’s Rock, you will be dropped off by a cab and immediately be introduced to the player-controlled protagonist, Murphy McCallan.
Murphy is a delightful character that is voiced by A.J. LoCascio, who is probably better known as the voice of Marty McFly in the Telltale Games title Back to the Future. Murphy is an auditor who is pursuing finding out what exactly happened in Bellemore Manor and the treasure that lies within the now abandoned house. It is the middle of the night, and you are warned that the incoming tide will leave you unable to leave the island until morning.
As you slowly uncover the mysteries of the island, you’ll end up speaking to the locals of the small town Deadnettle. You won’t have many choices of where to enter or of people to speak to when you first start your adventure in this small town, but I don’t see this as a negative.
Starting off with few options of people to speak to and places to see is a sign of a great point-and-click adventure game. By not assuming the player is overly familiar with these types of games is a wise choice, as you do not want to be overwhelmed when starting a game like Foolish Mortals.
As the game opens up more, you’ll have plenty of people to have conversations with, items to line your inventory with, and so many fun and creative puzzles. My favorite thing about playing point-and-click adventure games, aside from the stories, is taking random items in your inventory and seeing what sort of combinations you can make with other items.
Thankfully, Foolish Mortals isn’t one of those older-style point-and-click adventure games where you have to click on every single pixel to find what can or cannot be interacted with. There are several ways that the game becomes more accessible, such as being able to highlight what is interactive and an incredibly generous hint system.
There were some puzzles in the second act that I was completely stumped by, and despite my own arrogance of trying to brute force my way through puzzles, I ultimately relied on using the hint system. The hint system is so wonderfully integrated into the game by presenting it as Murphy’s Journal, where it will drip-feed you hints if needed.
My entire playtime, with the inclusion of using the hint system, sits at around 11 hours. While I have no plans to immediately jump back into the game, I do intend on going back to get the remaining achievements I missed during my first playthrough.
Engaging voices and creativity from this Inklingwood Studios game
Aside from the story and gameplay of Foolish Mortals, the biggest standout to me would have to be the incredible voice acting and direction. The company behind the voice direction of the game is called The Game Editors. The Game Editors really knocked it out of the park because not only did they do a fantastic job with casting the voice actors, but also the way the actors were directed with line delivery is what I would describe as perfect.
The actors didn’t feel stilted, the quality of the recordings is high, and the variety of voices are impressive. Most of the actors who provided voices were acting in multiple roles, and as the credits rolled, I was amazed by the range some of these actors have.
I want to specifically point out the range of two voice actors in particular: Rhiannon Moushall, who voices Abigail and more, and Will De Renzy-Martin, who voiced more characters than anyone else; they are truly the standouts of this game!
Final thoughts on Foolish Mortals
I found Foolish Mortals to be a wonderful experience, as it was able to flood my mind with nostalgic feelings of playing some of my other favorite point-and-click adventure games. Foolish Mortals is my favorite point-and-click that I’ve played in the past decade, barely squeaking by Grundislav Games’ very own Lamplight City, which is another title that I adore and recommend.
The visions of David and Sophie Younger and the rest of the team that worked on this game really shine brightly as you play the game. I’m particularly impressed because it’s challenging to make a new point-and-click adventure game that clicks this well for me, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience than I had with Foolish Mortals.
My rating for this game: 5/5
If you are a fan of games like this or are a complete newcomer to this genre, I wholeheartedly recommend Foolish Mortals. Sure, there are some minor difficulty spikes that may require the use of the hint system, but I think all of that can be ignored due to the scope of a game like this.
I have played over 50 point-and-click adventure games over the past decade, and this is easily the biggest standout of those I’ve played so far. I wish I could go back in time to last week, erase my memory, and be able to experience the game for the first time all over again. Furthermore, I encourage you that if you decide to play Foolish Mortals, avoid looking up any major spoilers or even puzzle hints and just go into the game completely blind.
After playing Foolish Mortals, I am excited to see what Inklingwood Studios has planned in the future because I will certainly be playing whatever they put out!
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