Alexey’s Winter: Night Adventure

Developer: Nezhysoft | Publisher: Nezhysoft | Release Date: 2021 | Genre: Point & Click / Adventure / Indie | Website: N/A | Purchase: Steam

One dark snowy winter evening, Alexey returns from a visit to the grocery shop only to find that he has lost the keys to his apartment. Since the year is 1989 and Alexey lives somewhere in the USSR, his options are limited to finding the lost keys using his own resourcefulness. Armed only with a battered old suitcase filled with sausages, Alexey must find a way out of the cold and back into the warm comfort of his apartment.

This is the premise for episode one of Alexey’s Winter: Night Adventure, a 2D point-and-click adventure by Nezhysoft. The game harkens back to classic point & click adventures with the types of puzzles that will have fans of the genre scratching their heads. Although finding missing keys might not sound very exciting, the down-to-earth setting and characters of the game make it refreshing and memorable. The entire first episode is set in the snowy street outside Alexey’s apartment. However, somehow he still manages to inadvertently cause everything from arson to vandalism in his quest for the keys. As the game is extremely short, we don’t want to spoil any of the puzzles, but suffice to say that Alexey resorts to rather unorthodox methods to get back his keys despite the game being non-violent.

Even more amusing than Alexey’s schemes to get what he wants or needs are the reactions of his neighbors. For example, break a neighbors window to use their telephone, and they will stoically sit by the window to guard against further vandalism. After completing the first episode, Alexey’s misfortune continues with the theft of his television set, with its retrieval taking up the bulk of episodes two and three.

Visually, Alexey’s Winter boasts a completely pencil-drawn aesthetic which is actually a nice match for the game. The only downside is that Alexey’s surroundings are rather static, although this is something that is improved in the second and third episodes. The hand-drawn graphics can also make it tricky at times to figure out what objects Alexey can interact with. Some of them blend in with the backgrounds making them hard to spot, especially when it is not always obvious what Alexey should be doing next. Nevertheless, it is clear that a lot of care and detail went into the art even though it was obviously done on a tight budget.

Like all good point & click adventures, Alexey’s Winter features plenty of dialog with other characters, although, unfortunately, none of it is voiced. Conversations are also all linear, so don’t expect any branching dialogue. Like the visuals, the music in Alexey’s Winter fits the game’s theme, but a few more tracks would have been nice. Point & Click Adventure veterans will feel right at home with the control scheme in Alexey’s Winter. Things are kept simple with left-click used to look at things and right-click to interact with them. Alexey’s suitcase serves as his inventory, where he can store everything from old bottles and money to jars of pickles and snowballs. The game does not require players to combine any inventory items to create new ones, which is a blessing considering some of the ridiculous examples in other adventure games. The game’s overall pace is quite slow, but a few puzzles require players to move Alexey to the right spot or do things in the correct sequences, which can be a bit annoying. However, since there are only three locations in the game, it does cut back on the required amount of backtracking.

Even with three episodes Alexey’s Winter: Night Adventure is a concise game. In total, it took is just over two hours to complete the game and earn all the achievements even after being stumped by a few of the puzzles. Despite its length, the experience was quite enjoyable and the setting made for a nice change of pace from other games. Alexey’s Winter is also very reasonably priced, so nobody will walk away from it feeling shortchanged.

Alexey’s Winter: Night Adventure is fun, but it’s not the type of game that will convert any players who are not already fans of the point & click adventure genre. However, if you are a fan of the genre and fondly remember the nineties classics by Lucasarts, Sierra On-Line, and Revolution Software, this game is definitely worth a look. It’s not as flashy or polished as titles with bigger budgets, but it has a lot of heart and feels surprisingly cozy considering its setting and time period. It would be easy to overlook Alexey’s Winter: Night Adventure based on its genre, art style, and the fact that it is as indie as they come, but doing so would mean missing out on a very unique adventure.