Creaks (2020)

I have completed my replay of Creaks. Creaks, along with Return of the Obra Dinn and Heaven's Vault is a sort of personal trinity. Foolishly I had waited for them to be discounted before getting them. They inspired great joy and somewhat renewed my interest in games at a time which was personally vexing during the argybargy of work during the pandemic. Nonetheless of the 3, perhaps suffering too much by comparison, it was the one that came out as distinctly third best.

All three had, of course, lineages of the most high orders. While I was an admirer of Papers Please it was, to me, very much a modest indie game - something that was more of an art piece with a message than a full-fledged game. So Obra Dinn blew that one up. I was also a huge fan of 80 Days, although it was somewhat tainted as a mobile game (I always played it on computer) and Heaven's Vault was also sufficiently different to become something else entirely.
Creaks, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky at first time. On the one hand it is a direct continuation of the gameplay of the Samorost series, Machinarium and Botanicula. And, for that reason, in 2020, it didn't seem as fresh. Competent, fine and interesting, but it didn't grab me as much. I actually preferred the much more modest Pilgrims, which had a pretty original gameplay. As I commented elsewhere, I think a problem resides in the setting and characters - it's just not fantastical enough. The main character is a bland blond boy and the other characters are mostly anthropomorphisized animals - just not weird and quaint enough comparing with Amanita Design's previous games.

Playing it in 2025 not everything is the same, as I'm now having the opportunity to play it in a 27inch 4K monitor. I think because its worlds and settings are so memorable, I tend to forget that the older games are not as slick as this. Creaks looks beautiful. There are no polygons, it's all handdrawn of the highest quality. The music, while not as strangely endearing as Flöex's previous works, fits and, rather fittingly considering the title, a lot of extra work is present in incidental sound effects that add a lot to gameplay.

Gameplay has dropped the mouse and grasped the keyboard or controller. I played it with keyboard - it's just WASD, Space and Control so perfectly playable with one hand - an advantage in these winter days if I can keep one hand warm in my cardigan's pocket. As I was playing it I hadn't realised how much of an hommage it was to games like Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia and Another World/Out of This World - the main character specifically has the same everyman appeal, someone who lives in the real world and is somehow magically transported to a fantasy world.

Another point that highlights this heritage from Another World lies in the storytelling which uses absolutely no words. In this way, using anthropormophized characters serves a purpose - there are facial expressions and limbs for perceptible non-verbal communication. This is set to great effect within its Czech animation heritage. All the gibberish playwords, the central european aesthetics - for outside observers perhaps a mix of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen played by a hopeless Jonathan Harker.

The gameplay of this sort of game lives and dies by its puzzles. As best as I could argue I don't find faults with them. Having to have some dexterity they're still very approachable and, above all, satisfying to crack. Mechanics are added progressively in a coherent way to its world setting. Some require quite a few moving parts but it's all rather cleverly done as you manipulate levers, enemies and weight switches in "A ha!" moments.
A word as well for a lot of hidden rooms and minigames within. These don't operate as well (although they're presented as mechanical games, so gameplay roughness might be part of its design) but there's a lot of play in the chase to see and do everything.

Thus as I neared the end it started to become apparent. This was Amanita's greatest game yet. Not a revolution from their previous efforts, but perfecting the formula. It delivers in every aspect and, while the setting may indeed not be as instantly appealing for its oddity and aesthetics, it is at the same time much more of a love letter to their european roots, be it in fairytale or game, and I argue that it is the best game of its kind yet made.