Game Classification

Clover is a watercolour side-scrolling platform puzzle game. In design it resembles a traditional adventure game as most of the gameplay is centered around item-based puzzle solving and adapting to the world's events, without health bars, harmful enemies, weapons or dying permanently. In that ways it is reminiscent of the classic Dizzy series. The game is set in the peaceful land of Sanha ruled by King Heydrich. One day the Sanhan merchant ship HMS Jingo is attacked, sinking without survivors. The neighbouring nation of Andala is accused and the teenager Sam Kirkwell receives notice that he is now entitled to an orphan's allowance, as his mother was aboard the ship. Finding no way to cope with the loss Sam sets out to retrieve some of the ship's debris, as requested by the king.

Sam gets to explore much of the land of Sanha right away, talking to other civilians and solving problems. There are no dialogue trees and all interaction is done with a single key. Sam can pick up items to store them in his inventory. Initially only two items can be stored simultaneously, but later he will find a way to get a bigger bag. When a new item is picked up and no room is left, another is dropped right away, but it does not disappear and can be revisited at a later time. When solving a puzzle with the interaction key, the process is automated when Sam is carrying the right item. No inventory item combinations are needed and players also do not need to select the correct item from the inventory.

There are a few minor platform elements where Sam has to jump over gaps or avoid enemies. When dying or in a dangerous situation, the screen fades to white and a retry is offered. Sam can also regularly pick up newspaper scraps that are stored in his house and progressing through the game unlocks items in an art gallery. The game is complemented with full voice acting.

The reworked Windows version contains new animations for every character, new graphics, a revamped user interface and new effects. It also has complete voice-acted English dialogue for an extended script (four times as much as the original), and French and Spanish translations. The gameplay has been updated with new puzzles and subquests, four new endings and a playable epilogue. The controls have been tweaked to provide context-sensitive controls. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : PC (Windows) - Xbox 360 (X360)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/clover/