Is Life Of Delta An Average Joe?

If this Life of Delta review was based on presentation alone, it would score highly. Wow. From the opening cutscene to the gorgeous set design (no, it’s not a film), Airo Games and Daedalic Entertainment’s game is simply stunning. But let’s not judge on looks alone, like my wife constantly implies. What is it?

Let’s say that Life of Delta is a point and click game, but before you pour the grog and rub your thighs in an anticipatory manner, this isn’t a conventional point and click; it’s just the mechanics that follow the rules: move your mouse, point, and – you guessed it, click. In short, this is a puzzle game; it’s a beautiful one at that.

We can conclude that this looks great, but what about the story? Surely that’s key to any adventure? As a point and click veteran, this element would be the core reason for not being a true (whatever that is) point and click: the story is regrettably lacking. You play as Delta, a robot on the verge of being scrapped, only to be saved by a character named Joe. When he disappears, courtesy of some lizard folk, you set out to rescue him.

Life Of Delta Review

Narratively, Life of Delta is subdued, but the graphics will distract you a little, and every once in a while, there will be the option to wipe the drool from your chin. The core gameplay here is the puzzles, which are a subjective experience. Due to a few… events, I’m playing catch-up on reviews, and by the time I received the code, it had already been released. Looking at some Steam reviews, many people say the puzzles are easy, but I thought it was a mixed bag. In a good way.

The puzzle dynamics are simple in design, but solving them wasn’t always straightforward, and I found myself getting stuck on many of them – primarily because I hadn’t understood the brief. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not. If I play a puzzle title, I want to think about what to do. None of the puzzles in the game are brutally hard, but with my mediocre capacity for problem-solving, this wasn’t a quick game, nor will it take an age.

Point Here, Click That

Emphasis again that the mechanics in Life of Delta are a point and click, I was disappointed with how that side played out. The experience is often a linear one, with the occasional backtracking to unlock new things, but interacting with NPCs and objects was quite poor and there was a good deal of pixel hunting very early on. Delta has an on-demand inventory, but there isn’t much thinking involved, and when you use an object, it immediately disappears. More frustrating, when dragging the object onto the playable area, there are no visual indicators on what you can interact with.

Cute lil’ robots are a mainstay with point and clicks, what with the relatively recent Growbot, Ultreia, Beyond A Steel Sky, and ENCODYA. Each has a certain visual charm to it. Life of Delta does lack a little bit in the story side of things, but the puzzles, essentially minigames, satisfied my thirst. It’s entertaining, if occasionally clunky, and I’d encourage you to research this one as it’s divisive. My opinion? I liked it as a well-presented puzzle game.

Verdict

You may be slightly disappointed if you’re here for anecdotes you can share in the years to come at future point and click gatherings. However, go into Life of Delta for a 50+ minigame experience that just so happens to use conventional point and click navigation, and you might be pleasantly surprised.