You can wait and see where the whale will take you or try to find a way out of his belly each choice will lead to a different second event. The two events between these plot points will vary depending on the choices you make. The brothers will encounter four major events in their travels, always starting with the whale and ending with another recurring creature. There is no fail state, and even seemingly disastrous choices (like becoming lunch) will simply send them down a different path. You’ll often have the power to help or hinder them, choosing whether you save them from the jaws of a toothy beast or allowing them to be chomped instead.

Sometimes you’ll affect the world around them, like sending a bird fluttering away or lighting a dark cavern so they can find their way out. Most of your interaction with the world is through pulling back the curtain of the current scene and showing the Beards which direction to go. Although you don’t have direct control over the brothers-Brave, Hasty, and Steady Beard respectively-you do guide them on the paths they will travel. What happens next is up to you, the player-storyteller. The bearded heroes set out from the island in search of the “adventurous deeds and heroic feats” promised by the mapmaker and are promptly swallowed by a whale. Curious and thirsty for adventure, the brothers seek out the owner of the map, who claims there is more to its empty waters than may appear. The map’s strangeness is borne of its seeming uselessness: it plots only the location of their own island and nothing else. That story follows the Brothers Beard, three robust fishermen who discover a strange map in their nets one morning. It is a game that rewards both storytellers and storylisteners, as you are both: the guiding hand that keeps the tale going and the delighted reader who is surprised by the turn your story has taken. Its progress is not from solving puzzles but in adding to your ever-growing collection of tall tales about your endless adventures. It features none of these devices, feeling much more like a choose your own adventure storybook than a classic point-and-click game.

While Doggins could easily be called a point-and-click adventure thanks to its item collection, inventory management, and puzzle-solving, Burly Men at Sea does not fit so easily into the genre mold. Players who felt Doggins’ adventure ended too abruptly will be pleased to know Burly Men has a lot more meat on its bones, but it’s still focused on short bites of something very special. This love of the fantastical is revisited in Burly Men at Sea’s oceanic voyages inside the belly of a whale past a talking mountain and even to the very bottom of the watery depths, where mystical talking sea creatures reside. Their first, Doggins, was a short but sweet hop into a terrier’s dreams of space flight, time travel, and villainous squirrel shindigs. Some interactions and options are a bit unclear.īurly Men at Sea is the second “quiet adventure” from two-person development house Brain&Brain. 5/5” -TIMEīurly Men at Sea is the second game from married duo Brain&Brain, developed during their own adventures as nomads and erstwhile farmhands.Would have liked more variety in the first and final events of each playthrough. “Artful interplay of visual minimalism, waggish writing and hilarious but also haunting sound effects generated by gorgeous a cappella voices. “The closest thing I’ve played to an interactive fairy-tale.” -The Telegraph PLAYFUL AESTHETIC: Colorful art style with handcrafted animation, set to a whimsical original soundtrack inspired by folk music of the far north. INNOVATIVE CONTROLS: Shape the narrative through a unique, draggable viewport and your interactions within it. You play as storyteller and wayfinder, shaping a custom tale that begins again where it ends.īRANCHING STORY: Play through multiple choice-driven adventures, each designed to be completed in a single sitting. With gameplay halfway between a visual novel and a point-and-click adventure, the branching story carries its ungainly heroes into waters where lurk creatures from Scandinavian folklore and other misadventures. Read Moreīurly Men at Sea is a folktale about a trio of large, bearded fishermen who step away from the ordinary to seek adventure. With gameplay halfway between a visual novel and a point-and-click adventure, the branching story carries its ungainly heroes. Burly Men at Sea is a folktale about a trio of large, bearded fishermen who step away from the ordinary to seek adventure.

Sjorm burly men at sea