By this, I don’t mean that it ends with a pleasurable kind of ambiguity that allows us to speculate (Lissie-style) or come to our own conclusions. Draugen seems to be aware of the problem and circumnavigates the danger of a bad resolution by deciding to have no resolution at all. Sadly, Draugen is a mystery game, and the thing with mysteries is that an unsatisfying resolution can retroactively spoil even the most enjoyable experience.
When she isn’t quipping or poking fun at the Old Bean for his tiresomeness, she’s dancing around, practising handstands, or climbing trees. Her wild speculations about what might have happened and irreverent yet empathetic character are consistently delightful. Next to Lissie, however, he appears downright dull (he is, in Lissie’s words, “such a pill”. Throughout all of this, we converse with Lissie via a very simple dialogue system that’s less about influencing the way the story plays out and more about illuminating Edward’s thoughts and inner life. We find letters and other documents that hint at a bigger story there’s talk about lost Viking treasure, a terrible murder, a curse, and the Draugen, an undead creature from Scandinavian folklore. Most of the village is open for exploration, but our progression through the story is entirely linear. Here, we begin our search for Betty, and an investigation into what happened to the villagers. It’s gorgeous and eerie all at once its entire population seems to have vanished from the face of the earth, and its picturesque huts and homesteads with old-timey charm lie abandoned in the middle of breathtaking but cold natural beauty.Īvalanches rumble on the summits of distant mountains while the ghostly silhouette of a Nordic church peeks through the mist atop the precipice overlooking the harbour. Nestled against the mountains and the cold shores of the fjord, it makes a big impression despite its humble size. In many ways, Graavik and its surrounding landscape is the third major character of the game. With him in the boat is his ward Alice, or Lissie, an imaginative 17-year-old girl with lots of attitude who delights in coming up with all manner of fanciful nicknames for our protagonist (see above).
Our middle-aged protagonist Edward (aka ‘Teddy Bear’ or ‘Old Bean’) made the journey from Boston to Scandinavia in search of his disappeared sister Betty, a journalist who, for an unknown reason, was on her way to Graavik the last time Edward heard from her. It’s the early 1920s, and we arrive at the remote, tiny Norwegian village of Graavik by rowing boat. As far as first impressions go, Draugen knows what it’s doing.
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