THE BRADWELL CONSPIRACY
Psst! This game’s (almost) Bradical
Come on, not another sci-fi game set in a Stonehenge museum hit by a mysterious explosion! Get some new ideas, guys! This one is a first-person puzzle game where, with the help of one other character communicating with you via the magic glasses you both have, you have one objective: escape.
There’s no getting around it; the first thing to hit us about this game is the dodgy framerate, which jitters whenever we try to do anything more complicated than walk in a straight line. This is quickly forgiven when we start to explore the ruined museum building, which feels like a real place. There are functional-looking working spaces, genuine Stonehenge trivia displayed in the public area, emails with (intentional?) spelling and typing errors, and even the remains of a small birthday celebration to be found. There’s a very welcome sense of humour throughout, too, much of which is to be found in easily missed details. 1
The puzzle element comes with the introduction of what is, in effect, a sci-fi vacuum cleaner, which you can use to suck up certain objects to place elsewhere at your leisure. It regularly comes in handy for crossing gaps2 and, as a result, none of the puzzling is likely to give you much trouble (apart from the final light reflection one, which can become tedious). However, the world is so interesting, and the script so good – not to mention surprising in the middle – that this isn’t a problem.
Although it’s a bit buggy (we had to reload a few checkpoints to progress), it’s no secret that this will be five to six hours of your time well spent. Luke Kemp