THE ARTFUL ESCAPE
Is this sci-fi rock opera bound for the big time?
Developer Beethoven & Dinosaur Publisher Annapurna Interactive Format PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series Origin Australia Release September 9
On the face of things, Francis Vendetti has a lot going for him. He’s a slim, well-dressed, good-looking folk musician, who lives in a particularly picturesque part of Colorado. Yet he’s been cursed to live in the shadow of a famous relative: his uncle Johnson was a hugely successful Dylan-style troubadour. From the very opening shot of a gig poster on a redwood trunk, bearing the legend ‘Nephew Of Johnson Vendetti’, his future path seems set. Even the pause menu is an image of one of Johnson’s albums on vinyl (complete with detailed sleeve notes). Sean Lennon and James McCartney, look away now.
Yet, after you are invited to press the X button to strum brief snippets of two mournful folk ballads, Vendetti trots over to a lookout and begins to play a very different tune, shredding on his guitar in a manner more akin to rocker Steve Vai. That’s enough to attract the attention of Violetta – an achingly cool young woman sporting a purple bubble jacket, matching hi-tops and what looks like a boiler suit. If she’s to be the archetypical muse in this story, her droll delivery would suggest her role is more sarky pixie dream girl. “I find lost young men are in the business of irrational and dangerous decisions,” she deadpans, as she encourages Vendetti to change his stars.
Quite literally, as it turns out. “He goes on this crazy space journey to create his stage persona,” creative lead Johnny Galvatron explains. “Kind of like if David Bowie went on a space journey and came back as Ziggy Stardust.” We’re quickly whisked off to a place called the Heliotromms, whose denizens “feed on stories”, Galvatron continues. Violetta is here, too, albeit this time as a glitchy projection. Meanwhile, Vendetti is now sporting an all-in-one jumpsuit that simultaneously reminds us of Ziggy Stardust and Tron. He’s looking for a creature called Stargordon, we’re told, who will help Vendetti find his way to The Cosmic Lung. “It’s like a stolen Austrian opera house in a breathing piece of coral that floats around space,” Galvatron says casually, as if that’s the kind of location you see in every videogame.
Not that the planet we’re on is any more familiar. Cast in shades of violet and lavender, it’s a beautiful, frigid forest environment, albeit one where the wildlife seems to like the cold. Now equipped with a rock guitar, Vendetti can play as he explores, leaping into the air and strumming a chord with a gleeful flourish, the beginnings of a solo sounding out as he emerges from the thicket to a backdrop that could easily be ripped from a prog-rock album cover. With a bright moon peeking out from behind another planet
above an arrangement of jagged peaks, it’s like a piece of Roger Dean artwork come to life.
Vendetti automatically pulls off kneeslides and skids down a long slope as his fingers move effortlessly up and down the neck. This is all just a button-press away, but as Galvatron notes, it’s simple by design. “I approached it in a musical way – it’s not meant to have a lot of virtuosity to it,” he says. “I don’t necessarily enjoy playing the stuff that’s extremely technical, like Dragonforce stuff. I like playing Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Rather, this is about empowerment, and the fantasy of becoming a rock god. It wouldn’t do to be fretting over fret positioning. Just keep holding that button and the game will produce a glorious facemelter.
A stage pad at a cliff’s edge brings in another face button, as Vendetti lands, setting off a plume of smoke, and what looks like a firework in the background. This turns out to be a strange satellite that zooms towards the foreground and produces a giant set of ethereal speakers, prompting a short call-andresponse sequence where you copy three chords to produce a bridge over the chasm. Now it’s time for the fireworks, with ethereal streetlights guiding you downhill once more as you slide towards a series of interactive museum exhibits, positioned within this world to tell the fictional story of the stage persona of Lightman, a legendary performer played by Carl Weathers.
It’s clear Annapurna Interactive has been keen to invest in audio to match the quality of the visual presentation. Joining Weathers are Michael Johnston as Vendetti and Caroline Kinley as Violetta, while the likes of Lena Headey and Mark Strong (of whom Galvatron admits to being “a little bit scared”) round out the cast. Not forgetting Jason Schwartzman as “a floating brain in an aquarium atop a flotilla of goldfish fins” (talk about typecasting) who narrates Lightman’s story.
The show goes on even when Vendetti pauses to learn more about this intergalactic idol, and as he moves on, the player is encouraged to “jam with the environment”. Vendetti’s dextrous fingerwork causes plants to flourish, as strange creatures pop up to say hello. Then green crystalline structures magic into existence, before we sprint through a flowery field beneath the legs of towering quadrupedal aliens. To sidestep the technical challenge of ensuring each guitar lick lines up perfectly with the music, Galvatron explains that it’s been written to be “interchangeable and kind of amorphous”. He likens it to Dark Side Of The Rainbow, that remarkable coupling of Pink Floyd’s album and The Wizard Of Oz, where the two play out synchronously. “It’s your brain associating this kind of shredding with the moments and the music behind it. And it’s your brain that really brings it all together around the musical theory.”
At times The Artful Escape seems more focused on the pyrotechnics than the performance. We find ourselves wondering if it could afford to leave just a little more room for player expression, so we can showcase our individuality in the way Vendetti is learning to. Yet there is something irresistible in its celebratory tone. It’s there in those reactive environments, from the dancing aliens to platforms that sound out glockenspiel-like tones as you land upon them. It’s rudimentary stuff, but this is platforming as performance.
And this is the kind of gig you’d normally see from a more versatile veteran artist: Galvatron notes that one world sounds “more ethereal, more Dave Gilmour”, while a lategame setting nods to Talking Heads, and others have “a Bill & Ted vibe”. It’s the latter that comes through most strongly, not least the wide-eyed notion that music can (literally) change the world. “It is a Keanu kind of optimistic game,” Galvatron smiles. “That’s usually the stuff [we] make. And, yeah, I hope that comes across.” As we watch searchlights and fireworks framing an ice palace while Vendetti whoops, you’d be hard pushed to argue otherwise. And this, remember, is the part of the concert when the audience is just starting to warm up. Heaven knows what
The Artful Escape has planned for the encore.
A late-game setting nods to Talking Heads, while others have “a Bill & Ted vibe”