"Guard Duty"

"Guard Duty"
Reviewed by: Carless Yen
Developer: Sick Chicken Studios
Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Release Date: 4/22/2020
Platforms: Switch, PS4, XBOX, Steam, Vita
Price: 9.99

As a fan of PC gaming at a very early age I'm no stranger to point and click titles. Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Monkey Island, Myst, and King's Quest were some of my first adventures. I didn't know Guard Duty was a point and click title though when first receiving it in a email to review. I was used to Ratalaika delivering retro platformers so this really caught me off guard. So caught off guard from the very start I figured that would be it for the surprises, but I was so wrong. I was surprised over and over again though. Surprised when I heard so a beautiful and well rounded soundtrack from a budget title. I was surprised when I realized I was playing a budget Ratalaika indie, and was hearing such professional and outstanding voice acting. I was surprised to be enjoying such a original story full of comedic moments,adventure, horror, and just overall so original with it's SciFi time travel delivery. Guard Duty had my interest early, and never let go. Even had me glued to my television during the credits. I just knew there was something special about this game, and was glad to be reviewing this little piece of indie art.

You play as Tondbert, loyal Guard to the Castle of Wrinklewood. He gets drunk one night while guarding the door and let's a strange character in the gates. This of course leads to the capture of the Princess. Tondbert has strong feelings for her so he wishes to go on a mission to rescue her and win her heart. As well as the King's respect after blowing his job so badly. Tondbert's first mission is finding his Armor he lost during his drunken night armed only with a To Do List. The Journey is one to capture your heart and stay with you very long after it is over. Your choices matter, and the dialogue is just golden. Over 600 lines of actual voiced storytelling. That cover two different time periods far into the past and the future. I guarantee you don't skip over this dialogue as it is just perfection.

like all Ratalaika Games the Achievements are fun and simple. You can miss a couple though. You also won't get this super fast either. It took me about a hour and a half to finish this one. I guess you could do it in around a hour If you were only worried about capturing Gamer score. I don't think that will happen though, because Guard Duty grabs your attention very early. I usually do video reviews for all of my games I cover. I rarely take the easy way out and do written alone, but I just didn't want to give away a lot for this title. I feel as If the video I was working on really ruined a lot of the story so i just stuck to the written this time. So many cool locations and plot twists were shown in that review video, and I wanted people who saw this to experience everything the way I did, unaware of what really awaited them.

Pros:
Perfect Voice Acting
Excellent Storytelling, So original
Quality music and sound effects
Wonderful characters
Well designed pixel art animations
Affordable retro fun

Cons:
Left me wanting more,a little short

Overall 8.2
I never expected to rate this game this high. i didn't really see this coming. Sick Chicken studios just really delivered everything we loved about classic point in clicks on to the modern consoles. if you grew up playing the classic PC adventures don't miss out on this little adventure. It's well worth your time and money.