Reversion - The Escape

Episodic point-and-click adventures are all the rage nowadays, but striking the right balance between content and cost is a difficult trick to master. Unfortunately, Reversion - The Escape doesn't quite manage it.

It's entertaining while it lasts - albeit a little prone to crashes - but you can polish off the game in less than half an hour, and there's very little reason to go back and play through again.

It might be a decent setup for an exciting adventure to follow, but the paucity of content on offer is likely to put you off from picking up the next instalment.

Reversion therapy

The game is set in Buenos Aires in the not-too-distant future, and casts you as an amnesiac who wakes up in a hospital unsure of how he got there and what the hell is going on.

There are hints at time travel being involved somewhere along the line, but most of the larger story remains veiled in this first chapter.

Your job is to escape from a crumbling hospital where you're being held semi-captive by a group of paramilitary soldiers, bringing a taciturn fellow captive, who may or may not have answers about your past, with you.

To that end you'll point and click your way around six or seven rooms, picking up items, talking to other characters, and trying to concoct an escape plan with the limited resources at your disposal. If you find yourself stuck, a free hint system will help you out.

The puzzles and combinations you need to make lay a little too close to the esoteric, but there are moments of ingenuity - especially as you try to work out the names of the four guards on duty in order to steal a key to a storeroom.

Mal content

More often than not, though, you'll find yourself relying on the hint system. It's especially infuriating that the game only unlocks certain actions once they've been hinted at by other characters, rather than letting you discover ways to move on organically.

Reversion - The Escape isn't a bad point-and-click adventure - it's just a little rough around the edges, and the lack of content is going to prove a real bugbear for any but the most ardent fans of the genre.