Foolish Mortals (2025)

A very good game that could be great if it had better pacing. FOolish Mortals draws from many wells--from the works of Edgar Allan Poe, to Southern Gothic culture and folklore, to Monkey Island, to Day of the Tentacle, to Wuthering Heights and more.

It is quite an enjoyable ride that comes close to being exceptional, if not for the slow pacing, which drags more than a little in Act 3, and some strange design choices, such as the inability to pause during dialogue that locks you in at a snail's pace, and is unpredictably staged throughout the game.

I'd recommend Foolish Mortals if you are a patient person who loves point-and-clicks, which--even then, as I consider myself among such an audience--may still be a tad slow and plodding at times.

Foolish Mortals is a point and click game where you play as an auditor searching for a fabled treasure in a haunted manor. The story twists and turns, and ends up being about so much more. And while the art and animation are some of the most professional in the genre, the gameplay was a little bit of a mixed bag.

80% of the puzzles are spot-on: challenging, logical, and fulfilling to solve. But mixed in are some seriously bonkers moon logic puzzles (which I suppose is faithful to the old style).

But beyond this, I also had an issue with the writing. The dialogue - and as a result the pacing - just dragged on a bit longer than necessary. It reminds me of all the Grundislav games, which are basically unplayable unless you’re a visual novel fan. This game definitely isn’t as bad, but there’s many extended sections of the game spent wading through tedious dialogue trees.

But overall, I mostly enjoyed it. The art and the majority of the puzzles were very solid and fun to solve. The story was just interesting enough to keep me going too. But I wish that the more illogical puzzles were cut, as well as the writing tightened up a bit.