Baobabs Mausoleum Ep. 1: Ovnifagos Don't Eat Flamingos

To say that Baobabs Mausoleum is hard to pin down is a gigantic understatement. On the surface it looks like a standard issue throwback adventure game with 8-bit graphics and a chain-smoking hero. But that's maybe 10% of what the first chapter of this episodic series offers, because it's also a turn-based role-playing game, a first-person shooter, a point and click adventure game and even a driving game. And if you think that's strange, wait until you get a load of the twisted story.

This first episode, confusingly titled Ovnifagos Don't Eat Flamingos, introduces us to FBI agent Watracio Walpurgis, an eggplant of a man who finds himself stuck in a small town after his car breaks down. It doesn't take our hero long to realize that Flamingo's Creek isn't like most small towns, and he'll spend the rest of the day scrambling to find a way out. It's a classic horror setup that could have gone in a number of obvious directions, but I guarantee you won't be able to guess what happens next.

Without giving too much away, a lot of the game revolves around looking for items to solve straight-forward puzzles. This basic premise persists even when the game insists on jumping from one genre to the next, which is one of the reasons why all these disparate pieces manage to come together in a cohesive way. Every item you collect will not only bring you one step closer to escaping Flamingo's Creek, but also introduce a new wrinkle to the mystery. And don't expect to get a lot of closure in this first episode, because this 90 minute debut is more interested in asking questions than answering them.

So is it that the developers are making it up as they go along or will these seemingly random story beats eventually add up to something incredible? The truth is, it doesn't matter. Even if this series turns out to be complete nonsense, the fun is the ride it takes you on. It's the kind of game that isn't afraid to make sweeping changes every ten minutes, which fosters a real sense of unpredictability. And assuming that the subsequent episodes are anything like this debut, then there's a chance it could tackle just about every genre by the time it's done. It wouldn't surprise me to see fighting games, Tetris clones and even the rhythm genre worked into the mix. I came away with the sense that just about anything can happen going forward, and that's an exciting feeling.

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The good news is that the surreal tone and oddball characters don't overshadow the gameplay. While simple, Baobabs Mausoleum handles well and I didn't have many problems jumping from one type of game to another. In fact, the only real issue I had with the control came when I couldn't invert the camera during the first-person sections, but since there isn't any shooting, this ended up being more of a minor inconvenience than a big deal. What I like is that you can use a traditional gamepad, which makes Baobabs Mausoleum feel even more like an old school 8-bit game.

Coming in at around an hour and a half, this first episode covers a lot of ground and leaves a lasting impression. It's wonderfully weird and expertly paced, rarely getting bogged down in one location for too long. The puzzles are a little simple and it asks more questions than it answers, but it's an absolutely crazy roller coaster ride filled with genre hopping and oddball characters. And while I'm not sure I fully understand what's going on, I can't wait to play the next episode of Baobabs Mausoleum.