Quintus and the Absent Truth

When I downloaded the new game Quintus and the Absent Truth, I expected a cute and upbeat platformer starring a tiny mouse exploring an oversized world. I mean, the cover art and pictures make it look like the type of story you might read to a small child. Boy was I surprised to discover that the newest release from EastAsiaSoft is actually a dark and moody horror game, complete with ghosts and a violent conspiracy to uncover. Not that I’m complaining, because this is a much more compelling game than what I thought I was getting myself into. But is it scary enough to recommend? What’s what we’re going to find out when I review Quintus and the Absent Truth.

The first thing you need to know is that this is not a game about a small, absent-minded mouse named Quintus. Instead, it’s about Alan Shaw, a famous musician who has spent the better part of a decade in a funk after the untimely death of his wife, Christie. This has resulted in no new music or concerts, something that is not only frustrating his fans, but also his record label, Andromeda. But that’s the least of his worries when Alan’s daughter, Lydia, goes missing on her birthday. Now, it’s up to Alan to investigate his house and his former recording studio for clues before it’s too late.

It's worth mentioning that Alan is not alone on his journey, as a tiny mouse named Quintus will be tagging along for the ride. You’ll use him to reach out-of-the-way objects or slide into small holes that humans could never get into. Early on, he’s little more than a support character you drop off to get the job done, but there are a few times when we’ll take control of Quintus and go on a separate adventure to help Alan uncover the truth. These are some of the best and most inspired parts of the games, and it adds a fun new angle to both the horror and the mystery.

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Through four short chapters, Alan and Quintus explore and investigate several important locations for clues about the missing daughter and what happened to Christie. Most of our job is to walk through empty corridors picking up important items that can be used to open up new parts of the level, such as a key or a note. There are also a few simple puzzles that you’ll need to solve, such as figuring out what keys to play on a piano or using a drum to solve a keycode riddle. To put it bluntly, these puzzles are easy to figure out, since the answers are almost always in the same room as the puzzle, but at least the game makes the effort.

The problem with Quintus and the Absent Truth is that lots of the elements are as half-assed as the puzzles. They keep sending us to new locations, yet not really giving us anything to do in them. Even the horror elements are little more than simple jump scares, like a broom falling over or a door slamming shut. Things feel like they are picking up when you see a ghost roaming the halls of Alan’s old record label, but, trust me, it’s not as interesting as it seems. This game keeps hinting at being really compelling, then reveals something that blunts the momentum entirely.

The simplistic art style definitely doesn’t help. No matter where you go, the world is presented using pencil outlines and flat textures. It’s supposed to look like the illustration in a kids’ book, and in that sense, I appreciate the artistic approach they took. The problem you’ll run into is that it makes every room and hallway look identical. There are times when it’s hard to figure out what you’re looking at, which makes getting around a lot harder than it should be. This faux-hand drawn style was done significantly better in a recent game called Nuts, mostly because that game decided to also use shading. I get what Quintus is going for, but it ends up being more of a liability than an actual benefit.

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There are also a number of other frustrating gameplay issues that work to keep this horror game down. It’s weird things, too, such as having to hold the “X” button while using the right analog stick to rotate objects you pick up, something that is not comfortable with a modern controller. I also found that interacting with specific objects was inconsistent, where sometimes hitting the prompt did absolutely nothing. Even more frustrating is how you occasionally won’t even be able to pick up the items Quintus brings to you. The game has a real bad habit of breaking and forcing you to reload the checkpoint.

But even if these issues weren’t running rampant through the adventure, Quintus and the Absent Truth would be a disjointed horror game that never fully commits to its style or story. There are certainly compelling elements throughout this short story, but the ending is ultimately disappointing and not very satisfying. Let me put it this way: If you make a game about a world-class, critically-acclaimed musician, you absolutely need to make sure that your big, climactic song at the end doesn’t sound like a bunch of amateurs practicing something they’ve never played before. Instead of being moved or spooked, I spent the entire ending laughing at Alan’s terrible song. Trust me, it’s the most memorable thing in the game.