☆ BEAR WITH ME EPISODE 3 - "A trilogy you should definitely bear with" ☆

The first two chapters of Bear With Me were strong adventure games with tightly scripted, comedic dialogue and a fun approach to its game world. 

The latest and final trip back to Paper City is a great end to a trilogy that has kept its eye on the ball from the start, with the quality in each instalment keeping to its self-set high standard.

The title screen of Bear With Me is a tasteful reference to the very famous Edward Hopper painting ‘Nighthawks’ which sets the scene as you begin the final chapter.

I watched the catch-up video to refresh myself on the previous happenings in the first two games, which I had played back in March and I must admit that it seemed to skim over the main plot of the game  (Amber looking for her brother Flint) and instead focused on other parts of the story, it seemed odd as her missing brother is the entire motive for Amber starting her adventure, although I suppose this wouldn’t really be an issue as so few people would hurtle straight into the third and final part of a trilogy of games so would be up to speed with the happenings of previous instalments.

The game is heavy with pop culture references (the very first screen has a Big Lebowski reference, good) and the game throws puzzles at you straight away which has a good balance of difficulty and never veer into the illogical.

 
The graphics are crisply drawn, smoothly animated and heavily drenched in noir, the lilting jazzy music providing a perfect backdrop to Ted E Bear’s rambling internal monologues and the humour is as sharp as ever. 

In this episode, Amber and Ted are separated from the start and so we follow Ted in trying to locate her whereabouts as he comes to various realisations about himself and his own motivations. This chapter of the game features far more on Ted in the first half before switching to Amber for the final segments. 

I found this episode to be the most rounded in terms of the mix of humour and emotional content. It genuinely had me laughing out loud in some sections and really getting me emotionally invested in the characters at key moments in the narrative.

The end of the game does get quite full-on and meta with the melding of dual realities and the unfolding of the truth behind the events of the game, it doesn’t shy away from the dark subject matter that has been teased throughout the trilogy and I found the ending to be a satisfying conclusion to the time I spent with the series. 

 
Summary
It was enjoyable to find such three-dimensional characters in a point and click adventure game. I was surprised in some sections to find grammatical errors, typos and mismatched spoken lines occasionally, the rest of the game has such polish that I thought that these would have been picked up during the beta testing phase. 

However, when this small flaw is held up to such an enthralling trilogy of games, it’s a small quibble indeed in the grand scheme.  

I look forward to seeing what Exordium games treat us to next, they’ve definitely set the bar high for themselves.

RATING:ICE COOL

Ratings Explained

ICE COOL (Great Game Recommended)

MELTING (Just Falls Short Of Greatness)

MELTED (Not A Recommended Purchase)

Game Link: Steam
Dev Link: Exordium Games

Review By Britt