![]() ![]() But this psychedelic vision also imbues the gameworld with a greater ennui and darkness: as you hop between planetary bodies in ever-widening orbits, the game’s “universe” is ultimately revealed to be a finite ecosystem, set against the vast, star-specked emptiness of space. The game is also informed by the broader experience of psychedelics as a perception-enhancing medium, which certainly allows for a healthy dose of classically “trippy” interactions with a wide array of animal and insect characters (including several delightful sections where the right cues lead to musical performances by everything from insects to salamanders to demons). The fungal-psychedelic implications of the developer’s name appear overtly throughout the game: mushrooms play a prominent role in many of the game’s puzzles, and travel between the planetoid stages is via a spore-like spaceship. There’s a strong element of Maurice Sendak and Little Nemo in Dreamland to the series, emphasized even further by the main character’s pyjama-like white bodysuit. ![]() In it, as in the previous games, you play as a nameless, childlike character, simply rendered in juxtaposition to the game’s exquisitely detailed, photorealistic landscapes. Samorost 3 is the full culmination of the ideas touched on by the first two games in the series. And as with all LucasArts titles, there’s a strong emphasis on puzzles that require finding and using objects in specific orders and locations. But Samorost brings an aesthetic all its own to the table, and fully embraces the spirit of dark, vast psychedelia that is merely an aesthetic jumping-off point for games like Grim Fandango. The series draws from the darker side of classic LucasArts titles, particularly those series’ use of nighttime settings and slightly standoffish approaches to storytelling. Samorost 2 followed two years later, and Samorost 3 a full eleven years after that in 2016. In 2003, Amanita founder Jakub Dvorský created the first Samorost as a Flash-based point-and-click adventure. The series is created by Amanita Design, a Brno-based game developer also known for Machinarium and Botanicula, among other games. Aesthetically, the games are like modernist Czech film posters come to life, pairing strange, twisted landscapes with archetypal, folkloric characters, all backgrounded by the blackness of space. ![]() THE UNIVERSE IN which the three Samorost games takes place is a heady blend of psychedelia, space-based sci-fi, and charming (if often dark) fable-like stories. ![]()
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