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Her Majesty’s SPIFFING Review – Point N’ Click Royally

Her Majesty’s SPIFFING Review – Point N’ Click Royally

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Kickstarter is a bit of a gamble when it comes to games and Belfast studio BillyGoat Entertainment are well aware of it. The first time they tried to fund Her Majesty’s SPIFFING didn’t get close to their goal. Fortunately, they weren’t discouraged and some time later they went back and got enough funding.

Last December they released the first part of what they hope is a trilogy following Captain Frank Lee English in space. They were kind enough to give us a Steam key to review the game, and here’s that review.

[pullquote]”So long as we avoid resorting to trite nationalistic jokes we should be fine.”[/pullquote]

This is the most British game of all time. In terms of humour, story and circumstances. The game starts when Queen Elizabeth dissolves the parliament and decides to rule the United Kingdom herself (a quick rewrite that the creators did after Brexit, and funnily enough it works well). And while things improved, the Queen realises that the future is out there so she creates the Special Planetary Investigative Force For Inhabiting New Galaxies, or S.P.I.F.F.I.N.G. for short.

The game follows the HMSS Imperialise and its crew: Captain Frank Lee English and his Welsh sidekick Aled Jones. Their mission is to boldly go where no man has gone before, looking for an inhabitable planet for the Empire.

[pullquote]”I’d just like to clarify that I’m not actually English. I’m Welsh”[/pullquote]

Her Majesty’s SPIFFING is a point and click adventure. We play as the aforementioned Captain English with Aled Jones serving as a sidekick/slash foil.

To put it bluntly, this game is the most British game I have ever seen. If Monty Python had ever made a video game (or a GOOD video game) this would be it. I mean, the first thing you have to do in this game is make a cup of tea! And there’s a robot that takes the misery out of making tea. It’s full of things like that, but you can see it mostly in its humour.

It has a dry, witty and self-referential humour. Though it might be too English for many people, but don’t fret because there’s an easy workaround for that. If you go to the language settings in a game you can choose between Queen’s English and American. However, don’t expect American to make all the characters speak with American accents, because the game adds a laugh track. This is my favourite gag in the whole game and I will fight anyone who disagrees with it.

[pullquote]”You know we have a lot in common, in the movies the villain always ends up being the super computer or Alan Rickman.”[/pullquote]

The game has a lot going on for itself. I’ve seen plenty of crowdfunded games where the result looks a bit rushed, but it’s not the case here. The 3D modelling and animations in this game are stunning and the environments look quite cool.

On the other hand, the controls were a bit weird. Part of me is still not used to using a keyboard (or a controller) when it comes to playing adventure games, but this was a minor issue and in the end I got used to it.

The game also fell a bit on the short side, and although that’s understandable it’s something that made me sad. I was quite enjoying the game when I reached the end, and it left me wanting more. The length is the only disappointing aspect of the game when all is said and done. If you’re not rushing and you don’t get very stuck then it might take you about four hours to finish it.

But as I said before, this is the first part of a potential trilogy. Potential being the imperative word because if the game does well enough, then we will get the other two parts. And I’d very much like to see that happening because I had fun playing this game and I’d like to see it come to an end.

All in all, if you want to have a laugh then this is your game. You can get it for PC and for PS4 and Xbox One as well, so you have no excuse.

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