A short and ordinary adventure game about a dog that is looking for its master. Dialogues are poorly translated and the gameplay is straightforward.
Type: Single-player
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Midnight Party
Publisher: PQube Limited
Release date: 30 Aug, 2016
Intro
Despite being tagged as a puzzle game, Don’t Disturb is an adventure game about a dog that is looking for its missing master. The gameplay is more like a point-and-click game except that you use a keyboard instead of a mouse to play the game.
Graphics
The graphics look like traditional Chinese paintings, sometimes drawn on a paper-like background to connect it with the Chinese theme. Although the game has a unique art style, some dialogue fonts seem to be out of place despite some dialogues, especially at the end of the game, use a font that suits perfectly with the dialogue box.
Story
The story is told through a cutscene at the beginning and the end of the game. Despite not using any words, the story is straightforward and easy to understand. There are 2 endings that you can choose based on your choice at the end of the game. One of the endings feels a bit sad although the game doesn’t convey the emotion very well.
The game seems to derive its work based on Chinese mythology about reincarnation. I recognized the reference of the soup of forgetfulness, although I doubt that it fits every process of reincarnation to the game. If you know about this process, there is also a plot hole in the ending that I won’t elaborate on due to spoilers.
Dialogues that are related to quests are also available as you play the game. However, most are poorly translated and some texts don’t even fit the dialogue box. Although they can be safely ignored since they are not related to the story, it still ruins the experience if you want to know a bit about the concept of reincarnation.
The Game
Gameplay
As I said before, the gameplay is similar to point-and-click games with a keyboard instead of a mouse. You have to move left and right to inspect objects, talk to people, and help their needs to finish the game. Everything is simple and straightforward except for one occasion where I had to find someone with 2 strands of hair. The number of hair is somewhat hidden because of the dark background and it’s hard to notice without increasing my screen’s brightness.
Minigame
There is one minigame where you have to move something from the start to the finish line without touching anything. Although it’s not hard to beat, I found it to be annoying because you need to use a keyboard instead of a mouse to do it. Not only does it take longer to finish, but it also requires more patience to do it with a keyboard.
Length and Replayability
The game only lasts for 30-40 minutes. I finished my first run in ~50 minutes while writing a guide and decided to load my save to get the other ending. Strangely, the save was bugged and my character was nowhere to be found. I ended up replaying the whole game from scratch and it only took me ~13 minutes to finish it.
Problems
The language selection screen can only be selected right after you start the game. The problem is, it defaults to Chinese. It took me some time to realize that the first screen after the game launches is the language selection screen due to how vague it is.
The load game option is also somewhat hidden. I didn’t realize that you need to press the Escape button to return to the main menu to load your save. Strangely, the game never directs you to this “main menu” except after you have finished the game.
Specs
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
Verdict
Despite the unique art style and atmospheric music, the game fails in other aspects. The gameplay is bland, dialogues are poorly translated, and somehow the game bugs you with your save. I wasn’t sure whether to recommend it or not since I didn’t feel anything after finishing the game, good or bad, but since it has some problems that need to be addressed, I decided not to recommend the game as of now.
