A really interesting concept that almost delivers, but ultimately is let down by the lack of vocabulary choices, a clunky interface, and a questionable turn of events
Type: Single-player
Genre: Walking Sim, Mobster,
Developer: Mischief
Publisher: Mischief
Release date: 17 March, 2021
Intro
You’re a pig farmer in Kansas. For the last fifteen years you have helped feed chopped up body parts to your pigs for the Mob.
Today, you have decided to quit. You are no longer comfortable with letting the mob use your pigs as a way of disposing of victims.
Together you discuss the reasons for your decision and the consequences, whilst tending to the farm on a cold crisp morning.
Gameplay🕹️
The day is spent talking to the mobster and carrying out chores on the farm. Some scenes are purely dialogue based stories of his past or memories they had together, whilst others require a small amount of input.
Conversations
The conversations are initiated by walking or running to a destination indicated by a distance counter on the screen. Certain scenes can be played in any order, although after you choose a scene and play through it, another scene may automatically follow.
The scenes vary in length and vary in input. Some scenes you might not even discover unless you interact with certain objects.
Occasionally, you will be given up to four choices to make to continue the dialogue. The choices only alter the conversation ever so slightly though and the main points will always be the same.
I noticed in some dialogues that the choices were greyed out and could not be selected. I thought that it was because I needed to say something different in previous conversations and these would then highlight. I have tried every single dialogue choice in the game and these options are still greyed out. I’m not sure whether this is a bug or I am doing something out of order perhaps?
Exploration
There is a journal which acts as a check list on all the chores you need to do, so this will help you ascertain what objects you might need to interactive with.
There are a lot of red herrings where objects can be examined by rotating them but they are hardly ever relevant and therefore pointless. Some do relate to achievements though and some can be interacted with. For example, taps, cookers and microwave ovens can be turned on.
There are a couple of free roam opportunities where you can explore the farm and the farm house. You can run quite fast so exploring is easy but the farm is often cordoned off so there’s not too much scope for meaningful exploration. Searching the house was quite fun though.
Interactive Scenes
There are about five interactive scenes you can enjoy whilst you talk to the mobster. Tending to the animals, throwing horseshoes, fixing your car, fishing and skeet shooting are all activities you will encounter during the day.
Most of the “action sequences “are quite basic but the control interface is quite clunky and rudimentary, and I had issues controlling items, especially when trying to cook a meal. You can’t put items down, only swap them, and when you swap them, they get flung across the room and bounce into awkward places. Sometimes these are irretrievable. It can be quite frustrating.
You also sometimes get the occasional instruction on screen as to what tasks to do next.
Graphics 🕹️
The environments are quite pleasant in places and the animals look cute and move quite realistically. Immersion is let down slightly by the mobster’s facial expressions. They seem a bit amateurish and certainly lack any kind of emotional crutch. The mobster looks quite odd in some places but sort of fits into the cartoonish art style.
Sound🎵
Voice acting is quite professional and emotion is adequately portrayed in conversations. There is no menu music, or any kind of music playing whilst you play. Maybe that would have injected some more emotion into the story?
Verdict⚖
I knew this wasn’t going to be an action game but I also thought I would have more input in to how the story unfolds.
There are dialogue branches, but they are extremely minimal, plus they all end up with the same conclusion. I have played through the game a few times and there is no way to change or alter the story line. It will always end the same and your journey there will be almost identical too.
Therefore, Adios is a cinematic experience discussing the reasons why you have come to the conclusion to quit working for the Mob.
the conversations can be poignant and emotional in certain scenes but I still had the impression that they lacked any real vigor or desperation.
Visuals are basic but attractive in places. Character’s faces aren’t drawn particularly well. They cannot display emotion, and the weight of emotion purely rests in how the voices are spoken.
I am sure some of the achievements are bugged, but it is difficult to tell as there are no guides, and I can only go by the description on the achievement. The good news is that any scene can be played after you complete the game which helps.
I experienced a few bugs during my gameplay including a massive glitch with the graphics where all environments were messed up. I eventually fixed this by altering the field of view and it never came back. I experienced other graphical issues like the goat jumping across the room leaving the mobster milking nothing; there were numerous dialogue errors where previous conversations would kick in; and once the mobster got left outside the building whilst I carried on in and was talking to him.
I was really interested to see where Adios would take me. The thought of handing in your notice to the Mob intrigued me, and the consequent conversations that pursued. I thought I would have more choice in the way the conversations panned out but really, you’re just a passenger watching events play out to their inevitable end.
Adios is still a decent walking simulator with some interesting and original ideas.
I enjoyed the conversations between characters, and the interactive scenes, but I’m not wholly convinced that events would play out so mildly and without incident. It just felt a bit tepid to me.
I would still recommend the game however, but probably on sale.
