To say that Warp Frontier is a letdown would be mostly glossing over how it succeeds as a point-and-click, but saying that it's an indie gem would be overlook some of the more critical issues that exist in-game. The world and story of Warp Frontier are well developed, yes. The voice acting and soundtrack are icing on the imaginary cake. But, this sci-fi cop drama of a point-and-click is best saved for a PC-playthrough, as the Switch's hardware and controller limitations make some of the game's annoying puzzles into frustrations. I would highly recommend you play this on PC, as your experience will be marred by the Switch.
The point-and-click genre of PC gaming is what made my elementary schooling tolerable during the long afternoons I would spend at daycare. The fanciest computers at my school could run Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish, which were MUCH more fun than Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Rodent’s Revenge. As a 30-year old who pines for the simpler days of 1990s gaming, it’s not often that a point-and-clicker gets my attention. Warp Frontier is that special case, and I’m quite torn.
Warp Frontier is a sci-fi cop drama set in a futuristic timeline where humanity as we know it is interstellar, transient, and spread thin. You play as Vincent Cassini, a grisly police captain with an Aussie twinge and a floating robotic orb of a sidekick named MAC. As Vince, you’re drawn into a nebulous conspiracy involving your past. The story gets quite deep quite quickly, as it draws you into a series of strange events that keep you asking questions in a better fashion than most crime novels. Even more, there is variation in the story, so expect to see some of your choices matter in the grand scheme of Warp Frontier’s universe.
The gameplay of Warp Frontier follows that of most point-and-clicks. You can tap the screen OR use the Joy-Con joysticks to have Vincent move to interact with specific elements, hover over some interactables to see more (rather than directly clicking on them), and utilizing your inventory to creatively solve puzzles. Most interactables usually let you discern more of the plot and Vincent’s back story, and there are quite a few on your screen at any given time. While I appreciate the amount of potential depth available to the player, much of the hoverable interactables serve as short-form descriptions that clutter up the Switch’s screen. Since you’re (mostly) alone in space with MAC, the desolateness of Warp Frontier’s space is made more evident when much of what you can interact with is little more than fluff that doesn’t really give you insight into how to proceed.
What is the use of the D-Pad, you ask? Warp Frontier has dedicated the D-Pad to letting you quickly (and efficiently) navigate through the dialogue trees in the sense that you can press Down to say one phrase or Left to end the conversation outright. This honestly was a blessing, as I would sometimes forget the next step or miss out on a hint that is cleverly embedded within the dialogue, so I would often return to MAC or another NPC to review information.
The puzzles in Warp Frontier vary from creative to frustrating, often because of the Switch’s real-estate and controller limitations. Some puzzles were unintuitive to the point of relying on the game’s HINT function for an idea of how to proceed. For instance, in one hardly-lit spaceship, I was tasked with removing and moving fuses, all of which were located in a small area alongside each other and alongside other interactables. The Switch is in no way precision-friendly on the touchscreen front OR on the joystick front, meaning that I accidentally clicked the wrong interactable several times, or even worse, moved out of the area, because of how close together the interactable elements were. I would have loved one or two less-interactables on the screen if it meant that I was able to more accurately interact with what I wanted and needed to so I could progress the story (which, I must emphasize, is pretty good). This is not to say that all of the puzzles will involve tests of patience, but you will become frustrated with the Switch’s limitations and taint your overall opinion of the game.
In the instances where you’re stuck, you’re always welcome to click the HINT button and progressively spoil (or in some cases, outright solve) your current puzzle. The hints start as vague and unhelpful (like a disinterested professor who might ask you: “Where may you look to learn more about this course’s schedule? Perhaps the syllabus…?”) and progressively reveal more about what you need to do until it literally tells you how to proceed. I forced myself to avoid using the hint system until I was stumped to the point of being unable to move forward, so when I did use the hints, they helped to reorient me into what I should be focusing on. Personally, I appreciate this progressive hint system, but I can see it becoming an easy out for an impatient gamer who wants to speed through the story rather than immerse themselves into a sci-fi universe. Even more, I can see some folks opting into the HINT function to avoid the headache of solving some of the puzzles.
Warp Frontier features original voice acting from a wide breadth of cast-members, most of which are Australian. I have to give credit where credit is due: It’s really well done to the point of not wanting to skip through the already good story’s dialogue. Each character feels fully realized and part of the plot at-large rather than added for the sake of fluff. Their character models look quite stiff, however, and I wish that their faces looked a bit more human and natural as it would have made the world of Warp Frontier deeper.
To say that Warp Frontier is a letdown would be mostly glossing over how it succeeds as a point-and-click, but saying that it’s an indie gem would be overlook some of the more critical issues that exist in-game. The world and story of Warp Frontier are well developed, yes. The voice acting and soundtrack are icing on the imaginary cake. But, this sci-fi cop drama of a point-and-click is best saved for a PC-playthrough, as the Switch’s hardware and controller limitations make some of the game’s annoying puzzles into frustrations. I would highly recommend you play this on PC, as your experience will be marred by the Switch.
