Adventure Lamp (PC)

The mythical idea of a “Netflix for games” has tantalized gamers since streaming reached the point it could potentially provide such a service, but while Xbox Game Pass is definitely the king of that space, multiple websites have sprung up to provide game streaming for lesser known indie titles. Utomik is actually fairly comparable to Game Pass in that you download the game to your system and run it through your own computer, but its selection of games, despite featuring some heavy hitters like Borderlands and Dead Island, has a heavy indie skew which makes it a good way to check out titles you might not otherwise play. While I have a more in-depth look at Utomik on my Patreon, here we will be discussing Adventure Lamp, the first game I played on Utomik and a simple puzzle platformer that perfectly fits the bill of the kind of game that many people could easily overlook unless it was already included as part of a bigger game package.

 

Adventure Lamp takes place deep underground where an archaeologist with a square body named Simon finds himself with nothing but his head lamp to navigate his way back to the surface. While the little smiling box of a man has a decent jump and the ability to scrunch himself up to jump even higher, his helmet is actually both his best tool for helping with his escape and a constant source of little issues during the journey. If Simon does his better jump, his helmet will fly right off his noggin and bounce across the level. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem if that same helmet wasn’t also the key to interacting with almost every bit of puzzle-solving on offer, the player able to throw the hat at enemies to destroy them and switches to activate them. However, Adventure Lamp is at least aware that it made frequent hat loss likely and tries not to place areas that require the bigger jump near ones where throwing your hat is vital, but it still isn’t quite perfect with its level design and you can quite often find yourself wishing your headgear hadn’t just flown off in the wind or left behind after a bit of vigorous platforming.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a game that is happy to send the hat tumbling around just from regular movement, tossing the hat isn’t often as easy as just identifying where you want it thrown and chucking it. Some moments call for pinpoint accuracy or the right arc, but levels in Adventure Lamp are often very small and based pretty much exclusively around a small sequence of events that could be completed in seconds once you understand what needs to be done. There are many levels that require no screen scrolling to capture their entirety and only have one or two hazard to overcome, so figuring out what needs to be done with the helmet and executing it is the main challenge of the game. Some areas do demand some tight platforming or quick action still due to elements like rising lava or lasers that continuously fire while you’re solving the puzzle, so some degree of jumping skill is still needed and you aren’t just coming to a stop to futz with throwing arcs all the time.

 

Dropping your hat is actually a bit easier than throwing it and useful for when danger is below you, but the hat’s physics can still make it so that if you aren’t standing in the perfect spot the hat won’t actually fall down the opening you’re aiming for. Infinite lives and chances to retry does mean that messing up has almost no penalty and there aren’t any truly intricate levels beyond some late game speed challenges, but it does feel like that aspect is also there to make up for how often you’ll be trying to throw a hat that has physics applied to it perhaps too realistically. Watching it bounce around as you try to figure out how to slip it into an alcove doesn’t add to the experience at all, but Adventure Lamp at least keeps throwing in small new ideas so that the way the hat is involved in the puzzle solving isn’t always about just landing it in the right spot. Enemies might be moving around or actively dodging its flight path, certain switches must have the hat still present on them for their effect to remain active, and sometimes the hazards you clear out with your hat throw will return if you dilly dally too long after eliminating them.

One thing that makes the looseness of your headgear easier to swallow is your ability to scoop it up with any amount of contact. The hat will also instantly respawn on your head if it completely leaves the screen, and with many open drops, it is at least pretty likely a botched throw could send it tumbling into the abyss for a fairly quick respawn. Windy levels would definitely be much worse if they didn’t often send your hat flying offscreen so quickly, the player instead able to focus on how they’ll combat the push of the winds and knowing the headlamp will likely be back by the time its needed. If you can’t grab the helmet yourself and it just comes to a rest on some platform, you must instead wait a bit for it to reappear, and this is definitely the point where the helmet flying off after a jump can slow things down. This is certainly felt strongest in the dark levels where your lamp actually provides some light so losing it means your character is moving around blind, but it is the finale where time spent without the helmet really feels impactful. Near the end of the game where there are enemies who take multiple hits and time sensitive platforming segments it can be a little bothersome when the headlamp lands in a way that leaves you helpless, but it does at least mean the final levels do a good job of testing your ability to manage your hat and jumping to overcome moments where you can’t just sit and wait for the hat to come back to continue.

 

While Simon’s adventure to leave the caves takes some unexpected turns where it seems like the climb upward somehow takes him deeper underground, when you do finish the journey, there are unlockable adventures still waiting to be played. Here you’ll play through the game with a new character, but since the game was developed first and foremost around the hat tossing and Simon’s abilities, playing through the same levels as something with a worse jump or its own quirks certainly feels like a weak way to get more out of the game. Rather than feeling like a new sort of challenge, it feels like things were made more difficult by making it actually harder to control your character. Playing through the short adventure with just Simon though is certainly the better option, but it would have been interesting if the follow up stories were actually built around their design changes in the same way the levels are built for Simon in the main campaign.

THE VERDICT: Losing your hat all the time isn’t exactly an exciting concept for a puzzle platformer where you need to toss it around to solve basically every puzzle you find, but Adventure Lamp factors in its loose headgear into its design. The short levels are easy to retry to get your actions right, and while the actual helmet throwing is a little finicky, the game comes up with enough interesting uses for your hat and simple jump that it fills its short run time well enough. The late game moments both pack the best challenges while also running into the headlamp’s little issues fairly often, but developer Ryan Davis takes Adventure Lamp’s simple central idea and toys with it just enough that it doesn’t hurt to give the game a go.

 

And so, I give Adventure Lamp for PC…

An OKAY rating. For every little moment you’re wishing that hat wouldn’t fly off Simon’s head your finding a new and interesting little way it can be used to your advantage. Adventure Lamp doesn’t ever truly get involved with its puzzle solving likely because of how it decided to handle the availability of your helmet, and you can definitely feel the limits of this design strain some when you reach the harder levels near the end. However, Adventure Lamp keeps the scope of its levels small and is lenient in regards to retrying them, ensuring that even at its worst you only need to figure out a small level’s gimmick once and then move onto an area that might do a better job finding an interesting use for your hat throws. Relying a bit too much on the physics of that moving helmet and excuses to have it pop off is likely what keeps Adventure Lamp from making the kind of engaging or truly clever puzzles that would warrant someone giving this simple indie game a look, but it still explores the space it created with just enough imagination that it makes for a brisk and somewhat fun journey so long as you don’t dip into the extra content’s more frustrating designs.

 

Adventure Lamp isn’t really a reason to get Utomik, but with the game going for 10 dollars on Steam and a simple premise that really doesn’t make any waves, it is the kind of game that doesn’t hurt to play when using a game streaming service that costs 7 bucks a month and offers hundreds of other options. Adventure Lamp found a good little spot for itself nestled near the top of Utomik’s alphabetical games list, so while its finicky physics make it hard to recommend as a purchase, it’s a decent enough way to spend some time when it’s rubbing shoulders with the kind of games you’ll really want to sink your teeth into.