Trürberbook (Switch) Review

Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PS4, Xbox One

Developer: btf

Publisher: Headup Games

Release: 18th April 2019

Price: 29.99

Every once in a while, a game may interest you even though its genre never appealed to you before. As someone who never played many Point´n Click adventures, Trüberbrook was this game for me. Featuring a style only achievable by 3D scanning handcrafted models and bring them to life through digital post-processing is a technique often used in movies or series but not in games. So having a game that does exactly that while featuring a very intriguing plot around a physicist being invited to the mysterious village Trüberbrook wasn´t an experience I wanted to miss.

Tannhauser is your typical researcher, currently suffering from an immense blockade and in dire need of a well deserved rest, in order to regenerate his tormented mind. However, his promising invite soon begins to wrap into a mysterious calling, as he begins to doubt the innocence of Trüberbrook as a healing town more and more and slowly uncovers the bunkers, structures, weird doctors and hints at crazy experiments.

And Trüberbrook delivers exactly that: A really intriguing story about yet another unsettling little village. Personally, I´m a huge sucker for these concepts, despite the many series and movies I´ve already watched around it. The creep factor of a peaceful rural town revealing its true face little by little while torturing the protagonist with more and more horrifying hints is something I can get joy out of everyday. Yet, even for those standards Trüberbrook does a really good job at mixing different concepts together in order to create a new feel for a rather classic idea.

One of them is the mental health of Tannhauser himself. Starting out with an interview around his mind and how he interprets different pictures, it may seem rather close to Until Dawn´s implementation of this topic, if not for the fact Trüberbrook actually does a tiny bit more noticeable things with the answers you chose. A little bit. Occasionally I found myself with remarks or moments that somehow reminded me of the answers I´ve given the psychatrist as well as Tannhauser and even if it was imagination, the experience is what counts in my eyes. Despite that, the general oppressive atmosphere works well in combination with the constant theme of our protagonists psychological problems and the question if he may just be imagining it all.

Especially considering the many sci-fi elements slowly coming into play. Often it seems just too crazy to be real, too dumb but also too intriguing. While the base story doesn´t do a great job at character development or reeling you in, the world and atmosphere is what carries Trüberbrook at many occasions, showing off a world between a rustical retro “Sci-fi” and elements often found in more recent works like the focus on human psyche through warping senses, making for an intriguing mix by itself.

Overall, the world and story are pretty entertainingly good, so why didn´t I enjoy my playthrough all that much? Well, because the gameplay is sluggish, to say the least. Personally, I´m not someone totally into Point´n Click adventures so as a result I´m also not good at them, so take this with this knowledge in mind: Trüberbrook often feels like guessing, rather than knowing. Be it in the laboratory where I was already stuck in the Gamescom demo or simply exploring the town trying to figure out what exactly the game wants from me. Sometimes it dips into surprisingly easy territory, sometimes it gets even more confusing, forcing one to combine seemingly unconnected items and so on. It´s just not a very intuitive experience, nor does it feature many unique or surprising solutions, it just feels flawed most of the time.

Let´s end this on a positive note though: Trüberbrook looks absolutely amazing. Developer btf may not be known to many, probably because it´s primarily a german studio for TV shows and alike, but are equipped with an obviously highly skilled team for those tasks. As a result, every model of the game wasn´t created in 3D but in real life, then scanned and edited after. This leads to the unique style, mixing classic stop motion elements with digital effects, puppets and a very nostalgic feeling. It doesn´t only look absolutely fantastic and makes you forget all those props are actually real. Surprisingly, the Switch version looks pretty good in handheld mode as well, not suffering from pixelation at every corner. If only the Soundtrack was more than quite generic background music.

Conclusion

So, did I enjoy my 8 hours with Trüberbrook? Despite it´s mediocre gameplay structure and some wasted potential in the story, yeah, definitely. Mainly because of the refreshing way the plot handles its classic setting, introduces neat new elements and btf´s amazing work with the models, characters and animation. (Not biased at all though by the fact I´m German myself). It´s a fascinating trip through a wonderful world.

[A Review Code was provided by Headup Games]