Second helping of Brownie's Adventure served up on Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Comedic SCUMM-styled point-and-click fantasy adventure available for download on Windows PC

It wasn't long ago that players were first introduced to the quirky, not-so-heroic hero of Beardy Ramblin Games' Brownie's Adventure earlier this year. Brownie's fate was left hanging precariously in the balance at the end of that game, but we can now pick things up where that one left off in the newly released sequel. 

Brownie is a simple if not particularly pleasant man experiencing a midlife crisis in his home town of Schtinkberg. In the first game, after leaving his dead end job, Brownie set out to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a wizard by entering the Piglumps School of the Occult. To be accepted, he must perform a magical act in front of the wise man Grundolph. Unfortunately, a few ill-advised shortcuts and a potion gone wrong open a rift in space and time that catapults both of them into an "unfathomable and very different reality" in the contemporary world of Sheffield, UK. Upon devising a means to return home, it becomes clear that the experience has drastically altered Grundolph, who soon instigates a radical social upheaval that implicates Brownie and forces him to defend his choices in arriving at this place. 

Brownie's Adventure 2 follows immediately after the events of the first game, so it's best to play them in order rather than trying to jump in midstream (though there is a recap feature to serve as a reminder of prior events). Regardless of your earlier actions, you'll find yourself shipped off – literally – to an "off brand" polytechnic alternative provision magic school for a shot at redemption. But the newly escaped Grundolph has other plans, and is determined to trap you back in Sheffield once again, where two additional decades have now passed due to a time dilation. What's worse is that magic has bled from Brownie's own world into this one and caused a "major societal collapse." Much has changed since you visited last, and you'll need to align yourself with different factions in order to nagivate the crisis and make your way back home. 

As with its predecessor, Brownie's Adventure 2 uses a variety of different graphical styles, with traditional pixel art representing the "vaguely renaissance fantasy world" the protagonist comes from, and a blended mix of aesthetics depicting the modern world of Sheffield to help make each location and era distinct. The nine-verb SCUMM-styled interface of the first game has been pared down to six for the sequel, but much of the gameplay remains traditional 1990s point-and-click adventure game fare, with more than 70 locations to explore, characters to converse with, items to collect, and puzzles to solve over the course of five to seven hours. There will be once again be plenty of relevant choices to make, leading to multiple possible endings, and like before, the story plays out with a spicy sense of humour filled with "wildly inappropriate dialogue and player actions" poking fun at all kinds of pop culture elements such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and many other familiar influences. 

If you're new to the series, a playable demo of the original Brownie's Adventure is available on Steam for Windows PC. If you like what you see, or already own the first game, the sequel can be purchased as a standalone game or as part of a two-game bundle.