Frankenfingers

A nice mixture of gothic horror and comedy and poetry.
Straightforward manor-exploration and classic puzzle-solving, nothing too challenging but enough difficulty for a few headscratchers.

I loved the comedy in the fact that you spend the entire game as a (Spoiler - click to show)disembodied hand, doing stuff that a (Spoiler - click to show)disembodied hand cannot possibly do, and it’s fine. But then for some verbs, being a (Spoiler - click to show)disembodied hand is suddenly a problem. (Being able to (Spoiler - click to show)SMELL and (Spoiler - click to show)LISTEN but not (Spoiler - click to show)TASYE is hilarious to me.)

As it is mentioned in the blurb, Frankenfingers claims to be a classic text-adventure, with the one claim to fame that it is probably the only one written in verse. And indeed, all the descriptions are long poems in themselves. As such, the entirety of the game’s tone and atmosphere hinges on the quality of the poetry. And it succeeds… For the most part…
There were times when I stumbled over jumbled rhythms and contorted rhymes, where the intended gothic gloom was not able to shine through the twisted lines. At its best, however, I could hear the poetic tale in my head as if narrated by a disembodied hollow voice. A bit like the horror-monologue in Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

My favourite part of Frankenfingers was probably the exploration of its large map, going back and forth to find all the nooks and crannies of the mansion, and eventually even spreading out of the manor estate altogether. On (Spoiler - click to show)a horse named Buttercup!