Harry Quantum Review by Daniel Simpson

Harry quantum is a simple point and click adventure game developed by turbonuke. It has a strong theme of detectives and private investigation.

If you think Mr Quantum is like any other detective then….think again! Throughout his two games he has explored vast areas of the world and even been stuck inside a virtual reality device. Harry is not alone on his exploration his trusty robot sidekick Graeme stays at his office and keeps things in check.

Throughout the game the only controls are used is just the mouse to walk to areas, pick up items and activate objects.

Harry Quantum 1

The first game in the two part series, entitled episode #1: TV Go Home. The plot of this game opens with a TV channel boss barges into Mr Quantum’s office and explains that he has lost the tapes to four of his best shows, and if Harry succeeds in finding the shows; he gets a payment of $100,000. I like the fact this game had an initial synopsis but the one chosen wasn’t really in enough detail. I would have liked to have seen some dialog between Harry and Graeme that could be used to familiarise us with the two main characters who we would be seeing more of throughout the game. The pair have the bright idea to signal the space ship that stole the programmes using a classic crop circle. That’s all I’m going to say on the storyline for now, because I don’t want to put in anymore spoilers. The storyline itself is actually really “out there and strange” it is one that younger players may find engaging, but at the same time, older players may find it, humorous.

In the general gameplay some of the puzzles are really fun to solve, even in a point and click game, the player still enjoys the “ah-HA!” moments in which he or she finally figures out how they can do something. This said some of the point and click puzzles just have too strange a concept that you would never think would be plausible. But never fear as the walkthrough can always help you, you can click on the one provided by turbonuke, or go to Youtube in search for a video walkthrough both methods are helpful, but give the puzzles a go before turning strait to the walkthrough. With the difficulty of those point and click puzzles put aside, I have never seen a point and click that has more randomness, the background and design is really cool as it rings new types of concepts for point and click games for example being in side a tv show is something I’ve never seen before. So the puzzles are challenging, but they are definitely very entertaining. The point and click puzzles are not the only type on offer here as there are also a also a few non verbal reasoning puzzles thrown in here, this adds some needed variety to the gameplay. An example of this is a minesweeper like game played on the ship.

Harry Quantum 2

The latest instalment on the Harry Quantum series is entitled Harry Quantum2 Unmasked. The story, this time, is formed around a wrestler SuperBurro getting set up for a crime he didn’t commit. He says in a letter at the start of the game which pretty much up the synopsis that somebody has stolen precious Zaztec artefacts from the Red town museum. Throughout the game you will play as Harry Quantum to track down the fiend that is trying to frame SuperBurro.

The first thing you will notice in the game is that the same office is used so players can quickly configure themselves from the original game, which is a really neat feature, acknowledging players of the . But as you continue to play on, you will notice that there are way more backgrounds to play through and enjoy. This makes HQ2 much bigger than the first, I found the time taken to complete the game, without to be a little too long, this is because at some particular points I literally had no idea what I was meant to be doing.

A feature that helps this common problem is that when you click in an area that is not to do with any kind of event there is a white star that appears over the object. This is handy in case you don’t know where to click but it can be argued that the developers are just giving us the locations of points of interest instead of the player looking in detail for these points.

Something that occurs in both games is PIPs (Private Investigation Points), these are awarded for completing point and click puzzles that are not part of the story but still deserve credit, some of these can be pretty funny for example: *spoiler* when the curator has felt the full effect of the mints you spiked, use the X Ray specs on the toilet door, you can find out for yourself what happens then!