Escape from the Planet of the Dravids is a charming and well thought out point-and click-adventure brought to you by the talented developers at Kitfox studios. It has an awfully long name to keep typing out though so I'll just refer to it as Dravids from now on, I'm sure you'll understand. The action begins with a familiar premise when our reptilian protagonist crash lands his (or maybe her) space ship on an alien planet, leaving them with the sole task of finding their way home. To do that they'll need to send word back to, erm, wherever they flew in from - how difficult can that be?
The game begins gently enough, your battered ship and the nearby forest both hold an array of useful items and a tall tower in the distance provides a promising lead to contacting home, however after a quick rest and a short cut-scene the action really begins to hot up. We meet the planet's native species (Dravids, presumably) and confrontations with them require increasingly novel ways of escape. Furthermore a world which consists of just a few frames of landscape grows exponentially as the game goes on - so if you get stuck don't be fooled into thinking you've explored absolutely everywhere.
The puzzles in the game can be described as tricky at best but that isn't laziness on the creator's part, it's just that they all make sense. There are no odd combinations of items that need to be used in some obscure place, nor is it a hidden-object game where you need to find a tool the size of a pixel hidden behind an Elephant-Sheep (or 'Eleep' as they are called on this planet). In a world of hieroglyphs Kitfox have managed to make all aspects of the game logical and understandable.
The animation is very pretty indeed and is totally in sync with the pace of the game play, however I'm afraid the same can't be said for the music. I don't want to be too hard on the developers who have created a fantastic game on limited resources but it really does stop you immersing yourself in the Dravid's world. it's clunky and very stop-start, imagine the music coming from a Game Boy - it's not as good as that. I recommend playing this game on mute.
All in all though this is a thoroughly enjoyable game. Kitfox predominantly deal in art and comics, but I hope another point and click game isn't too far from their minds.
Very nice but a little too short
Huh; took me a bit to figure out some puzzles (and that some items could be combined); would've liked a bit more obvious markings for when you could change scene - there were a couple areas I didn't even realize I could get to at first. I wouldn't call it particularly short, myself.
I think I missed a couple clues for the
colored stones puzzle. I eventually just solved through guessing for the red and orange stones.
Also what was that one guy's problem? He harasses you all game, and tries to stop you from leaving, but it never really says why. If he dislikes you so much wouldn't he want you off his planet?
I had to check the maker's walkthrough for that color code. Yes, it is possible to permanently miss a clue.
The colors of the stones match the colors of the symbols as they appear. (Some of the symbols are desaturated, but there's enough clues to keep things unambiguous.)
Sun symbol: on a jar which can be found in Dravid Chief's house.
Rainbows: off a cliffside on a box, hidden once the box has been opened.
M (or is it a 3?): in Dravid Chief's house, on the drape with red circles.
Squiggle with corners: in the village background, on a building with a different roof.
ID: painted on/embedded in a magical tree beside other symbols.
Green, Yellow, Red, Blue, Orange.
If anything, I thought it was a bit too long.
There were several hotspots that would have benefited from some visual clue. I don't think it enhanced the game to have to slowly wave the cursor around every scene to be sure of finding all the exit points.
I liked the puzzles involving the strange letters.
As someone who is colourblind, a little note on that in the review would be nice. Fun game though, and the visuals are really comfortable to the eyes.
Enjoyed this for its sense of humor. I actually liked the minimalist music. I felt that some of the clues were a bit clunky, however I am not at 100% today, so it may be me.
walkthrough anyone?
Okay, let's try a walkthrough, why not?
Okay, this got longer than I was expecting, I think I might split this into two parts. To be continued! (hopefully)
Walkthrough, part 1
Begin by clicking through the opening cutscene - oh no, your weird car-with-wings-shaped spaceship is gonna crash! Luckily you espace, but are now stranded on this planet. What to do?
The cave
Head to the right and into the cave. Pick up the large rock, and note the nice bed-shaped shelf. Too bad it's too hard to sleep on, even though you're exhausted from escaping your fiery death.
Outside the cave, just to the left of the cave mouth, a path leads down to the beach. An old com tower in out in the ocean - a possible way to contact help, if you can get there. Pick up the red gem, then head back to the ship.
The ship
Examine the smoldering wreck of your ship; pick up an orange gem to the right. The cockpit glass is cracked; use the large rock to break a hole in it. Inside the cockpit, open the middle drawer and take the glove. Note the symbols on the sign hanging in the back, and that the sign had been knocked upside down by the crash.
Back outside the cockpit, look at the cargo hold. It's locked with a 4-symbol code. Good thing we just saw a sign with 4 symbols. Remember the sign is upside down, and enter the code accordingly.
backwards-Z, O, backwards-J, I
Take the machete and the hook from the hold, then head back to the start point.
Forest
Head left this time to the start of a forested area. Use the machete to cut the soft bushe; there's nothing else you can do here, yet.
Cave
Back to the cave! Use that nice soft thatch you cut to make yourself a comfy bed. Sleep time! But oh no, who could that shadowy figure be that lurks all creepy like while you're sleeping? Eh, probably, just a dream, right? But wait, your machete is gone!
Forest
No longer tired, you go in search of your machete. A path has been opened up in the forest. May as well follow it.
Rune tree
Heading down the path leads to a large tree covered with runes, and some new background music. One of the runes on the tree, shaped like a V, seems to be missing. Note the orange rune that looks like ID. Across from the tree is a locked box. The path forks here, with one part going straight and the other heading left.
Small cliff
Go straight. There's some flowers growing in a niche of a small cliff, and some weird reeds with boomerang-like pods. But enough looking at the local plantlife, we have a machete to find!
Waterfall
Go right to get to the waterfall. There's the machete! Pick it up, as well as the blue stone from the river. Note that whatever's in the water here sure makes the flowers grow large.
Small cliff
Go back one scene, and use your newly reaquired machete to cut one of those boomerang things off the plant.
Beehive tree
Go back to the rune tree, and take the left fork of the path this time. Oh no, the shadowy figure from your dream is real! He doesn't seem happy to see you. Use the boomerang to knock the beehive down and scare him off. As he runs away he drops a V-shaped object - pick it up. Also gather some of the honeycomb (yum), and use the glove to pick up the fierce-looking lizard, which apparently can breathe fire. How convenient!
Rune tree
Well, we've got this V-shaped object, and that rune tree had a V-shaped rune missing, let's get these two lovebirds together. Place the V rune ("chevron" the game calls it) on the tree. A branch moves, and now the tree is climbable. So let's climb.
Treetop
The top of the tree is covered in bucket shaped seed pods. The plants on this planet sure like making pods in odd but useful to stranded travelers shapes. Use the machete to cut the middle pod on the right (for some reason the only pod you can reach), then climb back down.
Waterfall
Go back to the waterfall with the magic plant growth water and get a bucketful.
Small cliff
Use your bucketful of water on the yellow flowers at the bottom of the small cliff. Wow, that water really is like magic. Climb on up.
Fork in the path
The path forks here, but before you continue on grab the yellow stone, and use the machete to cut the vine from the tree on the right. Apparently vine-cutting was the last straw for your poor machete, as is disappears from the inventory now, ne'er to be see again. Alas, poor machete, you served us well.
Village
Take the right fork and arrive at a village. A ladder leans off to the left, may as well take it, not like anyone was using it to get into that building. Note the blue runes on the building in the background; L
Chief's cabin
Click on the door of the large building behind the merchant to enter the chief's cabin. A staff leans on the wall, take it. Also on the wall is a large banner - make note of locations of the red dots, and also that the non-dot spaces are filled with a red, M-shaped rune. A scroll on the bookcase shows some types of plants and their names - note the first rune of each plant's name. The chief seems agitated when we click in closer. Mebbe because you just barged into his cabin and took his staff? Nah, probably not. Note the green kinda sun-shaped rune on the pot behind the chief.
Walkthrough Part 2!
Last time we left off in the chief's cabin. Leave there and exit the village though the far side to arrive at
The grey door
A grey door is in a rock wall. It has a control panel next to it which doesn't seem to be working. Ah, well. Continue on to the left.
Shack meadow
A bunch of elephant-sheep-things graze in a meadow outside a shack. Some berry bushes grow in the foreground - collect some berries from the leftmost, as long as you're here. The shack is sadly locked, and its windows boarded tight. Nothing else to do here, so go back to the fork in the path and try the left fork this time.
Meadow
A meadow with another of those elephant-sheep things, and the mean creepy guy is back! With a staff this time! You can try to fight him with your staff, but you seem evenly matched, so time to try some other tactics.
Throw the berries at him to attract the elephant-sheep to mob him, then attack him with your staff again (by clicking his staff). He runs off.
Now that you have the eleep meadow to yourself, you can continue onward over the horizon.
Cliff edge
This place sure has a lot of cliffs, doesn't it? On a ledge partway down the cliff is a box. Note the yellow arch-shaped rune on the top. A large rock is at the top of the cliff edge. Tie the vine to the rock so you can reach the box, then open it and take the lockpicks. So what is there around here that needs unlocking?
Rune tree
First off there's that box next to the rune tree, back in the forest. Go unlock that, and take the green stone. Note that you now have 5 stones of various colours, and recall that the merchant in the village had a board with 5 rock-sized holes.
Village
Go to the merchant in the village, and use the coloured runes we've seen around to tell you which colour rock to put in which hole in the board.
In order from left to right, they are: green, yellow, red, blue, orange.
The merchant gives you a telescope in return for your lovely coloured rock collection.
Shack meadow
What else can we unlock with these lockpicks? How about that shack beyond the village? Go pick the lock and enter the shack.
Shack
Inside the shack is a lot of nice stuff. Given that you were willing to take the chief's staff from right in front of him, I don't think you have any qualms about looting this shack. Take the fishing rod, the hammer from the shelves, and the vase from the table. Take as look at the drawing hanging behind the bed as well, and note the heights of the buildings. Once you exit the shack be sure to use the hammer to take the boards from the window, cause when looting a person's home it pays to be thorough.
Beach
Now that we have a fishing rod, let's do some fishing. Go back to beach near the cave you slept in. Use the rod on the hook to combine the two, then use them on the ocean to catch yourself a nice fish. The tower you'd like to get to continues to loom out of the ocean in the distance. Mebbe you could get a closer look? Use the telescope on the tower; note the symbols on the side, and that they seem to continue on towards the left.
Anyway, that's enough fishing and longing gazes. That vase you took from the shack looks kinda familiar, doesn't it? Matches the one the chief was sitting next to.
Chief's cabin
Go back to the chief's cabin, close up on the chief, and put the vase next to the one on the shelf. Look, the chief is happy now! In reward for returning the vase he give you a red button.
Grey door
Head back to the grey door and use your new red button on the control panel. Huzzah, it's working now! Enter the code from the tapestry in the chief's cabin and pull the lever. We now have an open door.
Bridge
Inside the door is a rope bridge that's missing some planks. Fortunately you happen to have the boards you took from the shack to replace them. Take doorway in the middle right.
Machinery room
Some machines have some pipes leading into some orange goo (perhaps magma?) Click on the machine to get a close up of a panel with 5 sliders. Where have you seen a set of 5 objects a specific heights before?
Use the heights of the building from the hanging in the shack.
With 5 being at the top and 1 being at the bottom, it's 4-1-3-5-2
The mebbe-magma is gone! Yay!
Pick up the dynamite from next to the machine, and note the order of the flowers growing on the right hand side.
Stone pillars
Go back to the bridge and follow the path off to the right to a room with stone pillars and what looks to be an old AC unit. A pickaxe is at the top of one of the pillars. Use the ladder to climb the pillar and get the pickaxe.
Storeroom
I'm running out of ways to say "cave with stuff in," so let's call this next place the storeroom, eh? Go back to the bridge and head left this time. A table is covered with some spikes - take them. A green cabinet is against the wall; it needs a 5-digit code.
Use the first letter of each of the plants that were growing in the machine room. You got the names from the scroll in the chief's cabin.
sideways-T, upsidedown-Y, upsidedown-J, backwards-Z, kinda a lightening bolt shape
Inside the cabinet is a coat - go through the pockets and take a keycard. A ray of light comes through a hole in the wall. Use your pickaxe to make the hole bigger.
Cliff face
Outside the hole is a small ledge on the edge of yet another cliff. In the distance you can see the tower again. Use the binoculars to get a closer view, and make note of the symbols on the side; also note that they seem to continue around the side out of view. Use the spikes on the hammer to combine them, then use them on the cliff to make handholds for climbing up.
Plateau top
You climb to the top of what seems to be a series of plateaus. There's a gap between you and the next one you want to get to. Set the dynamite at the base of the large rock in the center of the screen, then use the the fire lizard to blow it up. Boom! Instant rock bridge. Head across it to the right.
Boneyard
A bunch of bones lie scatter across this new scene, and a nest that probably belongs to some sort of carnivore sits atop a pillar to the right. Use the fish on the rock near the bones to summon a giant terrifying bird. Time for a bird ride to the tower! Wheee!
Spire
Go in the hole in the side of the rock spire. On no, that annoying guy is back again, and this time he brought some sort of angry dog badger thing! Use the honey on the guy to make the dog badger go after him instead, then go past and up the ladder behind him.
Tower
Finally, you've reached the tower. But oh, no, it is locked! Use your keycard to unlock the tower door and go inside. Once inside you find a keypad covered in symbols. How to relay to your people where you're at? Enter the symbols you saw on the tower through the telescope. Remember to enter the ones you saw from the cliff face before the ones from the beach. Click the panel to send your SOS, and then click through the final cutscene. Rescue at last!
Thanks for the walkthrough vinca. however about the end
you didn't give the full code at the end,so I had to resort to the video walkthrough. If you gave time, could you post the final code before you beat the game? Thanks.
For the final code, it's hard to describe without a picture, but here goes.
On front of the spire(seen from rock wall) N with a dot above to the right, y, open d, collapsed 7 with line above
On back of the spire(seen from beach) J with a line, i with a big dot (or skinny tree with big leaf cluster), big n (or curved A without a bar or an archway), L
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