If there’s only one thing that an adventure game begs for it’s a right decent story. To certain extents the puzzles, the aesthetic, the characters and the audio can all be held up by a story that excels and draws the player in at every moment. I don’t mention this because I believe Fictiorama Studios have created a one trick pony, far from it. I mention it instead to emphasise how far you can get with just a good storyline, something that Dead Synchronicity certainly seems to have during my first few hours of gameplay. Let me explain…

Michael, the main protagonist in this post apocalyptic adventure has awoken in a strange place, surrounded by strange people and what’s even stranger still is that he has no memory of who he is. No memory of his family, his life before the event that caused him to be lying on this dirty old mattress in what looks like a rusty caravan. It takes some explanation from a good Samaritan to make him understand that an event called ‘The Great Wave’ swept across the globe, destroying the modern world and bringing a new disease so horrible that it’s become a crime to hide the people who have it.

Most people would take this ending of everything they once knew and loved as a sign to give up hope on ever having a life worth living again, but not Michael. He is the type of character who demands to know what caused this atrocity to happen and the type of character that would never give up on finding out his true identity at any cost. It’s from here that the story really kicks off, letting you loose amongst a refugee camp controlled by the army who have seized power since everything fell apart. According to them it’s either their way or the end of a gun. The rest of the camp have given up hope of ever leaving this pile of junk and have instead resorted to surviving on their own wit and strength and whether you like it or not you now have to do the same.

Aside from the intriguing storyline Dead Synchronicity has a number of other high points. Let’s start with the soundtrack which is entirely created by the Spanish band Kovalski. The music sets the tone of the game really well and while it’s never overpowering I always noticed when a new tune popped up. The line up of Kovalski actually contains two members of the development team proving already that they are prepared to go further than most would to make sure their game is a good as possible.

Another high point is the games ability to deal well with mature subjects. In this post apocalyptic world some people are prepared to do what ever it takes to survive and Dead Synchronicity, whilst never being overly crude or graphic fittingly deals with subjects like murder, prostitution and death.

In the few hours that I’ve played this game I’ve been impressed with how much it has drawn me into its story and made me believe the world and characters it presents. Let’s just hope that continues to the end.

Dead Synchronicity is due for release on April the 10th.