Right. The only people on this planet that speak my language are robots. The robotic doorman won’t let me into the robot club without a membership card. I’ve found a membership card, but it is rather unfortunately floating inside the translucent body of a sentient blob. I could ask for the card, but unfortunately the only people on this planet that speak my language are robots.

If you haven’t already guessed, I appear to have once again stumbled into point and click territory.

Captain Disaster in: Death Has A Million Stomping Boots, or CDI:DHAMSTB (pronounced cud-id-ham-stub) for short – is a point and click comedy sci-fi adventure developed by Dave Seaman and Owen Riebau. As the eponymous Captain Disaster you are tasked with first obtaining and then delivering a mysterious package across the galaxy for a small pile of galactic credits. Of course, being a point and click adventure, nothing in life is ever that easy. Facing a world of bureaucratic aliens and laid-back robots, even finding the package proves to be a monumental challenge after you lose contact with your ship.

CDDHIS:AMBT suffers from the usual point and click adventure problem of occasionally running into a brick wall of difficulty.  The majority of the puzzles are relatively straightforward, with only a few straying into the territory of mindlessly attempting to combine inventory items with everything in the environment. The writer does helpfully drop plenty of hints into the environment and dialogue, but even then I strayed occasionally into the helpfully provided walkthrough to progress the story.

Graphically, the screenshots will tell you instantly everything you need to know. Taking inspiration from the classics adventures from Lucasarts and Sierra, TMD:HISAMCDB is drawn with affection, with objects and characters clear enough that interacting with the environment is never a problem. Screen exits are sometimes however a little unclear, meaning once or twice I wasn’t even aware of adjoining locations until I stumbled across them by accident.

At times, the pop-culture references come on a little too enthusiastically, with nods to science-fiction shows and other adventure games appearing on practically every screen. Some are subtle, but others grab you round the throat screaming look at me! I’m from Star Wars! The developer is clearly capable of writing entertaining jokes that stand on their own feet, so it would have been nice to have seen fewer references and a little more free-spirited humour.

As a nod to classic Sierra adventures and celebration of science fiction, D:HBTAMSDCI performs remarkably well. I played through the whole adventure in a single evening, coming in at approximately two hours. As a light-hearted comedy adventure with a few head-scratching puzzles, any fans of Space Quest or Zac McKracken will find plenty here to enjoy.

Captain Disaster in: Death Has A Million Stomping Boots is available now over on itch.io. Remarkably for 2018, the developer has also provided a demo, which for our younger audience is a small portion of the game that you don’t have to pay for.

The Verdict – On Target

Platforms Available – PC

Platform Reviewed – PC

Review based on media account copy. For more on our scoring policy, please head here.