Review: Demetrios – The BIG Cynical Adventure (Nintendo Switch)

Demetrios – The Big Cynical Adventure is a point and click game from CowCat games. The point and click genre is starting to really pick up on the Nintendo Switch. Is this one worth your time?

You play as Bjorn, an odd fellow who seems to have no standards of hygiene or sanitation. At one point he eats an open bag of chips off of his floor. He somehow manages to run his own business. One night after staggering home drunk, his apartment is robbed. The next morning, after filing a police report and finding they are more than likely unwilling to help, he sets out on his own to figure out what happened by collecting clues. There is plenty of comical relief in the game. Some of the humor in the game may be considered “toilet humor” to some. Luckily, at the beginning of the game, you can select the amount you prefer if this type of humor bothers you. Much of the humor comes from Bjorn and his actions.

You search for clues or objects to help you solve the robbery. If playing with the Switch undocked, you can slide your finger on the screen to magnify when looking for clues. If you are playing with it docked, you use the right analog stick. Most of the clues you find are everyday household things like flashlight, money, and cookies.

Each screen you search has 3 hidden cookies that you can find. Cookies can be found in some fairly gross places. No matter where you find a cookie Bjorn still thinks it is a good idea to keep it and eventually eat it. Whenever you are unsure of your next move, eating a cookie will give you a hint of what to do or where to look next.

There are a number of achievements to be found in the game which helps bring it some replay value. The achievements also add some more humor to the game such as the different ways of getting “game-over” (i.e. getting arrested or killed). There are several ways to do both and earning certain ones yields an achievement.

At times it seems hard to like any of the characters in the story. All the characters in the game just seem so angry and annoyed to be interacting with each other. When all of the characters seem to have the same personality, it lacks any sort of depth and variety. At some points, I found it hard to keep any interest in playing due to the interaction with characters. It seems at times to rely solely on humor to drive the story forward.

Demetrios – The Big Cynical Adventure isn’t the best game I have played but it certainly is fun and has its moments that will make you laugh. It also offers a fair amount of actual gameplay before the credits roll. With the addition of trying to reach all of the achievements, there is plenty of gameplay to go around.