5 Days A Stranger

5 Days A Stranger is a traditional point and click adventure made on the cheap by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, the often funny critic behind Zero Punctuation. The first of a Quadrilogy of games in the "Chzo Mythos", 5 Days A Stranger begins as the gentlemen thief Trilby infiltrates the ominous DeFoe manner in search of loot, only to find himself inexplicably trapped with 4 other people, and a bloody secret the mansion has held for over 200 years.
The graphics in 5 Days are typical of what you might see in an old Sierra or Lucasarts adventure, but a little bit simpler, but seeing as how the game had a budget of $0.00, it actually does an admirable job in terms of the character art and environments. Everything is colorful, and the "hotspots" are generally easy to find. The interface is clean and simple. The sound effects are sparse but repetitive, particularly when you're walking, but the occasional ghostly footsteps and whispering add some ambiance. Where this game really shines though, is the script. With the exception of a few inconsistencies in logic, and one or two tedious dialogue trees that you will have to wade through repeatedly to get to the one correct result, the dialogue is very well written, and often funny. Trilby is an excellent character for this sort of game, and his dry, sarcastic quips add a lot to the experience.
The game isn't very long--in fact, I would say it's about the perfect length for an adventure title: it doesn't wear out it's welcome, but it doesn't feel like anything in the story was left unresolved. It will probably take you about three or four hours to get through the whole thing--the puzzles aren't really that tough, and overall, it reminded me of those good one-shots The X-Files used to have during their first couple of seasons. There's more to this story if you want it, but what you'll find here stands up well enough on it's own.