Developer: Synergy Inc.
Publisher: Synergy Interactive Corp.
Platform: PC – Windows 3.1, MacOS; PlayStation 1

Playing obscure video games is one of my favorite past times. As such, I’ve kept Gadget: Invention, Travel & Adventure on my radar for years now. After finally playing, it’s safe to say it wasn’t worth the wait. This adventure game certainly has style, but it’s not backed up by anything else.

Gadget starts off with our protagonist waking up in a hotel room. They pack up their luggage and prepare to check out. A creepy bell boy stops them on their way out – they must speak to someone downstairs, apparently. Heading down the elevator yields another creepy incident with a small child (whose luggage is an exact duplicate of your own). As it turns out, after leaving the elevator, you realize he swapped the cases. Now instead of clothing you’ve got a case with binoculars and inset space for oddly shaped objects.

For whatever reason, there’s a quest to find a scientist – and only you can do it. As this proceeds, other scientists and shady men give you tips about where to go next. The vast majority of gameplay revolves around traveling along a train route. Most adventure games of the era included many puzzles. There are barely any puzzles in Gadget: Invention, Travel & Adventure. Most of the experience feels incredibly repetitive. Board the train, talk to everyone in the area, and then head to the next stop to do the exact same thing.

It’s a shame that the point and click gameplay is terribly uninspired. It’s clear that the developer had something far grander in mind with the sci-fi and political storyline it tells. Well, it’s hard to know exactly what was meant by everything, as it eschews traditional storytelling for a lot of psychedelic imagery. Mind control and aliens might be involved? One awesome point worth mentioning is the noise-style soundtrack by Koji Ueno. These tracks wouldn’t be out of place in a Silent Hill game!

If there were more focus on providing a slightly more coherent narrative, or more compelling gameplay, I would’ve eaten Gadget: Invention, Travel & Adventure up. As is, though, it’s a superbly weird game that fails to truly engage the audience in its short two hour playtime.

2 out of 5 alpacas

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