But with the new point and click adventure from Inca Games it looks a little different. We don't start with Carlos in a bar, but in a gloomy prison cell. But how did Carlos get there and what did he do before that? We find out all of this in the game Tango: The Adventure Game.I
Felon Carlos?
At the beginning of the game we start in Carlos' cell, and you quickly realize that Carlos doesn't really belong here. The walls are full of paintings and some other pictures. Then Carlos needs to get out of there as quickly as possible and off to freedom. But during a brief conversation with the guard it turns out that a prison break is not as easy as one might think. Carlos already had three pathetic attempts. The first time he dug a tunnel in the bathroom, that sounds pretty good at first. However, one should not only think about the beginning, but also about the end of the tunnel. So this tunnel ended in the guards' break room and the attempt failed.
On the second try, Carlos got a bit harsher on the approach. This time he wanted to cause chaos in the courtyard and then use this chaos to escape. However, the chaos is not enough if no one else joins in and so this attempt also failed. But Carlos didn't give up, thought about it and came up with a new idea, it was so imaginative, so perfectly thought out. He disguised himself as a woman in a red dress, but unfortunately this disguise only helped a few guards and so Carlos is still sitting in his cell. This time it is up to the player whether the next attempt succeeds or not. At least we get external support in person from our friend Tito. He sends us a letter and then it's time for Carlos to make a plan to break out. Then the player comes into play as well, because we have to solve small puzzles in order for this outbreak to end successfully. If that works, a friend of Tito's will pick us up and drive away with us.
The story of the abandoned and indebted Carlos
Then we travel back in time and we travel to Tito's bar. Where it all began. There you can see a destroyed Carlos sitting at the counter. Carlos tells his friend Tito about his wife, who has left him, and about his debts. It is precisely these debts that cause many problems with his acquaintances and friends, because it is precisely these debts that he has had to repay money for a long time. After a few more alcoholic drinks, Carlos goes black and dreams. He sees his love disappear, his money vanish into thin air and all of a sudden he hears a speaker. He tells him about tango music and that the right person has to master it before it goes under.
However, Carlos has never heard of tango and so he first asks his friends, but they cannot help him either. This is mainly due to the aversion that everyone has towards him, because he cannot repay his debts. But then his good friend Lynch comes into play, a somewhat seedy man. He makes Carlos an offer to pay off his debt by playing poker for him.
Carlos is reluctant at first because that is exactly what drove him into debt. But Carlos doesn't only owe this man money, every little story of other characters leads to little tasks and puzzles. These then have to be solved by the player in the small town. Whether at the port, in the bar or at the horse race How it comes to the initial prison stay and how Carlos becomes a tango musician is not told right away. If you want to find out, you'd better solve the riddle about Carlos yourself.
Image gallery for Tango
Infobox
Number of players: 1 players
Age: na
Playing time: 2+ hours
Difficulty: medium to difficult
Long-term motivation: low
Publisher: Inca Games
Developer: Gualicho Games
Year of publication: 2018
Platforms: PC
Language: English, Spanish - Spain and Latin America
Cost: 7,39 Euro
Conclusion
The game offers a lot of puzzles and a humorous story for friends of the genre, but there are also a few weaknesses. It becomes clear from the beginning that this game lives from humor: funny conversations with the guard and other inmates create a relatively relaxed atmosphere at first. So you don't even think about the fact that you are currently in a prison and really just want to get out of here. The humor also includes allusions from the modern age, because the real action takes place in the tango times of the 1930s in Argentina. For example, one hears excerpts from Adele. The developer also pokes himself at times and talks about the compelling story twist in the story. So the whole atmosphere is very humorous and relaxed.
When we talk about tango music, it should of course not be missing in the gaming experience, so different music accompanies us in the background all the time. This is always quite appropriate to the general game situation and thus ensures an even better gaming experience. However, it then stops with the sound in the game, because the conversations are not set to music and are only available as text.
Now for the game elements. The inventory is very well structured and is very clearly laid out. But the puzzles to be solved are sometimes quite difficult to solve. It is usually not the actual puzzles that make the player ponder, but rather the objects to be searched for in order to start the puzzle. I often traveled back and forth between places and people because I just didn't know where to find the items or how to get them. Because there are no big hints, you can't get any tips to advance in the story, so sometimes you spend half an hour just looking for a small object without knowing what exactly to look for. I find this aspect very poorly implemented for motivation and the flow of the game. After a long time, the player could be given the opportunity to get a tip in order to be able to complete the puzzle.
So my tip for future players is: You should look at everything very carefully and also examine the small objects in order to find the solution to the riddle.
Finally, it can be said that the story of Carlos is very humorous, but all the less exciting and gripping. The atmosphere is very appropriate due to the graphic and acoustic environment and makes for a nice gaming experience. The puzzles always have different difficulties, but you have to look very carefully to find relevant objects and help is rather poor.
