WALKTHROUGH-GAMES-WORLD: Alchemia

For a lonely shepherd in a normal world, seeing a mechanical bird seemingly preying on your flock must be a terrifying experience. It certainly was for the hero in Alchemia, which is why he killed it. But it turns out that even mechanical birds have souls. And so the hero and the bird set out on a quest to find a new body for its soul to inhabit in the wonderful web-based adventure Alchemia.

For the most part, Alchemia plays out like any other point'n'click adventure on the market. If you're familiar with the genre in the least, there's very little in the gameplay to surprise you here. What will fill you with wonder and awe, however, is the slick presentation and tender ideas that fill the story. There's nothing wacky or off the wall in this adventure. No rubber chickens on pulleys. No maniacal purple tentacles. Alchemia values simplicity and beauty over the silliness or suspense that most adventures are built on.

Take the calendar wheel puzzle, for example. You'll set a calendar wheel in motion. As it spins, a tree in the room will go through its annual life cycle. It will grow leaves, bear fruit, lose leaves, die, and then bloom once more. Little touches like these weren't only aesthetically pleasing and humbling in concept, but they served as central elements to the puzzling. With the tree, for example, you'll need to stop the calendar when the fruit falls off to collect it for your inventory.