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Supreme League of Patriots – An Indie Game Review

Supreme League of Patriots Box Art
Supreme League of Patriots – An Indie Game Review
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Platforms: Windows PC, Mac, Linux, Steam

Game Name: Supreme League of Patriots

Publisher: Phoenix Online Publishing

Developer: No Bull Intentions

Genre: Adventure

Release Date: January 29th, 2015

Supreme League of Patriots – What We Think

Enter the world of Supreme League of Patriots, where a freak accident causes wannabe superhero Kyle Keever to transform into alter-ego The Purple Patriot. Developed by No Bull Intentions, this comical point and click game excels at tongue-in-cheek dialogue, containing a memorable cast of characters and an intriguing world to explore.

Supreme League of Patriots Box Art

Uh…I’m not rigging the stage, promise!

Like most point and click games, there are objects that need to be found and used in order to progress through the story. Most objects are very easy to find within the colorful and well-made environments, but some blend into the background so well that you’ll miss them entirely. When you enter a room, sometimes Kyle or Mel, his sidekick, will cover up an important object with his body, and because they don’t move around all too much, it’s important to be observant of everything in the room.

The puzzles are original, but it can be difficult from time to time to figure out how to solve them in the way the developers intended. For example, one puzzle required me to find a way to fool reality TV judges into believing that Kyle would let Mel shoot an apple off his head with a crossbow. I talked to a number of NPCs and looked at everything in the rooms, but there was nothing to hint that I needed to try and get into a locked gaffer door for supplies and materials to fake the entire thing.

Thankfully, if you’re ever in a bind with a puzzle, Mel will try and hint at what needs to be done if you don’t interact with anything in the game for a few seconds. It’s a clever way to help the player along, and there were some sections where I needed that nudging in order to solve the problem.

supremeleagueofpatriots_menu

Every Superhero’s Trusty Utility Belt

It’s relatively easy to get used to the controls of Supreme League of Patriots. You’ll learn most of what you need to know with the first few puzzles, and the game is very responsive in terms of selecting items and accessing menus.

There were quite a few buttons I didn’t actually end up using throughout the game, though. I never used the buttons for accessing the task menu – which explains what to do next – because Mel was always so much better at guiding me along. The map button felt unnecessary, as well, since I could just leave an area, and another map with accessible locations would be the one I used anyway.

There are also two separate buttons for Kyle’s inventory, which seems off. The one that appears when you hover your cursor over the bottom of the screen sees the majority of use. It contains all the items you’ve gathered and allows you to change what item you want to use, depending on the puzzle you’re trying to solve.

The other inventory button is strictly for combining items together, a feature that I only needed to use a couple of times. I forgot it was even there, for the most part. It baffles me that these two menus aren’t just combined together, since they access the same inventory, only with a different look and separate functions.

supremeleagueofpatriots_dialogue2

British Buddies are Priceless

Every character is memorable–from the main duo of Kyle and Mel to the colorful cast of supporting characters. Some are pure parodies of real people – like the reality TV judges, who are based on Idol and X-Factor personas, while others are blatant stereotypes, like the Cold War Warrior, a muscled Russian contestant who enjoys killing and idolizes Vladimir Putin. I never found myself feeling forced to talk to people because I had to; I wanted to know all of these characters.

Kyle and Mel have a synergy that works so well within the game and their dialogue together is top notch. It differs from many other point and click games out there in that you won’t just look at a fire hydrant, but rather be given a colorful back and forth between Kyle and Mel as they discuss what they did with the said hydrant. They’ll remark on nearly everything there is of interest in an area, which witty dialogue and clever retorts elicited more than a few laughs from me.

These conversations between the two do tend to slow down the pace of the game from time to time, however, especially when there are a lot of items to observe or people to talk to. It took almost half an hour for me to get out of the very first area, for example – an apartment building – not so much because of the couple puzzles I needed to solve there, but because of all the dialogue to get through. Otherwise, it’s one of the game’s best qualities.

Be the superhero your city didn’t ask for

Supreme League of Patriots is an interesting series. It gets applause for excelling at the art of world building and character development, but the puzzle elements can feel drawn out and even sluggish. That said, I’ve enjoyed the game thoroughly and can’t wait to continue playing the rest of the episodes.

Get Supreme League of Patriots on Steam

[xrr rating=”4/5″]

Watch the trailer for Supreme League of Patriots below: