Released earlier this month for both PC and Xbox Live Indie Games, Excruciating Guitar Voyage is what happens when you don’t lay off the crack, kids. Giant insects, underground guitar clubs, lots of electricity-based puzzling… and the most bizarre graphical style we’ve seen in a long while.

Through all the craziness there is a pretty decent adventure puzzler available, although the self-abuse concept never really gets up to speed and you’re left with a voyage that’s more easy than excruciating. The voice-acting (or at least sound mixing) could have done with a revamp too.

GAMEPLAY

Excruciating Guitar Voyage plays out as a simple platforming experience with morsels of puzzle and adventuring here and there. Objectives are displayed in the bottom right of the screen, and progression usually relies on figuring out how to open up a path, or searching an area for clues.

The first thirty minutes with EGV are generally entertaining. Our hero PX can purposely electrocute himself or set himself on fire to pass obstacles and solve puzzles, leading to some genuinely hilarious situations. Solutions are always pretty obvious and you most likely won’t get stuck on anything, but it’s still good fun.

The problem is that the puzzles never ramp up in difficulty after this initial introduction. Throughout the game the same basic concepts are used over and over, and eventually it does drag on a bit. The wacky elements help to keep the dullness at bay slightly, but when the credits roll, you’ll most likely be thankful for the end.

That’s not to say the entire game is simply fry yourself, solve a puzzle, burn yourself, solve a puzzle, repeat. There are exploring sections, which are fun in a certain sense, but also a little annoying as you can’t skip dialogue, and people have SO much meaningless crap to say.

Then you’ve got stealthy ‘dodge the baddies, run past the lasers’ style play. While these parts are just as basic as the rest of the game, they do a great job of breaking up the main action, and they’re not too shabby either.

Basically, there’s a certain method to playing Excruciating Guitar Voyage that will grant you maximum entertainment – as long as you go into it expecting silly puzzles and not too much depth, you’ll most likely enjoy yourself. It’s really not a bad way to spend an evening, truth be told.

STYLE

We’ve seen some mental visual styles in Xbox Live Indie Game titles, but Excruciating Guitar Voyage definitely takes the cake and smears it all over the walls. Scenery is decorated with what appears to be real photos of terrain – so for example, mountains look like pictures of rocks, and wooded areas are filled with pictures of planks. Nothing awe-inspiring, but pretty all the same.

The characters are a whole different area entirely. Body parts are not joined together, and instead flow along side each other. Each characters face is a photo of a real person – most likely the devs and their friends. It takes some getting used to, but eventually we found ourselves warming to the idea. It’s weird, but at least it’s unique!

Of course, it’s all in aid of banging a humorous edge into play, and for the most part, it does a pretty decent job. Protagonist PX sounds so laid back despite his predicaments and the constant electrocutions, and there’s plenty of personality pumped into his innocent dialogue. His co-stars aren’t so great – most of the other characters aren’t very funny at all, and some of them you can barely hear thanks to terrible voice recording.

STORY

You play as PX, your average run-of-the-mill guy… well, apart from the whole being invincible bit. In PX’s world, heavy metal music has been banned, and a curfew has been put on the land. A underground heavy metal movement called roxxor2 has started, and PX is very much interested in checking it all out.

He sets out to town to find his friend Craig, but soon ends up in some situations he probably shouldn’t be involved in. It’s not exactly a unique story, but it definitely gets the job done and keeps the game flowing smoothly. As with the gameplay, don’t think about it all too hard, and you’ll probably find yourself enjoying the whimsical tale.

OTHER

Here’s the bottom line – go into Excruciating Guitar Voyage looking for a few hours of simple puzzle platforming with some silly dialogue and even sillier situations, and you’ve got yourself a winner. Anyone looking for more depth and variation in their gaming need not apply.

Excruciating Guitar Voyage is the kind of game the word ‘good’ was invented for. It’s not great, but it’s not bad either – it’s just right there in the middle. Grab a copy for either PC ($3) or Xbox Live Indie Games (240 MS Points aka $3).

PC version / Xbox version