Pinstripe – You, your slingshot, and hell to pay

I’m a sucker for games featuring a distinguishing art style, something that pops out immediately. As soon as I spotted Pinstripe, I was fascinated by its looks, and the synopsis sealed the deal for me: “An ex-minister ventures through the frozen depths of Hell in search of his kidnapped daughter.” We’ve all been there, right?

Well, maybe not literally.

It sounds a lot like Limbo, which is a big plus in my humble opinion, but Pinstripe is a very different game. It’s a story-driven action platformer with a fair number of puzzles to solve, and while you can complete it in one sitting, it was completely worth it. Thomas Brush, who created this game pretty much all by himself, is a truly talented artist/programmer/composer… you name it.

I’m even willing to go as far as saying that even if I didn’t appreciate this style of gameplay – but I do –, the inventive depiction of hell and, later, the distinctly colorful and sunny rendition of Ted’s home are reason enough to take this trip. Your good taste will thank you later.

Pinstripe is the story of an ex-minister, Ted, and his quest through afterlife to bring back Bo, his cute as a button three-year-old daughter. Bo was taken by a demonic creature named Mr. Pinstripe, and don’t let his British gentleman manners fool you, he is as bad as they come. Now, to bring back Bo we must explore the depths of hell and defeat this being.

Pinstripe is short and sweet, a story-driven game with some strong emotions to drive you along. Your nemesis will make some regular and remarkable appearances and while you can often choose your replies, it’s a simple matter of highlighting your good side or a quite frankly obnoxious behavior. These encounters with Pinstripe and some other characters are made the more interesting thanks to some truly impressive voice acting. It’s not only the quality of the actors, but the whole soundscape side of things – voices get grotesquely distorted, unintelligible noises lend some of the expressions a much stronger emphasis and emotion, with malice, plain indifference or empathy. It’s masterful work.

Masterful. That is a word that perfectly suits the art style of Pinstripe. Another one could be “splendid”. Sparkling clean also fits the bill. Pinstripe’s visuals have this impressive hand-drawn cartoon style that looks like a beautiful painting, sometimes reminiscent of – and admittedly inspired by – The Nightmare Before Christmas. There is such attention to the tiniest of details that you may miss a lot of them – for example, only now I noticed that Ted closes one eye when he is aiming his slingshot. Or his cold breath during the snow regions. Later, when all hell is about to break loose – I don’t think this could be considered a spoiler –, things get even more chaotic and desperate, but always beautiful from start to finish.

The gameplay is your typical affair of finding the right places and objects to evolve your character and discover new, previously locked or out of reach locations. For the matter at hand, you must collect all the frozen drops that you find along the way, as they will be necessary to buy a certain ticket. But your first task is to pick up a weapon, as hell is obviously filled with dangerous entities, mostly… flying sacks? I… I can’t really describe what those things are, but you’re in for some huge, retching, disgusting sacks of doom along the way.

The puzzles are generally clever, with the occasional misstep along the way. Pay close attention to the writing on the walls and make good use of your slingshot as it will be your best friend in this journey through hell. Well, maybe a close second, as your greatest companion is without a shadow of a dog… I mean, doubt, your dog George. He will sniff and dig some stuff for you, stand on a switch now and then, and even give you the occasional advice. Man’s best friend indeed.

Now and then you’ll have to resort to all your Flappy Bird skills, as some mechanisms require you to push a button to make this knob travel through barriers. There are also a few “spot the difference” challenges and some spin-thingies that require a good deal of timing to push all the buttons during a short span of time. These aren’t too taxing and make for a nice break from all the jumping and slingshot-ing.

My biggest gripe with Pinstripe is that it’s a very short game. I mean, two to three hours short. It’s enough for an interesting, gripping adventure, but is it enough bang for your buck? I would say yes, as this was a very sui-generis world to discover, and the inherent story of Ted and Bo’s fate is a subtle yet harrowing one. You can always go for a second run on the Adventure+ mode, unlocking a few more areas and maybe even buying some devastating toys – read heavy weaponry – to fight fire with fire. No more puny slingshots. I also think that some passages could be better signposted, as you’re bound to miss an area or two that you thought were just a wall or a cliff.

I liked where Pinstripe took me, it was a worthwhile journey through a very specific kind of hell. It’s incredibly easy on the eyes and features a stunning soundtrack and top-quality voice acting. It may not look like your usual triple-A game, but it has more wit and heart than many of those titles. Thomas Brush is definitely a name to follow closely, and I can’t wait to see more of his next game, Once Upon a Coma.

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