Fenimore Fillmore: 3 Skulls of the Toltecs (2019)

”To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.” -T.F. Hodge

***Special thanks go to Chap for proofing this review. I figured I should get a point-and-click professional on the job just in case.

With its original release in 1996, Fenimore Fillmore: 3 Skulls of the Toltecs (FF) is a point-and-click adventure title themed in Arizona of 1866. The title’s namesake is that of the protagonist, appearing to be a righteous cowboy who happens upon a shootout centered on obtaining a glorious golden skull. I must admit that I am still split on recommending this game, but found some fundamental issues-described in further detail-to bridge this writing closer to the negative connotation. I received this title as a keycode from the developers for review purposes.

Here are just a few topics of note:

Writing - FF is a generally comedic title with campy dialogue and absurd voice acting which communicates charm throughout this adventure, and legitimately produced several laughs from myself. Unfortunately, this title is also riddled with grammatical and continuity issues such as-with minor spoilers-a dialogue option explaining the parish priest’s fear of Father Anselmo with no prompt nor prior mention that there is any indication of said apprehension. I have not found any massive story elements ruined by these errors, but they still merit referral.

Design - Though claimed to be remastered, many of the decisions made in pertinence to performance are questionable. The subtitles endure for inconsistent durations while habitually covering characters while the remaining environment is unobscured. As is common with staples in point-and-click titles, an extended period of time is spent traversing the world and its various segments. I must give FF credit with its map feature, as the player is able to venture to areas with the click of a button rather than repeatedly trudging back to cutscene triggers in specific locations.

Gameplay - I will not dwell on this subject regarding the point-and-click method of video games, as the term also blatantly describes the control scheme. Upon inspecting the 1996 variation’s controls, I found that there appears to be diminished functionality considering the right click functionality has been seemingly revoked, demanding the use of the command buttons bordering the bottom of the screen in order to make all interactions; this is not an enormous complication, however it may be tedious. The player can also double-click on distant doors in order to travel direction to them, ignoring the walking animation. However, this feature does not operate during each opportunity, relaying inconsistency. I have also found that the save game function appears to be defective, as I lost four hours of progress due to a bug occurring and my attempting to reload the game recurrently caused it to crash. To the title’s credit, several of the game’s puzzles retain intrigue, but the entirety of the game does appear to drag.

TL:DR - This recreation of Fenimore Fillmore retains the charm of point-and-click titles from its origin area, but does appear to have grammatical and technical issues-major discrepancies for a title which relies on its writing and basic gameplay elements. To reiterate, I believe this title to be proficient but cannot recommend it due to frequently-occurring flaws and annoyances. I still wish the developer luck on this release, however, as I do enjoy seeing classic titles being recovered and introduced to new generations. Thanks for reading.

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Originally posted on March 15, 2019.