Follow The Meaning

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Follow The Meaning is a new game from developers HiKing Mind Studio and publisher Second Maze. Released last November, this bizarre point and click adventure is a mystery waiting to be unravelled. Available now on Steam for £4.99, is it worth adding to your library?

Get ready to point and wait for the story to click

Illustrative artwork of people standing and lying on clouds, with text "Got my head in the clouds despite my fear of heights." — The beginning of a very surreal adventure

Gameplay

You start Follow The Meaning as Paul Trilby, a detective investigating a local psychiatric hospital that’s conducting strange procedures. It’s a pretty dark narrative, with mysterious doctors, people with three eyes and a mystery that follows. The game won’t hand you the story, though. Through mini cutscenes, tidbits of information fed to you through dialogue and plenty of things to click on, it is up to the player to uncover the full story that’s at play.

There isn’t much to the actual gameplay aside from solving the puzzles. As a result, the plot is thrown at you quite quickly and, much like Paul, you don’t have a lot of time to figure it out. The pacing for this game is amazing and even though I feel like I had no idea what was going on, that felt like the point. You never feel stupid because you’re clearly meant to be left in the dark.

Illustration of a whimsical, top-down view of a village with animated characters and highlighted interactive objects. — So many things to point and click at

Collectibles

Beyond the story, there is a small side quest where you have to find 8 lost cats that belong to a woman that lives in the town. Some of them appear in very obvious locations whilst others are hidden behind scenes or lurking in some very dark areas. It’s a nice little side story that can take you out of the weird world of Follow The Meaning.

Illustration of a cozy room with furniture, a cat on a shelf, and a radio on a table. An old lady sits in an arm chair looking disconcerted. — Just a lady and her cats

Graphics & Audio

The best way to describe the design of Follow The Meaning is whimsical. The art style matches Paul’s surreal adventure as he makes his way to the hospital. It feels very Van Gogh in the approach to world building and aesthetics which match perfectly with the story themes. There’s a level of depth that I wouldn’t expect from a point and click adventure.

An illustrated alien landscape with a large moon, cactus, trees, and a character standing. — Can’t tell whether I’m tripping or falling

The audio is mainly soft piano music that plays in the background and doesn’t play too much into the story. There are a few intense moments that are reflected in the music. Beyond that there are some sound effects to show the consequences of how you interact with the world.

Longevity

Maybe I’m just incredibly lucky but my first playthrough of Follow The Meaning only took me around an hour and a half. I played through the game again just to see whether there was any Doki Doki style changes in the game due to the fact that there are computer-like pop ups. Altogether, it took me around two and a half hours to do two run throughs because I already knew what I was doing the second time around.

With multiple endings there is definitely enough reason to replay the game. If you want to uncover the truth then definitely pick up the hat a couple of times and see what you can find.

A dimly lit alchemical room with a cauldron, potion bottles, a table with a book, and hanging test tubes. — I’m not sure how I ended up here

Final Thoughts

With whimsical art style, some cooky characters and a mystery so mysterious I still don’t really know what’s going on, I had a really good time with Follow The Meaning. It’s short but sweet and is different from most point and click adventures that I’ve played. It would be the perfect addition to mystery fan’s library.

I’m giving Follow The Meaning the Thumb Culture Gold Award.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

Looking for more Point and Click games? Check out our other reviews of this genre here!

About Author

Alex Crooks

My favourite kind of games are the ones that make you cry… and by cry I mean throw your controller at a wall because I definitely dodged that attack but I’m still somehow dead. Or cry because that jumpscare was just uncalled for and now I need to recover before I can make my way down another scary, dark corridor.

I’m as old as the first Tomb Raider and feel like I’ve been playing games ever since. I’m a Playstation girlie that dabbles in Switch and PC games. Don’t ask me about Bloodborne unless you’re ready to listen to me ramble on for hours.

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Follow The Meaning – PC Review