Confession time. I don’t play point-and-click adventure games…like at all. I say this so we are clear that my review of The Night of the Rabbit will be from the point of view of the everyman/woman and not a fan of the genre per say.

The Night of the Rabbit is a point-and-click adventure game from the charming fellows over at Daedalic Entertainment and is available now on PC via Steam. The Night of the Rabbit tells the story of Jeramiah ‘Jerry’ Hazelnut, a young boy who dreams of becoming a magician. Jerry meets up with the rather fabulous Marquis de Hoto who ranks as one of the suavest rabbits I have ever seen in a video game. Our friend the Marquis de Awesome enlists Jerry as his apprentice magician and takes him forth into a world of magic and mystery.

Visually, The Night of the Rabbit is a pleasure to behold and it really goes to show that you don’t need a fancy 3D engine or realistic arm hair rendering to create an exceptionally beautiful game. The backdrop of each area is essentially a painting that you move Jerry through to interact with the world. Characters, environmental movements and particle effects are then imposed onto the background to bring the world to life.

These mice are guarding against giant crow attacks, which is a little like having salsa guard against Dorito attacks.

The Night of the Rabbit’s soundtrack lives up to the sense of awe and wonder that the game is trying to fill the player with. The score really captures the feeling of the game and instils you with a sense of adventure.

On the voice acting front, The Night of the Rabbit is simply top-notch. The characters all feel so very real and tangible. There are no A-list Hollywood names to be found here, just some really earthy characters who draw you into their world. I’d even go as far as to say I have a bit of a voice crush on both the Marquis de Swag and Jerry’s mother in particular.

So is there a Mr Hazlenut or what?

The Night of the Rabbit combines beautiful visuals and an amazing artistic direction with an epic and magical soundtrack to create a wonderous and inviting world. Throw this together with an intriguing story of adventure and magic and what’s not to love? Well sadly this isn’t a book or a film or a cartoon…it’s a video game and that is where The Night of the Rabbit, and indeed most adventure games slip up in my mind. It just isn’t very fun to play.

The puzzle-based nature of the game grinds the pacing down to a mind-numbling boring crawl. The puzzles are all a variation on one basic concept. Find the thing that lets you use it on another thing, which in turn will grant you a third thing to use on a another puzzle later. This is the standard in this type of game, hell this is the founding concept of this type of game, but that doesn’t stop it being as dull as dishwater.

What makes the boring puzzles even worse is the fact that The Night of the Rabbit falls into the same old hole that adventure games always fall into: bizarro world logic. Example puzzle number 1; You need to pick some blackberries but there is a bramble bush blocking your way to the blackberry bush. Solution? Find a stick and beat the brambles out of the way. That’s fine, everything makes sense and it’s what a normal person would do.

Now onto example puzzle number 2; A leprechaun has stolen some tools and is running away from you. Solution? Catch him? Beat him with a stick? Corner him and pummel him into the floor? Nope, you have to find a rake, then lay it on the ground over a four leaf clover symbol so that when he runs past he steps on the rake and knocks himself out. Well of course, how silly of me to not think of that.

Anyone who can’t figure this puzzle out is obviously a total nincompoop.

I really like the universe that Daedalic Entertainment have created in The Night of the Rabbit. I love the art style, the soundtrack and the sense of child-like wonder that it fills me with. I just wish that the game part of it was actually fun. I want to hear and see the story of Jeramiah Hazelnut and find out if he makes his dream of becoming a magician come true. I want to find out about the evil magician and the Marquis de Cool Dude’s role in all this. But for the life of me I don’t want to have to play this game in order to find out.

The Night of the Rabbit is a fantastic story that is let down by the medium in which it is presented to us. It’s like watching a film where you have to solve a small series of puzzles before you can see the next scene. The puzzles do nothing but break the pacing and frustrate the player. Unless you’re an adventure game nut I’d just watch someone else play it on YouTube for the story and skip the stupid puzzles. If you are an adventure game nut then feel free to ignore my uniformed opinion and go enjoy The Night of the Rabbit.

Let us know what you thought of our review or of The Night of the Rabbit itself in the comments below.