Strange Antiquities Review

I’ve always fantasised about owning a small business where I could chat with my clients and offer my niche expertise on whatever product or service I provide. Having a supernatural plague ravage the town I work in was not part of the original vision, but beggars can’t be choosers, as Bad Viking’s newest title, Strange Antiquities, sets the scene.

Located in the gloomy city of Undermere, the game is played from the perspective of an apprentice Thaumaturge running the titular Strange Antiquities boutique. The proprietor of the store has left on business, leaving us with a terse set of instructions not to poke about and a book describing the various accoutrements spread throughout the shelves.

The core gameplay loop revolves around two main aspects: serving customers and identifying antiquities, with the story spanning 18 in-game days of ever-increasing Lovecraftian dread and research into symbols and stones.

Whenever we’re ready to interact with our clientele and have patted Jupiter the cat (this is a must, I’m pretty sure), ring a bell on the counter, summoning the next person with a problem. The customer will describe their problem and either request a specific item or leave us to our own devices to decide which object would fit the bill.

Thankfully, we’re not on our own, as we have a few different resources to help identify our stock. First off, we have a book given to us by our teacher, which has verbal descriptions and some images to help us identify the many talismans and charms in our shop. You can also select any trinket to inspect closely, using your senses — both mundane and Thaumaturgical — to discern the intended use of each grim accessory.

Once a decision is made, we can hand our choice to our client. If it’s right, they’ll wobble off satisfied, leaving you with a few new pages to add to your grimoire. However, should we get it wrong, the customer will fling the object away, increasing our Dread meter.

Through making enough mistakes, the Dread meter will fill completely, and a calming will need to be performed… by playing a small dice mini-game. It’s not that hard and is honestly kind of fun. Once the ritual is successful, we’ll start over with the current customer and meter emptied, giving us another chance to get it right.

Once in a while, there will be multiple possible answers to an arcane dilemma. In these situations, the decision made will alter the story and characters. As the setting tends to lean more toward cosmic horror, it is difficult to discern which answer is “good”, though the different results — and endings they may lead to — add replayability, which I always appreciate.

In addition to customer service and figuring out the difference between a Sun Bond and a Ram’s Shackle, we can also explore the city of Undermere. Using a handy map, we can select any highlighted location, though needless travel is penalised with an increase in Dread. More often than not, a hint related to a location is received, incentivising you to check it out.

For the curious, yes, you can indeed visit the location of the previous game, Strange Horticulture!

The puzzles of Strange Antiquities are phenomenal. The lack of a hectic deadline or oppressive atmosphere adds a layer of calm to the experience, where one can take their time to ponder the needs of the client and the descriptions of the books we’ve accrued. The information in the tomes we have is the right amount of vague not to make anything too easy, and there are enough similar but unique trinkets to make guessing ineffective. If you ignore the meta-narrative of a supernatural plague, it feels like a slightly dark shopkeep simulator!

The characters are also memorable and unique, with a few touching and unsettling arcs to read through. Yes, the lack of voice acting is a shame, but the dialogue is never overly long, so it’s not a bother. The sound effects are equally excellent, with subtle ambience mixed with the clink and rattle of your stock.

In terms of performance, I had no issues with Strange Antiquities, and it worked staggeringly well on the Steam Deck, even though I had my doubts. As the game features quite a bit of dragging items and clicking, I feared a controller setup would be clunky. I was wrong, happily, as the controls are simple and easy to learn.

In the end, I wound up playing the game on the Deck more often than not, as the short lengths of the days made for great snackish sessions whenever I was feeling puzzly. My only gripe with it was how it could get a smidge repetitive near the end, and how some descriptions were beyond vague.

Strange Antiquities is an excellent puzzle title that has taken much of the mechanics of the original and improved them throughout. It’s easy to pick up and play, though the offered challenges and interesting stories told may keep you hooked for much longer than you thought.