The Night of the Rabbit Review for PC

What’s Up, Doc?

The adventure genre has seen a resurgence in the mainstream gaming world thanks to 2012’s The Walking Dead and 2013’s The Cave. Yet, while those games can certainly be classified as adventure games, they tend to stray away from the classic point-and-click formula. The Night of the Rabbit, on the other hand, is a tried-and-true adventure, complete with a wondrous world, puzzle solving, and, well, adventure.

The game immediately draws you in with its clean and slick art style. The hand-drawn imagery is vibrant, yet doesn’t overpower the player. Environments are inviting to look at, which is more important than you might realize. It’s an adventure game, after all; you’re going to spend a lot of time looking for clues and clickable items. The game’s presentation also has an indistinguishable British charm as well, and that’s not just because of the British voice actors. Both the writing and the humor have a distinct British feel to them, leading me to believe that I could easily be watching a fairy tale on BBC instead of just playing a game.

You play as Jeremiah Hazlenut, a boy with only two days left of his summer vacation. Young Jerry has large aspirations of being a magician, despite what we only assume is the mocking and teasing of his classmates. At the start of the game, he receives a magical letter and before long meets the Marquis de Hoto, a red-eyed rabbit who whisks Jerry away to a parallel world. Don’t worry; Jerry will still be home in time for dinner.

True adventure-game fans will feel right at home with The Night of the Rabbit. Talking to each area’s characters, searching high and low for clues, and using adventure-game logic is vital to success in solving the puzzles thrown at you. That’s not to say the game’s puzzles are completely impossible. Far from it, in fact. Your solutions will always be clear-cut. The methods of obtaining your results, however, will still require a fair share of brainpower.

You won’t be empty handed in your adventure. Jerry is equipped with a magic coin that allows us to see every item we can interact with in an area. Unfortunately, I found myself relying on this item far more than I would have liked. Not because I was stumped by puzzles, but instead because the items I needed were literally on top of another item I didn’t. Is it game breaking? No, but it is frustrating.

It’s also far from the only frustrating thing The Night of the Rabbit offers. The game’s slow pacing also irritates; this is a result of puzzles that drag on longer than necessary. In addition, the animations aren’t as slick as the environments. It’s not a constant distraction, but it does take away from what otherwise is fantastic immersion. Some frame-rate hiccups also distract from immersion. Perhaps the biggest issue I encountered involved attempting to click various objects in the environment. Remember when I mentioned that important items are placed on top of non-important items? Well, the cursor also has a pretty nasty habit of recognizing those non-important items. The result is an interruption in the flow of gameplay; having to specifically maneuver the cursor when you’re already scavenging high and low for clues isn’t fun.

The bottom line is this: Night of the Rabbit is a solid adventure game that genre veterans will undoubtedly eat up. Novices, however, may be put off by the game’s issues. If they are patient enough, however, they will find an enjoyable and enchanted world to explore.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.5 Graphics
Fantastic looking environments and characters. Animations look wonky at times, frame rate can suffer 3.5 Control
I’m going to have nightmares over trying to click the correct item. 4.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Subtle music adds to the mood. The voice acting is very good. 4.0 Play Value
Pacing issues aside, it’s a challenging adventure game that isn’t impossible. 3.7 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.