Review: Dropsy

As a fan of cute things that make me forget about the lingering dread present in life as a young adult, and as a fan of horrifically disturbing horror media, it’s often difficult striking a balance between satisfying my starkly different interests. One or the other – do I want to smile and remember a better time, or do I want to enjoy a visit down someone else’s nightmares? As the little girl from the Old El Paso taco commercial famously said, “why not both?”. And that’s where Dropsy comes in to make life easier. Yay!

Dropsy is a vibrant pixel-art point-and-click puzzle game themed around hugging everyone you meet. As the titular character Dropsy, a clown with a head like a rotted pumpkin and dead yellow eyes, with a handful of sparse teeth, players must set out into a harsh world and share his love with its inhabitants. Dropsy and his father live within the remains of their circus, where a freak accident led to a terrible fire that shocked many and claimed Dropsy’s mother. After a quick flashback scene, players are dropped into Dropsy’s squeaky shoes and set out into the world to run an errand for dear old dad. As Dropsy ventures out into the world, he discover much sadness and makes it his mission to make people happy again.

 

On his journey, Dropsy meets a cast of diverse characters, all sharing in common a dilemma plaguing them with a case of the blues. In typical point-and-click adventure fashion, players will explore and uncover new clues and items that lead them to solve each of these character’s issues and allow Dropsy to unfold the main story. These puzzles appear fairly simple, but the game will throw you for a loop at least a handful of times if you’re not attentive. More than once I found myself completely lost as to what to do next with the items I’ve acquired, wandering back and forth frustrated, simply because I didn’t notice the correlation between a place or character and an item I had found. It’s easy to overlook some things because a pixel-based visual style can sometimes lead to further obscurity. Minor visual tweaks could alleviate some of these issues (as was done prior to the game’s launch via further polish updates), but I’d fault my inexperience with the genre more so than the game for my confusion in most instances.

Over the course of his adventure, Dropsy meets some new animal pals, and they join his team. Off the bat, Dropsy’s pooch accompanies him to help him sniff out potential clues and dig up dirt piles. As you progress, a mouse and bird accompany Dropsy on his quest, each with their own means to help Dropsy solve puzzles. Birdy (what I’m opting to call him) can reach items out of Dropsy’s reach by flying. Mousy can scurry up objects and crawl into holes or under furniture. Knowing when and which animal pal to use is an extra layer to puzzle solving.

Dropsy may look like a tickles, sunshine and hugs type of game (because it is), but it will tug at the heartstrings something fierce when you least expect it. While there are simple character routes in which NPCs want something trivial, and Dropsy needs to find it, the game throws at you characters with hints of melancholic backstories – a man who lost his wife, an activist estranged from his brother, a homeless person seeking shelter. You’re rewarded with a wholesome feeling when helping people with such sympathetic problems, and I often found myself giggling along with Dropsy once he acquired the coveted hug from his newfound friends. His exuberance is contagious. The absence of text and dialogue in Dropsy lends itself well to these moments too, stripping them down to the pure essence of expression, happiness or the other side of the spectrum, sorrow.

Accompanying Dropsy’s delightful visual style is a varied soundtrack composed of playful tracks reminiscent of old circus themes and children’s shows. EDM and even some metal make an appearance. Key scenes are also complemented by the soundtrack as it frames things from the perspective of the simple Dropsy and how he feels.

You might have asked yourself: how is Dropsy remotely horror outside of the frumpy clown’s appearance? Dropsy himself is an innocent outlier. A child-like character surrounded by others afflicted by society’s perversions. Greed, sorrow, hatred – concepts unfamiliar to the pudgy clown. He only wants to spread happiness when there is none, even if it seems like it’s futile; this is charming and a little saddening. It’s suggested the world’s inhabitants don’t like Dropsy from the start because he’s blamed for the circus fire. The same one that placed Dropsy and his father in dire straits, and which haunts him in his dreams. Dropsy’s nightmares are a stark contrast to the rest of the game; he’s persistently haunted by twisted children’s toys appearing to be in torment, bloody pathways and suggestive imagery relating to the casualties of circus fire and all of the lives it affected. When Dropsy isn’t cute, charming, or bizarre, it’s downright unsettling.

Dropsy is a game about a clown with simple wants and desires, chief among them making new friends and hugging. His journey is one filled with quirky and emotional moments that left me with all sorts of feelings from start to finish. The game features a wonderful blend of wholesome kindness and eccentric humor peppered with bizarre imagery, and it’s not common for a game to fill you with positive vibes and optimism, but Dropsy accomplishes just that.

(8.5 / 10)