Pleurghburg: the Dark Ages is a point-and-click adventure game from 2001 developed in Adventure Game Studio by Gaspop Software (Chrille Blomqvist). It recalls Sierra's notable early works in the field, particularly the King's Quest and Space Quest games.
The game follows detective Jake McUrk as he investigates a series of brutal murders commited in a city that had supposedly rid itself of serious crime.
Pleurghburg features a rather straightforward plot, ugly graphics (though it's a masterpiece in this area when compared to many AGS games,) a few interesting characters, a much larger number of bland and uninteresting characters, cryptic, House of Leaves style building design and the most pointless conspiracy of all time. Regardless, Pleurghburg is the greatest AGS game of all time.
Unlike many games of the style, Pleurghburg actually features gameplay that is actually fun. Much of the game revolves around investigating murders and collecting evidence. Aside from the occasional ubiquitous non-sequitur puzzle, this is handled very logically (Interviewing witnesses/suspects, investigating crime-scenes, picking up severed body parts with your sterile gloves, etc. to prevent contamination.) Thorough investigating and proper procedure are also rewarded with extra points and the potential of different story-arcs. This helps to improve the game a lot and given that this sort of thing is 99% of what makes an adventure game, it's amazing that so many other games manage to mess this part up.
As mentioned earlier, the visuals and story aren't great. They are however, 'good enough,' and when coupled with the excellent gameplay and slightly morbid content serve to set the ominous atmosphere of the game very well. Of particular note is the excellent (.MOD) soundtrack, which sets the mood perfectly.
There was a sequel planned at one stage, however all trace of Gaspop Software seems to have disappeared from the internet, so it is doubtful that anything will come of this. This is sad, because aside from a few exceptions (Yahtzee's Trilby games, Reactor-09, La Croix Pan and the Ben Jordan games for example,) very few freeware adventure games come close to being as good as Pleurghburg is.
Old man's apartment.
The city in the morning.
A phone call.
The title screen.
© 2002-2008, Leigh Browne
