5 Days A Stranger is a very good adventure game with an excellent story.
So thinks Trilby, the infamous cat burglar, as he spies an open window. At an almost leisurely pace, he latches onto the window ledge with a grappling hook, scales the wall, and enters the empty house. However, as soon as Trilby sets foot within the window slams shut and stubbornly refuses to open. The same holds true for every other entrance and freedom; he can't get out.
This is how 5 Days A Stranger, an adventure game designed by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, begins. 5 Days is a horror-themed game that's completely free to download and play. I jumped at the chance to get it since I'd heard some good things about the game, and the things I'd heard weren't wrong at all.
The setup for the story is interesting enough, and it gets even better further in with several twists, which I won't spoil. As Trilby, I found I wasn't the only person mysteriously trapped inside the house. In addition to the cat burglar, there were four others present: Phillip the treasure hunter, Simone the BBC television personality, Jim the sixteen year-old, and AJ the man who went missing. Somehow, an unseen force was keeping us trapped in the house against our will and would do anything to keep us there, including murder. It was my task to find out what exactly this power was and destroy it so we could escape. But a stay that seemed to be more of an annoyance than anything else quickly took a disturbing turn...
5 Days A Stranger was basically a typical point-and-click adventure game. I would click on a place to either walk there, use it, or observe it and that was it. It was nothing necessarily new, but it worked all the same. As in a usual adventure game, found myself talking to the characters and observing objects to figure out how to solve puzzles in order to progress. 5 Days wasn't exactly the sort of game to re-imagine the adventure genre, but then again it didn't need to since it was built on a perfectly workable concept. However, it did fall into the trap many other adventures games do, too: several solutions to puzzles could only be found by poking about. Most of the puzzles didn't succumb to this, but it was annoying for those that did.
Considering this was a game composed of noticeably pixilated sprites, it was quite an achievement that 5 Days could orchestrate a creepy atmosphere. Most of this was due to the writing and music, both of which were pretty good. Dialogue was written quite well with a tone of dread and an impending doom, with bits of clever humor sprinkled throughout. Each character had a distinct personality, which made it easier to sympathize with their plight. Although the music in this game wasn't original (it was taken from RPG Maker 2000), the tunes played fit in quite well and added to the atmosphere. The only problem was there wasn't enough; music was only played at certain points in 5 Days, which made the numerous silent parts seem dull in comparison.
5 Days A stranger took less than two hours to complete and there wasn't much incentive to play again. However, considering it's totally free and good fun while it lasts so the length is a minor complaint. It didn't reinvent adventure games, but 5 Days didn't need to. The game's excellent story and decent atmosphere definitely won me over, and it's a very easy recommendation considering its bite-sized length and nonexistent price.