Naturette III: Adventure in Treeworld [v1.0a]

Naturette III is one of those titles you don't remember because they're particularly special, but simply because they exist. A story about adventure in a forest world might sound like a decent idea for a cozy Point-and-Click adventure on paper, except that by 2003, such things were more of a relic from the previous decade.

It's a classic graphic adventure with static backdrops and clicking on stuff. The plot unfolds in some kind of fantasy tree world — the details aren't very clear, since there's little information about the game and it doesn't even remember much of its own predecessors' stories. The goal is traditional: collecting items, solving puzzles, talking to NPCs. Nothing that would surprise anyone familiar with adventures from the eighties or mid-nineties.

Gameplay revolves around a familiar scheme — you pick an action from the menu (look, take, use), click on an object, and wait to see what happens. The graphics are functional, nothing more. Animations are stiff, dialogue rather dull. The game doesn't strive for anything revolutionary; rather, it feels like its creator was mainly interested in the fact that an adventure got made at all, not in how much enjoyment the player could get from it.

By 2003, the era of great Point-and-Click adventures was long past its peak. LucasArts had filed their games away, Sierra moved on to other things. Naturette III arrives as a late epigone of the genre, without much ambition and without offering anything that would lift the game out of obscurity. It has no distinctive musical theme, no memorable characters or situations you'd puzzle over long after playing.

Playing it today means diving into the archaeology of computer entertainment. It's not a bad game; it's more a game without character — cold, functional, and forgettable. If you're curious about how indie adventures were made around the turn of the millennium, or if you're nostalgic for relaxed gaming without major challenges, you can give it a try in an emulator. Otherwise, it's just waiting in the pause between better titles.