The Empire Staggers Back!
Her Majesty’s SPIFFING could easily have been a run of the mill point and click adventure, and from a mechanics point of view it could be argued that it is, but what elevates it above most other games is the quality of the funny and satirical storyline. Despite being funded via a Kickstarter campaign by Billygoat Entertainment back in 2014, the finished game manages to still be bang up to date in lampooning the current political climate, Brexit and all.
Its almost worth playing this game just for the hilarious and irreverent opening sequence. Frustrated by the demise of her once great nation, the Queen decides that the elected MP’s are no longer fit to govern so dissolves parliament. After returning the United Kingdom to an autocratic government, the Her Majesty sets about making some wide ranging improvements to her United Kingdom. Being a bit of a pragmatist, the Queen realises how difficult it will be to return Britain to a position near to its former greatness on earth, and so comes up with a radical idea. Establishing S.P.I.F.F.I.N.G. (Special Planetary Investigative Force For Inhabiting New Galaxies) Her Majesty turns to the stars in a bid to establish a new, Galactic British Empire! You play the part of the commander of the spaceship HMSS Imperialise, the pompous and bumbling Captain Frank Lee English, who along with his subordinate, the brainy young Welshman Sub-Lieutenant Aled Jones, on a mission to claim new worlds for your country.
The voice acting is superb for the main character of Captain English, but the largely monotone delivery of the sidekick is not so good and the attempted sarcasm tented to grate on me at times. I know they are playing on national stereotypes for comic effect but there’s no need to say ‘boyo’ at the end of every other sentence.
The game never takes itself too seriously at any point, playing it for laughs at all times, and frequently breaks the fourth wall to poke fun at the limitations of this type of puzzle solving adventure game. The humour is typically British in its self depreciating nature, and you can see where the the developers are coming from when they mentioned Red Dwarf as an inspiration for parts of the game. This self-awareness of the characters that they are in a game is a handy mechanic to use as it helps the developers explain away any shortcomings in the gameplay without having to think their way around them.
The technology of the British spaceship seems stuck in the last century in a way that will appeal to older gamers, featuring an original Xbox, computers with floppy disc drives and even a game of Subbuteo. In one puzzle, younger gamers may take longer to work out that the tab on a floppy disc needs to be moved across before it can be saved onto, whereas the more mature gamer will instantly know what to do while giving a nostalgic chuckle. The spaceships tie in nicely with their respective national stereotypes, with the British ship being a hybrid of a Harrier Jump Jet and a Mini, the French craft resembling an Alpha jet and keep an eye out for a take on an American Eagle.
The puzzles that you have to solve to get you through the game aren’t particularly taxing, although one or two make need a bit of lateral thinking, but they all progress the story on and none are there just for the sake of it. For me the game isn’t really long enough for the price, but at least it was good enough that they’ve left me wanting more. The story does end on a bit of a cliff hanger, whether that was down to the amount of funding they had to make the game or a genuine desire to make another episode, I’m not too sure. The developers do cover their backs on this as well but flashing up a message that the story will continue if they sell enough copies of this one. I hope they do as the story has the potential to run to multiple episodes in the style of a Telltale game.
The achievement hunters among you will need at least 3 run-throughs or use multiple save points to get the full 1000 Gamerscore but even that can be done in under 4 hours of play so paying about 15 quid for this does seem a little on the steep side. If you like to get value for money in your gaming then make sure you look out for Her Majesty’s SPIFFING in sales in the future as it’s something I’d recommend anyone with a sense of humour to add to their game collection.
Huge Thanks the XBN for the review code.
Game: Her Majesty's SPIFFING
Developer: BillyGoat Entertainment
Publisher: BillyGoat Entertainment
Genre: Adventure
Price: £14.99