1666 Amsterdam is definitely an early access game

Look, I wanted to enjoy 1666 Amsterdam. Coming from Patrice Désilets, the father of Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, I had set my expectations to a reasonable level, but nothing outrageously high. After digging into 1666 Amsterdam, I think I came away completely whelmed.

The premise of the game is interesting enough: you play as Noa, a member of the Zaindaris tribe of witches and the newly ordained Collector. Before she died, her Mother was the Giver, providing demonic beings known as Originals with human hosts. Originals can live as humans for centuries and after 333 years, the Collector goes around and reclaims the Giver’s powers from the Originals, killing them in the process.

In order for their debts to be collected by Noa, you have to investigate the people suspected of being the Originals by finding the name they used when signing their contracts, their current location, and the stamped wax seal from their contract. The Originals have fully assimilated to society and some have taken positions of power and obviously want to avoid being Collected. You’ll have to use both Noa’s red Lux and black Nux powers in tandem with your Union Cat, a man named Aaron misplaced in time, to explore and search for clues, unlock latches, and gather keys. While the game promotes the ability to tackle these objectives however you’d like, the two missions available in the early access version of the game seem to only have one path. Once you’ve completed all three of the objectives, Noa and Aaron can perform the Nominem spell where, in cat form, Aaron pounces on—and scratches the shit out of—the fully identified Original, launching you into a boss fight. 

I found the tasks at hand to be fairly engaging, but extremely frustrating. There are so few indications for what you’re meant to do at any given time and if you miss a line of dialogue that clues you into what house you’re supposed to go to or which profession the Original you’re looking for might occupy, you have to hope that hitting the right bumper to engage a typically unhelpful conversation between Aaron and Noa will eventually contain even a nugget of information. There are NPCs that you can interact with that will give you information, but I found it irrelevant more often than not; mostly NPCs will tell you that you can’t enter a building or that the obvious path forward is inaccessible, leading you to explore your surroundings for alternate paths.