Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness

Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness is likely one of the more complex and lengthy time management games on Steam. Built in the vein of the 12 Labours of Hercules series (published by a different studio), it borrows the staple mechanics of the genre but manages to stand out through a few new features that are not commonly present among similar games.

In Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness you take the role of Iris, a good witch who tries to protect the magical world of Abonda from the mischief caused by the powerful wizard known as the “Kidnapper of Happiness”. The gameplay takes the form of completing several sequential missions in which Iris, together with her ginger companion cat Morty and an army of helper cats, will try to restore the balance of their world by purging out the evil entities that invaded their land, finding lost artifacts and fixing what is broken. There are in total 25 main missions and an additional five bonus ones that are unlocked after the main game is completed. Each of them will have you collect resources, build or repair production buildings, send various allied heroes to perform certain tasks and remove the obstacles that block their advance.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2980052012
Each mission has a specific set of objectives, of which some are mandatory while others are optional. Some of these objectives are timed, but not completing them before their deadline will generate only a mild decrease in the overall score for that mission. What I find particularly nice about the game is that the main objectives together with their current progress are tracked in a hotbar at the bottom of the screen. These are updated as you complete them, with new ones replacing the finished ones or being added as soon as they are triggered by your actions. Overall they’re meant to be used as a rough guide of what the optimal order of your moves should be. Since these games usually tend to have several branches on one map (you can go in multiple directions), it’s always useful to know which of the sides should be prioritized, and the order in which the objectives are listed at the bottom of the screen mostly gives you a good idea about that. Additionally, there’s an in-depth guide for each level accessible from the settings menu. It contains a numbered list of steps (including what to build and when to build / pick up a certain item) correlated with their locations on the map, describing the optimal order for completing all the objectives.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2980051905
In comparison to other similar games, the building mechanic in Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness is heavily used and the gameplay relies strongly on it. In terms of level design, the missions start with a set of buildings that you need to repair, but clearing out a small area of resources will also allow you to build one of the many possible buildings in that spot. You will need not only production facilities (sawmill for wood, bistro for food, etc.), but also houses for your specialized heroes, mandatory for completing the mission’s objectives: a pyrotechnician that can pick up dangerous objects, a doctor that can cure illnesses, etc. With levels considerably larger than usual (each taking 20-30 mins to complete), you will spend a lot of time building all these or even destroying them in order to build something else in their place, depending on what kind of resources you need the most. The production buildings can be upgraded once for some extra income, but regardless of their level, they will use only one of your cat helpers each. A cat house will allow you to buy additional helpers, and you will also be able to move your base to a different spot, to shorten your helper’s path from the location of the resources to the base storage. In all this, there’s obviously some planning component, and your strategy will have to be adjusted on the fly depending on the mission’s objectives and your needs.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2980051926
Aside from the main missions, a meta-level exists in the form of a huge map (unlocked bit by bit as you progress through the main game), containing all the types of resources, buildings and all the other game elements. This will be the place where Iris and her helpers will chill between missions to prepare boosters for the upcoming levels. It has the exact same mechanics of a mission, including a list of objectives, hidden collectibles and a production chain that transforms raw resources into booster ingredients, but it’s much more complex than any of the game’s main levels due to its increased size. Keeping track of what exactly you need to produce a certain booster might be overwhelming at first considering that they necessitate quite a bunch of ingredients, each obtained through a multi-step production chain, but the fact that the game highlights all the stations needed whenever you click a building certainly makes this whole process much easier.

It takes around 20 hours to go through all missions (including the bonus ones) and the game can be played on three difficulty modes (no timers, easy, and normal). The game’s achievements unlock naturally as you progress, and as long as you complete all the available objectives you should not need to repeat any missions to obtain 100% completion. Some levels have collectibles, but they are not missable: whenever they are present, there is also an objective / task to collect them (with the exception of the flamingos, of which only some are clickable). I did not encounter any bugs in my playthrough, however, the English translation could use some improvements. The story is fully understandable, but there are still a lot of typos / grammar errors that need to be fixed. This is the only negative aspect I found in the game. Otherwise, my playtime was very enjoyable and casual, as I would have expected from such a colorful game.

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Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness is a time management, fantasy, resource management game developed and published by GameMixer LTD. You take on the role of Iris, a witch whose mission is to save Abonda and its inhabitants from the troubles brewed by the Kidnapper of Happiness, who's causing sorrow among certain principal characters. Thus, it's up to Iris and her cat companion Morty to help the inhabitants and stop the Kidnapper of Happiness. That's the basic premise of the story, and I'll stop here to avoid spoilers and all that.

As for the gameplay, Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness has a total of 25 main missions, with 5 additional bonus missions that are unlocked after you complete the main missions. For each mission, you're given a number of tasks to complete, with some being mandatory while others being optional. The tasks vary from gathering items to making potions to finding hidden object items. There are three difficulty modes: easy, hard, and no timed. (For review purposes, I played on easy mode.) As I played on a semi-timed mode, a few of the quests in each mission are timed. If you complete those quests within the time limit, you'll earn rewards, which are mainly coins. However, if you fail to complete those quests within the time limit, you don't fail the mission. (I'm not sure if this is the case for hard difficulty mode, though.) For completing the missions, you'll earn various rewards, such as items that are needed for current quests. In addition, Iris has a main base where Iris and her helpers can gather items and craft items, like boosters that can help Iris complete missions. Boosters can vary from making workers run faster temporarily to stopping the timer temporarily. As I mentioned, you can earn coins as well as find coins on mission maps and the main base. Coins can be used to purchase buildings, such as a cat's home to bring in additional workers to gather items on the main base. Also, there are quests that occasionally pop up in the main base that help progress the story. As this is a collector's edition, there are additional features, such as a detailed guide and concept art. There are many Steam/in-game achievements although at the time of this review, they won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "Steam is learning about this game".

Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. It's probably no secret by now that I enjoy time management games a lot, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out about this game. Although GameMixer has developed games for other publishers, like Alawar, this is its first self-published game on Steam. First, I'll comment on the story. I liked how the story starts off with Iris, the main character, reading a story to her children, and the story is about the world of Abonda. Then we're taken that world, specifically to the main base, where we're introduced to the gameplay aspect. I enjoyed the fantasy theme where there's magic involved and there's the introduction of elves and other magical inhabitants. Although the main aspect of the game is the gameplay, I liked reading the story and finding out what happened to the various inhabitants as well as the Kidnapper of Happiness' backstory. In regards to the writing, I noticed some grammatical errors and whatnot. Although the errors don't significantly deter from enjoying the game, it would have made the writing more polished if it had been proofread before release.

Regarding the gameplay aspect, Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness isn't your typical time management game. Rather than having individual levels in which you complete a set number of goals/quests, you're given a main base and missions, which contain several goals/quests. Because of the way the game is structured, you're given freedom in how you wish to complete the missions and whatnot. This is an aspect that I like about this game, which makes it stand out from a lot of other time management games. Also, I liked the crafting system in which you can craft boosters and choose which boosters (you can take up to a maximum of three boosters on missions) to take. The crafting is simple, and it takes time to complete, but the boosters help. I should mention about the technical issues. Although I had no trouble unlocking all of the achievements, I noticed a couple of minor issues. Both issues are similar in nature, so I'll just mention them once. When you have the quest to look for a magical book for Iris or to look for a scroll that gives extra story lore (the scrolls are in the bonus missions), those quests reappear if you choose to replay the mission. However, if you already completed those quests when you choose to replay a mission, those items can't be found on the mission map. I found this annoying since I tend to be a completionist, but this bug should be fixed in an update. Also, in regards to the scroll quest bug, I wasn't able to earn a maximum of five stars on a mission even though I technically completed all of the quests for that mission. However, these were the only technical issues that I encountered, which should be patched in a future update.

In regards to the art, I liked the style that was used here. The designs give off that fantasy feel very well, and the style is cartoony, which helps to give Rescue Agency that light-hearted tone. Colors are used well, and their brightness varies, depending on the missions. They feel very appropriately applied. Finally, regarding the music, the soundtrack is lovely to listen to. There are varying tracks, ranging from the light-hearted one to a slightly darker one. I enjoyed listening to the tracks that were played as I progressed through the game. Like the brightness of the colors, the tracks feel appropriately placed.

Overall, would I recommend Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness? If you enjoy time management games but would like to play one that breaks away from the typical mold, then this is worth taking a look. Although it took me a while to get used to the gameplay (mainly because it is different from the usual time management games that I've played in the past), I found Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness to be very fun and enjoyable. Of course, it could use a bit of polishing, but I feel that this is worth getting. For the asking price, I think it's reasonable, as you'll probably get plenty of gameplay time. (It took me around 22 hours to 100% complete the game.) However, you can wait to get it on a sale.

Finally, I want to give a major thanks to GameMixer for the curator copy. I had lots of fun playing through this game and hopefully, there will be more future games from this great developer. ^^

Flying free and writing reviews solely for The Introverted Gamer.

About Rescue Agency: The Kidnapper of happiness

Plus:

+ The gameplay is very simple and straightforward. Our task is to manage cute cats and give them orders (clear, collect resources, build something) and reach the level goal sometimes within the allotted time.

+ Musical accompaniment - very pleasant and not conspicuous from the game.

+ Graphics - everything is perfectly drawn and stylized, pleasing to the eye.

Minuses:

- Sometimes the game is very monotonous, but it quickly passes.

Outcome:
I recommend it to anyone who just wants to relax without delving into the complexity of the gameplay (as in other strategies) and pass a couple of evenings.