Whirlight – No Time To Trip Review for Steam
If you’ve been itching for a new point-and-click adventure, Whirlight – No Time To Trip might be worth adding to your library. I’ll admit, the art style immediately caught my attention because it reminded me of titles like Yesterday and The Next BIG Thing. Blend those with a bit of The Book of Unwritten Tales and The Curse of Monkey Island, and you get another charming addition to the genre.
Whirlight – No Time To Trip follows an eccentric inventor named Hector, a man who often gets lost in his own thoughts. The opening sequence walks players through Hector’s creative process as he drifts into a surreal dream world filled with clues and strange imagery. His goal is to catch a butterfly — the muse that will inspire his next invention. Surprisingly, this immediately reminded me of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Artist of the Beautiful. That short story follows an inventor obsessed with creating a mechanical butterfly. Even after his creation is destroyed, he finds fulfillment in having brought something beautiful into existence through his own imagination and passion. Hector carries a very similar energy.
In many ways, Hector feels like a more hopeless version of Doc Brown. Much like learning who Guybrush Threepwood is through his interactions with the world, you come to understand Hector through exploration and experimentation. You collect items, combine them, and solve problems piece by piece. There’s definitely some backtracking involved, but the game rewards persistence with satisfying “aha!” moments.
One of my favorite sequences involved a giant frog perched near a cliff. First, Hector becomes inspired by the frog’s tongue and builds a grappling hook to retrieve a distant item. Later, you use sticky sap to trick the frog into pulling down a tree, creating a bridge to a new area. Eventually, you discover the frog simply has poor eyesight, so naturally, you give him glasses. It’s absurd in the best possible way, and I loved it.
True to the spirit of classic point-and-click adventures, you’ll probably get stuck often. At times, you end up trying every inventory item on every object imaginable. Some of Hector’s reactions made me laugh out loud, especially when he basically responds with, “You want me to do what?!” There are no hint systems here, so patience and experimentation are essential. Once you figure out the game’s logic, though, progression starts to feel much smoother.
One thing that stood out to me was the achievement system. Based on the completion percentages, it seems there are optional interactions, easter eggs, and missable achievements hidden throughout the game. That alone makes exploration feel rewarding beyond just solving puzzles.
My overall impression of Whirlight – No Time To Trip is very positive.
Score: 8.5/10
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Related: Reviews by John Pruitt
I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
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