Lamplight City
Lamplight City
Game
Game2018
Unforeseen Incidents
Developer Backwoods Entertainment, Application Systems Heidelberg
Unforeseen Incidents is a 2018 point-and-click adventure game developed by German company Backwoods Entertainment. Players control a local handyman who investigates a mysterious viral outbreak in his town. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
202 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 28, 2026 · last updated Oct 29, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
83
LovedLoved
154 positive · 31 negative
95% range 77–88%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 154 | 31 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
609 of 706 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
83% recommend · 154 yes, 31 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 185 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (942 of 1,076 positive).
Players praise the hand-drawn art style and voice acting. [1][2][3] Some reviewers note the story starts strong but the ending feels rushed. [4][5][6] Several players report bugs and illogical puzzles. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [5]
The game starts off strong with a nice hand painted atmosphere, a dry & witty protagonist, and a well seeded mystery to keep you hooked through the first half. The writing is sharp amd the humour lands without undercutting the tension. The other half had a genuine writers block. The story drifts, the pacing stumbles, and the ending arrives without earning the emotional weight it spent hours building in the first …
- [1]
A solid 8. Modern and fresh point & click adventure. With a nice art and audio department, especially the english voice over, and storytelling is also great. The game has no exceptionally original aspects but that is neither a problem nor really needed from a point and click adventure. What's needed is a good story and nice puzzles and this game has both. Definitely recommended.
- [4]
This game is ok. I got mixed feelings after finishing it, because it's actually pretty great the whole way through, right until the ending. While the first three chapters are very well done, interesting and fun to play, with easy but satisfying puzzles, great memorable characters (the eagle! the eagle!) and great voice acting and sound design, the last chapter felt abruptly short, rushed, and anti-climactic. It's …
- [2]
Great game! Enjoyed it thoroughly! Loved the characters and the plot. The art style is awesome, and I really vibed with the lore and worldbuilding in general. The voice actors did an amazing job too! Personally, I found the puzzles weren't too hard but also not too easy. What I enjoyed most about the game is probably the soundtrack itself—it fit so well with the world and plot. Apart from a few visual glitches and …
- [3]
GAME: Solid and funny adventure title. Memorable characters, super cool artstyle, and nice atmospheric soundtrack. Story itself was only so-so for me personally (a little generic and predictable), but I did enjoy the different locations you go to and interactions. Puzzles were pretty fun to figure out, though I did have to consult a walkthrough a couple times. **ISSUES**: Unfortunately I also did encounter several …
Summarised from 34 of the 201 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
83% of the 185 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Unforeseen Incidents. The complaint that keeps coming up: ending feels rushed and anticlimactic. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Metacritic, a review aggregator, rated it 80/100 based on reviews from 13 critics, which the site catalogs as "generally favorable reviews ". Karla Munger of Just Adventure rated the game A− and wrote that the game "achieves a skillful balance between serious and genuinely funny", though she found some of the puzzles too frustrating. Writing for Rock Paper Shotgun, John Walker called it "a sharp, smart, witty and superbly constructed adventure", praising the voice acting, music, and art. Walker described the game's socially progressive values as unobtrusive and never devolving into virtue signalling. In his review for PC World, Fergus Halliday wrote the game is "predictable and familiar but…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 202 · most liked firstComedian Alasdair Beckett-King was a die-hard adventure gamer until he discovered Morrowind: 'The first time I loaded it up, I walked straight into a little pond and was killed by a fish'. The YouTube sketch maestro and creator of Unforeseen Incidents guides us through the games on his PC.
neutral · AI labelView post →A solid 8. Modern and fresh point & click adventure. With a nice art and audio department, especially the english voice over, and storytelling is also great. The game has no exceptionally original aspects but that is neither a problem nor really needed from a point and click adventure. What's needed is a good story and nice puzzles and this game has both. Definitely recommended.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game starts off strong with a nice hand painted atmosphere, a dry & witty protagonist, and a well seeded mystery to keep you hooked through the first half. The writing is sharp amd the humour lands without undercutting the tension. The other half had a genuine writers block. The story drifts, the pacing stumbles, and the ending arrives without earning the emotional weight it spent hours building in the first half. The puzzle logic swings between sound real world logic and baffling so you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I can't deny that this game is artisticly well made, it has some flaws which made the experience overall negative for me. The biggest pros are quite good voice acting and decent art style, it can help you get through to the end. I'm neutral on the puzzles and overall plot. Nothing groundbreaking, some puzzles in typical point-and-click fashion are somewhat convoluted and a bit out of the box (or illogical, depending on your perspective). What I hated was the UI/UX. Changing a scene…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unforeseen Incidents on Steam and other stores. Unforeseen Incidents is a classical style interactive mystery set in a beautifully hand-painted world. Join Harper Pendrell and experience a challenging investigation, smart dialog and a rich cast of characters in this thrilling new adventure game. [GOG](https://www.gog.com/en/game/unforeseen_incidents) [Humble](https://www.humblebundle.com/store/unforeseen-incidents)…
neutral · AI labelView post →Unforeseen Incidents on Steam and other stores. Unforeseen Incidents is a classical style interactive mystery set in a beautifully hand-painted world. Join Harper Pendrell and experience a challenging investigation, smart dialog and a rich cast of characters in this thrilling new adventure game. [GOG](https://www.gog.com/en/game/unforeseen_incidents) [Humble](https://www.humblebundle.com/store/unforeseen-incidents)…
neutral · AI labelView post →I really wanted to recommend Unforeseen Incidents for its beautiful hand-drawn graphics and immersive atmosphere — it genuinely captures that classic adventure game vibe. Unfortunately, the experience is ruined by numerous bugs and a feeling that the developers rushed to finish it. Some of the puzzles are not just difficult but downright illogical, breaking the flow and immersion. With more polish, this could’ve been a gem, but as it stands, it’s more frustrating than fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just finished playing Unforeseen Incidents point & click adventure game. I found Chapter 1 a bit slow, and lots of walking back & forth between places, but after that the story and game really got going and was really engaging & enjoyable. Also artwork was gorgeous! #unforeseenincidents #indiegame
positive · AI labelView post →Argh! I've added Unforeseen Incidents by @gamesbybackwoods.bsky.social, the game that I was looking back on that inspired me to write this entire article, and then I somehow didn't include. Fixed!
neutral · AI labelView post →This game starts out really strong. Cool concept, decent voice acting, real-life logic-based puzzles. The horrible jokes by the protagonist are forgivable for awhile but then the the writing takes a dive. The story tries to end itself quickly as you ponder the motivations of many characters. This game is not BAD, but it's certainly not GREAT.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. You have been warned. Five years since release it is still loaded with catastrophic, game-breaking bugs the likes of which I've never seen anything comparable to previously in what should be an easy genre to iron out bugs for in P&C adventures. For me, I had to give up and stop playing midway through chapter 2 (out of four I think) when I hit a game-breaking bug that made it impossible for me to continue progressing the story. Others have had this same problem I had…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not an awful game, I just don't like it. You know those "funny" remarks in point and click games when you click something irrelevant? Yeah, this game is chock-full of them. There's no hint system, the solutions are a bit vague, the problems themselves are vague, (what do I even do next?) you go about same places a lot, the characters are a bit off, the artstyle is eh... All in all, it's not awful, but none of it is very good.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game! Enjoyed it thoroughly! Loved the characters and the plot. The art style is awesome, and I really vibed with the lore and worldbuilding in general. The voice actors did an amazing job too! Personally, I found the puzzles weren't too hard but also not too easy. What I enjoyed most about the game is probably the soundtrack itself—it fit so well with the world and plot. Apart from a few visual glitches and lines where the voiceovers were not triggered, I didn't run into any issues. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Decent point and click; I wasn't a fan of the art style but it works overall, and unlike many modern P&C games this is a proper inventory puzzle adventure, rather than just an endless set of dialog trees.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →GAME: Solid and funny adventure title. Memorable characters, super cool artstyle, and nice atmospheric soundtrack. Story itself was only so-so for me personally (a little generic and predictable), but I did enjoy the different locations you go to and interactions. Puzzles were pretty fun to figure out, though I did have to consult a walkthrough a couple times. **ISSUES**: Unfortunately I also did encounter several bugs while playing (cursor issues, progression/cutscene not triggering) and the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🟣 Live now with Unforeseen Incidents, Chapter 4! This is the final chapter and I've enjoyed this game so much. Thank you so much to Application Systems Heidelberg for the code! TTV/ AshleighEmilia 🦇
positive · AI labelView post →I am not here to play a one-click-one-sentence novel
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unforeseen Incidents is a casual fun game that is mostly point and click with the mouse. The voice acting was decent. What is particularly interesting is the story. There is a strong connection with what happened in the past few years and the game's story. In short, a relatively funny and enjoyable short game. The game does sit heavy with what has recently happened, however.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A mysterious detective story with very silly humor Point and click adventure games are not as popular today as they were before, but there are still people like me who enjoy playing them once in a while. I grew up with those kinds of games and I still remember my first point and click game called Teenagent, but that was almost 30 years ago. For nostalgic reasons I decided to accept a free copy of Unforeseen Incidents from Keymailer for streaming purposes. Reviewing the game was not part of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of the negative reviews are what I would say for most point and click games, but not this one. I always have to look up a lot of stuff with point and click games because all the connections are always arbitrary or make no sense or I would never think of solving something that specific way the devs make you and always you just have to go back and forth over and over again to the same places. But not with this game, I found most of the puzzles made sense, there was minimal wandering and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is not that interesting, but if you're a fan of classic point and click adventure games like the Monkey Island series, then it's worth a playthrough. It's not super hard, but also probably not super friendly to newcomers of the genre (i.e., not like The Drifter, which was way too easy). The puzzles in this game are medium-level difficulty for an adventure game. I was never really stuck for very long. As far as adventure games go, the storyline is okay. The characters and VA are…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cant belive they actually made this game 1 year before covid! Greate game. Interesting story. Good voice acting.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →More difficult than a lot of other point and click games but enjoyable
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The art of the game is wonderful and that's what caught my attention. When playing it you notice that the animations are horrible but you don't give it importance because it's interesting and entertaining but the UI is a disaster. Unintuitive and the inventory is horribly messy to the point that makes it unplayable. With a lot of effort I was able to play 2 chapters and in the third everything was so disastrously unplayable that I had to leave it. Not recommended and sadly I regret having…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ooh, another one? I hope it will be good. I am currently playing Kathy Rain 2, and quite enjoying it. Before, I played Elroy And The Aliens and a bit older Unforeseen Incidents - both very good adventure games. Let's hope the trend continues. :)
positive · AI labelView post →Great list! I'd also throw Unforeseen Incidents in there, what a gem that game was.
positive · AI labelView post →MAJOR WARNING: The game has some pretty bad audio mixing, and some noises are DAMN LOUD SO PLEASE WATCH YOURSELVES, HEADPHONE USERS. ALSO!!! NEVER CHECK THE CHALKBOARD IN THE LAB, IT WILL ONLY GIVE YOU NAILS ON CHALKBOARD NOISES, no joke. That aside, it was a lovely game with phenomenal voice acting that really made me wish there was an in-game volume slider. I loved the story and although some things to serve to be tweaked/fixed (like certain spots aren't accurately marked) it didn't deter me…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Uninspired puzzles, awful writing, and forgettable characters. Story ends with a dense thud. I couldn't wait for it to be over. Art is unique and interesting, music is high quality.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not really a thumbs up, moreso a "I wish there was a neutral button rather than just yes and no". I'm not sure who exactly I'd recommend it to, is the thing. It's got a rather nice visual style, as well as a rather fine run-down-contemporary setting. Seems to be inspired by Canada, feels more European than you usually get to see in games, giving off a bit of a Disco Elysium vibe that way. Otherwise it's not bad, and I've certainly played worse modern point-and-clickers. It doesn't have an…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is ok. I got mixed feelings after finishing it, because it's actually pretty great the whole way through, right until the ending. While the first three chapters are very well done, interesting and fun to play, with easy but satisfying puzzles, great memorable characters (the eagle! the eagle!) and great voice acting and sound design, the last chapter felt abruptly short, rushed, and anti-climactic. It's weird, because some stuff happens that should feel pretty climactic, but its…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story unfurls with intrigue and suspense, As a humble handyman, my journey commences. In the town of Yelltown, sickness prevails, And unraveling its secrets, my quest entails. Through Harper's eyes, a tale of deceit, Of government schemes, where shadows meet. But fret not, dear players, for irony's ripe, In a game from 2018, echoing life's strife. Gameplay, at times, proves a rugged road, With perplexing puzzles, a heavy load. Cryptic solutions, hard to deduce, Leave players frustrated,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An adventure game that has aged even better with time. I played this in 2026 and themes like pandemics, conspiracies and a couple characters on both sides of the political aisles are depicted, without feeling exclusionary nor awkward in retrospect. Besides that it has a charming artstyle, very witty and funny characters and some of the greatest puzzles in these games, that both requires you to think, but you will very rarely need to look up a solution, a very hard balance to strike. A great…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →CAUTION - Minor Spoilers on Plot Structure This would be a good game but everything your character does is negated at the end of each chapter by some silly plot contrivance. It's very frustrating and just doesn't make the game feel satisfying at all. I do think the puzzles are good and logical, just not enough to overcome the lack of feeling of progress.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i loved it! the art style is great, cartoony but still with atmosphere. the humour is great, i laughed out loud several times and i like the goofy references. the game doesn't take itself too seriously, but still manages to have some edge to the story, and good tension. the puzzles were a bit difficult but still lots of fun, and a lot of variety to the different puzzles. gosh, i love a point and click! 8/10, would play again!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I could not get past making the fire. Too many inventory items made it impossible to link the necessary items to make the fire. No way to delete unwanted inventory items. Very clunky way of linking objects to solve puzzles. A lot of time spent on youtube only to witness others experiencing the same problem i.e. people trying the same thing over and over again until it worked.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story is compelling, the voice acting is good, the puzzles are not too hard nor too easy. However: - It takes 10s or more to load every time you change scene, and since you're walking back and forth a lot, this is very annoying. Also, I have 32GB of RAM. Just load the whole chapter and be done with it. I checked and apparently the loading is single-threaded, too, that means no matter how many cores your CPU has or how much RAM there is, you'll still have to endure this ridiculous wait every…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game keeps you good company. The narrative is interesting and captivating, as it explores the possible political expediency of an epidemic. The puzzles are inventive and mainly follow reason, although, a couple of puzzle-solutions are realistically unachievable. Also, on occasion, puzzle types are a little repetitive (e.g., hacking computer information, triangulation). I loved the voice-acting; it really contributed to an immersive experience. I also appreciated the length of the gameplay;…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oh, Applications Systems Heidelberg, what the actual ♥♥♥♥ is collectively wrong with you? These games keep having interesting premises and nice art, and I suppose if I can tolerate the voice acting it must be OK. But you can't seem to tell a story in point-and-click form to save your probably otherwise fulfilling Baden-Württembergian lives. This is not a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Thomas Mann novel. Real time passes when someone is playing one of your games. What's with all the additional time-wasting…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The first level is abhorrent, ad after that, Unforeseen Incidents keeps committing the worst mistakes a Point and Click game can have: -A constant coming-and-going to faraway locations, simply in the spirit of collecting something that was uncollectable before. -No journal! No dialogue log! So good luck remembering what you're looking for if you had to interrupt your session. -There's other characters but they offer absolutely no feedback on how to progress. Also, no hints! So you may know the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I finished the game in around 15 hours with minimal cheats/hints so it's on the shorter side as far as this type of game goes... Just as I felt we were reaching the final chapter, the game ended which left a tiny bit of disappointment but that's my subjective opinion and it's an excellent game none the less. The hand-drawn art is really nice and makes a welcome change from the retro pixel art which pretty much every point and click adventure game uses nowadays. The game feels very 'Monkey…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not so good, for a product that had 7 years to get polished. Tried an achievement playthrough after completing this years ago on my previous account. The Running Commentary doesn't even trigger, after that and the everbuilding annoyance it takes so f*cking long to exit the game plus Modern Man not triggering after doing everything right I will live the rest of my life in regret for spending money on giving this game another chance,
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has some of the most well-written dialogue I've seen. It's very naturally funny without trying too hard, and the voice acting on it is spot on, especially from the main character.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love the atmosphere of this game ,as well as the feelings of being unforeseen,unpredictable,intense,mysterious. The puzzles are easy and creative,whats interesting is that the rigid yet elastic puzzle-solving with intense story,the puzzles are tightly combined with the fragmented narrative, it creates an immersive narrative. And I love this kind of hand-drawn art style. Maybe classic hand-drawn style 2d games would show unique performance in the future agi era,it carry individual spirit…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting story, nonviolent, lead character is funny, wish all developers would use non-vulgar language, lazy writers use vulgar language
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I found Chapter 1 a bit slow and lots of going back and forth between places but after that the story and game really took off and became very engaging and enjoyable! I also thought the artwork was gorgeous!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game has some solid elements, but unfortunately, it didn’t fully click with me. On the positive side, the puzzles have a decent level of challenge, and the voice acting is well done. I also appreciate the effort put into making a point-and-click adventure, a genre that is certainly not easy to create in today’s gaming landscape. However, the game's performance was an issue for me – the longer I played, the more frequent the stuttering became, often requiring a restart. The story felt…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cabernet (interactive novel about vampires), Artist Life Simulator (life sim strategy card game), The Executive - Movie Industry Tycoon (industry sim), Crime Scene Cleaner (like Power Wash Simulator but more morbid), and Unforeseen Incidents (interactive puzzle mystery). I like my indies.
neutral · AI labelView post →Great game! I also played Unforeseen Incidents (store.steampowered.com/app/501790/U...) recently, only realised when watching the credits you wrote (co-wrote?) the script! Any plans for another adventure game in the future?
positive · AI labelView post →The fact that it released before covid-19. I love wisecracker protagonists and he was well written. Not the craziest story but plots were fun.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like this game and think it holds up. The puzzles aren't 100% clear but i was able to get through the game 95% without using a guide. Just some trial and error. The art is absolutely fantastic and the voice acting carries the game well. Plot's engaging and the characters are lovable. The twists are also not for the sake of it which is something i like
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game. The dialogue is clever and witty and the puzzles are of an intermediate difficulty. The story is nuanced and the mystery is so exciting.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. The art, story and voice acting are spot on. Buy it!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Downloaded the game yesterday and didn't even complete Chapter 1 BEFORE the game breaking bug. Main character "Harper" literally just disappeared from the screen. Loading previous saves did nothing, re-installing did nothing. 2 hours wasted. This ♥♥♥♥ is ridiculous. 5 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ years later and the developers can't fix this basic ass game? Utterly useless :steamfacepalm:
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a perfectly alright adventure game. There is definitely a bit of adventure game moon-logic here and there, and once or twice where I either got stuck because what I needed to do was weird or where the game bugged slightly and didn't trigger what it needed to, leaving me thinking I was missing something. The story is decent, although the main character has a terminal case of quip-itis, which did get on my nerves just a bit. I still enjoyed it enough to finish it though.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The art direction is great and really brings the world to life. Story and concept are both well thought out, which shows in the ease of movement from one scene or stage of the game to the next.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly this one's a must if you're an avid Point an Click games fan. Beautiiful athmospheric background arts and scenery, fun puzzles and an apocalyptic mysterious story. You really feel engaged with the story and characters, Definitely worth every penny!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good plot, good characters, good setting. The story was unique and compelling. The backstories of some of the characters were also pretty creative. I like the style of artwork and the voice acting was good as well. The puzzles kept me interested and were not difficult - it was enough to add to the entertainment.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Funny, exciting, and nicely puzzling. I had a really great time accompanying the likeable everyman Harper - who is equipped with an iconic multitool - on his adventure. The characters are convincing, the story is engaging, and the game world is so beautifully drawn - exploring it feels so rewarding. The atmosphere is just unique. Best point-and-click adventure in my collection.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is GREAT! Puzzles, comedy, mystery. The animations are super cool. More people should be aware of this game and play it!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very, very good modern adventure game, but not quite great. Definitely worth playing, if only for the literal LOL quips - the writing is fantastic, as is the voice acting, which is very unusual coming from a German (or any non-native English speaking) dev. The graphic style and art is IMO stunning - every scene I came onto, I just sat there for a second, looking around and enjoying the incredible style. Animation gets a C-, but who cares when its drawn so beautifully. Technically, the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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