Genre: Point-and-Click Adventure
Release date: January 5, 2017

Milkmaid of the Milky Way is a PC and mobile adventure game developed by Norwegian developer Mattis Folkestad, a one-man team who poured a lot of passion into creating a game that is full of charm and style. Milkmaid of the Milky Way is a wonderful surprise, a bite-sized adventure that is perfect for a lazy afternoon at home.

Milkmaid of the Milky Way begins as all great games do, with milking cows. Players lead the plucky young milkmaid Ruth through her various chores for the day. Ruth lives alone on a farm in a picturesque fjord, tending to her cows amongst the rivers and valleys that make up her entire world. One day, an enormous spaceship soars over her humble farm, stealing her precious cows in the process. Not one to be deterred by the existence of alien life, Ruth sets out to sneak aboard the ship and take back her cows and her livelihood.

 The fjord is gorgeous, with painted blue mountains set against rolling green fields. In fact, the entire art style of Milkmaid is pleasant, with pixel art characters set against textured, brush-stroke backgrounds. It is a simple, colorful look that fits the game well, giving Milkmaid of the Milky Way a lush color palette that pops right off the screen. The fjord in particular is gorgeous, with bright skies and deep green grass that contrast nicely against the distant, dark blue mountains.

The interior of the spaceship, however, loses a lot of the color that makes the early moments stand out. Instead of the bright blues and lush greens of the fjord, the primary colors are more muted, with soft blues and yellows filling the environment. This may have been a good design decision, as the spaceship is intentionally designed to feel more sterile, but it’s still disappointing to begin the game with such bold colors and transition into more neutral tones.

The characters are always delightful, however, with Ruth herself being the standout. Characters are rendered in a blocky, pixel art style that contrasts with the soft, painted backgrounds while never making them seem out of place. The character animations are fluid and realistic, and the facial expressions are surprisingly animated considering their blocky nature. Each character is expressive in both movement and dialogue, which is made up entirely of rhymes, as are Ruth’s internal monologue and descriptions of insignificant objects. Every bit of text is written as a Seussian-style rhyme. Some rhymes are better than others and some fall flat entirely, but Folkestad does an admirable job of making every conversation feel charming and full of life. These small details make Milkmaid of the Milky Way so much fun to play.

 It wouldn’t be an adventure game without puzzles, and Milkmaid of the Milky Way contains enough puzzles to provide a solid afternoon of entertainment. The game isn’t long by any stretch of the imagination; I beat it in a little over two hours. But I enjoyed my time with it. The puzzles aren’t too terribly difficult, but there are a few that had me running between rooms over and over again trying to find the solution. One puzzle in particular took me 20 minutes of wandering around the space ship, clicking on objects, before I accidentally stumbled upon the solution in an out-of-the way corner. These moments are occasionally frustrating, but they are few and far between in a game that is generally solid all the way through.

It wouldn’t be an adventure game without puzzles, and Milkmaid of the Milky Way contains enough puzzles to provide a solid afternoon of entertainment. The game isn’t long by any stretch of the imagination; I beat it in a little over two hours. But I enjoyed my time with it. The puzzles aren’t too terribly difficult, but there were a few that had me running between rooms over and over again trying to find the solution. One puzzle in particular took me 20 minutes of wandering around the space ship, clicking on objects before I accidentally stumbled upon the solution in an out of the way corner. These moments are occasionally frustrating, but they are few and far between in a game that is generally solid all the way through.

Milkmaid of the Milky Way is a charming adventure game that is full of color and creativity. With rhyming dialogue, a lovely color palette, and characters that are full of life and expression, Milkmaid of the Milky Way is a great way to spend a quiet afternoon. It isn’t very long, and some of the puzzles can be a little obtuse at times. But for $5.99 on PC and $3.99 on iOS, it isn’t hard to recommend Milkmaid of the Milky Way to fans of colorful, creative adventure games. 

+ Colorful, Painterly Style + Expressive characters + Rhymes – May be short for some – Occasionally obtuse puzzles