Period dramas are in rare supply these days. The world of interactive entertainment has become so homogenized with me-too cookie cutters and tried-and-tired MOBAs and hero shooters that it’s great to see a company like Wispfire try something new by targeting a segment of the market who might be interested in a classic adventure tale set during an alternate take on the early 19th century.

Herald: An Interactive Period Drama: Book I & II launched together for the price of $9.99. The game sees players taking on the role of a certain Devan Rensburg, a mixed dude living in the 19th century in an alternate history where there’s one colonial superpower known as the Protectorate.

The Protectorate is divided by class, race and culture, and despite Rensburg being born in the east colonies, he was actually raised in the west – in the privileged upper echelon of the Protectorate’s capital.

Not content with not knowing about his past, his culture and the other side of his history, Rensburg decides to venture back to his homeland to discover his true roots, but things don’t go as planned when the voyage that sets sail ends up befalling a chaotic turn of events when a race war breaks out on the ship and Rensburg ends up tossed out of the boat and washes ashore in a foreign land.

You can check out the trailer for the game below to get an idea of what it’s like.

Hmm, a quote from Polygon.

Visually Herald looks good for what it is. It has it’s own style and it’s bright and inviting. The character portraits also remind me of designs from the old-school point-and-click titles from the yesteryears of gaming.

As a point-and-click adventure game it seems to rely more on character interactions than typical logic puzzles.

Story wise they have an interesting premise, but in today’s society where a lot of games tackle interesting concepts and then turn them into preaching sessions for “Progressive” ideologies, it’s hard to tell where this game falls exactly.

If the characters are written well, and the story unfolds organically it could be interesting. They seem to be trying to show the different divides with class warfare by having players don the role of a mixed character who gets to see things from both sides of the isle.

Unfortunately the game doesn’t have any user reviews on hand yet, so if you decide to pick up a copy you’re going in blind. You can learn more by visiting the GOG.com store page.