Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries Switch Review

At the start of the Jazz Age in Paris in 1921, young French artist Jennifer Chevalier becomes embroiled in death, espionage and revolution which takes her across the three nations of France, England and Ireland – ably assisted by the ghost of Oscar Wilde.

Jennifer believes the recent death of her father was no ‘accident’. Finding a chained locket in her father’s hotel, Jennifer attempts to use her childhood gift for talking to ghosts to call his spirit back. Unwittingly, the ghost recalled is that of Oscar Wilde, famous Irish playwright, whose affair with Jennifer’s father has bound his ghost to the locket.

Jennifer and Oscar find themselves involved in schemes of murder, ghosts and intrigue as they attempt to solve Jennifer’s father’s murder, and develop a deep friendship along the way…

The game is simple. The main goal is to find out who killed Jennifer’s father and why. You play as either Jennifer or Oscar, navigating a 2D environment, clicking on objects (or interacting with characters) that will reveal clues (evidence) to solve different objectives. Jennifer’s journal acts as a comic book style inventory where she saves her illustrated notes about the case. From there, you can combine and rearrange the panels of pictures, to either solve the objectives or prompt other characters to reveal more information.

Some of these puzzles can be a bit tricky because you don’t necessarily know what the game wants from you. There aren’t any instructions or hints for when you get stuck. So, you will find yourself doing a lot of guess work instead of actually solving a puzzle. Which can be a bit frustrating because it detracts from the gameplay. Another source of frustration comes from how slow the characters move in their environment. Especially when all you want to do is exit through a door, but you have to wait for the character to move (at a snail’s pace) from one side of the screen to the other. I wanted more haste because there is a case to solve! Dialogue (between characters) was also slow (and long) but that can be quickly cycled through with a click of a button.

I enjoyed the story, but I wanted more. I felt that the relationship between Oscar and Jennifer, evolved way too quickly for them to be the die-hard partners that they were. They do make a great team though. Jennifer’s drive of wanting to find her father’s killer is what connected me to the game, but I wanted to know more about her gifts and social life. Oscar didn’t come across as highly flamboyant (like from the stories we have read about him) but he was still very likeable. The secret occult group was an interesting spin but seemed very rushed over, especially towards the end. The story wraps up nicely with the makings for a sequel.

I love the jazz music playing on the title screen. Sadly, this isn’t carried out through the rest of the game. In fact, there really isn’t any background music, just loud sound effects that make you want to turn down the volume. Same with the dialogue. No voice overs (which would have been great to hear all the different accents), just the text in the speech bubbles. I understand that the theme of the game is presented in the style of a comic book however it would have been nice to have had audio during the cutscenes, at least. The black and white (comic book style) line art was full of details and enjoyable. It gave a very detective noir, set in the 1920s, sort of vibe. I especially liked the outfits of the characters.

Final Thoughts?

Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries, felt more like a visual story than a puzzle game. I liked how you could switch between the two main characters however I didn’t feel like my choices made that much of an impact to the overall gameplay. It was short and sweet (around 4 hours), so perfect for those who just want something quick and relatively simple to play, but not for those that are after more complex puzzles.

Game Details

Title: Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries

Developers: Outsider Games

Genre: Point and Click Adventure

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Release Date: 27^th March, 2025