Ilya Ilych Oblomov in “Mid-Morning of the Living Dead”

In Ilya Ilych Oblomov in “Mid-Morning of the Living Dead” the player takes control of the title character, a lackadaisical 19th-century Russian nobleman, and guides him through a hellish day in St. Petersburg. The dead have returned to walk the earth and feast upon the flesh of the living, and it is up to Oblomov to get on as best he can.

The game is divided into three acts, two of which take place in Oblomov’s dusty, disordered bedroom. After waking at eight o’clock, he has tea, argues with his manservant, Zakhar, and speaks to a succession of traumatised visitors, all of whom urge him to flee while he still can. However, he is determined not to act rashly, but to give the situation due consideration, which he does while drinking more tea in bed.

In the second act, Zakhar’s failure to return from a minor errand forces Oblomov to rise and confront the hordes of flesh-eating abominations that now surround his home. After bathing in lukewarm water for half an hour, dressing and taking a little lunch, he is finally ready to exit his apartment, thereby marking the beginning of the third act.

The conclusion of Ilya Ilych Oblomov in “Mid-Morning of the Living Dead” takes place on the streets of St. Petersburg during the early evening. The city is now totally overrun by zombies, and Oblomov must walk rather more quickly than he would prefer in order to evade their dread embrace. Disaster strikes when he sits down on a public bench to rest: he briefly nods off, initiating an action-packed finale in which the player must wrestle to awaken his charge before he is torn apart and devoured.

Sadly, this task proves impossible, and the game ends with a prolonged sequence of graphic dismemberment, followed by a screen saying “You Have Won” and a credit roll.

Ilya Ilych Oblomov in “Mid-Morning of the Living Dead” is a next-generation point-and-click adventure, partially based on the classic novel Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov. It is distinguished from its antiquated peers by virtue of the groundbreaking InDifrenz™ interface, which avoids the gameplay limitations associated with the genre by preventing the player from interacting with the environment in any way.