When one thinks of puzzle/adventure games, matryoshka dolls may not immediately come to mind. Perhaps that's why one doesn't work for Tim Schafer. In our stead, lead designer Lee Petty broke ground with this unique idea in Double Fine's newest downloadable title, Stacking. The not-at-once-clear nature of this game is evidence of its ingenuity. And it is indeed ingenious.
You play as Charlie Blackmore, youngest in a poor family of chimney sweeps living in early-twentieth-century Euromerica. The father's disappearance—and subsequent separation from his siblings and mother too—sets Charlie on a quest to rescue his family. His motivation is thus, but along the way he sabotages the big bad Baron's child labor business. Using a train station as a hub world, you visit a few other locations, such as a cruise ship, looking for your lost relatives, causing mischief and solving puzzles along the way.
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