One of the more striking games that caught my eye at this year's AdventureX Convention was Four Last Things. A comical point and click title set in a vaguely 14th century European city, Four Last Things puts players in the role of a vagabond on a pilgrimage of salvation. Seeking forgiveness for a lifetime of wrongdoing, our hero has finally arrived at a splendid cathedral to confess his sins, but in a Kafkaesque twist, he finds entry barred by an overzealous church official who won't recognize his guilt. Apparently he was previously outside this cathedral's catchment area. If our hero wishes to gain passage to the confessional, he must venture to the neighboring town and commit each of the seven deadly sins all over again.

It's an amusing concept to be sure, but the most fun thing about Four Last Things is the fact that its world is crafted entirely from collaged pieces of the works of classic Renaissance painters such as Pieter Bruegel, Jan Steen and (especially) Hieronymous Bosch. The backgrounds and characters these pieces form are crudely animated, bringing to mind something akin to a Monty Python fever dream.

Your quest to commit sins is a fairly lighthearted one; peep at a woman in undress to stoke the flames of your lust, or gobble vegetables at a market stall to achieve gluttony. I was most amused by taking a hammer and chisel to a statue in the town square to reshape it in the image of my unkempt hobo hero, a prideful statement surely worthy of eternal damnation.

Once I'd accrued enough transgressions, I headed back to the cathedral. In a surprise twist of fate, our hero skipped the confessional and took a shortcut straight to Hell—the Hell Panel of Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, to be exact. As the screen panned down the entirety of the painting, it centered on our hapless hero, chained to the ground, holding a pickaxe near a rock. I used the mouse to plink at the rock ineffectually as the demo's credits began to roll.

Four Last Things is scheduled for release in January, and fans of Renaissance art and non sequitur humor will likely find a lot to enjoy in it.