Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango does not need any special recommendation, it is
one of the very few games that fits into the notion of an ideal game if
one can admit that ideal game exists. Indeed it is hard to find any
weak point in this game. It continues the line of such brilliant games
like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Monkey Island series, also created by LucasArts.
There is everything in this game to give an enjoyment to the player: an
original and brilliant plot: the settings of the game have place in the
reign of dead where people or more exactly all that left from them
live. Yes, the dead live, isn't it interesting? The story roots into
the Mexican Indian folklore and mythology but the creators' use of it
is very impressive. The other genre that they used to produce the
general atmosphere of the game is elements of film noir.
The film is the third person acting (my favourite). After numerous deserted first persons fantasies with beautiful but unanimated landscapes it was like a fresh air to plunge into the word of dead inhabited with lots of lively people. You have to talk in this game and talk a lot. But your actions are more important than conversations, though through the talks you get all essential clues.
You can do in this game everything you want since you cannot die here (though other characters can...) In fact the kingdom of dead does not much differ from the world of living. The puzzles are of medium difficulty: not too easy but not frustrating either. And they are all more or less logical. You'll be surprised to find out how one method works several time.
The ending of the game is perfect. Perhaps the final in the games of LucasArts is an element they give much thought to because they are quite logical. It is not quite the end of the story but you feel great satisfaction that the game finished this way. And yet the story itself will continue and it does not matter how it will actually finish.
So it is a wonderful game with a brilliant plot, a very convenient keyboard control, vivid characters and harmonic finish. You will surely enjoy it, no matter either you are a novice in the genre or an experienced player. Manny Calavera will be glad to see you.
Tex McPhilip
Tex MacPhilip belongs to the old graphic games with a text
parser where you should type commands. But this game is surely worth
playing in spite of its ancient control and primitive graphics. The
nice thing about this game is that there is nothing superfluous in it,
no unnecessary details.
The story is very interesting but this game is characterized for the specific sadistic humour. There are violence and killing involved in it.
As for the plot you play Tex McPhilip. Who is he remains unknown but one day you meet Virgin Mary and it changes your life. For it is she who gives you the task: you should kill three people (in fact even more) in order to become a pope.
But the first game has one flaw: it is too short and some puzzles are of dubuous logic. This is compensated but its sequel: The Road to Divinity where your character rebelled against the Almighty One and decided to become god himself. You should help him in this enterprise. It is one of the few cases when the sequel is no worse than an original. Also the main hero is more humane here. This game is long enough and very entertaining. You may die in this game but only in obvious cases. It has nothing to do with perishing in Sierra game where usually every wrong action leads to the death of your character.
The game is ruled by logic so it is usually clear what to do but the puzzles are amusing. I passed the second game for one day but I don't remember enjoying the game that much from the time of Larry I . By the way Tex reminds of the first Larry game in many aspects, undoubtly due to the fact that they are both made with AGI (Adventure Game Interpreter) engine (it's out of use nowadays). In fact trying to play any other game right after this (I especially recommend King Quest) will show you immediately the difference between the good game and the bad one. They seem so boring and control is irritating.
It is very strange that this game is not popular at all, I can hardly assign it just to unusual theme. The Larry games has not very decent theme either but look how popular they are. It seems that the main reason of its unpopularity lies in the fact that the game is made by an individual and not by a big company.
So if you can endure the unusual theme and typing commands you will sure enjoy this game. Believe me, I haven't played old games for a long time and never thought I'd play them again but this one is worth it.
Lure of the Temptress
Even the title of this game sounds unusual, doesn't it? This is a very
unusual quest with beautiful graphics and thrilling story. The settings
are the medieval town of Tournvale populated with people and strange
creatures called skorls. You are playing Diermot and your final mission
as you'll find out soon is to liberate the town from the power of the
evil sorceress Selena.
The game begins with you being in a prison cell. But in a few instants the door opens and the guard enters. This is a game where not only you but also other characters can go and act by their way. As the creators of this game announced this game is the first try to create a virtual theatre and to my mind the try was a success. Of course it is still a game so the town has just 6 or 7 meaningful location and about 15-20 characters but in general the atmosphere is quite realistic. Some characters move along the streets so you just have to grasp them by the button and speak. They are always glad to talk. In fact the story unravels with your talking to the right person. Some never leave their location like owners of the taverns (there are two taverns in this town!) and their clients so you have to visit them. Besides people and skorls the story involves such mythological characters as dragons, speaking statures and ugly beasts who serve as guards (and you'll have to fight them with an axe, I tell you. Well, if you have ever played Prince of Persia, it should not cause much trouble).
The game has a very interesting control. You operate not only with objects but often have to interact with other people to solve some puzzles. For example some puzzles can be solved only with the help of Ratpouch, your loyal friend and servant whom you got free from the prison. Sometimes you'll have to act through him or other characters as well. Very unusual, indeed. There are some easter eggs too, the objects that look important but in fact you'll never use them.
The game has beautiful graphics: it does look like a medieval European town with its small squares, dark taverns, remote places and curvy streets and especially gloomy gates that protect the entrance to the castle. One of your tasks will be to find the way to get there. And all the puzzles are very logical which is very rare in the modern games. Well, this game is old.
I enjoyed this adventure very much. It is not very easy but entertaining. There are few quests made in this style so I'm sure one should at least appreciate its unusualness besides the good story. But in this case we have entertaining plot, interesting puzzles and live characters. Though it might seem quite easy to an experienced player I nevertheless would recommend it especially if you tried up all the usual quests. This one will give you a new taste.
Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes
Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: the Case of the Serrated Scalpel
is a very interesting game reproducing the atmosphere of the famous
English detective story. It begins on the Baker Street where Holmes and
Watson sit in the room near the fireplace. The famous violin is not
forgotten among the interior objects.
So you are playing the famous detective. As usual you are helping Scotland Yard to investigate a complicated case. But it's not the story that I want to describe but the game itself.
And it is an exciting game. It develops with not as much as your finding new objects but rather with talking to the right people and in this aspect the game reminds me of Lure of the Temptress. The objects in the inventory are not as much as to use them directly but rather to give you some clues as the purpose of those you have is always evident. There is no dumb "try every object until something happens". All the actions are very logical.
But this is not all yet. Perhaps it is a little bit simplified compared to the real Sherlock Holmes (I mean the one described by Conan Doyle, of course) so actually your aim is not to make deductions but rather to observe and find clues that in their turn open new clues and so on. In fact that's how the game develops: for example you arrive on the place, talk to the inspector, he mentions some address after which this address appears on the map. It is convenient.
The game might seem too easy to the experienced player. Yet to my mind it is better that the game is beautiful, exciting and easy than long, difficult and dumb. And in this game there are some really enjoyable moments.
The interface of this game almost copies the one in LucasArts Monkey Island kind except the inventory is hidden. The talks are all automatic and though you can choose from different options to lead a dialogue you can try all of them. In fact sometimes you must try them all to continue the game. As for the inventory you can carry with yourself as many items as you want.
What makes this game interesting is some red herrings: threads that seem fruitful suddenly tear up and you fall in the air. Among such moments I'll mention the game of darts which is just among us is useless and don't give any clues. Besides if you after all play and win and go to the damned apothecary don't take the lamp there. First, you won't need it anyway and second which is much more serious if you take it the game will halt. At least that's happened with my version.
The other flaw is that you can't open one door for a long time and it is your precious friend Dr. Watson who does not allow you to do so. I had to look into hints to find out what's wrong and it happened that you just have had to try to open it rigorously several times. After that the Watson will consent.
But those are the only flaws that I found. In all the other aspect the game really got me in. The graphics are not particularly impressive but just good. My version was without music but they say the music is not bad either. The puzzles are interesting and logical, the only dumb puzzle is mentioned above. In my opinion the game is very much worth playing, you'll surely enjoy it. It will be especially good for non-experienced players as it might seem too easy to the hard-core gamers.
Day of the Tentacle
Day of the Tentacle is an old game released by LucasArts and belongs to the same generation and type as Monkey Island and Indiana Jones
type. I think after having played modern games that these are still the
best. Well done 2D cartoon graphics, interesting characters, funny
dialogues and what is the most important - fascinating story that keeps
you playing and makes it difficult to turn off your computer. Games
like that are made no more. Amazing that with the development of
technology the meaning decreases and modern games are seldom funny with
a dumb story and almost always illogical puzzles (there are plentiful
of logic ones though).
In Day of the Tentacle the interface is similar to Monkey Island. The graphics are even more cartoonish. This time you'll start to play as Bernard Bernoulli, a scientifically gifted teen who works as an assistant to the mad doctor Fred Edison. He makes experiments with tentacles in his laboratory and as a result of his work the water in nearby river became polluted with wastes of his activity. A purple tentacle drank some of this water after which it felt such a flow of energy that it immediately went to conquer the world. And succeeded. But since Doctor Fred's experiments also involve time travel he sends you and your two friends to the past in order to prevent the catastrophe. By accident Bernard returned to the present while his friends have been carried 200 years to the past and to the future respectively. Here where the fun begins because since now on you take the control of all three of them. Each has to complete his own mission. The two in other times have to return home and for that they must connect their time units with a power source while Bernard has to fix the time machine. But besides of that and in order to do that there are so many things to do! So you explore the motel and the surrounding areas that look very different but recognizable in different epochs, talk to people and collect different objects. Almost each of them you'll have to use, sometimes more than once. The heroes can also transfer the objects to each other through their time units that saved this capacity. Not all the objects can be transferred though and you can take hints from that. Other objects can be transferred by other methods, which are pretty sly.
The puzzles are amazingly logical, you won't find here stupid "try each objects on this one until something happens". There is trying of course but all the solutions are motivated. Some tasks might seem difficult yet logic works very well in this game. You take hints what to do from occasional talks but mostly from the objects' functions and the situations. It's always pretty clear what to do, the difficulty may occur in particular technical aspect.
The game is also spectacular for its humour. There are reminiscences from history, myths and stories about first presidents, jokes about the game itself and so on. Even the mummy is got useful.
So if you liked Monkey Island try this one too. Though chances are that if you played Monkey Island you've probably played Day of the Tentacle.
Indiana Jones
Actually there are 2 famous Indiana Jones games made in adventure
genre. There are more but they are mostly arcade and action. Even the
two mentioned above involve some action but a more about it later. Both
are similar in style though you can say that Atlantis is the latest. In fact the interface of Atlantis is absolutely the same as in Monkey Island 2 and Day of the Tentacle. But Indiana Jones
differs from both in a way of organization of the story. It's far from
calling it non-linear but still the game handles much more interaction
compared to the same entertaining but very linear Monkey Island.
In the latest game there is a mixture of linear and non-linear elements
in actions but not in the story. Indy games are unique in the sense
that there you can actually choose from several (usually 3) different
paths. Of course most of the elements are still the same but it is the
first step to design a game with real interaction and non-linearity.
The way they usually do is making a game with multiple path option but
only one path is right, all the other sooner or later lead you to the
unsuccessful finish. Well, let's begin with the earliest game and see
in detail.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The game is based on the movie with the same title. Though the plot of the game follows the one of the movie in general features, in fact they have little in common. Movie is a pure action while the game is what you can consider action-adventure where you can follow thinking path requiring from you to collect all the possible items or make you way by your fist. In reality the most likely way is somewhere in the middle: a little bit of fighting has to be done but not as much as in pure action path. The game has a well-organized plot. As for the story stability (I mean the ability to get “stuck” because you failed to get something or to talk to someone in passed episodes where you cannot come back), it is good enough as in most cases you can do without some items though it increases you chances to get involved in the fighting. In most cases the deal can be done without fighting at all but for that you should follow the exact path. By the way the “fighting” keys are not obvious either and you should try some other in order to find them (in theory it should work on numeric pad but in my game only the numerals on the main part worked).
The biggest flaws are of technical nature: there is no option to exit the game (though there are options to save and load), a limited number of save slots, an annoying music in some episodes without an option to turn it off and no option to save the game in certain sequences. This is really a nuisance. For example the last episode (rather long) should be played without any mistakes otherwise you repeat some actions over and over again. After a while it becomes boring. In both of these games Indy can die (usually as a result of a lost fight) so it's necessary to save your game often.
But let us not be too strict. This was the first try and for the first try the game is very decent and worth playing. Really we should not approach to the old game with modern requirements. The multiple path option compensates the technical faults. But what really redeems them in my eyes is that in the second game The Fate of Atlantis they corrected all of them. In order to finish The Last Crusade you have to use the information from the manual. A copy protection at the end of the game (hmm...) An adventure game according to the rules of genre must supply all the inner information and you don't have to consult a manual. And what we see is that Indiana Jones knows something that a player does not. Nevertheless the last episode can be solved anyway by trial and error.
This is much better. No more annoying technical problems. You still can die but the chances are much lower and more controllable. Here you can also choose among 3 different paths and sometimes even choose between two sequences in the same path. For example in the last episode you can finish the game all by yourself or save you friend along with yourself. Puzzles are inventory and dialogue oriented. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the two paths are actually quite different. The path you can choose in fact takes you only through the middle part of the game: you can select among team (that is the most obvious), the thinking and the action paths. I haven't tried the last one. This really gives you a chance to replay the game. Surprisingly though the game lacks an ability to solve the same problem in different ways. I found at least one different solution from the one described in walkthroughs but it did not look like there were more. The game itself is divided into 3 large episodes: the team, the chosen path and the “action”. The last one is in parentheses because you have to fight in the last episode at least once in order to… well, you'll find that out. I'm not going to spoil the story for you. But on the other hand no need to do it more then once.
The stability of the story is excellent: here you cannot get stuck. There are lots of slots to save your game and you can do that any moment, you can even save right in the middle of a dialogue. Speaking about dialogues, in most cases it does not matter what you say or at least you can always try again until you find the right way to express your thought. There are few where the right saying is important though. Quite different from the Crusade where all the dialogues required exactly the right phrase with very few hints what is right or wrong. Trial and error is a method of solving puzzles of course but it should be reduced to minimum in a good adventure game.
The puzzles in Atlantis are very good and logical. At least here LucasArts still keeps the trademark of quality. I wish they continued to develop this very promising multiple path approach to adventure games. Unfortunately they didn't. By now Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis still remains unique in its genre.
The verdict. The Last Crusade is much to be desired but worth attention of hard-core player. The novices will be frustrated. The Fate of Atlantis is one of the best adventures even by modern standards.
Another interesting feature in the game play is that you play not only as Gabriel but also as his faithful assistant Grace Nakimura. The trick is by no means new, remember Fate of Atlantis and Broken Sword. Only here Grace's part is as important as Gabriel's and you switch between them like in Broken Sword 2. While Gabriel is investigating the case Grace is working on the map that is somehow connected with the mystery. The game depicts their characters well enough and even gives some development of their relations. By the way that is true almost about all the other characters, they are not cardboard, but all have temper and character of their own.
The game is done is so cursed 3D engine but unlike most other players I liked it here. The graphics are detailed and picturesque, interesting rendering. The scenery is very beautiful. The way people are done in this game is amazing: they look like certain individuals and not just like cartoon characters. I think they have been drawn from real people. I especially like Gabriel's green eyes and his expression at close-ups and cut scenes.
The voices in the game range from bad to good. The French accent is very awful and sounds artificial. On the other hand I enjoyed casting Tim Curry as Gabriel. I first saw him in Frankenstein: through the Eyes of the Monster where he was very good. His Gabriel is very charismatic, sometimes charming, sometimes is smarty pants witty. Most players didn't like him, I think he made an excellent job performing Gabe.
But like all the other Sierra games this one has some faults. First, in major linear plot, they inserted some minor details that you can easily miss. They are not really important and are mainly to give a player additional points. It's not worth to replay the game of course but I guess that's the main reason why they have woven them into story.
Then, sometimes not a very clear indication what to do next. They should have put some hints in certain episodes. I was stuck once because I didn't know that I was supposed to find certain information in the game computer. Training of attention, I suppose. But besides that in the manual they claim that the game models the real world. That's ridiculous, the time blocks won't move unless you make the right action. But the puzzles in whole are good and logical. The game even offers you hints in some episodes that sometimes come useful.
Among the minor flaws one can mention an unpleasant pixel-hunting in several episodes that is not really justified. Sometimes it is not clear on the screen that some objects are present.
The final is quite frustrating. First, here when you unexpectedly encounter a logic type puzzle. Then it is followed by some other equally meaningless puzzles. It adds to the story twist that one of the accompanied characters is supposed to know much more about that than the character you play. And the final puzzle: not only you can't save you game during quite a long scene but they made the final battle look like an action fragment. It's hard to figure out what to do.
Like I mentioned before that settings of the game are real. The Saunière mystery does exist. The document Le Serpent Rouge is also real but they changed the verses quite a bit. Even hidden geometry of the map is present and it is evident that Jane Jensen really did some research, which adds greatly to the atmosphere of the game. As for the outcome mystery we are offered a cocktail of different religions like Christianity and Judaism spiced with Zen mixed with mysticism, occultism and vampirism, a mixture of facts and fiction. Personally I didn't like the vampires part, it weakened the plot based on realistic elements and looked childish. Strange, but they missed the reincarnation theory, it would add another interesting flavour. In general the game offers a fictional version of the holy grail mystery. Not of the promised scale but quite decent.
Overall it is a very good game missing a few points from being an excellent game with a very strong storyline and interesting puzzles. Highly recommended for the players of all levels
If you became interested in the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery, I can recommend these two sites to find the basic information:
Rennes-le-Chateau
An excellent resource on history of Rennes-le-Chateau, Sauniere and other things.
Rennes-le-Chateau Home Page
Information about Le Serpent Rouge, the document itself and articles about Celtic language and some sectret societies.
You play Ray McCoy, policeman or more exactly, Blade Runner whose task is to kill replicants or artificial human beings. Of course, you have to identify them first. But then other problems arise.
Well, the story is engrossing enough, not really bad for adventure genre but when we come to the gameplay a few questions arise.
First of all, you quickly discover that there is not much that you can do in this game. All the talks are automatic, you can't choose what to talk about. Periodically you find different object but again, nothing much you can do with them. They are supposed to be clues so you can learn more about objects and suspects you investigate but nothing much you can do with them on your own. The only thing that you can do is to zoom pictures you found and thus get new pictures if you hit it right. It's not always easy and I'm not sure if it affects the game progress at all. I missed quite a few and was able to finish the game all right.
Second, it's the manufacturers' claim of “real time gameplay”, replayability, and all this stuff. Well, there are 2 major types of ending, each of which has its own variations. There are also some key points when you have to decide whether to kill a character or let him/her live (Not that it affects the major story, just changes some details). One might add that it's not always the case: some characters can't be killed (otherwise the game will end), others must be killed (for the same reason). Clues to find out what your status is are all scrambled together and not very convincing. The final is up to you but it all depends whether you kill one certain character or not. You don't have to replay the whole game for that.
As for genre it's rather an interactive fiction than a proper adventure. Entertaining at moments. The last part suddenly turns into action where you have to use your gun quite often and not only on people and replicants but also rats. Umph.
Lots of people seem to like it very much. If you expect a real hard-core adventure like Grim Fandango, you'll be disappointed. But if you want to feel yourself a policeman investigating a curious case, it will be all right.
Death is handled in this story like an event, rather than the end. Eike will die several time in this game but each time he will know the manner of his death and prevent it. The mysterious creature, Homunculus will reveal his part in the story later…
The space is limited to one small German town. As you travel through different time periods you see the same town during different seasons. The music in each period changes too. Yet, the time travelling device seems to have its own whims too: sometimes you can travel to the same period again and again while in other cases you can travel to only one particular period. I think more freedom would be more fun like more variations.
The interface is very simple: you know exactly which houses you can enter and the objects that you can pick up are highlighted. There are clues all over, perhaps more than you would prefer. Yet it does not diminish the great atmosphere of the game.
The story is subdivided into 10 chapters. Some actions are optional and some puzzles you can solve in two ways. I wish there were more variants though.
The game has five different endings (and one extra, so six to be exact) depending on you actions in the past. But variations are slight . The real value of multiple endings though is to reveal all parts of the story as much more become discovered as you unravel the plot against you. Some plot twists are really amazing.
The neat thing in the story is that as you travel in time you meet the same characters you saw in your own period: they look stunningly the same: makes you believe in reincarnation. On the other hand there are some logical discrepancies in the script and several endings. But perhaps the biggest flaw is that in the central issue of the game lies the time paradox that seems to be impossible. All these little details should have been worked out more thoroughly. But the game is fun to play anyway.
It would be real fun if I had a good copy. Mine had some serious technical problems that caused often crashes and blue screen. Disabling the sound seemed to help but intermittent crashes occurred even so.
Overall: the game is very easy to play but very enjoyable for the originality of the story. The graphics is beautiful, music is good, voice acting is excellent. They even showed some subtle psychological movements that are quite good for the game story.
The game is definitely worth trying especially if you appreciate interesting plot as much or even more than difficult puzzles. The game gives us a glimpse of another reality that might exist.
The story is gripping enough. You play as an FBI agent Victoria McPherson who investigates a case of serial murders. She helps to gather evidences and exchange information with her colleagues and also from files. For the most part she is on her own but has some interaction with her partners. The story evolves with enough realism to create a proper atmosphere.
The pleasant part was the changing of characters. At some time the game story changes and you find yourself playing as Gus McPherson, our old friend from Post Mortem. It turns out that he is investigating the similar case of serial murders, only with much more personal and emotional involvement. The two murder story have obvious connection. I think Gus parts of the story were made with more detailing and sometimes his chapter finished before you wanted them to.
The original element of the game is that it involves some art pictures and they are integrated in the story fairly well. You will not have to find parts of the puzzles by dragging your mouse cursor on the picture and you will not have to compare two pictures as was the case in Post Mortem. In fact, pictures are part of the story and are very much relevant to it.
By the way the two games , Still Life and Post Mortem have very little in common except the character of Gus McPherson. Still Life is not a sequel. Another common feature is that you cannot interrupt their speech, you have to listen to whatever they have to say.
The graphics are well-done and the voicing is pretty good. They tried to be funny and gave some character really amusing intonations.
Unfortunately, the game starts falling apart as it progresses: the puzzles are becoming more of a riddle-type with a lame logic. For example, why do you have to pick the lock when you can just break into through the window? Some puzzles are absolutely irrelevant to the story. Some are copied from Indiana Jones games. Some types are repeated through the game which makes them boring, for instance the substitution puzzle are encountered in the game twice.
Mostly, this is an inventory-based game with some unpleasant riddles thrown in just for the hell of it, they are not justified by the story and not realistic. The inventory puzzles are good, the riddles are not. Also, the game has a clumsy interface, for example, if you guessed a solution for the problem, you can't pick a certain object until the game “realized” that you understood it and that diminishes some enjoyment. Also, there were a couple of clumsy moments when you have to click on the object at the right time before something happens but these moments are not too difficult to figure out. And, yes, there is a slide puzzle but at least no labyrinth.
Characters are well executed and believable enough. Still, some puzzles leave you with little sense of accomplishment, especially in the end when you figured out one of the most complicated puzzles and turns out that it added little to you actual knowledge of the case… but like I said, the second part of the game is worse than the first one and to crown it all is the ending.
The ending is just plain unsatisfactory. I can't add more so not to spoil it for you but it is the kind of ending that should not be employed in adventure game of this type. You have enough information to suspect one of the characters but the way you check out you suspicion… can't really tell you more.
One of the game's serious flaws (not really a flaw but rather an unfortunate feature) is its strict linearity. Come on… you cannot advance to the next puzzle unless you solved the previous one. I really miss non-linear games, at least there should be more non-linear elements in the gameplay, not to mention non-linear story turns. I do not require multiple endings but I'd like several solutions to one problem. I was really thrilled with Shadow of Destiny with these non-linear elements, as few as they were.
As a whole it is a pretty good game. I enjoyed playing it. It could be much better but it is certainly better than Post Mortem. It has an interesting story, a creepy atmosphere though sometimes these elements do not hold together. I wish it had a better ending, more story-integrated puzzles and it could be the an excellent adventure game.
Nibiru
I became deprived of games and wanted something. At Fry's my glance
fell on the picturesque cover with a Mayan pyramid and I grabbed and
looked at it: the theme was an archaeological discovery and I just have
weakness for this a la Indiana Jones theme games even when I realize
that they'll be nothing like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
(one of the best games not only on archaeological themes but all
adventure games ever made). The screenshots looked good (I can tell by
screenshots that the game is not a Myst clone which I hate). The plot
seemed promising though I had no illusions. So I though I'd try it and
I bought the game.
And I did not regret it. It does surprisingly remind you of Indiana Jones but of course has none of the charm of the latter. Here we have the similar Nazi hiding a great secret. Our hero, Martin is supposed to be an archaeologist and a linguist. He is summoned by his uncle to investigate a recently found tunnel in the heart of Bohemia (Czechoslovakia) that has connection with a mystery of Nibiru. (Since it is not part of the game plot I might as well tell you that Nibiru is supposed to be the 12th planet of the Solar System and is mentioned in the ancient Mayan and Sumerian records). Martin's uncle is very interested in finding evidence of extraterrestrial contacts with ancient civilizations. Since he is too old to travel now he sends you. (Here we go: ever heard of a real scientist who refuse to go and see the thing that might just help him in his research? Oh, well. It is not the weakest part of the plot).
Let's talk about the plot. The puzzles are of standard type: to find different objects, use combinations of objects (surprisingly quite a few items in this games can be combined) and talk to different characters. The puzzles are pretty good, easy to figure out. Closer to the end of the game you'll encounter a few logic puzzles but they are all fairly easy and integrated in the story. The bad part is that the game is disgustingly linear. You cannot even leave the room unless you complete everything you are supposed to in this place. There is no wandering about thinking where to go next and what to do. You cannot even combine certain objects that are sure made to be combined until the time is right. new object appear on the screen when the time is right and disappear when their time gone or they outlived their usefulness for the game.
Another feature is that the total game is built on every possible cliché imagined. Yes, there is the bad guy who is chasing you and he is so repulsive and predictable. You know that he is going to appear at the end just like in Atlantis game but without the humour of the latter. The ending in Nibiru is standard, nothing special, no mystery is really revealed like it is usually a case with games of this kind. Though sometimes the developers tried a very feeble attempt at humour but these attempts are laughable by all the standards.
The graphics in the game are beautiful. The music is pretty good but nothing special. The voices are okay. Actually only Martin has a normal voice, all the rest speak with some kind of a funny accent. It's amusing to hear the drunks in the game.
So the general impression is that this game is a ghost copy of all the games developed by the games with archaeological theme. But at least there is no machinery that out hero should crack at the first attempt like it is sometimes the case. In fact you can only die few times, the cases are all obvious and there are no action fragments in this games and no maze either. And that is a good thing.
Overall: the game is worth playing if you have nothing else to do, if you like games with archaeological theme, and do not mind clichés. It does have a feel of old games but it just does not reach their level of skill and originality.
Trilby games
I am going to discuss the whole quadrology of the Trilby games. In my
opinion these are one of the best games made. They all have involving
story, good interface and very decent puzzles. The graphics are
surprisingly good even for today. These games belong to so-called
horror genre and they all have some gory scenes in them. But let's look
at each of them separately.
This is the first game in the series where we are introduced to the main character Trilby, a cat burglar who has acquired quite a bit of fame in his selected specialty. As Trilby you decided to rob the DeFoe Manor after its owner recently has died. You successfully got into the house but once you are in you cannot get out. It turns out there are other 4 people in the manour and you are all trapped inside by some invisible force. Well, yes, it does not really sound promising but the game gets better, this rather awkward premise actually develops in quite complicated storyline, in fact so complicated that there were three more games cranked after this one, all continuing the same story. The first game has excellent set of characters, decent graphics and pretty good puzzles, all logical though could be a bit better. The game is definitely worth playing.
The title sounds cool but is actually meaningless, the author admits it himself. As for the game itself the interface has improved compared to the first one, so did the graphics. The story is very solid, the puzzles are good (though there is one that does not make sense). In a way it is the easiest game in the series, most logical and it has an unexpected finale. It does not have Trilby as the main character but his you hear from him once. The cast of characters is just as good as in the first game, the surroundings are more motivated: you cannot leave a spaceship. This game has particularly good dialogues.
Probably the best game in the series. It would definitely be THE BEST if it had a point and click interface as it is awkward nowadays to type commands because it's hard to figure out the correct words. It gets to the degree that what you get from general description after you type LOOK command is not valid in your next command. I'll give you one example: fire alarm has to be changed into smoke detector. But the story is developed to such a fine degree that it can compete to some best thrillers, it is absolutely amazing. You play Trilby again and this time you investigate the cause of evil forces even further. The warping timespace with two alternative settings that are somehow the same location is an awesome idea and the concept that you have flashback fragments where you control other characters is just fantastic. I wish they were more complicated as far as a gameplay goes but then the whole interface needs to be renovated to the mouse interface. It's not bad as it is though, the commands are quite simple and once you get into the game it is quite engrossing. You might need a walkthrough to type the right command, the puzzles themselves are very easy to figure out. Like I said, in my opinion it is the best game in the series. The idea could certainly be developed in some major game production. If you are not afraid of a text parser, try it. It's better to play it after you have played the first two games or at least 5 Days a Stranger but even that is not really necessary as the game holds pretty well on its own.
The interface is similar to the second game in the series. But strangely enough this one is the weakest game in the group. First, it does not make any sense at all if you haven't played all the previous games in the sequence. The game uses locations from the first game (Stranger) but does not really explain what happened. Second, you do not play Trilby, although he is a character in the game but seems to have lost all his charm. Third, it just became plain boring. I've got an impression that the author thought of all this stuff that he could not connect anymore and just threw it in for the hell of it. The characters are excellent as usual, but the story just gets tangled and bogged. There are a few strong points as well. One moment that I really liked is that we saw a main character from the second game (Skeptic) and his transformation: had the author developed the whole game along that line it would probably be better but that ghost story just did not hold any more. Yet, in spite of all these points the game is still good.
This is an example of a game that starts well and ends in a disaster. When I first started playing it I thought it was an excellent old time LucasArts style game. The puzzles were good, the logic seemed reasonable. Then, at a certain point the game just went to pieces. Without giving away the plot I'll just point out that there will be unmotivated actions, illogical puzzles and unnecessary fragments. What's worse, there was a huge plot hole in the whole storyline that is never satisfactorily explained. So the game lost its charm for me and turned me off. I still finished it. You can finish it if you try the dumb ”try every object until something happens” but I just don't like it. But then again Revolution is not LucasArts but rather reminds me of Sierra in that aspect: a good beginning then the gradual weakening of everything, then in the middle just some plain stupid puzzle that is a complete turn off, after which puzzles in the end do not really matter: if they are good, the joy is already gone, if they are bad, it is only expected. I was really disappointed but it does have a feeling of the good old games, it's just that I am very particular about adventure games.
An excellent game. I think it was a one person project but this is a good example of what the game should look like when someone puts some thought into game design. You play Blackstar, a native American whose past is clouded in mystery and who is investigating a personal family event that took place many years ago. The game gives a good feeling of a sleazy shady side of a city life. Blackstar is quite a sympathetic character with a strong dark side that at times shows itself too obviously.
The game interface is fair: a bit too slow and clumsy but is okay once you get used to it. The puzzles are very good and logical. Actually for me all the problems were due to the clumsy interface rather than in figuring out what to do. The only weakness, if we may call it that, was that the villain of the game was far too primitive and it didn't take any sleuthing to figure him out: it was just thrown into our face and you just dealt with him. There was one technical bug: one item was missing from the screen but its description was still there. When I restored the previous game I was able to get it though so that was not too hard. The game is short and even have some humour about it though the theme is quite grim. They warn you at the beginning. Overall, very good game, well worth playing.
The flaws: you have only one save slot, already mentioned randomized outcome of some events and seeming carelessness about the real killer. Nevertheless the game has all the making of a good investigation mystery game and the ideas could be developed into full length fascinating adventure game with the crime investigation theme.
Evil under the Sun
Evil under the Sun is another Agatha Christie game, the third one to be exact after And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express.
While the first game was very good, the second one had a few serious
flaws. I was a bit apprehensive about this one but it turned out to be
the best game in the series so far.
This game has an interesting setup. You play a trusted friend of Poirot Captain Arthur Hastings so familiar from the Poirot TV series with David Suchet. But not just Hastings but Hastings as if he were Hercule Poirot. In other words Poirot is telling his friend a story and offers clues and suggestions to Hastings as if he were to investigate the mysterious event that took place on Seadrift Island. It is different and surprisingly well done with fine touches of humour when it comes to differences in two friends' temperament. You'll hear comments of the event from both of these men and it is indeed very entertaining as though you have two characters for the price of one, so to speak.
The gameplay is excellent: you control Poirot-Hastings character from the third-person perspective moving around and collecting different items. Almost every item will be used at least once. Puzzles are all inventory based and all make sense. No turkey basters here and this is quite a relief. I don't know about you but if it was amusing to see it in the first game in the second one it looked ridiculous. Also no glass for eavesdropping but it does not mean you will not eavesdrop… but all this is rather obvious as Poirot will tell you sometimes about the use of the item. On the upside you'll play Sherlock Holmes and use a chemical lab to analyze some substances.
Another useful item in the game is your briefcase where you'll copy all the important documents found in the game. Sometimes there'll be hints relating to puzzles in them but mostly they just provide information and general background as well as some additional mysteries somehow related to the one Poirot is investigating at present.
There are no time puzzles but some time triggers are rather clumsy in order to maintain linearity in the game, so you might find yourself lost. Just go back and check the locations again, as new items always appear that might supply some clue or additional information. Overall, it is not a big deal but a thing you do in adventure game anyway.
The graphics in the game are very good though the characters rendering is a bit clumsy. There is no map but there are some shortcuts which you'll use as you uncover more locations. The dialogues can be fast-forwarded.
The music is quite atmospheric. The locations are beautiful though static. The voice acting is superb: after a few minutes you forget that it is not the voice of David Suchet you are listening to. But the best voice imitation is done by the actor who plays Hastings: I could not believe it was not Hugh Fraser: the voice is superb. Other characters are not that stunning but all of them are very good.
I saw the film with the same title with David Suchet playing Poirot and I was surprised that they haven't changed the major mystery solution like they did in the first game. But the process of playing the game itself was quite enjoyable and of course they added some additional mysteries along the major line which added some thrill to investigation.
The finale is quite good too. That was one thing I did not like about And Then There Were None—they were doing so well up until the end. I won't give it away for those who did not play it but those who did will probably understand.
So it is a great game, quite a bit better than The Murder on Orient Express and closer to And Then There Were None in story development. I enjoyed playing it.
The story has all the making of Arthur Conan-Doyle: the detective with his odorous laboratory and violin, the Oriental shoe with tobacco and of course the faithful Dr. Watson. In fact you even get to play a little as Doctor Watson but then switch to Sherlock for the rest of the game.
The game even has Sherlock's brother Mycroft. It starts with the explosion of Diogenes club which nearly killed Mycroft and put Sherlock in a deep depression. So your task as Watson is to awake Holmes from his gloomy mood and start the investigation. When you take up as Sherlock you find out that a certain secret paper is stolen from the Ministry and Lestrade wants your help with a murder that has been committed and you are set to find if there is a connection between the murder, the theft and the explosion.
The game is done exceptionally well. All the characters have distinctive personality. Sherlock is very upset about Mycroft and therefore is generally quite rude towards almost everyone and only the presence of Watson keeps him at bay. Watson also provides useful hints and clues. The game unfolds as you collect clues and evidences and every new piece of information opens a new location or new topic for conversation. At some point you'll probably find yourself working on several chunks of investigation at once: some of them provide new leads while others do not. Some just hang in the air and there are a few loose ends. On the whole the plot is very solid without any gaps. There are no real red herrings, everything you discover is in some way related to your investigation.
The puzzles are all very well integrated into the storyline so here we don't have any stupid mazes or mechanical puzzles. They are all conversation and inventory puzzles and quite often the combination of the two. The inventory is very easy to use: the item becomes available only at locations and at the time when it is needed to be used. So it saves a lot of frustration of trying each object on another. In all fairness it was usually clear what item to use in every situation except in one scene the item has not become useful until the very last moment. There are even a couple of cases when Sherlock solves the puzzle for you: for example I am not good at charades but it turned out it was not necessary to solve it. There is also an indigenous puzzle involving the famous violin: very much in line with Sherlock's personality. I loved it. There are also some chemical puzzles where you can experiment with Sherlock's laboratory.
The language was a pleasure to listen, though I must note that this is an adult game. The dialogues were exceptional and the witty remarks between Holmes and Watson made me chuckle more than once. The voice acting of the principal heroes was superb, some characters were a little hard to understand but the game has subtitles.
Graphics are the detailed cartoon style, masterfully done. The settings recreates Victorian England pretty much like you would imagine. The atmosphere is superb and very engrossing. It is an excellent game.
So what is the new game of Sherlock Holmes about? The latest game I played before this one was Sherlock Holmes and the Rose Tattoo. This game is not like the former one at all.
The game starts with the conversation between Sherlock Holmes and Watson in their famous flat on Baker Street. The famous French thief Arsene Lupin (a fictional character by a French writer Maurice Leblanc) is on the loose in England and is about to steal five precious object that are dear and symbolic to British heart. He has challenged Sherlock Holmes to prevent him. Well, the idea is actually pretty good, this cat and mouse game, but I object to the nature of the clues that are used to lead you on your hunt. The clues that Lupin leaves for you are usually badly written poems with vague meanings that sometimes are extremely hard to guess. Sometimes they are ridiculously easy and other times are just too vague. And you will get no help or a comment from Holmes whom you control. The task of deciphering the notes that are scattered all over locations soon becomes too tedious and overwhelming. What is more serious fault though is that some of the puzzles require extra game information that lots of players are probably not quite familiar with. I know because I am the one!
On the other hand I like the idea of roaming National Gallery and British Museum and looking at the exhibits. The puzzles involving art in National Gallery are sometimes excellent, like cleaning the painting but sometimes are just plain dumb like the tile puzzle. Oh, yes, there are two or three tile puzzles there, so you've been warned!
Another aspect of gameplay that I personally don't like is that you have to solve puzzles in a strict order and can't move to the next one until you finished the previous one. Sometimes it can be irritating, especially if you figured out in advance what you are supposed to do. Actually you won't even be able to pick up an object until the game “allows” you to do so but at least these objects are usually marked.
The puzzles in the game fall into 3 categories. The inventory puzzles are standard: nothing ingenious there. The “clue” puzzles vary from dismal to acceptable. The third variety is logic puzzles like having to open a safe, or decipher cuneiform writing. These also vary from completely out of place to decent. For example, opening a safe fits into the plot and the clue is provided. Building a cage is not relevant at all and it does not accomplish anything yet you have to solve it in order to advance in the game. Another good puzzle was figuring out which locker among many you want to open. The clues were presented in realistic manner. I'd certainly like to see more plot-integrated puzzles in the game.
I did not like puzzles involving historic background and not giving you a hint. There is a bookstore in the game that could be used to provide information on any subject involved but they did not use this opportunity. By the way, some puzzles require you to type a word or sentence. Those are the worst of all as they are the ones that usually involve extra game knowledge without providing you with a clue. Not all of them but a few.
So the puzzles are mediocre but what about the other elements of the game? Surprisingly, the other elements increase the value of the game: graphics are excellent: 3D, full view, complete rotation and zooming in and out on textures. For example you can roam the National Gallery and just look at the pictures: it feels like you are in a real museum. The characters look pretty good too: tired Holmes with blood-shot eyes, gesticulating Watson, handsome and sleek Lupin. The cut scenes are nice too.
Each location has a different classical background music that is nice but become repetitive after a while.
You will be playing Holmes most of the time but you'll also play Watson and even Lestrade. I just wish we could play for Lupin at least for a little while. I want to know how it feels to be a great criminal! The dialogues are probably the best part in the game. At least here we see some attempts at humour. The first dialogue between Holmes and Watson is pretty close to Conan-Doyle style. Holmes is actually quite insulting towards Watson and others, Watson is pretty good, Inspector Lestrade is a comic relief. Lupin is sleek, boy, he's sleek. The ending scene is particularly good: the final confrontation between two adversaries, the gracious succumbing of Lupin,
So what's the final verdict? You would not miss anything if you do not play the game. There is really nothing extraordinary about it. Get it if you have nothing else to play, if you are very bored, and if you don't mind some logic puzzles. It is not bad in itself. There is no detective work involved like the name of Sherlock Holmes suggests… And it is a far cry from the old Sherlock Holmes games like Serrated Scalpel and Rose Tattoo. They just don't make games like that any more!
The game starts with David in his hotel room. He listens to a message on his answering machine which summons him to a hospital to investigate mysterious cases of five teenagers who went crazy. So off he goes.
Immediately we run into some clichés. Evil doctor and even more evil-looking nurse. Reminiscences from The Moment of Silence are present as well. But there are some flashes of imagination as well: a drunk character and probably the best of all is a hotel porter. Nothing remarkable but at least not so cliché.
What about the puzzles? What puzzles? Actually there are no puzzles in the game or to be more precise the only puzzles will be fiddling with you PDI (another thing borrowed from The Moment of Silence). Really. There are no proper puzzles there. The whole game feels more like an interactive movie rather than a proper adventure. The situations are artificially complicated by not allowing you to perform the required action the first time. All you have to do is immediately repeat it. I was stuck once because of that.
The story is decent but not brilliant by any means. It is becoming clear where the plot is going after a few hours of gameplay and I must add that there are no big surprises there at the end. More, the developers did not get out of their way to develop an engaging good story. Predictable clichés, turns of the plot and really, really totally out of place finale twist that is so unmotivated and illogical that it almost spoils the whole thing. I don't think it can as the story started falling apart long before that. The finale is typical good guys survives just because he has to.
So we have a game with decent graphics. Music is okay but nothing special. There are some good characters but the story is too weak to become fully engaged. Very few puzzles make the game feel more like an interactive fiction.
The verdict: play it only if you have nothing else to do and in dire need of a game. It's not an awful game by all means but it is not a typical adventure game either.
Murder in the Abbey
Murder in the Abbey is a game based on Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose
(which never gets cretited, by the way). The main plot line is, the
details and the ending, of course, are different. Actually, the story
is not so bad but it could have been much better.
Well, the game is very average. Like somebody put it “not a hint of originality”. But that's not quite true. There is a hint or two. For example, one of the characters Bruno who drags alongside you is a total dimwit. As you probably know, the narrator of the novel corresponds to the Bruno character. You play Leonardo, the travelling monk. You come to a remote abbey with a mission to bring your protege Bruno to the monastery. As it happens, you became quite famous for your wisdom. In fact so much so that the abbot of the monastery asks you to investigate a recent death of a monk which by all appearances seem to be an accident. you'll have to find out the truth.
The puzzles are just plain bad. There is horrible slider puzzle but no maze in the library. The rest are all inventory based and nothing is original or even remotely interesting. In fact, the game is so disgustingly linear that you can't even perform a certain action until the right time, even if it's clear what to do. On the other hand, some deeds can be done before the reason for them is found out. Some puzzles were too obscure, some involved minute pixel-hunting, and some involved talking to Bruno. Some were plain stupid. For instance once in a game you have to get some soup from the kitchen. Well, the cook actually offers you some soup! But no, you have to resort to a idiotic maneuver in order to steal some. Not only that but you have to repeat the same thing twice. Granted, the second time there is no offer. You've annoyed the cook enough.
I guess the story was not well though over. there are also some minor bugs that luckily do not affect the gameplay. During the play the conversation suddenly froze several times. I found out that you have to press the right button click with your mouse and that solved the problem.
Anyway, the mystery is fairly well developed and there were a few surprises at the end. But the action triggered by dialogues, there was nothing much depended on you except to exhaust all the options. There was no real sense of involvement into solving the mystery. Some tidbits of information were revealed at the very end and therefore came as a surprise, others were merely explained.
The monks characters were done well. Even cartooning style did not spoil them (with an exception of Bruno). The faces all looked distinct and had a peculiar expression. For example, Eladio looked like a Greek. Some characters were too stereotypical though and did not add much. I think the Inquisitor was the worst of all: evil supreme and so predictable. All the monks trembled in fear then suddenly… hmm, okay, I won't spoil it for you. Let's just say it was not very satisfactory. Not as bad as it gets though, so I guess the story gets the highest score.
So a decent story combined with very weak puzzles. Disney like cartoons that did not fit quite well with gruesome mystery coupled with pretty good voice acting. Some reviewers complained about the voice of Bruno. Well, and what do you suppose a dumbquat's voice sounds like? It fitted him perfectly. Leonardo himself looked a little bit like a devil with his horny hairdo. They should have cut out all the repeating dialogues but that is one of the raw elements in the game that did not got polished. There are quite a few voice mistakes there.
The ending was satisfactory. Not a real thriller delight but not too bad either. At least the developers had enough sense to end the game with a rewarding video clip rather than throw an insanely difficult and obscure puzzle at the very end and thus completely destroy all the positive effect provided there was some. I think that part was good.
The game has some strong and some very weak points that almost cancel all the very good positive first impression. The first evening I played the game I loved it. The second evening, however, my delight turned into disappointment, not unlike infamous Sierra games that usually have an interesting beginning and intriguing story to hook you into a gameplay but ultimately turn into disaster with illogical puzzles and meaningless deaths.
You play Raoul, a detective policeman for a Surete, which is like French Scotland Yard. You happen to be an opera lover and during one of the performances the big chandelier suddenly falls onto the audience killing several people. All the clues indicate that it's a work of the Phantom.
You interact with a very few characters there, namely the opera director who is your friend. You also become acquainted with Christine Florent, a star of the evening show for whom you feel a strange sense of intimacy.
Of course you don't quite believe in this Phantom but the evidence is quite overwhelming. Then at one point of the game you get transported into the past where you play another Raoul, this time a close friend or boyfriend of Christine Daae who was the Phantom's love.
The time warp element is probably the best part of the story. The only game where I saw something similar was The Shadow of Destiny and I enjoyed the time travelling effect there too. Here it is more like reincarnation but it fits into the story very well.
The game has pleasant classical music that adds to the mood. In fact you get to play a musical piece but it is done automatically.
The objects you find are always in plain view, there is no pixel hunting there. The puzzles are of an exploration nature rather than inventory-based.
The entire story takes place in Paris Opera House. You get to explore the backstage areas, trap doors and look at all the junk scattered around. The game has some subtle internal humour about that. Sometimes it even slips into "edutantment" genre by providing descriptions of every theatre prop that you want to look at.
The voices in this game are excellent. There are no funny accents, all voices are normal though the setting is Paris Opera. Also, the game has particlularly good dialogues. The conversations trees are simple, you just ask about everything you can. The characters just tell you everything they know willingly, there is no need for coersion or favours done in order to extract information. All the voices suit characters perfectly.
So, what's wrong with this game? So far everything sounds like it is a good game with a solid plot and interesting puzzles. Unfortunately what happens next virtually destroys this good effect. The game becomes illogical and inherent game triggers do not fit well into the story. For example, one character invites you to visit her in her dressing room but when you arrive there you find the door locked. It turns out she appears in her room only after you have completed other tasks. Small point as in adventure game you are supposed to visit same locations several times but bear in mind that the game is old, it takes looong loooong time to change from screen to screen and there is no internal map to speed up the process, so this running around quickly becomes very tedious and leaves you in the open not knowing what to do next as you've done everything you possibly could.
The other thing is a horrendous maze for which, as far as I understand, there is no map. You have to solve it by trial and error or resort to a walkthrough. Also, I found puzzles in the labyrinth very uninspiring and rather boring. Puzzles are not the forte in this game. But the element of exploration was also gone. The ending is good. Too bad as it certainly had a potential.
You play Mason Powers, a CIA agent. You wake up in asylum. How did you end up in this place? So your first goal is to escape you cell, then to escape the asylum and finally start unraveling the mystery. Whenever you come up at certain objects you will experiences flashes of memory of past events. It involves CIA as well as the terrorist organazation. The final twist is somewhat predictable but the plot leading to it is handled extremely well.
The game is old and does not have a proper sound. You hear footsteps when you walk and that adds fun to the game. The graphics are actually pretty good for its time and is still quite playable.
The puzzles are rather mediocre, in my opinion. There is not a single superb puzzle that I remember. You have to move a whole lot of objects to reveal items hidden beneath them. In fact, if you are stuck, it's probably because you forgot to move something and find another object. On the other hand, the puzzles are logical and there is no foolish actions required to perform for which the genre became quite famous. There are a couple of time puzzles (nothing too difficult though), a maze without a map and a few annoying moments when you have to dodge a guard. The latter involves some luck so be sure to save often. You can also die in this game but it's usually obvious when and why. Some things, like interactions with other characters can only be tackled by trial and error. You cannot save during the conversations and sometimes you would have three conversations in a row. If a conversation ended unsuccessfully, you can go back and try again, the options are always the same.
Some actions, locations and items are not necessary to complete the game and they don't really add much to the story. It seems their only point is to add points to the player's score, like in old Sierra games.
There are also time and money factors involved in the game when you start travelling. Usually you find money and the time factor can be managed by choosing the right kind of transportation. There is also a general time limit (hence the name countdown) on completing the game so I advice to restore to the last save once you figured out a solution. Don't forget to offer money to other people as they usually give you something that is crucial to continue a game.
So is this game worth playing? It depends whether you can stand a very old interface and old graphics. The puzzles are unremarkable but the story is excellent and has a good intrigue.
The Last Express
Well, I finally got to play this famous game. I've heard so many
positive reviews about it that naturally I became skeptical. Was the
game really that good? Let's have a closer look.
The entire game takes place on Orient Express train. You'll be spending all your time moving between two sleeping cars, a dining room, a lounge and a luggage compartment (might be a few more places, all on the train though). You never will get off (that is, unless the game ended). So the game space is very limited. Yes, it gets boring but that when the gameplay takes over.
You quickly discover that there are certain things to do on that train though the reason for them you figure out later, usually after you die or the game ends in unsatisfactory ending. Speaking of which there are fatal endings when you die and a couple of endings when though you don't die but it is obviously NOT an intended ending that the developers had in mind. So that does not realy make much of a difference. There is only one “real” ending.
So take these deaths as a hint to figure out what has to be done next. It took me quite a while to figure out one moment though the solution turned out to be ridiculously simple, the matter of having the right inventory item highlighted.
Is the story gripping? Well, sort of. The game is very old after all. I can see that in its day it was quite an achievement. The graphics imitate early days cartoon, that is video sequences (if we can call them that) are done as a sequence of multiple still pictures.
The characters are probably the element that raises the biggest issue. Okay, we have all these foreigners with suitable accents speaking their tongue. That's cool. Of course some of them are not whom they pretend to be. But really! One of them is a spy in disguise. Give me a break. And Serbian terrorists would be laughable if they were not so damn irritating and annoying. On the other hand you kind of hoped that the harem guy would do something interesting. He does not. You really feel no compassion for any of the characters because none of them is believable enough.
The dumbass terrorists are the most annoying because they are the ones that involve some action puzzles which are not too difficult but will probably take more than one try. There are some timed actions rather than time puzzles.
Which brings us to the much claimed non-linearity of the game. Well, in all honesty I can't say I found out any major non-linear elements. Some actions can be dome in any sequence but overall all the key actions need to be done in order to reach the proper ending. Or do I miss something when it comes to non-linear plots? The sequence of events is more or less fixed.
The same concept applies to real time engine. Yes, this is interesting. You can only be in one place at any given time and if you want to find out what's going on in the other part of train you have to replay this fragment. On the other hand, if you missed something, don't worry. The game won't let you miss any key episodes and all these eavesdroppings on conversations are mainly to give you bits of information which you probably figured out by that time anyway.
I'll give you just one example. There is a kid there who is interested in bugs (you can see him playing with some critters in his cabin). Soon you see a beetle on a table in the lounge. Obviously you have to catch this beetle and give it to the kid. But you might also overhear that the bug he had caught earlier died. As you can see not really helpful but gives you the confirmation of the idea.
The romance line is just plain lame. Our character is flirting with a certain passenger. Never mind that she betrays him more than once. He is just smitten. Oh, well. I guess anything will do to kill the train boredom.
The game is divided into several episodes. Up to Vienna the game was fine. After that it just started falling apart: the episodes all rewound to video fragments that you had to listen over and over again (there is no option to skip videos). Then the action fragments suddenly all piled up. So from an interesting “get past Vienna” set of events it became very dull and annoying. The developers just could not sustain the same level of suspense and interesting action.
So it's not a bad game. It's rather a quickie, the first half (up to Vienna) is the best. That's where we have the mysterious object, the developing romance and some real sleuthing to do. After that it became annoying action and timed puzzles. I found that disappointing.
I still think they should have added some twist with a Persian guy. Just missed such an opportunity!
However Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper is a better game of the two. First, the story is really engrossing and atmospheric, the graphics are fantastic and the characters are rather engaging. Second, the puzzles are better integrated into the plot. You will encounter three types of puzzles in this game: inventory puzzles that are very simple: it's the matter of collecting a few object, usually right in the vicinity of the location of the puzzle.
Then we have logic puzzles that are all integrated into the plot. Granted, most of them are still ridiculous but at least the attempt has been made. These puzzles vary in difficulty from ridiculously simple to quite challenging. The challenge is usually consists of figuring out what exactly is wanted from you as a player. Nothing too difficult though and lots of them can be solved by simple tinkering. I found out that the solution is always much simpler than it seems.
And finally we have deduction puzzles where you have to figure out the general conclusions about the case. These are usually quite simple too, especially once you figured out the general line of investigation.
The whole game consists mainly in gathering evidence against the killer. These activities include talking to other characters, performing favours for them in exchange for information and of course every time you have to open a box or a safe be sure that a logic puzzles is awaiting.
The story in this game is really good. I don't know how close the info is to the actual files of the case but the facts presented in the game are all quire plausible. There were no gaping holes or inconsistencies in the plot. The solution was a surprise and I personally have not heard of the theory proposed in the game about who Jack the Ripper was.
The game comes on DVD and installed smoothly. I had no technical problems or bugs whatsoever during the playtime.
The game is strictly linear which is justifiable in this type of games. It gets to the point where Holmes or Watson tell you exactly where to go yet at some instances where you are lost there are no hints but it's a very minor point. It really saves all the frustration of wandering the streets of London rather than concentrating on the mystery.
The same can be said about the inventory. It is possible to highlight all the hot spots on the screen and often it saves time and frustration. It really keeps you focused on the game. So while more freedom would be nice in theory I really can't complain about this feature because it keeps you focused on the investigation rather than scattering your attention on aimless wandering and not knowing what to do. At least in this instance the linearity worked very well.
It was nice to be able to play both Holmes and Watson. They both look and act exactly the same as in previous game (games?) of the series. Even the background music is the same.
This game is still far cry from The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes where the whole game contained no logic puzzles whatsoever and yet was challenging, engrossing and very atmospheric. The graphics became much better, when you play from the first person perspective it feels like you are roaming the streets of London. The first person perspective was easier to play than the third person too though you could switch between the two with a click of the mouse.
Conclusions. So far the best game in the series though I have not played them all. You get a chance to investigate a mystery behind Jack the Ripper crimes and get a solution. I have no idea how close it can be to what actually happened though. The game is a solid mystery game that really stands out in the present dearth of decent games. It will keep you entertained for about a week. I recommend it.
When I first read a review for Death Gate game, it did not sound promising: magic, travelling through portals and all that. Another Loom spin-off? Well, as it turned out it was one of the best adventure games I have played. As you might guess, the game is old. They just don’t make games like that anymore.
Death Gate is pure adventure. You play as Haplo. You are a Patryn, a race that was condemned to live in an awful realm called Labyrinth. Yet you could not stand life there so you’ve escaped. During you escape you were helped by another Patryn, Xar who was a powerful magician. So you become his assistant and he sends you out on a mission to collect certain artifacts. He even teaches you a couple of spells right there and off you go. Death Gate is the portal that allows you to travel between all the realms provided you knew the rune names of these realms.
All of the above is a brief introduction. The story is amazing though a trifle predictable. For an adventure game of its time it is really excellent. Lord Xar explains his plan to you and you are eager to help.
You task will be to explore the four realms into which the world was divided by another race, Sartan. Your task is to gather information and collect certain artifacts. It means that on the way you will also have to pick up everything that is not nailed down. Every single item will be used. You will also talk to everyone you meet. While there were a couple of in game characters where you had to be careful with your answers, with most you can talk about everything. In fact you have to do it as lots of clues are supplied through conversations. As I could tell though, dialogues themselves were not triggers so you could skip them if you wanted to replay certain episode for some reason. I have not really tested this though.
I really like the way magic was incorporated in this game. Both Sartan and Patryn races had inherent magical abilities. In fact you started on your way with four spells. The spells are worked through runes. Each spell is consisted of one or more runes that you traced in the air. During you travels you learn new spells by reading books and talking to other characters. All the spells will come useful at some point.
The puzzles in this game are the best I’ve encountered since Monkey Island 2 and Fate of Atlantis. I made it through the entire game without consulting walkthrough. The puzzles varied from easy to challenging and I felt enormous satisfaction after completing some puzzles. I liked the variety of them too: some were standard inventory puzzles, others involved time element without being exactly timed puzzles. You had to complete some actions in certain amount of time. If you dawdle too much in certain locations, you would miss an action. Fortunately you could save pretty much anytime and I have not exhausted the amount of save slots (I think there are a hundred of them). You can die in this game but again, it’s pretty much obvious why so you could just restore or even undo the last action. Very handy.
The game gives you score for each successfully performed action though to what purpose it serves I don’t quite understand. The game is quite linear: you cannot move ahead until you completed certain tasks. In order to progress you have to complete each task. There were no optional solutions. So it came to no surprise that I got the highest score. I don’t know if they take you scores away for any undone action, I have not tested this.
All the puzzles were integrated into the story extremely well. My favourite puzzles involved casting spells. There was only one logic puzzle but I got it by accident just by fiddling with buttons. I was especially pleased to find that all the puzzled had clues. There were also a couple of red herrings: when the most obvious solution was not the right one.
What a difference with modern-day games where they throw puzzles just for the puzzles sake, puzzles that are not even remotely realistic and are usually so dumb that one looses patience and consults the walkthrough or even stops playing altogether. Add to this unnecessary and extremely irritating action fragments in the form of arcade games and it kills the deal completely. All the puzzles in this game were interesting and all were different.
The game has background music that varies depending on the screen. The tune usually matched the general atmosphere of location. I liked it.
The text was written with some humour. Some of the replies you got from the screen attempting to perform certain actions were hilarious. On the other hand almost all the characters were eager to repay the favour so they would not be obliged to you. Not a single one wanted to help just from the kindness of his/her heart but then it is usually the case in the adventure games.
I have only recently discovered that game and spent four
delightful evening playing it. Yes, the game is actually that long. The story
is good, the puzzles are excellent. It also gave a sense of involvement in the
game. You actually sympathized with the characters. It’s surprising the game
never became popular as it is one of the best games. I consider myself quite
selective when it comes to game and I give this one the highest passing score. I
you have not played it yet, you are in for a nice surprise.
Donna: Avenger of Blood
It's not everyday that you get a chance to play a vampire and it's not Dracula either. Donna is a gem that shines brightly among adventure games no matter what criteria you demand of them: it has it all: a fascinating and gripping story, well-developed characters, good dialogues and excellent puzzles. Considering that it's an amateur made game by an individual and you realize that you get to play one of the best games that have ever been made. It reminded me of the games like Monkey Island albeit with a much darker theme.
In spite of the praise Donna is probably better suited for veteran players rather than novices as it involves some learning curve that novices might be to reluctant to overcome. However there is nothing there really to deter an experienced player. I had no problems. For example one interesting addition is that Donna, the character you get to play, has to use mental and blood scale and that can be a minor nuisance, meaning you know what to do but just have to do it because otherwise you won't be able to progress. But it's really a very minor issue.
As you have probably already guessed Donna is a vampire. Yes, that means you get to suck blood every night from some unsuspecting victims but it evolves into more than that. Donna is also on a mission into which she became thrown into almost despite herself. The game starts with the event when you get almost killed and barely escape with your life. You boyfriend is killed but it turned out that he was on important mission in the country and now it's up to you to finish it.
It's a really good game. First you check into a scuzzy motel and establish a kind of a routine: sleep during the day and go on your business at night but as soon as you think you figured thing out, you are in for a big surprise. The pace suddenly changes and you are thrown into a whorl of events beyond your control. You are in the center of it though. You make friends with some people and establish a network to rely on while investigating and doing things. The evens are moving with just the right pace: not too fast to lose focus and not too slow to become boring.
The puzzles in this game are very well integrated into the story. It's really nice not to have a single logic puzzle just for the hell of it like it became a norm lately. When you have to open a safe, there is a clue provided. The puzzles are not too difficult and what is especially appreciated that puzzles involving timing are not really timed except for a couple of obvious cases. And the fun part is to use charm and other vampire skills on people. Sometimes it yields interesting results.
The ending was not exactly unpredictable but it fitted the story well. The twist was pretty good but unfortunately too much overused to be really surprising.
The graphics are in black and white film noir style which suits a vampire theme especially well. Music is fine but not memorable. The game did not have any voices.
So what are the negatives? Actually there is only one: the game has only 5 save slots and for full length game it is not enough. Fortunately the game has no dead end (at least I have not found any) and you can even undo the last fatal action. The game is also linear though a few puzzles have two solutions but again, the variety is minor. There are almost no dialogue puzzles and most of the time it does not matter what you say and you can always go through all the options until you exhaust them all.
I should give a customary warning: the game contains adult theme, namely some adult language, violence, nudity, some gore and other things so if you don't like this stuff in a game, you've been warned.
So this is a game very well worth playing. It is a fine example of old fashioned adventure game with exactly the right balance of all the components that make an excellent game.
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