Joe Molotov
Member
I haven't played any adventure games recently, but I picked up cheap copies of Loom and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and playing them got me in the mood for more. Soooo I picked up a few. And instead of making a thread about each one for the two people that might be interested, here a catch-all thread.
Sinking Island
Developer: Benoît Sokal / White Bird Production (Amerzone, Syberia)
Release Date: TBA 2008 (English version out in Greece, UK/US release dates unannouced)
The Immortals of Terra: A Perry Rhodan Adventure
Developer: BrainGame
Release Date: June 30, 2008
Jack Keane
Developer: Deck 13 (Ankh)
Release Date: April 15, 2008
The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure
Developer: Jonathan Boakes / Darkling Room (Dark Fall 1 & 2)
Release Date: March 6, 2008
The Experiment
Developer: Nicolas Delaye and Lexis Numérique (Missing: Since January, Evidence: The Last Ritual)
Release Date: February 5, 2008
Overclocked: A History of Violence
Developer: House of Tales (A Moment of Silence)
Release Date: March 31, 2008
Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis
Developer: Frogware (Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened)
Release Date: April 14, 2008
Dracula: Origins
Developer: Frogware
Release Date: May 29, 2008
I think that's all the major PC adventure games released so far this year. Well, there's also Lost: Via Domus and Sam & Max Season 2, but I think everyone knows about those. So far I've sunk my teeth into Sinking Island, Immortals of Terra (Perry Rhodan), and The Lost Crown. Lost Crown is a supernatural mystery that reminds me a bit of Scratches. You play as this guy who is on the run after uncovering some corporate secrets of his employers, mainly that they're experimenting with breaching the fabric between the world of the living and the dead. You wind up in a weird little slice of Hell called Saxton, where all manner of weirdness is going on. You call up your boss and he agrees to let you off the hook, but first you're going to have to do a little ghost hunting for him in Saxton. The game is a slow-burning, moody horror game that's heavy on atmosphere. It's all in black and white except for a few splashes of really vivid color here and there, which make it all feel sort of dreamlike. Probably my biggest gripe so far is that your guy moves like molasses, there needs to be a run button.
I've also spent about four hours with Immortals of Terra. It's based on some German space opera that's been running in magazines since the 1960's, and it feels like the game is trying to catch you up on 40 years of backstory. For the first few hours of the game, it's hard to make heads or tails of anything that's happening. It's like jumping into Disc 2 of Xenogears or something, it doesn't even make any sense. After a while some of the facts start to become more clear, but it's still hard to get excited about. The game kind of reminds me of a point-and-click adventure version of Mass Effect and it looks really nice, but the byzantine plot and cast of characters and some ho-hum puzzles really bring it down.
I beat Sinking Island already last night. Sinking Island, like all of Benoit Sokal's games, takes place in a beautiful, yet decaying outpost of civilization. This time you're in a swank art deco hotel on a tropical island, and when a hurricane hits you're trapped with 10 people and a corpse, and you need to solve the murder and escape the island before the whole thing sinks into the sea. In Sinking Island, there are only a few inventory puzzles and logic puzzles. Mostly the gameplay involves discovering pieces of evidence, presenting what you've learned to to the right people, and then using the information you get from them to uncover more evidence. There are 12 questions you have to answer in the case, and once you have enough evidence to answer one of your current questions, the plot advances and general new questions are revealed. Once all the questions have been answered, then you have your killer.
On the plus side, one piece of evidence generally leads directly to another piece of evidence, making the game very addictive. You think "Okay, I'll see what this piece of evidence gets me and then I'll quit" then that leads to another piece of evidence and it's like "Okay, let me just see what Martin has to say about this!" and so on. I played the game for about 10 hours yesterday, until I beat it. The plot is pretty solid, although it does sag in a few places, and there are occasionally some janky spots in the translation.
On the minus side, there's tons of backtracking. The game essentially IS backtracking. You find one piece of evidence, you follow where it leads to one part of the tower, then you find another piece of evidence that leads you to another end of the tower and so on. There are are only two or three rooms that open up after the very first of the game, so most of the time you'll be visiting the same old rooms again and again. Also, like I said, the story kind of sags in places, especially the end. Basically, you've got this entire family of people, and almost all of them are dirty. There are very few truly innocent parties, most of all the deceased. Everyone has a good reason to kill him, and let's just say that the killer has a REALLY GOOD reason to have killed him. But instead of playing on that, the game ends with a ridiculous bit of mustache-twirling and "Mwhahaha, you've uncovered my dastardly plan, Inspector, and now you must die!" which was just stupid and ruined a lot of what they'd built up over the course of the game. Overall though, I enjoyed it. I liked Syberia more, but it's a lot better than Paradise.
Sinking Island
Developer: Benoît Sokal / White Bird Production (Amerzone, Syberia)
Release Date: TBA 2008 (English version out in Greece, UK/US release dates unannouced)
The Immortals of Terra: A Perry Rhodan Adventure
Developer: BrainGame
Release Date: June 30, 2008
Jack Keane
Developer: Deck 13 (Ankh)
Release Date: April 15, 2008
The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure
Developer: Jonathan Boakes / Darkling Room (Dark Fall 1 & 2)
Release Date: March 6, 2008
The Experiment
Developer: Nicolas Delaye and Lexis Numérique (Missing: Since January, Evidence: The Last Ritual)
Release Date: February 5, 2008
Overclocked: A History of Violence
Developer: House of Tales (A Moment of Silence)
Release Date: March 31, 2008
Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis
Developer: Frogware (Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened)
Release Date: April 14, 2008
Dracula: Origins
Developer: Frogware
Release Date: May 29, 2008
I think that's all the major PC adventure games released so far this year. Well, there's also Lost: Via Domus and Sam & Max Season 2, but I think everyone knows about those. So far I've sunk my teeth into Sinking Island, Immortals of Terra (Perry Rhodan), and The Lost Crown. Lost Crown is a supernatural mystery that reminds me a bit of Scratches. You play as this guy who is on the run after uncovering some corporate secrets of his employers, mainly that they're experimenting with breaching the fabric between the world of the living and the dead. You wind up in a weird little slice of Hell called Saxton, where all manner of weirdness is going on. You call up your boss and he agrees to let you off the hook, but first you're going to have to do a little ghost hunting for him in Saxton. The game is a slow-burning, moody horror game that's heavy on atmosphere. It's all in black and white except for a few splashes of really vivid color here and there, which make it all feel sort of dreamlike. Probably my biggest gripe so far is that your guy moves like molasses, there needs to be a run button.
I've also spent about four hours with Immortals of Terra. It's based on some German space opera that's been running in magazines since the 1960's, and it feels like the game is trying to catch you up on 40 years of backstory. For the first few hours of the game, it's hard to make heads or tails of anything that's happening. It's like jumping into Disc 2 of Xenogears or something, it doesn't even make any sense. After a while some of the facts start to become more clear, but it's still hard to get excited about. The game kind of reminds me of a point-and-click adventure version of Mass Effect and it looks really nice, but the byzantine plot and cast of characters and some ho-hum puzzles really bring it down.
I beat Sinking Island already last night. Sinking Island, like all of Benoit Sokal's games, takes place in a beautiful, yet decaying outpost of civilization. This time you're in a swank art deco hotel on a tropical island, and when a hurricane hits you're trapped with 10 people and a corpse, and you need to solve the murder and escape the island before the whole thing sinks into the sea. In Sinking Island, there are only a few inventory puzzles and logic puzzles. Mostly the gameplay involves discovering pieces of evidence, presenting what you've learned to to the right people, and then using the information you get from them to uncover more evidence. There are 12 questions you have to answer in the case, and once you have enough evidence to answer one of your current questions, the plot advances and general new questions are revealed. Once all the questions have been answered, then you have your killer.
On the plus side, one piece of evidence generally leads directly to another piece of evidence, making the game very addictive. You think "Okay, I'll see what this piece of evidence gets me and then I'll quit" then that leads to another piece of evidence and it's like "Okay, let me just see what Martin has to say about this!" and so on. I played the game for about 10 hours yesterday, until I beat it. The plot is pretty solid, although it does sag in a few places, and there are occasionally some janky spots in the translation.
On the minus side, there's tons of backtracking. The game essentially IS backtracking. You find one piece of evidence, you follow where it leads to one part of the tower, then you find another piece of evidence that leads you to another end of the tower and so on. There are are only two or three rooms that open up after the very first of the game, so most of the time you'll be visiting the same old rooms again and again. Also, like I said, the story kind of sags in places, especially the end. Basically, you've got this entire family of people, and almost all of them are dirty. There are very few truly innocent parties, most of all the deceased. Everyone has a good reason to kill him, and let's just say that the killer has a REALLY GOOD reason to have killed him. But instead of playing on that, the game ends with a ridiculous bit of mustache-twirling and "Mwhahaha, you've uncovered my dastardly plan, Inspector, and now you must die!" which was just stupid and ruined a lot of what they'd built up over the course of the game. Overall though, I enjoyed it. I liked Syberia more, but it's a lot better than Paradise.
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