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Articles
Adventure Games at the 2004 E3
By
Randy Sluganski
Vivendi Universal Games
Guiliaume
de Fondaumiere
has been a good friend since JA’s trip to Paris.
Formerly with Arxel Tribe, Guiliaume was the talent behind The
Legend of the Prophet and the Assassin
and Faust
to name just a few.
Now COO of Quantic Dream, Guilaume and CEO David Cage (the visionary who gave us Omikron), personally gave us a thirty-minute guided tour of their newest game, Fahrenheit.
Fahrenheit is an action-adventure psycho thriller, set in New York. Ordinary people are randomly killing total strangers following the same rituals and patterns. You take control of each of these characters as they are haunted by strange visions and set out to discover the mystery behind the murders.
The game does contain some action elements, but these sequences are totally disassociated from the adventure elements. For instance, you will not have to perform any action-related movements to solve a puzzle, but your choices will trigger an “action” movie that will further the plot. But, there are also entire action sequences – such as fighting in a boxing ring - and it has not been decided yet if these sequences can be skipped by the action challenged.
Fahrenheit is a game that will grab you by the throat and put you in a stranglehold, it is that intense and riveting. It is the seamless merge of film drama, adventure gaming and precise editing. Its innovative approach may just be the kick in the behind that the adventure genre needs. Look for much more on this game in the weeks ahead.
Next at Vivendi was the
first of numerous visits to Leisure
Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude.
Producer Joshua Van Veld and the entire
High-Voltage development team are to be applauded: their devotion
and enthusiasm for LSL:
MCL is infectious. Vivendi is also to be commended for their unbridled
support for LSL: MCL. It was impossible to escape the numerous
Larry banners and posters that were plastered around the convention
center and apparently it was money well spent as there was constantly
a line of laughing attendees surrounding the LSL: MCL demonstration.
It is difficult to get
a feel for exactly what type of game LSL: MCL is at it meshes both
adventure and arcade elements, but we can state for fact that it
is both risqué and hilarious. The developers did promise
that the arcade play can be skipped by those who are only interested
in the adventure aspects.
After a quick stop to
pester the Larry Babes for an invitation
to the Playboy Mansion, it seemed only appropriate to bump into
another developer
renown for his own special brand of lunacy, Michael Levine (Fig.8)
- who worked on The Curse of Monkey Island and the original Sam
n Max – was also checking out Larry’s attributes. We’ll
be talking more with Michael in the weeks ahead so stay tuned.
Agetec
Next on my agenda was an area where most adventure gamers fear to tread – console only adventures. Agetec has for years been one of my favorite companies as they are dedicated to bring Japanese adventure games to the American market. If you have never experienced Disaster Report, Clock Tower or Echo Night then what are you waiting for!?
Agetec’s newest adventure is Echo Night: Beyond and if the private demo I was treated to is any indication then you may want to stock-up on Pampers (or Depends). You play as Richard Osmond a research scientist who finds himself and fiancée Claudia trapped on the moon after their space shuttle crashes. Richard awakes to find his fiancée missing and now has no choice but to search for her in a desolate lunar colony that is haunted by the spectral remains of its previous inhabitants.
Adding to the eeriness is a unique, first-person perspective as much of the game is seen through your space helmet. The raspy breathing from inside your helmet and the sudden appearance of specters were enough to give me goose-bumps in an air conditioned room.
Funcom
With our virtual special
invitation in hand, it was time to visit old friend Ragnar Tornquist
who created a little game you
may have heard of – The
Longest Journey.
Hidden in a back room, shielded from the eyes of the unwashed masses was Dreamfall, the much-anticipated sequel to TLJ. What we saw was impressive, but Dreamfall is still very much a work in progress as it is not scheduled for release until late 2005. According to Product Manager Jorgen Tharaldsen there will be an embargo on any information related to Dreamfall until next year’s E3.
The protagonist is a young girl named Zoe and her story will interact in many ways with the previous adventure of April Ryan. Anything further would be speculation on our part, but - while I personally have no misgivings about the game – I did wonder if the resistant-to-change adventure community would accept a control system that is very similar to that of Broken Sword: Sleeping Dragon in that action sequences are accomplished by simply pushing the appropriate button on your console control pad or mouse. Big changes are in store for the adventure community and it is time to either jump on the bandwagon or dust off your ten year old games and watch the genre pass you by.
Really now, how could this possibly be any better of a day? We’ve already seen some great games and its not yet even noon of the first day! Well, hold onto your hats…
To be continued…