ElfstoneGuild Master
Posts : 5892
Joined: 4 NOV 2002
Status : Online | There are still a few nastier bugs in the fully patched version, most of them happening at the same location. One of them caused Peter to get paralyzed in one spot (save your game, folks!). Another one allowed me to do a certain action once again which totally confused me and made me miss something which in turn led me to look inside the walkthrough...if you want to know where it happens read every third letter in the following string: kjgnmojzvunefvrmknsdotnrjusdfinbsrtlmzafjneidtz
But the biggest problem this game suffers from is navigation...horrible flaws, I can't really understand. It's much harder to get to the next screen than it would have to be...sometimes you need to click "around-the-corner" to go straight. It's true, as confusing as it sounds...it IS! Double-clicking is running, but sometimes the animation gets caught up in itself or something and Peter is just treading ground like in one of those slo-mo pieces in cinema. Later in the game he started to float down stairs and some nasty cases of collision malfunction occured. Generally pathfinding doesn't work well, either. You click somewhere and Peter can't find his way there...or walks the other way...it's really messy that way. It all peaks when you get to an actual half-maze-like passage...nothing works there...not the exits, not the angles, not the otherwise helpful icon hints...it's mayhem.
I know that the developers worked very hard on the artwork and want me to look at everything more than just on a quick glance, but I keep thinking why oh why can't I skip animations and especially walking animations entirely? It annoys the hell out of me, in relation to another serious problem I'm getting at in the next section.
Oh, this one gets a big fat D by the way. When the controls become an impediment, I guess it's not average any more.
Puzzles
Point & Click inventory style puzzles, whereas the inventory part is not that important. Most of the time you proceed by talking to people and there's another big issue I had with the game (in the first half of it): I never knew who to talk to next. Almost never. And when I thought I could logically deduce it I was wrong most of the time. The problem is that more than one person could help you out - you think - but then it's the last person you talk to. Which makes it all the more annoying if you just have to run through all the locations again to get on with the plot. You know you eventually will make it, but it involves running around and watching the same stuff over and over again until you can't bear it any more. One particular instance makes no sense if you don't get into Peter's - who is incredibly naive in light of what happens around him - skin. Many puzzles provide a challenge for patience rather than intelligence. Some corners are easily to overlook. Or you might have the wrong angle. And don't you think that what isn't a hotspot can't be interactive...no sir. Intuitive controls, anyone? But the thing I had in mind wasn't that bad, actually.
Some puzzles are quite cool, but in general today's "conventional" point and click game are far too linear for my taste. There are games which get past the easiness factor by using silly and otherworldy puzzles, others use bad navigation and hotspots to keep you occupid. TMOS falls into the latter category.
B- (for those few interesting puzzles, I can't be too harsh)
Final Mark
You might be familar with my [s]totally made-up[/s] new-developed rating system I used for Fahrenheit and I keep the juices-mechanics-presentation division I used there (removing story-telling, because this is not an interactive movie), again ranking it 50-30-20 (I think I take 50% for story, because this type of story interests me) in that order.
juices: A (14+14 / 2 = 14)
mechanics: C- (10+5 / 2 = 7.5 -> rounding down here does no harm -> 7
presentation: A (14+14 / 2 = 14)
I come up with...
(14*0.5)+(7*0.3)+(14*0.2) = 7 + 2.8 + 2.1 = 11.9 -> rounding up -> 12 = B+
I'm fine with that, because I had quite some fun. And because it's a German game.
No, hey, I'm just kidding. I'm totally objective.
PS: Just to illustrate how a 40-30-30 rating would have faired: (14*0.4)+(14*0.3)+(7*0.3)=11.9 -> same exact grade
Ok, ok...40-40-20 then: (14*0.4)+(7*0.4)+(14*0.2) = 11.2 -> B (down a notch)
If I had been harsher to the puzzles it would be B- in the end.
I'm starting to like this grading system, because you can pick your multipliers yourself and grade the game the way you see fit. Well, sort of.
[b]playing[/b]: Destination Treasure Island (done in two sittings, but it's nice), Syberia (ho-hum), Dracula: Last Sanctuary (on hold)&&[b]reading[/b]: even more study papers&&[b]listening to[/b]: [url=http://www.last.fm/user/Brax82/]this and that[/url], plus [url=http://www.musicovery.com/]Musicovery[/url]&&[b]TV favorites[/b]: (currently) Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Journeyman (cancelled! grrr...), Heroes&& all-time) 24, Stargate SG1, X-Files, Lost, House
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PrometheusIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 10
Joined: 22 MAY 2006
Status : Online | I always pick Adventures for their story, and I intuitive grabed this one.
No just kidding^^, got a demo from some famous (but bad) PC-Magazine and i liked it so much, that i went to the Store and bought it right away.
No bad Pick at all.
Fine Story and beautiful Artwork.
Controling is indeeed bad made.
Even, that u always have to reenter your damn Password at the Company-Building and always have to watch nice but useless Effects (over and over again : ) and sections/angles is so anoying.
I also liked the vids and the well developed side-characters. But i thought our main-char. looks just awful, always wanted to say, sit down boy and rest or at least get some face-lift done. ^^
So I'm saying....good review, nice game. 8-)
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