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| 15 JUL 2009 at 11:51am |
stevemacIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 91
Joined: 15 OCT 2002
Status : Online | WARNING - SPOILERS INCLUDED
Is it just me, but I thought that a lot of the fun with playing adventure games was making your own assumptions based on the info already known to progress and if you got stuck there were ways to get clues; that and the ability to pick up objects randomly and then use them where you felt they were relevant.
Not so with So Blonde, at times it felt that I was just following a set script to do everything in a precise pre-planned order with no way to make my own judgements. What niggled me the most was having to go and speak to a particular person to get sent to another person, when logic suggested otherwise.
One example is when the ghosts at the ruins have gone and you have to go and talk to the hermit to get sent to the voodoo chief to ask about the missing ghosts at the ruin. To me, logic suggests that the first person to ask about the missing ghosts would be the voodoo chief as he was the one who gave me the details of the ruins and the ghosts in the first place; but no, he's not there until you talk to the hermit about the missing ghosts and he tells you to see him. OK, so the hermit would have been my second choice as he gave me the spell, but hey, let's just have some more fun running around the island a few more times.
Likewise with the drummer, even though you can see the bone he's using to drum with, you cannot speak to him about it until you have been asked by the ghosts to return a sacred object.
And another 'pet' hate, not being able to pick up an object until there is a 'potential' reason to get it, eg, the hammer which you can't pick up until you get given the spell by the hermit.
Perhaps it's because I played Secret Files 2, directly after So Blonde where you could pick any object up even though Nina says she has no idea why, and 'tasks' can be performed in any order ...or maybe I just got out the wrong side of my bed today!
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| 15 JUL 2009 at 12:23pm |
| Deleted User | Originally Posted By stevemac (15 JUL 2009 11:50am)
.....or maybe I just got out the wrong side of my bed today!
Naaahh... what are gaming forums like this one for, if you cannot vent your gaming gripes on it, eh?
Although I have not played either of the games you mentioned above, -yet-, I do happen to agree with your gripes about inventory and linearity. In the examples you mentioned, how about they enabled you to ask either of the two candidates for info...? ...and I also prefer a limitless inventory where you can pick up everything you can lay your hands on, the moment that you set eyes on it.
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| 15 JUL 2009 at 6:07pm |
loobilooPrivate Detective
Posts : 598
Joined: 3 APR 2008
Location: UK
Status : Offline | I didn't mind the linearity of So Blonde so much, it was a nice story that seemed to flow along nicely until the very last chapter. In this one you were sent back & forth, back & forth etc & it didn't seem to have been as well thought out as the preceding one's!
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| 15 JUL 2009 at 8:34pm |
| Deleted User | Originally Posted By loobiloo (15 JUL 2009 6:07pm)
I didn't mind the linearity of So Blonde so much, it was a nice story that seemed to flow along nicely until the very last chapter. In this one you were sent back & forth, back & forth etc & it didn't seem to have been as well thought out as the preceding one's!
It does have its share of faults, but such as these thing go, I thought it was a very nice story. I recall some time ago watching a video depicting the beginning of the game and I paused thinking there was no way I could be expected to participate for 24 game hours with this spoiled teenage brat. Then again, that’s probably what got me interested. : I can understand how some feel that linearity tends to spoil a game and I would tend to agree with most of Stevemac’s examples although not nearly as harshly.
Is it just me, but I thought that a lot of the fun with playing adventure games was making your own assumptions based on the info already known to progress and if you got stuck there were ways to get clues; that and the ability to pick up objects randomly and then use them where you felt they were relevant.
I can remember when games were more like that, it appears rather unfortunate though that they seem to have drifted in a different direction. All I can say in support of the way SB plays out is that I thought it provided a fair means of making the whole story a little less aimless. (although just as complicated) What I really thought to be special about SB was how at the beginning everything in the universe revolved around Sunny, and by the end (through a course of assisting the island dwellers physically and emotionally, making personal sacrifices and outsmarting the baddies, we get an all new-and-improved Sunny ready to face her new future.
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| 16 JUL 2009 at 11:40am |
stevemacIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 91
Joined: 15 OCT 2002
Status : Online | ...unless you watched all the different endings and went with the one where she wakes up in hospital ready to go to the mall
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