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| 14 DEC 2002 at 5:20am |
ElfstoneGuild Master
Posts : 5892
Joined: 4 NOV 2002
Status : Online | I picked it up 2 days ago.
Here in Germany there are a lot people who liked it and overall reviews were good.
On this site and many other English/American ones the game is torn to pieces from the start.
And I really really can't understand that.
I had lots of fun.
In this review I will relate many times to Ray Ivey's review who certainly never tried to give the game a chance.
Let's begin with the story. As soon as you enter the game you are aware that you will encounter many unbelievable things which are not going to work at all in reality. For some people the plot may be offending and turn them off directly - Ray Ivey seems to belong to them - and they don't get the overall meaning of the whole plot. Yes, it's not very credible with time travel elements and some illogical puzzles. For me this was a minor point, because of something which was obviously missing in the American version.
The synchronization - which is German originally - is lip-synch and the voice-actors are mostly familiar and doing a very good job. This adds MUCH to the atmosphere of the game and I can understand that Americans didn't like it just because their translation was low-quality.
The music is not remarkable, but effective enough.
Almost all of the characters trigger a smile or a deep antipathy. Most of them worked for me. There is quite much humor in the first half of the game, but by the time you travel to the past it becomes rather serious.
Graphics improve with the advance of the plot. You start out in non-descript sterile offices. There's a point taken here. Brent's life is boring and he is regarded a loser. His adventures are going to change this. The art department pointed that out very clearly.
Controls are intuitive point&click while the gameplay involves hotspots which lead to scenes on focus. The inventory slides into view if you move the cursor to the far bottom which sometimes can be annoying if you have to search for an item close to the bottom of the screen. The inventory will become quite crowded as items which are no longer used are not disposed but rather stick to you till the bitter end.
You get to play 2 different characters in the course of the play. It adds flavor in parts of the story.
Now I go over to the most negative observation in the game, the dialog tree. Yes, it's a mess. I have rarely seen a game with such bad implemented dialog programming as this. Used phrases don't disappear, unused phrases do just that. You have to start a conversation over and Brent asks the very same things he should already know, all the time surprised like hearing them for the first time. It's plain annoying when you start playing and you want to scream out, "I could have programmed that crap better!", but you get used to it as it is always obvious if you missed something or not during the conversation. But the repetitive dialogs can chew on your nerves quite a bit and make you wonder why these guys are wasting so much potential with lousy conversation options. Sometimes you even hear some lines on topics you should not know about. Yes, that's a very bad feature of the game.
Puzzles are NOT a mess all the time as Ray Ivey called them. In fact they are really clever in some parts and in the others more than bearable. At least I had only one experience with a very far-fetched puzzle.
In order to understand some of the puzzles you have to bear in mind that this game is high on unusual rituals, spells and superstition. My opinion is the game points that out in an early stage and implements it in the storyline to be effective for puzzle solving.
There is a maze of sorts, but it's no stopper.
It's also not true that you stumble around searching for the plot sometimes. If you listen carefully and think of the situation you will easily keep track. Bear in mind that I'm not familiar with the English synchronization, I just played the German - the original - game and I noticed no flaws in it.
To conclude my review of this adventure I have to drop a few lines in regards of the ending.
Ray Ivey wrote it to be offending and revolting and the worst-ever and...illogical...illogical? NO! Big no!
If you call it illogical you obviously didn't get the message in the game. I won't spoil it for anyone, but it is not by any means illogical. In fact it is most cleverly done. I must admit that I wanted to scream out in agony at the ending myself, but after rethinking it I came to the conclusion that it might be even one of the better endings to an adventure game.
All in all let's draw the line here. I will give this adventure an 8 out of 10. I liked it very much. It was intriguing, I really liked the main characters and I enjoyed the puzzles. During the last years there were just a few adventures which were successful in Germany. This belongs in this small list.
And my personal opinion is that it deserves its place.
Cheers to Ray Ivey!
[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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| 14 DEC 2002 at 8:06am |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By Elfstone (14 DEC 2002 5:20am)
On this site and many other English/American ones the game is torn to pieces from the start.
I too wrote a MOTD review for JA+ and I certainly didn't shred the game. I didn't love it but certainly didn't hate it.
For some people the plot may be offending and turn them off directly - Ray Ivey seems to belong to them - and they don't get the overall meaning of the whole plot.
I had no problem with time travel or the gory bits.
This adds MUCH to the atmosphere of the game and I can understand that Americans didn't like it just because their translation was low-quality.
Reminds me of a Syberia review that I read in German PC Games magazine not too long ago... the reviewer pretty much shredded the game because of reportedly awful voice acting in the German version.
Almost all of the characters trigger a smile or a deep antipathy.
I rather liked the Melanie character. She reminded me of Grace Nakimura.
Now I go over to the most negative observation in the game, the dialog tree.
Please don't remind me *groan*
There is a maze of sorts, but it's no stopper.
I kinda liked that "maze" with the runes. Good puzzle, easy to solve with pencil & paper and a bit of patience.
Ray Ivey wrote it to be offending and revolting and the worst-ever and...illogical...illogical? NO! Big no!
Yes! That is, I agree with you The the final puzzle was very, very unusual, perhaps unique, weird, sick, offensive, shocking, unexpected and certainly difficult. But it made perfect sense in the context of the game. But you know Americans, if it don't have happy ending, they don't like it
I forgot my sig.
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| 31 DEC 2002 at 4:08am |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5587
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | But you know Americans, if it don't have happy ending, they don't like it
Well that's the theory about us anyway -
unique, weird, sick, offensive, shocking, unexpected and certainly difficult.
I think that's more my cup of tea
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 2:55pm |
HelenGuild Master
Posts : 3438
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Well, all I can say is I liked this game too,( and yes Im an American ) couldnt understand some of the backlash against it myself.
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| 12 JAN 2003 at 4:45pm |
| Deleted User | A scary game and a moderate game. I dont understand the ending though ???
I felt my bones when the druids cut the man using the golden sickle.
I have no problem understanding the accent
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| 15 FEB 2003 at 5:58pm |
BunnyFuFuSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 270
Joined: 11 FEB 2003
Status : Online | It's ok, but it could have been much better.
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| 19 JUL 2003 at 5:15am |
Goddess of All Things MagicalSchattenjger
Posts : 1565
Joined: 27 MAY 2003
Status : Online | :I REALLY LIKED THIS GAME! I TOO DIDN'T UNDERSTAND ALL OF THE BAD REVIEWS. IT WAS MUCH BETTER THAN MANY OF THE DREAMCATCHER GAMES.
&&&&Listening to XM Radio Starbucks Cafe Channel 45&&[IMG]http://img227.echo.cx/img227/8458/dancelikenooneiswatching6ld.png[/IMG]
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| 19 JUL 2003 at 5:52pm |
| Deleted User | Ok...so you have to spend 45 minutes and endure countless repeated conversations exhausting every single possible thread of dialog with two different people (one of them twice) in order to get a cat to magically appear so you can scare the cat to knock over the bucket so the fisherman will leave so you can use the bucket and fishing pole to scrape salt off the side of the boat which you then are supposed to intuitively know to grind up on a headstone so that you can now cast a magic Druidical spell (the only such spell you cast in the game) despite the fact that you are not a Druid and have never indicated that you have any natural magical bent or that you even believe in magic.
I think this example alone is evidence of why the game got such negative reviews.
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| 22 NOV 2003 at 1:24am |
SonicIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 49
Joined: 17 NOV 2002
Status : Online | SPOILERS:
For people who didn't understood the ending:
Serstan/Sinclair sweared that nothing would happen for Brent and Melanie in the past. As I understood, this oath was to be "working" until the ritual would have been completed. However, when Brent injured Melanie, the oath was broken, and thus Serstan/Sinclair was destroyed by Powers Greater Than Him (to which he sweared).
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| 28 NOV 2003 at 9:35am |
LagavulinPrivate Detective
Posts : 475
Joined: 21 OCT 2002
Status : Online |
I am playing TMOTD for the moment and so far its been ok, except for ONE BIG MESS, the DIALOG TREES.
What on earth were they thinking when they designed the game. Hopefully they will make a better jobb with the new game in progress.
FOR THE MOMENT I AM PLAYING ON MY Win 7&&&&Recently Played&& ark Fall Lost Souls,Outcry,SH vs A Lupin,Tales of Monkey Island,Still Life 2,Sinking Island,Pandora Directive (RP),The Lost Crown
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| 29 NOV 2003 at 2:04am |
| Deleted User | Out topic but,
@Lagavulin:
are you still playing In memoriam?
I'm really curious about this game. Having any killer bugs?
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