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As the resident reviewer of historical adventures (often referred to as edutainment games) at JA+, it seemed appropriate that I would be selected to play a new interactive, sea-faring adventure/edutainment game entitled Search for the Golden Dolphin. Search for the Golden Dolphin was produced and published by Cinegram Media, Summit, New Jersey, in association with Mystic Seaport--The Museum of America and the Sea, Mystic, Connecticut, which coincidentally is only about one hour's drive from my home and well worth the trip. Since this game is most definitely an edutainment game, it is important to note that valuable support and nautical accuracy was also provided by Peter Stanford, president of the National Maritime Historical Society and Richard Bailey, Captain of HMS Rose, a replica of a 1750s era British light frigate. Search for the Golden Dolphin is the latest addition to Cinegram's Digital Treasures series of CD-ROMs that have previously focused not only on great maritime history and adventures of life at sea (such as The Amistad Incident, Tall Ships, and Romancing the Wind), but also great American art, as represented by their earlier release of the CD-ROM, Norman Rockwell: The Man and His Art. It's always interesting to read what the creators of an adventure game intended when they developed a game and, I think, it is especially of interest when the game is edutainment. Hal Denstman, president of Cinegram, was the creative force behind the idea of making this game, and Fred Van Lente wrote the script. Here is some of what these gentlemen had to say about the development of Search for the Golden Dolphin. "Despite some cannon fire and skirmishes at sea, we've gone to great lengths to stress intellectual stimulation over the CD-ROM shoot-em-up game approach," states Denstman. "The challenges presented in Search for the Golden Dolphin require imagination and the ability to be innovative, not mindlessly clicking a mouse to eliminate the bad guys. And we created exciting 3-D environments for our protagonist to dwell in; scenes that evoke, with incredible accuracy, the life and times aboard the awesome 18th century wooden combat ships. We've also included a comprehensive resource section and historical time-line to aid the participant in solving the mystery of the Golden Dolphin while learning more about this epic period in history." Van Lente explains that "the first-person aspect in the creation of Nathaniel Thorne as hero, protagonist and avatar of Search for the Golden Dolphin affords an ideal multi-media environment for presenting the epic saga of Thorne and relating his challenges to find the elusive privateer vessel. There's lots of opportunity for character development and the creation of wonderful mind-games that lend vitality to this work." Now that we have an inkling of what the developers set out to accomplish, let's unveil the story of the Golden Dolphin and find out if they were successful. The Story's the Thing It's the Caribbean in 1799, and you assume the role of Nathaniel Thorne, Lieutenant in the infant United States Navy aboard the U.S. frigate Declaration at a time when America and France are locked in naval struggles for control of the West Indies. In addition, pirates prowl these islands, stalking unwary merchant ships, and all that stands between these privateers and their plunder are the ships of the U.S. Navy. Nathaniel was born into a sea-faring family with strong convictions and traditions, but he is now confronted with the news that his father, a naval officer, has been captured by the French and is dying on an enemy prison ship. Your mother gives you a medallion, the Thorne medallion, which she explains has a mysterious link to nautical secrets that will help you achieve great heights in your career at sea. The medallion is actually your link in the game to the Chart Room, which will be explained later. Given the circumstances of your father's plight and your mother's pleas, there is little choice but to enlist in the Navy and begin your adventure. You soon learn that your father's capture and probable death are the result of the traitorous activities of one Nehemiah Marks, who became a nemesis for the U.S. Navy when he sold out to the French. Every thought and action must be directed toward bringing Marks to justice. From your first meeting with the dying commodore of the USS Declaration, a U.S. Navy fighting frigate, you are presented with increasingly difficult assignments and challenges that will determine your future as a naval officer, impact greatly on the success of the U.S. Navy's encounters with the French navy, and ultimately lead to a long-awaited confrontation with your father's traitorous opponent, Nehemiah Marks. The story is told in eight chapters, brimming with conflict and cunning encounters that are fought with courage, skill, and cannon throughout the islands of the West Indies. When you learn that Nehemiah Marks has taken control of the USS Golden Dolphin, which was your father's command, you embark upon a deadly game of nautical cat-and-mouse as you attempt to locate and recapture the Golden Dolphin. To recover the Golden Dolphin and reach your passionate and determined objective of settling the score with Marks, you will have to master complex sailing skills, solve clever puzzles, and interact with a variety of unusual salty characters. Only by virtue of your success in accomplishing the tasks assigned to you by your commanders will you progress through the ranks from Lieutenant to Captain and gain the experience necessary for your ultimate face-to-face meeting with Marks and the long-awaited satisfaction of requital. So ... shiver me timbers, matey. Gather your sea legs under you, get ready to cast off, unfurl the sails, prime the cannons, sharpen your wits, and embark on an "edutaining" nautical adventure. The storyline kept me involved and interested throughout. The characters were realistic, well-portrayed, and believable. I enjoyed the progression of the story and found it to be very well written. If I had to categorize this game, I would place it more as a strategy/adventure game rather than a traditional adventure game. Nonetheless, the story deserves an A. The Gameplay The game is played from the first-person perspective and uses the familiar point-and-click interface to find hot spots, where the mouse pointer will change shape and thus indicate what kind of activity can be accomplished. The mouse shapes and activities include:
The navigation bar, which appears at the bottom of the view screen, can be readily accessed or hidden away, as desired. It contains all of the important tools you'll need to proceed with the game. These include the Thorne Medallion, which will send you directly to the Chart Room; the Captain's Log, which is Thorne's personal journal of events and thoughts; the inventory window, which holds your inventory items (you need to be choosy, because there are only three inventory slots); the menu button, which takes you to the main menu; the help button, which explains the game functions (in case you forget?); and the down button, which hides away the navigation bar and opens up the maximum view for the game screen. The Chart Room contains all of the historical, scientific, and geographic information that you will need to progress through and complete the adventure. There are several buttons that are available and will open up encyclopedic listings of not only information crucial to the gameplay but also, for those whose interest has been aroused, resource information, chronological listings of dates and events from the early days of the U.S. Navy, an accurate, authentic ship "walk-through" of an 18th century Navy man-of-war, and other reference listings for related books, movies, and places to visit. When starting a new game or returning to the game, you will find the main menu, which provides the player with the following choices: continue game, new game, load previous game, save, Chart Room, web link to Cinegram, credits, help, options for volume of music, sound effects and speech, and quit game. Overall, the game interface is controlled primarily by left-clicking the mouse and moving around the screen, which should be comfortable for any adventure gamer, and there were no bugs, so I am giving gameplay a rating of A. The Graphics Search for the Golden Dolphin's designers have used beautifully detailed 3D renderings to reveal the inner architecture of these early naval warships. Indeed, you will get to explore five fully rendered, 3D tall ships, each with unique layouts and features. These ships were modeled from the original plans of the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), HMS Victory, LaArmistad (a Baltimore clipper ship), and the British frigate HMS Rose, so the authenticity is marvelous to behold as you wander around each ship. More than 1,700 locations are presented in 3D, which really means that they are 3D pictures on the screen. Supplementing these pictures are more than 50 animation sequences, which mostly are used to feature the action portions of the game (i.e., cannon fire, sails flapping, explosions, fires, etc.). In addition, there are over 100 full-motion video (FMV) segments in the game, which are used whenever you need to speak to another character. Interestingly, you are never able to see an FMV character while you are walking around the ships, but you are able to see the 3D rendered characters who are part of the still pictures and have no interaction capabilities. As a result, you simply come upon these FMV characters, who appear out of nowhere to your great surprise. You are therefore frequently hunting for characters to interact with as often as you are looking for inventory objects. Very curious. To complicate this visual/graphical phenomenon even more, as you traverse a ship's deck or a room, your ability/inability to see or engage an FMV character is dependent upon which direction you were approaching from. In other words, if you walked across a deck from, say, port to starboard, you wouldn't see/encounter anyone, but if you immediately turned around, an FMV character would "load in" and appear out of the thin air (so to speak). I found this feature to be a bit unnerving and would rather have seen a still-life character (that I could see) change into an FMV character for interactive purposes. There were also numerous times while exploring the ships when I could literally walk through walls or furniture. This is another unrealistic graphical presentation that needs to be fixed by Cinegram, if they are inclined to develop a sequel or another sea-faring adventure game. The graphical attention to detail in the recreation of the naval ships is obviously very authentic and well-done, but the presentation of the FMV characters and the ability to walk through walls did not measure up to today's game standards (at least for me), so I have reduced my rating somewhat and given the graphics a score of B. The Music, Sound Effects, and Voice Acting The background music for Search for the Golden Dolphin consists of original compositions that seem very suitable for this unique period in U.S. naval history. The music is soothing when it needs to be and up-tempo at times that call for the blood to race a little more quickly through one's veins. I liked having the ability to lower the volume of the music, when I needed to, in order to more clearly hear the speaking of the FMV characters, who sometimes were hard to hear/understand, given that they were often speaking with French or English accents. Subtitles would have been welcome, but that option was not available in this game. The strongest part of this game category was the sound effects. Whether it be the cannon fire, explosions from direct hits on enemy (or your own) vessels, flapping flags, or surging oceans, the sound effects were wonderful. The more-than-100 FMV segments in the game feature "professional, historic re-enactors" who are obviously at ease with the acting requirements for this sort of game. The body movements and voice acting as a whole are very well-done, and other than some out-of-phase lip-synchronization, this part of the game is among its highlights. The aural presentations for Search for the Golden Dolphin always complement the progression of the game and are, for the most part, very pleasing and never intrusive. So, for these reasons, I feel that the music, sound effects, and voice acting deserve an A-. The Puzzles With but one exception that I will get to shortly, the puzzles in this game are very well-designed, challenging, and effectively integrated into the progression requirements of the story. Often, you will need to access the Chart Room in order to research the documentation for clues on how to accomplish the nautical puzzles, because they are based on performing activities or functions that require knowledge of how it would have been done on an 18th-century sailing vessel. You will truly enjoy the thrill of learning how to set a course using charts, select the proper signal flags used for inter-ship communication based on a code system, use an "octant" (an 18th-century predecessor of the sextant) to set a course that will avoid detection, and determine the proper way to load a cannon without blowing up your own ship. Of course, there is also an array of inventory-based puzzles to challenge the player, including how to get provisions for your ship and how to raise money that is needed to pay for information that is vital to your quest of finding the location of the Golden Dolphin. Now, it's time to reveal that this game contains, as its final puzzle (the one that you need to accomplish in order to finish the game), the cursed timed puzzle. I mean ... after you have used all of your cerebral processes to the utmost to proceed through a series of sequential, mind-bending challenges and arrived at the climax and conclusion of the story, where retribution is about to be handed out, you are confronted with an abominable timed puzzle. Maybe it's just me, but I abhor timed puzzles. They just through me into a tizzy, frustration sets in, and all the enjoyment of the challenges in a game goes fleetingly away. Boo ... boo! The introduction of the timed puzzle came close to totally ruining the game for me, because I never could get past the time allotted for transporting my leaking bucket of water and, therefore, was unable to finish the game. If it weren't for the wonderfully conceived puzzles that preceded it, I would have been totally overcome by disappointment and negativity. In the hope that Cinegram may think twice about ever again inserting the dreaded timed puzzle into a game, I am presenting the puzzles with a rating of C. Final Grade: B+ In retrospect, I mostly enjoyed Search for the Golden Dolphin (except for my disappointment at the end). Cinegram Media is to be commended for the excellence of its game development efforts and for recognizing that some of us gamers like adventure games in general and appreciate historical edutainment games in particular. The strengths of the game definitely outweigh the weaknesses, so I can say, without hesitation, that there was a substantial level of enjoyment for me in playing Search for the Golden Dolphin. As a first venture into the interactive adventure game genre, this is a noteworthy, if slightly qualified, success (in my opinion), so I would encourage Cinegram to make more historical "edutainment" adventures in the future. Who knows, they could become a sort of American version of Cryo. Search for the Golden Dolphin may be further evaluated for consideration to purchase and ordered at Cinegram's website. System Requirements:
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