Review Shady Brook Developer: Unimatrix Productions Publisher: Unimatrix Productions Genre: Adventure Release Date: July 2005 Platform: Review by Robert Washburne September 14, 2005		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

For many of us, adventure games are all about The Story. The puzzles are nice and the exploration is fun, but it is the story which ultimately decides whether we want to come back for more.

So when Christopher Brendel announced that he was going to start publishing “story-centric” games, I became very excited. Ever since Portal kept me up until 3:00 in the morning with my C-64 back in 1988 as I just HAD to find out what happened next, I have been hungering after The Story. And now here was a company which promised to fulfill my desires.

Their first game, Lifestream, lived up to their claim. The graphics, sound and puzzles were adequate, but the story was wonderful. It started out as a simple mystery, but the further you went the more complex it became. It could have become cliché at any point, but it held together, held my interest and ended with a delightful twist that kept me thinking for weeks after.

I wanted more. Chris started posting teasers and screen shots for his next game which, he said, would be even better than the first one. The graphics would be improved and the story would be much longer. It was the story he had wanted to do for years, but held off because it was so complex. Wow! If Lifestream was only the warm up exercise, then what would this game be?

Finally, the waiting was over and I had a copy in my hand to play and review. From the website:

“Amateur writer Jake Tobin, in search of material for his latest novel, has moved to the small, quaint town of Shady Brook with his blind father, Wayne. At first, the town seems very welcoming. Jake's new neighbor, Tim Richardson, seems friendly, and the Ekan family is always willing to lend a helping hand. But soon, mysterious things start happening in the town. One of the residents commits suicide, and Jake suspects a cover-up. Could this town take part in a conspiracy to cover up a murder? As Jake investigates, he gets more than he bargained for: a town secret so terrifying that there is no turning back...”

OK, if this were real life and there was a small town with a dark secret, then it is most likely A) They have a meth lab in the hills and are selling drugs wholesale or B) The Preacher with his five wives has moved his small cult out and away from prying eyes.

If this were a standard game, then the town has either A) Been taken over by the Aliens as the first step towards world domination or B) They are all guarding the Magic Dingus which has the power to start Armageddon.

But this is Unimatrix Productions, so surely the story will not be anything so cliché. There will be layers and depth and a devilish twist at the end.

Did Chris deliver on his promises? Well, yes and no.

The game starts off with great promise. You are asked up front if you would like all the sex and violence removed (there is one scene and a few girly pictures which might give the game an NC-17 rating. There are also a couple of fight scenes.) You are also asked if you would like to play in Adventure Only mode, in which case all of the puzzles are removed. Both of these are nice touches and show great consideration for the audience.

The graphics are a little better in some areas. You can see from the screen shots that Chris tried to put real objects on some shelves. But on other shelves he kept the same old generic models. He put the effort in to make some of the characters look more natural, but others still look like mannequins. The scenery is still rather, uhh..., primitive.

The professional voice actor, John Bell, provides all the male voices. While I might have suggested he try a different choice for the hero, they were all distinct and consistent. You always knew who it was by their voice. And the acting was spot on. Very professional.

The background music was very nice.

The puzzles were OK. They were fairly straight forward, but just a little out of place. There was a puzzle box which was just a bit too complicated to be real. There was a suspicious pile of rocks which you weren't allowed to examine until you found the clue which proclaimed them to be a suspicious pile of rocks. There was a cryptogram which was easy enough to solve, but you didn't get credit for it until you found the clues for solving it. To me, the puzzles felt contrived and stuck in as an afterthought.

But all that stuff is optional. What about the story? And how did it play out?

Frankly, I was disappointed.

The story had a lot of potential – a small town of thirteen people out in the boonies where they could do anything without getting caught. Chris populated it well with thirteen distinct personalities. But then he never really did anything with it or them.

Another nice touch was the inclusion of a journal which always had a list of things for you to do. For example, buy batteries at the store. But frequently it was of no help, giving instructions such as “find out how to open the locked door.” Well, duh.

So what you ended up doing was repeatedly going around town to talk with everybody just to see who might have something new to say. Personally, I find that both boring and frustrating. And then to compound the injury, there was one puzzle where you had to somehow guess that you were supposed to keep asking the same question to a certain person until they cracked and gave a different response. This happened only once. For the rest of the game, if you asked a question repeatedly the person would give the same response just like a good little robot. I also hate it when that happens.

I kept waiting for all the little subplots to come out for all these wonderful personalities. But it never happened. The story went straight as an arrow from start to conclusion, which was “Obvious Ending 3.” At least it wasn't “O.E.1.”

Now, all this isn't to say that it was a bad game. It had its moments which were thoroughly enjoyable. But there was just so much unused potential.

Final Conclusion:

The game is inexpensive and, while not a shining example of the genre, does have its moments. It will keep the Adventure Gamer nicely occupied while waiting for a better game to come out. And that pretty much is the definition of a C+.

My recommendation? Be sure to purchase and play Lifestream, if you haven't already. It is wonderful. And then purchase Shady Brook out respect to the creator and to keep him motivated to do something better.

Anecdote:

In June of 1921 my Grandmother, Marion Smith, graduated from Wellesley College. She and three of her classmates purchased a Ford Dyna and then drove from Amherst, MA to Seattle, WA and south to San Francisco. Four young girls, one car, no highways, mostly dirt road in an era when only the train was thought capable of such a trip. This was her diary entry for July 1, 1921:

“We passed through the Great Lakes Training Station... We arrived, six miles later, in Zion City... Every one had advised us to detour there, but we were in the midst of it before we realized it. As we entered the village, large posters proclaimed, that no smoking, no drinking, no physician, no clubs, no much of anything were allowed within the town. We learned that it was a community where everyone turned his money into a common fund (and was probably beautifully swindled). We passed through it with all possible speed, almost four miles an hour, and were joyous when we reached very good roads just beyond.”

Deja vu?

Final Grade: C+
(find out more about our grading system)

System Requirements:

• PC or compatible computer,
• Pentium III 1 GHz,
• Windows 98/2000/XP,
• 512 MB RAM,
• 350 MB Hard Drive space,
• 640x480 resolution,
• 24-Bit Color display,
• DVD-ROM drive,
• and a Windows-compatible sound card and mouse.

Please note that some users have reported problems with the SoundMax brand of sound card, and as a result that card is currently not supported.
Please also note that this game is available only on DVD.