Review Stolen Life Developer: Nanoflix Publisher: Nanoflix Genre: Movie Release Date: 2006 Platform: DVD Review by Ray Ivey September 19, 2007		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

“Your name is ‘Pi’?  To how many places?”

“To ALL the places.”

An eighty-minute cutscene.  That was my first alarmed and uncharitable thought as I watched the opening sequence of the new machinima work from Nanoflix studios in Australia.

Next thought:  Omigod, and the characters aren’t even human!  Or protoplasmic!  What have I done to piss off Randy this time?

Luckily, at that moment I was interrupted from my work.  Less than twelve hours later (thank you, Wanda’s Bail Bonds!!) I was back in my comfy chair in a nice, centered mood, and ready to give Stolen Life a second chance.

What a difference a few hours of completely unwarranted incarceration can make!  This time around I popped a Xanax, got a frosty mug of Crystal light, curled up on the couch and began to really watch and listen.

Stolen Life is indeed a machinima production, which means it was built using a real-time rendering 3D game engine.  This technique has been exploding among the amateur ranks of would-be auteur gamers using assets from “World of Warcraft” and many other games.  Now, however, it’s moving into the realm of the pros, and it just could be the best new development for the independent filmmaker since the hi-res digital video camera.

The movie is a neo-noir story about a detective (Chris Jones, yes THAT Chris Jones from the Tex Murphy games) who is sent to a refueling asteroid to investigate the suspicious death of a worker.  Along the way he has to meet and interview the key personalities of on the rock, including the main administrator (Claudia Black from Stargate, Farscape and Pitch Black), and various workers and technicians.

The catch is that all of the characters, every single one, is a sentient robot.  So what you have is basically an animated feature.

Fortunately, Stolen Life has three  key things going for it that make it work. 

First, the voice acting is simply superb.  Chris Jones was always pretty good as Tex Murphy, but he’s really matured into a seasoned performer here, and his detective (named “Pi”) has all the world-weariness you’d want from a noir detective, but it never feels phony or forced.  In some of the quiet moments Jones shows a good deal of finesse.

Claudia Black is equally good as Kieru, the asteroid’s chief administrator.  She and Jones play off of each other beautifully, which is a damn good thing, as you hear a LOT of them talking to one another.

The rest of the cast is also rock-solid.  I can’t emphasize enough how much a project like this would be simply unendurable without the spot-on character voice work on display throughout.

The second key asset Stolen Life has is its wonderful script by Peter Rasmussen.  He tells a classic noir story here, taking the time for the detective to peel back layer after layer of lies and misconceptions to attempt to get to the truth of what really happened.  The script is funny and smart, and manages to take a couple of very surprising, yet believable, twists.  He even gets into existential questions of robot dreams and goals.  It’s surprisingly thought-provoking stuff.

Finally, there’s Phillip Johnston’s dreamy, evocative score.  It’s simply superb and adds great atmosphere and texture to the proceedings.  Johnston is a film composer whose credits include “The Music of Chance” and “Noise.”

Graphically, the game is just okay.  The visuals get the job done, but they are about on the level of a cutscene from a 1998 game.  Nothing to write home about.

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

If you liked this game, then Read: Any of the early Asimov robot stories

This review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link back to Just Adventure.