Zelenhgorm Preview – Welcome to Just Adventure +

Let me be upfront about Zelenhgorm: I don’t know what to make of it! On one hand it is so wonderfully quirky that I love it and on the other hand so strangely quirky that I am bemused! Maybe this has something to do with its Swedish origins or maybe I’ve become spoiled and don’t know how to react when anymore when faced with something decidedly different.

I will though guarantee that Zelenhgorm is a game that will be much appreciated by any aficionados of full-motion-video adventure gamers. I will also guarantee that this is the type of game that if it were to be reviewed by oh let’s say PC Gamer (which will never happen) it would receive a score of 10%.

The characters speak in an accent with which I am unfamiliar, they reside in a land that resembles none I have ever seen in any travel catalogue and they wear clothes that look to have been purchased at Goodwill. In other words, the developers have perfectly succeeded in creating a new world.

Zelenhgorm also boasts real actors in a virtual world. In fact some of the professional actors, besides being well known in Sweden, are also renowned worldwide. From Star Wars alone are Jeremy Bulloch/Boba Fett, Kenny Baker/R2D2, and David Prowse/Darth Vader! They will all appear in Episode 4, but for now let’s concern ourselves with the 3 CD beta version of Episode 1 we are previewing. Yes, you read that correctly, this game is already planned to be released in 4 episodes. It is an enormous project and the developers Moloto have also undertaken the impressive task of authoring a series of novels that will be released simultaneously with the games.

Jesper Malm, who has a lead role on a popular Swedish television series, has been cast as the main character, Arrikk Vaheirr. His 360 degree movement is controlled via mouse and a drop down menu appears when conversation with another character is necessary. As in any adventure game worth its salt, inventory items are integral. The full-motion-video is very crisp and generally does not blur even during movement.

The overall theme of Zelenhgorm concerns a giant ship that has run aground in Arrikk’s garden. As Arrikk is left-handed, he is immediately suspected by the superstitious citizens of bringing ‘bad karma’ to the village. Well, it’s not really that simple and does involve a complicated history of magic, science and lost cultures. The first episode concerns Arrikk’s efforts to discover the mystery of the great ship, while later episodes are indeed episodic as they delve into the mystery of the six tribes, the left-handed bearers and the sinister priesthood.

Zelenhgorm is one of the most impressive efforts I have ever seen attempted for an adventure game. An integral part of whether it succeeds or fails in North America will depend on whether or not they are able to obtain shelf space in the retail stores. This is definitely one game that will build momentum based on word-of-mouth among other adventure gamers.