Lifestream Review

November 29th, 2004 admin Reviews

Review

Lifestream

	Unimatrix Productions
	Unimatrix Productions
Genre:	Adventure
	27 Sep 2004
Platform:	PC

Review by Robert Washburne
November 29, 2004

Introduction

Lifestream
is the first adventure game offering from independent developer Christopher
M. Brendel. He refers to it as a “Story-Centric” game.
Which means that while the graphics may be nice and puzzles entertaining,
it is the story which takes center stage.

And in this he succeeded.
While the game didn’t have all the polish found with the big developers,
the story was a good one and kept me thinking long after the game
was finished. I enjoyed it and look forward to his next work, Shady
Brook, due out sometime in early 2005.

Installation

First,
Lifestream gets major kudos for not using
any copy protection on the CD. This gives me some confidence that
I will be able to play his game again in the decades to come when
Windows will be emulated under whatever OS replaces it.

Next,
kudos also for allowing the game to install entirely to hard drive.
The CD can then be safely put away and the game played without ever
seeing it again.

The game installed smoothly
on my AMD 1800+ system with only one hitch – it couldn’t play
any movie clips. Unfortunately, just about every screen transition
and character interaction is a movie clip, so the game was unplayable.

I sent email to “Tech
Support” and received a reply within a couple of hours. After
much investigating and the installation of several multimedia utilities
we came to the conclusion that my system just wasn’t going to play
his movie clips. Now, to be fair…

This was the only computer
with a problem. I installed the game on a friend’s 450MHz machine
and it ran quite well. I was also able to run it on my 650MHz machine
and that is where I ended up playing it.
The problem machine
is the one my daughter uses to surf the web and download “free”
stuff. Heaven knows what has been done to my machine despite my
use of virus and spyware removers. Eventually, Windows will completely
melt down and I will have to rebuild the hard drive again. I’m sure
everything will work then.
I checked the user
forum and no one else was complaining about this issue. Or any other
issue beyond the presidential elections. People seemed quite happy.
So it was probably just me.

The
point of all this was that Tech Support was very responsive and tried
their best to make my experience a good one. I was impressed with
the amount of time they were willing to spend on me. They also offered
to refund my money if I couldn’t get it to run. I never mentioned
that I was affiliated with JustAdventure, that I write game reviews
or that I might review Lifestream. So I
assume this is the level of service that any customer can expect.

I don’t expect anyone else
to have the problems I did, but it is nice to know that there is a
responsive person out there.

Customer Relations gets
an “A+.”

Story

Lifestream
is is called Story-Centric and the story is a good one. If you are
into stories, then this is the game for you. From the website:

“John Holton’s father,
a priest named Randolph, disappeared three weeks ago. Unable to come
forward to voice his concerns, in fear of destroying his father’s
reputation, John takes it upon himself to find out what happened by
visiting his father’s house and searching for him firsthand.

… What he finds is something
that is so terrifying, yet so seductive, that it envelops his very
soul…”

What starts out as a Mystery
ends up as solid Science Fiction. The concepts played with and the
ironies introduced had my brain chewing for days after the game was
finished. This would have made a good book.

The only criticism I can
offer is that most of the story is given in the Epilogue cut scene.
I would like to have seen more of it pulled back into the game itself.
But that would have made the game very long. Not that there is anything
wrong with that.

I give the story an “A.”

Navigation

Lifestream
uses Adventure
Maker for its game engine. This gives it the classic static 2D
slideshow interface we know so well.

The cursor is nice and
large and the hotspots easy to distinguish.

The only thing I could
have wished for was a “zip” map to instantly go to places
I had already visited. Fortunately, the environment was small enough
that this was never a major annoyance.

Nothing special here, but
nothing wrong either. A solid “B.”

Puzzles

The
puzzles are a good mix of Inventory and Logical. They are what I would
call easy to medium in difficulty. If you buy adventure games because
you are into puzzles, then this is probably not the game for you.
The puzzles are only here to highlight the story.

The Inventory puzzles are
all logical – you need keys to open locks and a crowbar to open
that sticking door. Nothing here to cause you to pull your hair out.

The Logical puzzles are
all classics which the experienced Adventure Gamer has seen many times
before – jump the pegs, line up the numbers, speak the phrases
in order, etc. There was only one puzzle whose purpose wasn’t immediately
obvious, but a quick glance at the Strategy Guide got me on the right
track.

There is one small maze,
but you get a map of it before having to enter it.

There is also one of the
dreaded Slider puzzles, but it is a wimpy 3×4. Once you know the secret
to solving sliders, it takes a 10×10 before they offer any challenge
at all.

Also,
several of the more difficult puzzles, including the slider, have
a hidden hotspot which you can click on to instantly solve the puzzle.
The Strategy Guide shows where these are.

There are also some dialog
trees, but they are of the Exhaust-All-Choices variety rather than
the Puzzle type.

Another solid “B”
here.

Graphics

Move along, folks. Nothing
to see here. If you are into “Eye Candy,” then this is
not the game for you.

Chris
used the freeware version of trueSpace
to render his scenes. You can see from the screen shots how crisp
and neat the models rendered. He used some good textures, but everything
is just a bit too clean – no moss, no mildew, no weathering,
no dirt. But it is enough to convey the story, which is the whole
point.

He also went to the trouble
of creating animated transitions from scene to scene. This is a very
nice way to help the player keep their sense of direction. Unfortunately,
Chris had to set the resolution extremely low to get everything to
fit onto a single CD. So while the scenes are nice and sharp, the
transitions are very blocky. At first they are annoying. Then you
get used to them. Then you wish you could turn them off and just go
where you need to go.

Characters are also adequate.
Chris used Poser
to create and animate people. The results are certainly better than
anything I could have done, but stiff and wooden by professional standards.
The first time I looked at the girl in the screen shot I wondered
just how long ago rigor mortis had set in.

Again, this is all that
is needed to convey the story. It is also good to know that the basic
tools needed to create an adventure game are accessible to everyone.
But still, I found myself wishing that more had been done. Graphics
gets a “C.”

Sound

Sound
effects were very good. Water splashed, shoes clicked on stone and
stereo kept it all in the right place. No shame here.

But the music. The music
was provided by Justin
R. Durbin and was just gorgeous. Moody, peaceful, fully orchestrated
and appropriate to the situation. It held to that fine line between
a performance piece which must be listened to and ambiance. I found
myself stopping at several places in the game just to listen.

I would encourage you to
visit Justin’s web site where he makes much of his work available
for download.

Music gets an “A.”

Strategy Guide

OK, I mentioned it a couple
of times so let’s take a closer look at it.

The guide is 48 pages long
and includes:

A complete walkthrough
of the game.
A separate Hint-through
for the puzzles. This is great for getting that gentle nudge.
Character profiles.
Bio’s of all the developers
who helped with the game.
A sneak preview of
Chris’ next game, Shady Brook
The location of every
Easter Egg. Yes, this game is loaded with Easter Eggs and most of
them are a hoot. This alone is worth the price of the guide.

I give the Strategy Guide
a “B.”

Conclusion

This
is a very good game for those who love a good story. It is Chris’s
first offering to the Adventure Gaming community and shows a lot of
promise. His next offering, Shady Brook, promises to be even better.