Dedicated readers of Heavy
Metal, the US adult illustrated fantasy magazine, will probably
recognize the name Druuna. Created by the Italian artist Paulo Eleuteri
Serpieri in the 1980s, her adventures in a futuristic, decaying and
plague-stricken City have appeared in that magazine periodically.
Compilations of the stories in large format hardback have also been
published as graphic novels. Morbus Gravis was the first of these.

I
must preface what follows by emphasizing that Serpieri is a genius
at depicting the human form, especially the naked female human form.
Most of the time, the voluptuous Druuna is either naked or on her
way to becoming so. Sexual encounters are not uncommon (although some
are uncommonly kinky) and they are depicted with Serpieri’s usual
keen eye for detail.

This is not to say that
the Druuna books are crude pornography. They are in no way equivalent
to the ‘Tijuana Bibles’ of yesteryear. Nor are the graphic elements
of the books equivalent to the standard pen outline and flat fill
technique used in mainstream comic books. In 15 years, Serpieri has
produced a total of 7 Druuna books. It is obvious from the quality
of the art that he lavishes time and effort on each frame.

The release of Druuna
– Morbus Gravis the game was eagerly awaited by many of her dedicated
fans. The depiction of a pouting, curvaceous Druuna – with torn halter-top
and unzipped jeans — on the cover of the game will certainly bring
her to the attention of others.

Sadly, both groups are
likely to be disappointed.

I will admit now that I
have not actually finished the game. Unfortunately, I’ve come up against
a puzzle whose solution is not given in the walkthrough posted on
the Microids website. I have asked Microids to revise the instructions
so I can at least finish the thing, but they don’t seem interested.
Possibly because they already have my money? If I come across the
solution some time, I may finish the game. If I don’t, I won’t. It
says much about my opinion of the game that I am not too dismayed
by this prospect.

I make no excuses for having
used the walkthrough. I tried to do it on my own, but this is one
of those games where you are dumped in an alien world and expected
to work out for yourself what it is you are supposed to do and how
you are supposed to accomplish it. After a few hours of bumbling about,
getting repeatedly killed and making no obvious progress towards whatever
the hell was supposed to be the goal, I was so exasperated that the
game very nearly got uninstalled and chucked. But, it would be unfair
to say the game is completely lacking in positive features.

First, you get six whole
CD-ROMs in the game’s DVD box. Hey, some people are
overcome by quantity, right?

Some of the graphics are
impressive. For the most part, the video cut scenes work reasonably
well — in visual terms, anyway. However, despite of the fact that
my machine well exceeds the recommended specification, I get periodic
hesitations during the video scenes and there is also noticeable blurring
and pixelation on a large screen. I assume the pauses are something
to do with the video clips being split into segments and the poor
focus due to the clips being recorded in low resolution (640 x 480
perhaps?). Still, if you ignore those failings and accept the limits
of the current technology, the Druuna here does look much like the
graphic novel character and it is interesting to see her moving and
in the round.

It is also obvious that
a lot of work has gone into the settings as it looks very much like
the world Serpieri created in the Druuna books.

Some of the dialogue is
amusing and most of the acting and music is not bad at all. These
aspects of the game aren’t too far off the quality of Deus Ex.

Unfortunately,
that ends the list of positives.

The game is fundamentally
eye-candy. Although the box says the game is set in a “hyper-realistic,
interactive real-time 3D world.” What this actually means is
that you are periodically given brief snatches of video of Druuna
doing something or having a conversation with another character. The
“interaction” consists of two possibilities: First, an “interference
pattern” might appear along one edge of the screen. If you don’t
hit the arrow key equivalent to that direction very quickly, Druuna
will die very soon.

The second (and much less
common) form of interaction is a character asking Druuna a question.
You are then given a few possible answers. If you hit the wrong key,
Druuna will die very soon.

Most of the game is spent
moving Druuna through the City, picking up odd bits of rubbish that
are lying around in the vain hope they might be useful at some point
in the future and stumbling across points that trigger another burst
of video.

It is very clear that this
game is rigidly linear. You start out in the setting at the beginning
of the book and you finish in the situation at the end of the book.

To be frank, the thing
I find most attractive about the graphic novels is Serpieri’s lush
depiction of Druuna’s body, her physicality and her sexual encounters.
I know I am not unique in this. It may be pretentious, but I see similarities
between Serpieri and another great Italian artist. Verdi wrote glorious
music, but the plots and librettos of his operas are generally mediocre.
Yet most people who have any sort of interest in opera forgive him
that because his wonderful tunes are so evocative they really need
no words. Similarly, I don’t have a collection of Druuna books
because Serpieri poses intriguing questions about the future of mankind
and makes profound philosophical points about the nature of good and
evil and the relationships between women, men and technology. I have
the books because I admire Serpieri’s talent as a graphic artist,
particularly his ability to portray women whose bodies have just the
qualities that appeal most to me.

As far as being able to
ogle Druuna is concerned, the limits of technology mean that there
is never any chance of confusing the game’s character with a real
woman. Even in the best of the video clips, the Druuna here is always
slightly out of focus and very definitely a computer construct. I
may be sad, but I’m not so pathetic that I will ever find an obviously
computer-generated wire frame character arousing or even beguiling.

During the time when the
Druuna character is under the player’s control, she looks much less
appealing than she does at any point in the books. The player’s view
of her is often from a great distance, but even close up she is a
caricature.

Any of Serpieri’s 2D depictions
of Druuna and her sexual encounters will always be much more appealing
to me than anything done with present-day 3D models, even when they
are as sophisticated and as painstakingly done as those in the video
sequences here.

For
a few brief moments, we are allowed to see as much of Druuna as we
would on a European beach during the summer, but she very quickly
retrieves her halter-top and 1970s style jeans. There is, of course,
no sexual activity whatsoever in the game.

What the game also lacks
is any direction or drive. The original graphic novels were not strong
on plot, but that didn’t matter much when they (and Druuna) looked
so good. The extraordinary visual quality of the books allows us to
overlook the failings of plot, the sometimes-stilted dialogue, the
questionable technology and the dubious philosophy. The visual failings
of the game simply emphasize that it lacks any depth or meaning.

Adding further insult is
the fact that controlling the Druuna character is not easy. The control
system is primitive and awkward to use and there is an extremely annoying
delay between keying movements and Druuna actually moving. Usually,
this made no real difference except to my general level of irritation,
but there are points in the game where quick movements in a very specific
direction are required in order to survive.

I also found the fixed
point of view exasperating. More than once, a monster that had been
lurking just out of sight killed Druuna in the instant she moved out
of my view. I was also annoyed that I was not able to look around
what seemed to be very complex and interesting world.

The monsters themselves
are risible; most look like a novice game designer using some cheap
3D package slapped them together in half an hour. Their motion is
silly (or perhaps the poor imitation of a Michael Jackson moonwalk
is intentional) and they lack credible AI.

I
understand that this game was originally due to be published earlier
in 2001, but it was held back until September/October. The story I’ve
heard is that someone (in marketing, perhaps?) realized very late
that what was going to be delivered by the designers was really just
a film of the Morbus Gravis graphic novel. It was decided that
this would not sell and the designers were made to go away and think
about how they could turn their film into a game. It appears that
the best they could manage in a few weeks was to chop their very sophisticated
video into bits and shove in some standard game-y bits

Hacking a DVD release of
The Matrix so that periodic manipulation of the remote control
is required in order to get through the movie would not make it a
game. Meaningless wanderings around Druuna’s City and pointless, incongruous
tasks have not turned a computer animation of Morbus Gravis
into a game.

The game hints at something
much more engaging and intriguing, but this never materializes. I
was never so intrigued that I was compelled to keep on playing to
see what would happen next.

I looked forward to the
release of this game. All the previews and PR teases suggested that
we were about to get something astonishing: a game with the visual
quality of Myst, the excitement and ease of control of Half Life
and the intelligent opposition AI and fluid plot of Deus Ex.

Life is full of disappointments.

I am very sorry to say
it, but unless you’re a hardcore Druuna freak, avoid this game. If
you are Druuna-curious, check here
(Over 18 Only!!) for some free pictures and background, then get over
to Amazon and buy some of Serpieri’s books.

Final Grade – D.

System Requirements:

Processor 400 Mhz
64 Mb RAM
3D graphic card 16 Mb
CDROM 40X