The Faust legend apparently originated back in the 1500s, when a fairly
well-known German developed a reputation for possessing “magical powers”
that were linked to the service of the Devil. As time went by, the legend grew
in great measure due to the writings of Marlowe (Doctor Faustus), Goethe
(Faust) and Thomas Mann (Doktor Faustus). What resulted from these
writings was the evolution of the Faust legend, which was the story of a German
necromancer (someone who can communicate with the dead or a sorcerer) and astrologer
who sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power.

Along
with the legend of Faust, we should reflect on the religious teachings
that are associated with the Seven Deadly Sins. If we again go to literature and
look for significance in the topic of the Seven Deadly Sins, I think that we might
be best served by considering the writings of Dante, who based his works on the
view that the Seven Deadly Sins were offenses against love. As such, Dante arranged
the Seven Deadly Sins as follows: pride, avarice/greed, and envy were related
to perverted love; insufficient love was represented by the sin of wrath/anger;
and lust, gluttony, and sloth were the sins that illustrated an excessive love
of worldly goods.

As you are introduced to this game of Faust, you
will find that the story is told in seven episodes that relate to the Seven Deadly
Sins and that you are charged with the task of saving seven souls.

Developed
and produced by the same team that brought us Ring, you will be pleasantly
surprised that this time they “got it right.” So load the game up, sit
on the edge of your chair, and get ready to travel to Dreamland, where you will
enjoy a very well-made adventure story that delivers on all fronts.

The
Story’s the Thing

You are now in Dreamland, a very strange and mysterious
amusement park that was owned by one Theodore More and flourished in the period
from the 1920s until 1960, when Mr. More died and the park was closed. During
the park’s prime time, it was inhabited by an unusual collection of residents
that can be best characterized as being “problematic.” More on the inhabitants
later.

You play the part of Marcellus Faust, an old black man who has been
brought to the park by Mephistopheles–“you can call me Mephisto”–and
he has no memory of who he is and knows nothing about the activities that have
transpired in Dreamland before his arrival. Mephisto will explain to you that
he has brought you to Dreamland to help in settling a dispute that Mephisto has
with the Boss (God). Mephisto explains that he did his duty very well in dealing
with the “problematic” inhabitants of Dreamland, but now the Boss is
denying him what he deserves and desires.

The Boss and Mephisto have agreed
that they need an arbitrator to settle the matter, someone who will go back to
the past, get involved in the lives of the seven souls to save, and observe their
deeds and strange, often inhumane, behavior, someone who will check their souls
and judge who will go to Heaven and who lands in Hell.

At this point the
game really begins, and you, as Marcellus Faust, are ready to undertake your mission
by exploring the seven regions of Dreamland that represent the seven episodes
of the story and provide you with the challenges of uncovering the salient facts
and life experiences of the seven lost souls that will need to be saved.

You
will proceed through the seven episodes in order, which is as follows.

• Episode 1: Love Island, where you will meet the Siamese twin sisters, Lily
  and Jody, whose taste for money is equaled only by their desire to entrap the
  macho tiger tamer, Hannibal.
• Episode 2: The Great Inventor, where you
  observe the life of Nathaniel Meister, the park’s designer and architect, who’s
  a very likable fellow with great knowledge–but he harbors a deep and disturbing
  secret.
• Episode 3: Visit Us, the world of Frank Barnes, where you learn
  about the bizarre events that affected his life and brought him to Dreamland as
  the park’s resident “man in the mask.”
• Episode 4: The Enchanted
  Island, home to Kalinka Vissotsky, a Russian beauty with a difficult past history,
  who became a “love target” for the male inhabitants of Dreamland.
• Episode
  5: Great Attractions–meet Hannibal Red Narcissus, the tiger tamer, who drinks
  and gambles a little to excess and has a very mean streak.
• Episode 6:
  Bootlegging, where you learn about the life of Tod Von Essenbeck, a three-foot-tall
  dwarf from an aristocratic Austrian family who has an unusual sense of justice
  and contempt for certain established laws.
• Episode 7: The Bath of Giselle,
  the park’s Fat Lady, who has a gentle and generous soul that belies the pain that
  her physical appearance must provide.

The lives of the cast of characters
whose stories you will examine in the above episodes are often intertwined, which
provides constant “threads” throughout the game that add to the mystery
and excitement of your exploration and discovery.

As you progress through
the episodes, you will not only gather more information about the life and times
in Dreamland, but you will also claim seven evidences that are expected to be
used later to “judge” the life of each of the seven souls to be saved.

Now
comes the end of the story. Unfortunately, I can’t say much about the ending in
this review, because I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you. There are two different
endings possible, determined by the choices that you make at the end as Marcellus
Faust, and I will say that you will be somewhat surprised when you learn what
the “real” purpose of your involvement in Dreamland really was. Mephisto
has not been totally forthright with you, as Faust, and you have to deal with
the consequences. Try both choices (there are two) and then sit back and be sad
because this wonderful game has ended.

I was captivated by the story and
the unfolding of the mysteries and strange occurrences that happened in Dreamland,
and I must say that the experience and mood was most similar to what I felt when
playing Sanitarium, which is one of my favorites from the recent past.
The story receives an A+.

The Gameplay

Adventurers should
be right at home with the familiar “point and click” interface, where
you are required to find the hot spots, and these spots will lead you to the appropriate
action to be performed (i.e., pick up, use, examine, walk to the next scene).
It was always very comfortable moving about the screen, and the 360-degree rotation,
using the mouse, was easy to control.

The main menu is different in that
it allows you to make selections and to review aspects of the game in progress.
For instance, in addition to the usual choices of Play, Save, Load, Exit, you
can call up some “special” sub-menus, including:

• Music:
  lets you know who composed, sang, and played the wonderful pieces that you are
  listening to.
• Characters: tells you about the cast that you will meet
  in each episode.
• Movies: you can watch the video sequences all over again,
  if you wish.
• Attractions: a chance to experience again the main attractions
  or rides that you have encountered during your journey through Dreamland.
• Status: provides a measure of your progress in the game.

Also, you
have access to Theodore More’s notebook, which appears at the end of Episode 1
and into which he records his observations and opinions on the characters and
events that have been concluded at the end of each episode.

The spacebar
calls up a friend called Homunculus, a genie in a bottle (once you’ve helped him
to be born near the end of Episode 2), who has two helpful functions. He can provide
hints, and he can be used at selected places in the game to accomplish feats that
are impossible for a full-sized person.

There is also a map of the park
that can be accessed, but frankly I never figured out what purpose it could serve,
so I never used it.

The gameplay has all of the standard features that you
might expect plus a few unique things that you can take advantage of. Since all
features seemed to work flawlessly and had value, I will give gameplay a rating
of A.

The Graphics

I need say nothing beyond the fact that
this game was produced by Cryo Interactive, which is tantamount to saying that
the 3D graphics will be excellent … and they are. Beyond the obvious, it might
be pointed out that the 3D video sequences, although generally very brief “snippets”
of action, are very well done and are important to the comprehension of the story
and often the motivation of the characters. I felt that these video sequences
provided an important glimpse into the hearts and souls of the various characters
and had a powerful influence on my understanding of what these people were suffering
and often how sad the environment really was in Dreamland.

There was one
instance in which the game scene did not provide a “clean” presentation
and that was a “graphic bug” in Episode 4. You need to open a drawer
in the bathroom, but its “hot spot” is located on the wall adjacent
to the drawer’s cabinet rather than on the drawer itself. Also, in the same scene
you will need to exit the room through a curtain, rather than the opening that
you came in through. Hopefully, if you obtain a later version of the game or a
patch for the game, then you won’t need to deal with these problems. Because of
the fact that Faust was released with these “graphic bugs,” the
graphics rating is A-.

The Music, Sounds, and Voice Acting

The
voice acting and the ambient sounds of Faust are very good, especially
the voice of Mephisto (as provided by the English actor Geoffrey Bateman). The
presentation of the character Mephisto is obviously central to the game’s ability
to draw the player in and keep him/her captivated. The voice of Mephisto is magnificent
… riveting, as it should be. For example, just consider the way in which Mephisto’s
voice is used to activate the normally mundane load, save, and exit functions:
For load, Mephisto says, “Come here pussycat,” in a sultry sort of mood;
for save, he says, “Run away while you still can,” and the mood is that
which implies disdain for a cowardly act; and exiting is my favorite, where Mephisto
says, “Are you afraid of something or just a little tired?” in a sort
of condescending tone.

That’s all fun, but … the real power of this category
is the music. Jazz vocal stylists Mel Torme, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughn, Margaret
Whiting, and John Lee Hooker, the unique blues instrumental offerings of Stan
Getz, Clyde McCoy, and Gerry Mulligan, and the compositions of the likes of Franz
Liszt (Mephisto Waltz) are included in the wonderful soundtrack that accompanies
the various episodes of the story–the music is magnificent. Even today, I can’t
get some of these tunes out of my head. I just keep humming Bye, Bye, Baby
… Time to Hit the Road to Dreamland, or Why Do I Love You … Why Do
You Love Me.

Enough said; you must experience the music for yourself.
Not only is the music terrific to listen to and not only does it have the ability
to set just the right moods for the different stories and character interactions,
but you won’t want to turn it down and often will just sit back and listen for
a while. Without reservation and with no hesitation, the music, sounds, and
voice acting deserve an A+.

The Puzzles

As I have stated
in my previous reviews, it generally takes me longer to finish an adventure game
than most reviewers, because I don’t like to use a “walkthrough.” Although
there is always the exception to this rule, I do try very hard, as frustrating
as it can be sometimes, to get through, even at the risk of enduring some sleepless
nights. You would be amazed what “enlightenment” can sometimes come
to you at 1:00 a.m. and the joy of realizing that you got “unstuck”
when your enlightenment turns out to work.

The puzzles in Faust are
very strictly related to the progress of the story line and are therefore, thankfully,
very logical. The complexity ranges from moderate to difficult, so I must admit
to a few almost sleepless nights and, of course, a nightly revelation or two.

Even
when you find yourself on the Ghost Train Ride and have the eerie feeling that
you just might be entering a dreaded maze, you find that your fear was
premature, because all roads lead to the same place, which happens to be where
the game wants you to go.

I think that you will find the puzzles to be logical,
thoughtful, and complex enough to keep your gray cells active, which I think is
one of the primary reasons for playing an adventure game, so I will give the
puzzles a score of A.

Overall Rating

My overall rating
for Faust is an A. This game is perhaps the best effort put forth by Cryo,
which must be given kudos just for being so devoted to the adventure game genre,
when it seems so unfairly fashionable for so many other producers and publishers
to abandon us. Besides Cryo, credit must also be given to Arxel Tribe for the
development of the theme and plot and the presentation of the story’s fascinating
episodes.

If you haven’t ordered Faust yet, put it on your “must
have” list. I think that you’ll really enjoy the adventure–as my friend
Stuart Yoder would say, “Faust is not only to be enjoyed, but to be savored.”
The Devil made me say it.

System Requirements (Minimum):
Pentium MMX, 200 MHz (game will only run on MMX)
32 MB RAM
12X CD Drive

290 MB available on hard drive
16-bit color graphics card (3D recommended)

2 MB video memory
SoundBlaster-compatible sound card
Direct X 6.0
or higher (included with game)