The recent and very distressing news that SouthPeak was canceling its
almost-finished new adventure game, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: The Adventure
Continues, got me to thinking about the company’s first two outings with their
proprietary “Video Reality” engine. Yep, I want to get you even more
depressed. So stroll with me down memory lane while we revisit one of the most
notorious adventure games ever released.

The
“Video Reality Engine” was actually a very cool idea. At the time, video-based
games were peaking (Gabriel Knight 2, Phantasmagoria), and one thing most
players agreed about that video lacked was any sense of freedom in movement. The
filmed environments simply felt too restrictive. SouthPeak’s Video Reality was
supposed to deliver the realistic feel of video but with a much more fluid and
free sense of movement.

Temüjin, the first Video Reality Engine
adventure, was released in late 1997 to much fanfare and the worst set of reviews
of any adventure game in memory.

Because of these reviews, and the game’s
generally terrible reputation, I would imagine many adventurers have steered clear
of this notorious title.

You
know what? That’s a shame, because even though it does have big problems, it’s
also daring and innovative. I’m not at all sorry I played it.

Temüjin
is a first-person adventure that begins very promisingly with a terrific cinematic
of Genghis Khan’s funeral (“Temüjin” was his real name). There’s
some mysterious goings on about an evil spirit being trapped in an artifact …
then cut to modern day, where you find yourself in a small private museum.
Something is very wrong here at the Stevenson museum, and it’s up to you-know-who
to work out the mystery.

Okay. First let’s talk about what sucks in the
game. Sadly, the Video Reality engine has three big problems here. Number one,
it can only be displayed on a very small fraction of the screen, which is absolutely
maddening. Second, the images are often blurry. Third, and by far the worst, the
navigation is enough to make you shave your head and enter a monastery. You spend
the whole game feeling like you have all the motor control of a spastic on roller
skates on a oiled surface. It’s just exhausting.

Unfortunately,
Temüjin’s problems don’t end there. This game has some of the most
arcane, obtuse puzzles I’ve ever seen in a game. Two of them, in fact, make my
all-time clunker list. One involves a ridiculous task of creating a Rube Goldberg
device to make a cup of tea; the other involves some wildly nonintuitive nonsense
regarding a catapult, a gong, and a helmet. Eeeesh.

Okay … so, sucky visuals,
terrible puzzles … why the heck am I even talking about this game? What’s
wrong with me?

Hang on. Let me tell you about the cool stuff in Temüjin.

First of all, despite its limitations, I found the Video Reality engine
very promising. Why? Because I love video-based games, and I think it really is
a good idea to create a video format with fluid and free movement. Despite
its awkwardness, I really felt like I was traveling around and exploring a truly
real place.

Second, this game has a lot of terrific writing in it. The story
is good, and the characters are sharp and interesting. Like the next VR game,
Dark Side of the Moon, Temüjin has some of the best game acting I’ve
seen.

The game also has a brilliant gimmick regarding the character you
play: you don’t know who you are for nearly two-thirds of the game! Your
own identity is a big part of the mystery, and this element is handled brilliantly.
Your character can’t speak (why? Hmm …), but you are constantly spoken
to by the other characters. Think how tricky this would be to pull off, script-wise.
It’s quite a neat trick.

I like an adventure game to take me to a compelling
place, and in this game I really felt like the experience was happening to me.

Temüjin
gave me the feeling that SouthPeak was really onto something. So, while I
can’t give this game a high grade or anything, I would challenge adventurous adventurers
to consider taking a deep breath, rolling up their sleeves, and checking this
flawed but interesting game out.

Final Grade: D+

If you
liked Temüjin:
Watch: Dressed to Kill (for the
great museum sequence!)
Read: The Magus
Play: Dark
Side of the Moon

System Requirements:
Windows 95
P90
2x CD-ROM drive
30 MB free hard drive space
SVGA

16-bit sound card