A lot of games out there are just like all of the others. Point-and-click
adventure games with puzzles that help you solve a giant quest and everyone lives
happily ever after. Aftermath Media realized there was room for something new,
and their finished product is Tender Loving Care: A Dangerous Prescription
… for fun! While it’s not an adventure game per se, it has enough adventure
elements to warrant a review, and most definitely mature adventure fans should
give this unique game a look.

Plot: Six months ago there was a car
accident. Michael was driving the vehicle; his six-year-old daughter Jody was
sitting in the passenger seat, without a seatbelt. Out of nowhere, an oak tree
comes into view. The next thing you know, Jody crashes through the front window,
blood everywhere. She didn’t survive. Jody’s mother Allison did not take too well
to this sudden death. To put it in layman’s terms, she flipped out. In her mind,
Jody is alive, the accident did not happen. Everything is fine. Poor Michael,
having to put up with Allison’s problems for six months, living with incredible
guilt of being the cause of her daughter’s death. A suggestion by the family’s
psychologist was to bring in a psychiatric nurse to help heal the problems. This
is where the game opens up. Kathryn, a gorgeous, mysterious lady, pulls into the
driveway of the farmhouse, claiming to be the nurse appointed to stay here for
a few weeks, or months, depending on how much work is needed to be done. At first,
her ways of treatment seem odd. As the game progresses, you start to wonder who
this woman really is. A twisted story of sex, lies and sanity awaits. At times
it seems the subject of sex and nudity is pushed too far. Some players may not
want to see a naked woman throwing herself against a window for everyone outside
to see her. On the other hand, maybe some of you may get kick out of that kind
of stuff. Because the plot is deep and well thought out, it gets a grade of
B+.

Graphics: There is not much I can say about the graphics
of Tender Loving Care except that they are nothing special. Movie scenes
are full motion video with a black line every other line (as in Sierra’s Phantasmagoria
2) and are slightly pixelated. Exploration scenes, when you are looking for
another TAT quiz to take, are 3D-rendered and quite nice. However, it is incredibly
slow to move from scene to scene and to a close-up. I often found myself waiting
five seconds just to move closer to a laptop computer to see what e-mail had been
received. The game does get credit for the amount of exploration and interactivity.
It was nice to see what was going behind the scenes, digging deeper than actually
needed, and everything is portrayed realistically and effectively. Because of
the flaws in the graphic system, the game is rated a C+ in this category.

Sound
Music and Acting: Since TLC is an “interactive movie,” it
should be expected that the acting would be acceptable at the least, and it excels
in this category. Actors consist of Michael Esposito (Michael Overton), Beth Tegarden
(Kathryn Randolph), Marie Caldare (Allison Overton), and John Hurt (Dr. Turner)
as the main characters, and each and every one of them has done a fantastic job.
John Hurt, being the more experienced of the group, seems to have done the best
out of the four, showing happiness, anger and confusion through the course of
the game. Music and sound effects seem to be placed in just the right areas. It
seems, for me at least, that sound effects would come a little late. I would open
up a drawer and then a few seconds later the sound of a drawer being opened would
be played. This could be due to the fact that the game’s engine is slow. Tender
Loving Care is rated an A- in this category.

Puzzles: The
game doesn’t exactly have puzzles, at least not of the kind that you may be familiar
with. Basically you are placed in the game to try to help Dr. Turner out in healing
the Overton family of their psychiatric problems. You are shown a video clip of
what is going on in the house now and then asked questions about what you think
about what you just saw, as well as some personal questions about yourself. After
this you are thrown into the game environment in search of the next TAT quiz,
and the process continues. The “puzzles” in this game (or the lack thereof),
get a grade of B.

Final Grade: Tender Loving Care is
not a typical adventure game; in fact, Aftermath Media is not even categorizing
it as a graphic adventure. Instead, it is considered an “interactive movie”
similar to Phantasmagoria but with a design twist. It is definitely original,
and we felt it deserved a fair review on our site. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed
the game, and an added bonus, and a credit to the designers, is that it is replayable–there
are many paths to the end and a few different endings. I must say that I did not
try the other solutions, but have talked to people who have, and they are all
unique and thrilling. If you are tired of the run-of-the-mill adventure games
produced this year, you will most definitely want to give Tender Loving Care
a chance.

Final Grade: B+

System Requirements:

CD ROM (as reviewed)
Pentium 60
8 MB RAM

2X CD-ROM drive
8 MB free hard drive space

DVD
ROM
Pentium 133
16 MB RAM
DVD-ROM drive and MPEG2 decoder card

8 MB free hard drive space