Genre: Adventure

Release Date: 2005

So we are back again with yet another game for our mobile phones by Magixoft. This one though is quite more promising than the previous one I had the chance to encounter so I must say I am patiently waiting for their next release!

Story – Atmosphere

This game is set in the not so near future. You are Robert Stark, an insignificant pilot of a small space lorry that is about to dock to an orbital station after a routine flight. You walk around a bit checking the perimeter but after a while something happens and evething turns black. You wake up and you have been transformed into a cyborg! Something must have happened though because you wake up before they implant a chip on your brain to make you obidient. Convenient, eh? Now as a cyborg you have to escape from were they hold you and find who and why did this to you, and of course pay them back the favor. Not a very new idea but it is nicely implemented.

The atmosphere is quite nice and suits a sci-fi adventure. You really get the feeling that you are in space since you have to wear protective suits when in vacum space and stuff like that. Another cool idea is a jukebox in the bar that you can use in order to dance. Our friend Robert is quite the Travolta you know! Also, your actions can bring bad results if you are not careful. So save quite often because you never know when you may get killed.

Story: B –
Atmosphere: B+

Graphics – Sound

The graphics are as usual the strongest piece in a Magixoft game. All areas are different from each other and have numerous nice shadings and coloring. I was happily amazed watching my reflection on a mirror when I was walking by! The spaceship is neatly drawn and when you get a look on the platform from space, it’s a rare beauty. Robert, on the other hand, may seem nicely drawn in the beginning but when turned into a cyborg he is just a white thing going around. I mean a cyborg is supposed to look cooler than a ghost! In the music part, yet again I saw the indifference of the company. Very few sporadic sounds here and there and the quality of them is really low, especially considering the game is played on phones that use polyphonic systems and can offer quite the quality of sound.

Graphics: B+
Sound: D+

Gameplay – Compatibility

In this game Magixoft used yet again the same gameplay system as in their previous game, Magic Quest 2. Unfortunately they didn’t fix any of the problems so you will encounter the same annoying character movement. When you press an arrow in order to go somewhere, you move and won’t ever stop unless you press the arrow again. This gets extremely frustrating when you are forced to pixel hunt and you character always gets away from the point you want to stop her. Also, when pixel hunting, you tend to easily miss the target and get stuck. Anyway, like before, you control all movements with the arrows of the phone. When you want to interact with something, you press the main centric button which opens a cross menu with 5 options. Up is “Look”, left is “Talk”, down is “Use”, right is “Item Use” and in the center is the inventory. The save/load system has also remained the same but the 10 spots for save and the absolutely absent time for loading make me believe it was a good choice to keep it like this.

One thing I need to mention at this point. The game is small. Really small. I finished it in less than two hours. I believe that even a complete amateur could finish it in 8 hours. And since there is not much of a replay value, I would seriously think twice before purchasing this game. I will not comment this time on the compatibility of the game. As usual, it only works with very few of the phones out in the market. I want to scream to the people in Magixoft that I have a Sharp phone, my best friend a Sony, another a Nec, another an LG. We are also people so please, please try to make games for everyone and not only for the 10% of the market. So before buying and downloading the game, be EXTRA sure this works on your phone!

Gameplay: B –
Compatibility: D

Conclusion

Magixoft made yet again the same mistakes of the past. I seriously hope the will take gamers comments seriously since, as evidenced on their forums, many people have the same thoughts like myself. Nevertheless, this is quite an improvement. The graphics are much nicer and the story is interestingly built. Overally I feel this is a game that can offer a few interesting hours, but that’s all about it.

(Note: This game was reviewed and rated as a mobile phone game and not as a pc one. Therefor the standards used are different.)

Final Grade: C+