In 2002, Benoit Sokal’s
impact on the adventure gaming world was established with the release
of Syberia. Most adventure gamers
loved it – some hated it – but regardless, Syberia became one of
the few games now recognized as a landmark in the history of the
genre. Syberia II soon followed and now Sokal has returned, along
with his newly formed company White Birds Productions, and their
first
release Paradise.

The game opens with an enigma. We witness an airplane shot down,
and a woman waking up – after hospitalization and treatment – with
no memory whatsoever. Even stranger is that she is now in the harem
of the prince of Madargane, a city of Maurania, where she was brought
in order to relax and regain her strength. Unable to remember her
own name, she will be called Ann Smith by the women of the harem,
who also return her belongings that were recovered from the crash
site. Among these is a card from the University of Geneva, from where
she probably came. But why would Ann fly all the way to Maurania?
Was it for business purposes? And who is she anyway?

To unearth the answers to these questions you will have to lead
Ann through the world of Maurania. Your first task will be to escape
from Madargane and your journey will take you through native villages,
mines and rivers in search of the truth. The imaginary world of Maurania
is simply exquisite. The entire country has been designed as if it
really exists, with its own inhabitants, cities, natives, flag and
even its own website which you will find the link to within the game
and can actually visit on the internet! A great and very original
idea indeed.

The country of Maurania
also features its own unique flora and fauna. A book found early
in the game describes the life forms that make
the game a feast for the imagination. Unfortunately, interaction
with the numerous strange species that inhabit Maurania is extremely
limited. The game would have profited by involving more of these
fictitious animals, but instead one feels that the game doesn’t
take advantage of their existence. The same can be said for a certain
black leopard who will be accompanying Ann in her journey through
Maurania. The leopard only appears for a short while, although it
does have its own, optional, sequences where it is controlled by
the player.

Speaking of involvement
and interaction, those are two very important adventure elements
which are sorely lacking in Paradise. Throughout
the whole game the amount of empty screens to just cross outnumber
the amount of screens where you can actually do something, such as
talk to a character or solve a puzzle. The game’s hotspots
are limited to only what is absolutely necessary: a few items here
and there to pick up, as well as a couple of places to use the items,
and some machines to operate. That’s the extent of non-character
interaction in the game.

Searching for hotspots
is not an easy chore in Paradise and it actually becomes seriously
tedious. Not only is there a good amount of good
old pixel-hunting, Paradise also introduces an entirely new concept:
shadow-hunting. By that I mean hotspots that are exactly or almost
exactly the same color as the background they are on, as well as
hotspots that are just part of the background without any indication
that there is something there, like a section of the floor that is
exactly the same as the rest of the floor but it’s a hotspot.
The color issue can be resolved by turning the monitor’s brightness
to its maximum and then some slight color difference can be observed – if
your eyesight is perfect. As a result, entering a new screen necessitates
thoroughly running the cursor very slowly over every single pixel
for when the cursor crosses over a hotspot, it doesn’t immediately
change, but it rather turns into a little animation and if the hotspot
is small and the cursor crosses over it too quickly then the animation
never has the time to play so it seems like there was nothing there.

Character interaction
drives story progression and solves several questions. Dialogs
are performed by selecting from available subjects.
There are though a few bugs in the implementation of the dialogs,
such as subjects that, when selected, result in a totally unrelated
response or even a comment on something that hasn’t happened
yet! Voiceovers are very plain and Ann seems to have the rude habit
to start some conversations by making a “huh” noise!

The mechanical puzzles
are the only time when you will feel as though you have an active
role in the game and are not just a spectator
clicking the mouse. They can be divided into two categories: the
ones that you can see what happens and the ones that you cannot.
While working on a puzzle of the first category, it’s pretty
easy to realize how a machine works and solve it. While working on
a puzzle of the second category, trial and error will be your best
bet, since not only can you not see what happens, but there’s
no feedback from Ann whatsoever. Feedback is also non-existent on
hotspots that need some item to operate. So when clicking on such
a hotspot you will hear nothing or just a plain “tsak” sound.
Then you must guess which item in your inventory you need to use
or try each item that seems logical, especially when you can’t
even see the hotspot. Good thing the inventory isn’t the size
of the one in Discworld!

Paradise – following a
negative trend witnessed in quite a few games lately – seems to
have undergone practically no beta testing and
is full of small and not so small bugs and imperfections. The majority
focus on the game’s cursor, as well as Ann’s responses.
Throughout the game the cursor experiences lag every now and then,
making it freeze for a second and then jump to its final destination.
This happened especially often on close-ups and made the aforementioned
pixel and shadow hunting even harder and more frustrating. Also,
there were occasions when the cursor would completely disappear,
while the rest of the screen looked fine, but was now unplayable.
I don’t know if it would eventually reappear since I “ctrl-alt-del”ed
out of the game after a few minutes.

Ann’s response to
this cursor nonsense is sometimes rebellious. There are instances
when you will click left and Ann will go right
and if she is right next to an exit she may refuse to go through
it unless you first move a bit away from the exit. Similar cursor
problems also appear when controlling the leopard. To finish with
the cursor related bugs, if you have two different hotspots right
next to each other, for example an exit and a talk cursor, the cursor
may get confused and appear as an exit icon where the action is to
talk and vice versa.

All of these cursor related
bugs certainly interfere with gameplay, are frustrating and detract
from a good chunk of a possible overall
enjoyment. Other small bugs and imperfections include a reappearing
jar, which Ann can take again and again, some generic comments that
refer to female characters as “him” and a couple of inventory
items bearing codenames such as “object###_itemname”.

All these bugs and imperfections
apply to the American release of the game and it is not known if
they have been corrected for the
European release. If I play the European release I will update this
review, but in the meantime, European gamers need to take heed. White
Birds informed JA at the E3 that a patch is imminent, but frankly,
I no longer care as I am fed up with half-assed beta testing just
so a publisher can get a game on the shelf by a predetermined date.
In Paradise’s case we are not talking about some obscure bugs,
like the game freezing when you try to use the monkey on the mountain
while playing the banjo – something that could elude any human
beta tester. We are talking about blatant, in-your-face issues that
even a 6year-old kid would notice. This, in my book, shows nothing
but lack of respect for the gamer. Companies should start caring
more for the hands that feed them and stop taking the apathetic “who
cares, release it and we may patch it” way out.

For all the aforementioned
problems Paradise has its wonderful graphics and amazing cut-scenes
as some consolation. The cut-scenes are really
a treat to watch, while the backgrounds, even though not stunning,
provide a nice feast for the eyes. The characters are 3D and do not
follow the same standards. Yes, they are nicely designed, but they
are hindered with problems that one would witness during 3D’s
first baby steps. Clipping is among the most awful I’ve seen
in years, with Ann being practically a ghost that is able to run
through everyone (not through walls thankfully). The animation is
jerky and it seems like the characters suffer from spasms every time
they do something like pick up an object or try to sit down. The
characters also often find themselves misplaced when talking to each
other and sometimes you may even see a character just slide around
the screen, like being on roller skates. Overall, it is a really
sloppy job in the 3D department which is not excusable in this day
and age, especially with a newly formed company attempting to go
mainstream.

Comparing Paradise to
the Syberia series is unavoidable and the one thing that immediately
stands out is the very similar gameplay:
straightforward, minimal interaction, very few and very easy puzzles.
The major difference being that Syberia had me hooked from the opening
screen. Even though I don’t enjoy adventure games that provide
little challenge, I enjoyed Syberia because the story and the main
character’s development from a passive girl to a strong, self-reliant
woman were riveting. On the other hand, although interesting in its
concept, the story of Paradise was hardly gripping, while Ann’s
character was completely indifferent at best. So, while Syberia kept
me glued to my chair, Paradise flew by like something happening in
the background.

Surprisingly though, Paradise has an ending that is simply fantastic. It is one of the best conclusions
I’ve ever seen in an adventure
game! Although short, it oozed with intensity and emotion and is
presented with the superb quality of the game’s cut-scenes.
I would like to talk about it more, but I will not do so to avoid
any spoilers.

Overall, Paradise is the
disappointment of the year for the adventure community. All of
the fuss and hype was for nothing which is actually
a shame, since its wonderful world was the perfectly fertile ground
to create a fantastic exotic adventure, but unfortunately the opportunity
was lost. Fans of Sokal’s art are mainly the ones that will
get the most out of the game, as well as graphic buffs, as long as
they ignore the 3D problems. Surprisingly, even though a very easy
adventure, it is better suited to experienced adventurers as it can
easily become confusing and create unnecessary problems to beginners
or casual gamers due to its bugs and poor puzzle implementation – and
if this is your first adventure game, please don’t think that
this is how adventures play. I give the game a D, which counts all
the aforementioned bugs, but even a clean, 100% bug-free version
could barely go up to a C-. Unless you have played everything else,
look elsewhere for your adventuring fix and if you want to check
out Sokal’s work, go for the Syberias or, why not, Amerzone.

Final Grade: D
(find out more about our
grading system)

System Requirements:

• Supported OS: Windows® 2000/XP
  (only)
• Processor: Pentium® IV or AMD Athlon” 1.5 GHz equivalent
  or higher
• RAM: 512 MB
• Video Card: 64 MB
  DirectX® 9.0c-compliant video card supporting
  32-bit color
• Sound Card: DirectX
  9.0c-compliant sound card
• DirectX Version: DirectX
  9.0c (included on disc)
• CD-ROM: 4x or faster
  CD- or DVD-ROM drive
• Hard Drive Space:
  2.5 GB free
• Peripherals Supported:
  Windows-compatible mouse and keyboard