The queen is dead… Long
live the queen!

What am I talking about?
Well, none other than the dead – but far from forgotten – queen
of adventure gaming, Sierra, and her successor
Himalaya Studios. Do you remember those halcyon days of adventure
gaming, when you could interact with everything and had to think
for yourself – without the game serving you everything on
a silver platter – what had to be done to progress in the game?
The days when there were
more
than just two hotspots on an entire screen, no cursors that changed
when you had to solve a puzzle and there were not endless empty,
non-interactive screens? Yes, the days when adventures were a challenge
and not just eye candy. You miss those days, don’t you? I know,
I do too, but fear not for Himalaya Studios is back – not content
to bask in the critical success of their remakes of King’s
Quest I & II – but this time presenting their
own, original adventure game. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Al
Emmo and the Lost Dutchman’s Mine.

The game begins with Al
Emmo – our hero, natch – stranded in Anozira, a small, old-western
town in the middle of the desert. He arrived
in response to an ad for a mail-order bride, but events, not so surprisingly,
went wrong. As a result of his mishaps, he has missed his train and
there will not be another passing through Anozira for at least a
week – if he is lucky! This unfortunate incident though may
turn out to be an adventure of a lifetime for both us and our friend
Al.

Al Emmo is a classic 3rd
person point ’n’ click adventure
and when I say “classic” I mean it in the full effect
of the word. It is the perfect example of how this type of adventure
should be made, and will make you feel as though Sierra has been
reborn.

To start off with, there
are no hotspots. YES! Everything is clickable and nothing is labeled.
The “I scan my cursor left to right
until I see words/cursor change” method does not work here,
and you need to be observant in order to find what has to be found.
The controls are very simple: right click to cycle through the available
cursors (walk, look, interact, talk, use inventory item) and left
click to perform an action. All actions can be performed on everything,
causing different responses. With “full interaction” in
all its meaning, it can take a long time to get the maximum out of
each screen. And for those who may find this boring, well I hear
Doom 3 is now available at a lower price…

On top of that, the good
people at Himalaya made sure to make our lives as easy as possible.
So Al can run by double-clicking and can “teleport” –
completely skipping walking/running – by simply pressing the esc
key. Dialogs and cut-scenes can also be skipped. While having the
inventory item cursor active, the mouse wheel can be used to scroll
through all the different items without the need to open the inventory.
Finally, saving can be done everywhere, with up to 50 different saved
games allowed. And there’s also an option for quick save/load.
Frankly, it’s been a while since my lazy behind has been pampered
like this. Al Emmo’s interface is certainly an A+!

Al Emmo’s puzzles are mainly of the inventory type and lean
towards the easy side of the scale – at least for as much of
the game as I played. All very creative though, and will put your
brains and imagination to work. Now let’s see how I’ll
get that darn Bubba to lower his flag!

The game is divided into
nine Acts, the first few concerning Al becoming acquainted with
the town and its people, and then picking
up the pace of events. The story is mighty gripping and will not
lose your interest at any point, except maybe Act 3. Act 3 is obviously
a joke-act, which could have worked if it wasn’t dragged-out
for so long. Thankfully, the game fully recovers with Act 4, so nothing
to worry about.

The entire story is coated with a lovely glaze of humor and it has
been done just right, as it is funny (and at times very funny) without
going overboard. Highlight: the omnipotent narrator constantly giving
grief to Al! Also, watch out for those subtle inside jokes and Sierra
references. Ever wondered what big companies have in common in their
names?!

Graphics-wise, Al
Emmo may not deliver the stunning visuals of Keepsake, but it’s still very nicely designed, with lovely hand-drawn
background graphics and pre-rendered 3D characters. The music is
also nice and representative of the era, but the highlight is the
voiceovers. Finally, after several games of eardrum torment, comes
a game featuring – to put it simply – brilliant speech. With the
exclusion of the narrator – who can become a bit annoying – all other
voiceovers touch perfection. And yes, that even includes Al’s
whiny voice! An interesting contrast: my favorite voice in the game,
Koko the merchant, is done by the same person who voiced the narrator!

As
a conclusion, I will say nothing. I’ll just take my hat
off and bow before Himalaya Studios, who have managed to pay the
best tribute to our gone, but not forgotten queen, Sierra, and rekindle
the flame of classic adventuring – especially during a time when
the genre seems to be getting infested by hybridism and visual 3D
obsessions with no regard to adventuring substance whatsoever. Fans
of 3rd person point ‘n’ click adventures, start forming
queues outside Himalaya’s offices. Trust me, you will not want
to waste a second doing anything else but playing Al
Emmo and the Lost Dutchman’s Mine once
this gem is released!