Yeah, yeah, I know what
you’re thinking, “Another futuristic
adventure
game – yawn.” Well, cleanse that thought from your head (or have
it cleansed for you by the JA Thought Control Police), for Destinies is…well,
it’s different, but different in a good way.

I had the privilege to
meet in private with Laura MacDonald (Destinies Writer Screenplay/Mkt’g & Business
Agent) and Jan Kavan (Destinies Writer Original Story/Soundtrack/Programmer)
to play a
demo of the game and enjoy listening to some of the soundtrack.

Destinies, as will be
explained in the following paragraph that I stole, er, borrowed
from the developer’s website, is the
story of Marc Taszicky, a 37 years old physics professor whose quiet,
solitary existence on earth is shattered by the unexpected and mysterious
death of Peter Vinci, a colleague and old friend who recently returned
from an unexplained visit into uncharted space. However, why he went
there and what he found remains a mystery for he arrived clinging
to life, raving and delirious. Death mercifully followed with Peter’s
dying words providing a cryptic clue as to where he had been. What
Marc pieces together in his search for their meaning takes him back
to their beginning, to a long forgotten failed experiment and to
the present, to a planet called Anthranella IX, the paradise of our
universe. He boards a flight in a desperate search for the truth.
What caused his friend to leave so secretively, what did he discover
and most importantly, why did he die? Marc hopes for answers, but
he may find much more. He may just discover his destiny…

What’s this? Sci-Fi with moral implications, ethical dilemmas
and the search for truth, justice and the Anthranellian way. Egad,
my brain synapses are already twitching – much like the trigger-finger
of a first-person-shooter junkie – in anticipation.

The demo I played is meant
to provide a feel for the game’s
atmosphere. The opening main menu screen features a lovely musical
composition – titled Hide and Seek – with an edgy spoken, sing-song
voiceover and soothing flutes that together provide an appropriate
unsettling feeling. I’ve listened to it a few times already
as it is one of those compositions that lingers in your mind.

The Destinies soundtrack
composer is Jan Kavan – he also did the soundtrack for Darkfall:
Lights Out – and has an ethereal, new age
feel but instead of sounding disassociated, as do many game soundtracks,
it seems to be fully integrated into the game dynamics. Besides the
music, the sound-effects possess a clarity that doesn’t sound
as though they were lifted from some cookie-cutter software program.

Okay, back to the demo. Marc is stranded at the Desolate Plains,
surrounded by graves, obelisks and markers. It is a time in the future,
or a possible future and you need to find a portal to escape from
this land of the dead. After searching the adjoining areas, you spot
an out-of-reach crowbar wedged in an obelisk, so how else to dislodge
the crowbar than by heaving a rock at it and knocking it to the ground.
Now sure, that puzzle was simple, but it was meant to give a feel
for the interface.

The interface is mouse driven and a breeze to master. Marc is navigated
by left-clicking and a double-click exits him immediately from area.
The cursors are context sensitive and easy to understand. Dialogue
can be skipped with a left mouse click and your inventory is stored
in a handy satchel at the bottom left of the screen.

Once again, back to the demo . . . now that you have the crowbar,
you need a place to use it and has luck would have it, there is a
faceplate on a pedestal at the bottom of a statue that can be removed
if one has the proper tool. This is partly a logic puzzle and also
meant to showcase an item in your inventory, the multi-tool. The
multi-tool is a futuristic Swiss knife.

Once the faceplate is removed, you face a gear/lever/button puzzle
that is not too difficult (especially when the developers whisper
the solution in your ear) and will provide an exit from this level
and a surprise sneak peek at some levels still in development.

Destinies just has a certain
feel to it as thought it is being developed by adventure enthusiasts
who know what adventure gamers want – smooth
interface, increasingly difficult puzzles, deep storyline – and
are implementing it into the game (The development team also seems
to have extremely good taste as evidenced by their admission that
Just Adventure is their favorite website).

The dialogue is well-crafted
and even contains a few in-jokes that take mild jabs at established
adventure game traditions – such
as doors always being locked at the most inopportune times – that
should provide hardcore adventure gamers with a few chuckles. Ms.
MacDonald is an established dialogue writer and editor who has fine-tuned
her skills on a few of Frogwares’ releases.

The 3D graphics are powered
by the Wintermute Engine and, while I’ll not pretend to be an expert on game engines, it’s
obvious from the in-game screenshots I’ve provided that there
is a high level of detail and special effects – such as lightening
flashing across a darkened sky – that do such a small development
team proud.

Though the demo is short,
it sparks enthusiasm through its quality and inherent potential.
As Destinies is still at least a year from
release, don’t get all antsy waiting to play it, but do add
Destinies to your must-have list for 2007.