I
like a game with clever puzzles which make you think and have logical
solutions which make sense before you know the answer. I like a story
line which keeps you interested during the game and leaves you thinking
about it for days after you finish. I like graphics which make you
stop and want to just look around. I like a sound track which makes
you want to stop and just listen. I like an atmosphere which affects
you and pulls you into the story.

I liked this game.

Outcry
is the first offering from a group of artists in St. Petersburg Russia.
Released as Sublustrum in Russia, it won
several Russian awards. You can read more details about the company
on their web site (see top of page for link), but their vision is
to take works of art and recast them in a technological medium. They
want you to be moved by what you see, by what you hear and by what
you learn.

I was moved.

The game starts off with
a cut-scene intro which immediately sets the mood. You are standing
in an old train station remembering the message you had just received
from your brother…

«Dear
Brother,
We have not seen each other for ages. I hope, you have not forgotten
about me yet. In these decisive days, I am writing to you for you
are more than my brother but you are also a friend and the person
I can confide in. You must visit me and see with your own eyes the
things that no one has ever seen…”»

Everything is old and difficult
to focus on. The graphics have been sent through that old movie camera
filter which makes the scratch lines and dust specs flash across the
screen. And this continues after the intro.

How old are you? How healthy
are you? While playing, you appear to sway a little while standing
still. When you move, there is a motion blur. Are you medicated? Do
you need medication? Has dementia set in?

Everything
is old, heavy and not very modern by Western standards. The music
is melancholy and very moving. Phantomery nailed the audio/visual
and deserves the highest grades for it.

The story is a familiar
one to adventure gamers: Your Brother invites you to visit and see
something important and when you get there he has vanished. But he
has left you a message. He has built a fabulous machine which allows
one to travel to amazing places of the mind’s creation. Unfortunately,
a part of you is left behind after each journey until you eventually
become trapped in this alternate reality. His message warns you not
to publicize his work, but destroy his notes.

Yeah, right. There is nothing
for it but to follow your brother into the unknown and drag him back.

The
game play is straightforward and classic. The view is first person
singular and you move from spot to spot where you have a 360°
panorama to look around. The cursor is a simple ring which gets an
“x” in it when it is over a hot spot. There was little
pixel hunting, but there was one spot which I missed the first time
around even though I could swear I looked there carefully :-).

Notes and inventory are
kept on your screen or can be hidden with the click of the right mouse
button. There were only six save slots, but it turns out that was
more than enough. You cannot get stuck in the game. You can make as
many wrong decisions as you like, but you won’t move on until you
do it right.

The puzzles were classic.
Seasoned adventurers will recall seeing each one somewhere else, but
they were all woven perfectly into the story line. There was no gratuitous
slider or maze thrown in just to fluff it out. The difficulty ranged
from easy to advanced. But even the advanced puzzles could be figured
out if you paid attention to the details and thought it out.

Except for one.

The
one major flaw in the game is a certain puzzle which simply cannot
be solved with the clues given. There is a place where you must take
four wires and first create one circuit, take advantage of the result,
and then create a second circuit. The clues are all there and the
first circuit can be assembled without question. But then you go to
make the second circuit and you realize that the solution for the
first also solves the second. The second circuit doesn’t work, so
you look for another solution. But nothing works. You finally break
out of the game and search the forums (or my walkthrough) for the
answer. There is one, but the correct answer not only doesn’t result
in the circuit shown in the clue, but it does not make a valid circuit
at all.

Needless to say, this totally
destroys the mood and any immersion you may have been enjoying.

But you put that behind
you and jump back into the game. There is a feeling of timelessness
as you continue to explore and work your way forward. Until you find
yourself at the end of the game…

And
that is all I am going to say about that, except that the ending was
just as well developed and executed as the beginning (how did TAC
manage to let that happen?). My personal reaction was “What
the?…” And then what I had seen fully struck home and I was
like “Oh wow…”

And I have been thinking
about it ever since.

Final Grade

I really wanted to give
this game the highest marks. It is truly a work of Art which stimulates
the senses, evokes your emotions and leaves you thinking. But it has
that one fatal flaw which mars the whole experience. So I am giving
it a B+. Should Phantomery ever come out with a patch to change that
one puzzle to a rational solution, I will happily patch my grade up
to an A.

System Requirements:

• OS: Windows® XP/Vista
• CPU: 1.5 GHz Pentium
  4 or Similar Athlon XP
• RAM: 256 MB
• Disk Space: 1.5 GB Available
• Video: 3D Video Card
  with 128 MB Onboard, DirectX® 9.0c Compatible with 2.0 Shaders Support
  (GeForce® FX 5200 or Radeon® 9600)
• Sound: DirectX® 9.0c
  Compatible
• CD-ROM: 16x
• Input: Keyboard, Mouse
  and Speakers