This is not a Benoit Sokal
game.

Let
us make this clear right up front. It may have been produced by White
Birds Productions, but this is not a fantastical romp through breathtaking
lands of eye candy.

The story and artwork come
from Enki Bilal, a graphic novelist (think comic books for grown ups)
and filmmaker. It is the work of Mr. Bilal we are reviewing here,
and not the production house which implemented his vision.

So, having said that, just
how good is this game? I personally did not care for it. But neither
do I care for Blizard’s World
of Warcraft and there are millions of people who
disagree with me on that one. So let’s take a look at the game
and see if the things I didn’t like are just the things you look for
in a game.

First, let’s take
a look at the graphics. It is immediately clear that this is not Sokal’s
style. This is futuristic cyber-punk. This is a grim Paris run by
a religious dictator who rations food and keeps armed guards between
the unwashed mutant masses and the beautiful people. The imagery is
effective at conveying the poverty. It is professionally done with
no hint of tiling textures or replication. But there is nothing special
about it. The style is not unique and I never experienced the desire
to just stop and stare in wonder. This is solid B territory.

One
nice effect, however, were the animated scenes between the chapters.
They are a montage of boxes just like you would see in a comic book,
ermmm, graphic novel, with the animation jumping from cell to cell.
This was a very nice way to remind us of our graphical roots and raised
my score to B+.

You will note that I have
only taken a few screen shots from the very beginning of the story.
Yes, I played through the game, but I don’t want you playing the game
feeling like you have already seen it all. This should be enough to
give you the feel and leave the rest of the game for you to discover.

What
about the story? There is a lot of potential here. Paris is under
the heel of a ruthless dictator when all of a sudden a mysterious
floating pyramid shows up filled with Egyptian deities. Then your
father somehow escapes from prison and vanishes into the night. The
gods appear interested in the local government, but are they here
to liberate or to conquer? And what about the ancient prophecies?

Plenty of material here
to write a full novel. Unfortunately, almost none of it makes its
way into the game. The plot is set up for you in the beginning. You
then spend the entire game fighting your way out of one building,
then across town, then into another building where the game wraps
up. Then several of the mysteries are explained in the closing scene.
In the game itself, about the only revelation is that the gods are
getting involved in the local politics. Sorry if that was a spoiler.

I give the story a B- for
being a potentially great story, but only being given a bit part in
the game.

How
about the puzzles? They are split about half and half between inventory
based and twiddly/logical. The inventory puzzles are nicely incorporated
into the game and are medium-to-advanced in difficulty. The logical
puzzles frequently feel forced into the game and are definitely for
the advanced player. Unfortunately (for me), many of them are timed
puzzles – you only have so long to solve them before the soldiers
crash through the door. I do not like timed puzzles. How about you?

I give the puzzles a B-
for being professional, but a little forced in places.

And what of gameplay? Ahh,
now we get down to it. The game boils down to one large puzzle solving
marathon with the army breathing down your neck. There is little exploration
and the story is revealed before and after the game itself. You solve
puzzles to be given a timed puzzle which you survive so that you can
be given the next puzzle.

Now,
I normally like puzzles. I love the Rhem
series and they are nothing but puzzles. But Rhem
has the type of puzzles which allow you to sit back, think about and
finally deduce. Nikopol is a lot more of
pixel hunting for the smallest detail, trying to figure out what can
be used with what or frantically trying to prevent yourself from getting
killed.

And you can die frequently
in this game. The good news is that the game automatically restarts
you at the beginning of the fatal puzzle. The bad news is that, for
me, nothing kills the immersion or any sense of magic like getting
killed and having to re-do a sequence over and over. Sorry, but I
am no longer in the mood.

That is the crux of this
game. It is professionally done with good graphics, good voice acting
and challenging puzzles. The only question is whether you prefer to
solve your puzzles like Sherlock Holmes while puffing on a couple
of bowls of course shag, or like Jack Bauer while dodging bullets.

System Requirements
(Minimum):

• Microsoft Windows 98/SE/ME/2000/XP
• 1.7 GHz Pentium 4, AMD
  Athlon, or equivalent
• RAM : 512 MB (1024MB
  with Vista)
• DVD-ROM 16x or faster
• 3 GB hard drive space
• 128MB DirectX 9.0c compatible
  graphics card ATI Radeon 9600 / NVIDIA 6 series or higher
• DirectX 9.0c compatible
  sound device

System Requirements
(Recommended):

• Windows XP/Vista
• 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, AMD
  Athlon, or equivalent
• RAM : 1024 MB (2048MB
  with Vista)
• DVD-ROM 16x or faster
• 3 GB hard drive space
• 128MB DirectX 9.0c compatible
  graphics card ATI Radeon 9800 XT / NVIDIA 6600 GT series or higher
• DirectX 9.0c compatible
  sound device