Step
aside Kate Walker, Randy has a new virtual girlfriend – Mona De Lafitte.
Ah, I dream of losing my soul in those deep, unblinking eyes; of caressing
that cold and clammy skin and those blood-red lips, . . wait a minute,
that really is blood on those lips! Unfortunately, Mona is a lady
of the night. No, not that kind of ‘lady’ you silly. Ms.
De Lafitte is a vampire, a bloodsucker, a manananggal, a noserferatu,
the Queen of the Damned, but with one teeny, tiny complication –
she refuses to admit that she has crossed over to the dark side. Sigh,
there’s always a complication to these virtual relationships.
Still, I hear the tinkle of her voice in my sleep; glimpse that slinky
figure approaching as through a haze and feel a strangely icy, yet
refreshing pinch on my neck…

The above paragraph
was the last time we heard from Randy – though some staff members
have reported seeing someone who looks like him outside their bedroom
windows late at night – and have asked Greg Collins to step in and
finish this review.

As
the late Mona de Lafitte herself might put it, “Vare to begin,
mon vieux?” First, has there been a more eagerly, even feverishly
anticipated adventure game in recent years than A Vampyre
Story from Autumn Moon Entertainment? This was to be
the magic bullet to restore the adventure game to its rightful place
of prominence in the video game marketplace. This was to be the return,
however convoluted the path, of LucasArts brilliance to the genre,
in the considerable personage of Bill Tiller, the man responsible
for the background art in the Curse
of Monkey Island. Ah, mes amis, we have all been
the lost tribe roaming aimlessly around the Sinai peninsula since
the dismantling of the adventure division up at Skywalker Ranch.

After
that plague of locusts walloped Northern California, the high priests
of adventuredom scattered to the four winds, landing here, there,
everywhere and nowhere. Tim Shafer ventured forth to produce, most
notably, Psychonauts.
A bunch of ’em kicked off Telltale Games and reignited the Sam
and Max engine. And now, Mr. Tiller, with his new company
Autumn Moon, has not only done the background art for AVS,
but directed as well. You know, you have to give all these guys a
lot of credit. They all probably could have gotten gainfully employed
at id, Rockstar or some other head-banger production house, but they’ve
stayed true to the adventure game ideal. They’re putting their careers
where their mouths are. George Lucas may have jumped Guybrush’s ship,
but these stalwarts are still lashed to the wheel.

None of which, of course,
tells you how much fun A Vampyre Story is
to play. Well, AVS is terrific fun to play.
However, a number of people out there are hopping mad over a number
of issues. I’ve read reviews complaining that Mona, the lead character,
isn’t detailed enough. Others complain that the game is too easy.
That it’s buggy. That certain puzzles don’t make sense. That it’s
too short. That the acting is campy. Well, with great expectations
come high standards. While it’s true that AVS
is not without its faults, I do believe some folks have been fixating
on its shortcomings and not enough on its strengths.

I
suppose I should provide a few particulars about the plot before anything
else. Mona, an opera singer turned vampiress, is the lead character
in AVS. Her goal is to escape the obsessive
attentions of her vampire captor Baron Shrowdy von Kiefer, and return
to her former life in Paree as a budding opera star. As the game begins,
she’s trapped in the baron’s Draxylvanian island castle. The subplot
has it that poor Mona refuses to believe Shrowdy has indeed made her
into a vampire, but over the course of the game she comes to learn
more about her new nature and its peculiar traits, favorable and unfavorable.
Actually, the most interesting plot points in AVS
have to do with what transpired before the game opens. One might argue
that instead of chapter one, plot-wise, this game is chapter two,
or even chapter three. There’s a whole, rather elaborate back story
of Mona training to be a singer in Paris, then succumbing to Shrowdy,
and then a fairly long period spent in Castle Warg, wherein, not least
of all, she rescues and befriends her wisecracking bat sidekick Froderick.
I only just recently noticed that there’s an entire story played out
in storybook images during the opening credits of Mona learning to
sing, coming to Paris, and, apparently, being double-crossed by a
conniving competitor at the Paris Opera. As for the Castle Warg episode,
the writers have shoe-horned a lot of that into the game’s dialogue,
especially the Abbott-and-Costello banter between Mona and Froderick.

Come
to think of it, this game has a boatload of subplots. Clearly the
writers whipped up far more than they could pack into this one game.
There is, for instance, a rather long explanation about a pair of
local constables and their lifelong sibling rivalry which seems to
have virtually nothing to do with the game. I would say that gamers
who like plot will have a field day with AVS.
It already has a mythology to rival far more developed franchises.
The one subplot that left me completely confused has to do with an
elderly gypsy woman who is either helping or hunting Mona. I can’t
tell which. Then there’s Baron Shrowdy’s mum, a witch, who has mysteriously
departed the scene long since, after searching for some sort of super
spell. Plus there’s the raven Edgar who has his own life story, and
the gargoyle Rufus with his fairly elaborate employment history with
the von Kiefers. Even Mona’s horse Buttercup has a somewhat lengthy,
mildly tragic tale to tell. And yes, pretty much everyone and everywhere
in the story has a funny name except for the gypsy woman, who’s called
Madame Strigoi. Don’t know how she escaped being tagged Madame Stoli
or Bev Stroganoff, but there you have it. Since this is the first
episode of what appears to be several, the detailed environment and
character histories make sense. But I think a little too much of it
leaked out into this installment.

The
biggest shock of this game, to me, was the stunningly abrupt “to
be continued” ending. This notion of it being episode one is
not exactly played up on the game’s official website. The cliffhanger
ending is a successful gimmick when you’re watching a TV show or a
Saturday serial, but not necessarily when you’re playing a game that
set you back thirty bucks. The Monkey Island series (four games) each
came to a satisfying conclusion, for instance. Well, time and sales
will tell.

Wait,
wasn’t I supposed to be explaining why you’ll love AVS?
Well, I’m getting to that. Right now I’d like to delve into some of
the serious complaints gamers have had about this game. Most notably
the dreaded dual dead ends issue. Autumn Moon claims the patch now
available on the game’s official website fixes both bugs, although
I’ve read elsewhere on the web that may not be the case. Personally,
I ran into neither of the dead ends, but I know they’ve been generating
a lot of criticism out there in cyberspace. I read at least two reviews
where the reviewer stopped playing the game altogether after encountering
the first dead end. That’s fairly drastic. Except there’s nothing
worse in a game than a dead end; that is, a situation where you don’t
realize you can’t complete the game. The first one in AVS
involves a certain container and when and where to fill it. The other
has to do with, as I understand it, getting back out of a certain
area. It’s the first, though, that seems to have most people lathered
up. The reason I avoided it is that I had played the demo and knew
I needed the item in a certain condition later in the game. I hope
that the patch works because I’d hate to see a regrettable mistake
like this prevent people from enjoying the game.

The
other thing that has many people worked up is a certain elaborate
“assembly” puzzle in the game that doesn’t, to put it mildly,
go according to plan. This problem seems to me far less serious than
the dead ends. I understand and sympathize with players who griped
about this puzzle, but I do think it’s possible to get through it
without too much agony. I also think that the game does provide more
clues for its completion than some people are suggesting. Though AVS
is not exactly a cranium cruncher, puzzle-wise, it does behoove you
to “look” at most things. Many important clues are provided
in the item descriptions and the dialogue. If anything, I thought
this puzzle suffered only from being a little too simple. It involves
following instructions and progressing through steps to create something,
and at first it reminded me of one of my favorite adventure game puzzles,
the lab sequence in that cruelly under-appreciated game The
Riddle of Master Lu.

One
of the great trademarks of the old LucasArts adventures was that the
puzzles were ingenious, fair and usually amusing. I played every LucasArts
adventure and had to use a walkthrough only once, in LeChuck’s
Revenge. This is not because I’m smart, but because
the games were so brilliantly put together. Anyone can make a puzzle
difficult. All you do is hide the solution. What is difficult to do
is to make the puzzle fun and challenging to solve without resorting
to combination locks and other cop-outs. I think they did that in
AVS. It’s true, as some have complained, the game is not difficult.
Hell, even I didn’t get stuck for long while playing it. But that’s
not because the solutions are simple or obvious, but because the puzzles
have been well constructed. In fact, I would argue that AVS has some
of the best puzzle design since those venerable LucasArts classics.
I also would argue that the puzzles in AVS
have been rather well integrated into the plot, and with the characterizations.
I’m going to give one example that I hope is not giving away too much
as a means of illustration. When she reaches Vlad’s Landing, Mona
comes face to face with her true vampiric nature, and she struggles
with it at first. However, a couple of the puzzles naturally lead
her to accept her new powers (one that involves her front teeth).
While you’re solving the puzzle, Mona is learning to live with herself.
That’s far more sophisticated than finding the gold key and inserting
it into the silver lock. That takes real writing, real plotting, real
integration of plot and puzzle. Finally, Mona gets to “employ”
her newfound ability on a skunk who really deserves it, and, presto,
both she and you have grown comfortable with her new power. Otherwise,
acting like a vampire could be quite the turn off for many players.
After all, this is an adventure game, where people don’t go around
blasting everyone’s head off, then chuckling while reloading.

But
the puzzle designers of AVS went one even
better, in my opinion. They may even have created a whole new type
of puzzle. I’m speaking of the “ghost” inventory item. In
most adventure games, LucasArts classics included, the main character
wanders around sticking more and more improbable items into his inventory.
In a game like Curse of Monkey Island,
the designers have fun with the convention by showing Guybrush literally
dropping everything down the front of his pirate pants. Most games
simply accept the convention by ignoring the illogic of it. In AVS,
Mona doesn’t pick up anything large until she’s actually going to
use it. Instead she puts the “idea” of doing something with
that object into her inventory. Then, when the time is ripe, she flies
around collecting the items and using them. Brilliant. Not only logical,
but entertaining. In fact, I don’t think the game designers developed
this idea enough. Mostly, Mona flies around collecting one or two
items to use. But why not have her assemble a whole Rube Goldberg
list of things? Maybe even in a precise order. This could become a
whole new type of complex puzzle, where the hero has to find everything,
and combine everything properly, before it will work.

During
the game you also acquire two important volumes. The first is Shrowdy’s
mom’s spell book and the second is a “Vampirism for Dumkopfs”
primer. In this installment, Mona has access to only one spell in
the former and the first chapter in the latter, but it seems clear
both of these tomes will figure large throughout the series. Mona
also can “use” Froderick as an inventory item, the way Sam
employs Max, although somewhat less cavalierly. These devices help
expand the adventure game puzzle vocabulary and are to be applauded.
I’m only surprised that you don’t get to “play” as Froderick
in certain situations, another good way to expand a game’s possibilities.

Another thing I loved
about AVS is that both Mona and Froderick
are game for pretty much everything. AVS
employs the same “action disk” device as Curse where when
you left click on an item a cross (odd choice for a vampire) pops
up allowing you to look, use, talk (or other oral activity), or fly
(as a bat) with or to that item. In most adventure games, when you
choose a clearly inappropriate action you hear back something like
this: “No, you idiot.” Mona and Froderick almost always
give it a try no matter how improbable, often with amusing results.
And occasionally with productive results. Autumn Moon realizes that
fun is the main objective in a game.

The
Autumn Mooners clearly lavished a lot of time on the story, on the
characters, and on the art. Not too surprisingly, with Bill Tiller
at the helm, or at the tiller I suppose, this is one gorgeous looking
game. I still think Curse of Monkey Island
is one of the most beautiful games ever made, and A Vampyre
Story is its equal, or nearly so. Moreover, AVS
uses something called multi-plane backgrounds, where two or more backgrounds
shift left or right to give the illusion of depth. It works quite
well. (As it did, incidentally, as a common scenery convention on
the stage in the 19th century.) The characters are in 3D and they
also fit in beautifully. Lots of games have beautiful scenery, but
their art is not Art. Bill Tiller is a real artist. It’s as though
they got Vincent Van Gogh to do the backgrounds for a game.

Another
exceptional aspect of A Vampyre Story is
the soundtrack. Composed by Pedro Macedo Camacho, it is the equal
of Mr. Tiller’s artwork. Honestly, I usually don’t even notice the
music in a game. But when was the last time you found yourself whistling
a tune from a game you’ve just been playing? The score of AVS
is the best I’ve come across since the one Fatman did for The
7th Guest. It could easily stand alone as a chart-topping
pop album. I watched the closing credits of AVS I don’t know how many
times just to hear the snatches of the score played during it.

I played A
Vampyre Story on my mediocre-spec PC running the Windows
7 beta. I did have some problems installing the game and have read
on the web of other technical headaches encountered by others. As
my ‘late?’ editor Randy Sluganski forgot to send me the
manual, I played the entire game not realizing I could right click
on the exit arrows to jump to the next screen, or pump the space bar
to cancel almost every animated scene, including spoken dialogue and
even Mona’s traipsing from place to place.

To
me, A Vampyre Story looks, sounds and plays
like a long lost LucasArts game. The few mistakes are unfortunate,
but by and large Bill Tiller and Autumn Moon got it right. They put
the emphasis where it belongs, making a rich, beautiful game that’s
a lot of fun to play. They very nearly even got the dialogue and the
humor right. They clearly tried their darnedest to make as clever
a game as Curse. At times they succeed.
The characters in AVS are just as colorful as the ones in Curse.
I especially liked the Iron Maiden and the Ghostly Nun, and even Rufus
and Edgar. Their stories are every bit as wacky and rich as Mr. Goodsoup
and Lemonhead. But Curse is still heads
and shoulders above most games, even this one, because the folks who
wrote Curse understood that to be truly
funny a character has to be deadly in earnest. Both Mona and Froderick
are funny, have some good lines, and make some pretty wild comments,
but they both are winking at you while joking. In Curse,
the characters not only have a perfect deadpan, but they really believe
in what they’re doing. Lemonhead really is serious about being a vegetarian
cannibal. Captain Blondbeard really wants to succeed as a fast-food
proprietor. Even LeChuck is deadly in earnest about winning Elaine’s
hand.

They also didn’t prune
the dialogue trees enough in AVS. At times,
especially when you get to Vlad’s Landing, you think you’re never
going to get back to pointing and clicking. There are a dozen characters
scattered about, all of whom have reams of back story to fill Mona
and Froderick in on. One of the funniest lines in the game, and there
are many, has Froderick warning Mona that if she returns to talk to
Madame Strigoi, she’ll get stuck listening to hours more of exposition.

It’s
grading time and, honestly, I’d give an A to most things in
A Vampyre Story. Certainly the artwork and the music.
They’re among the best ever. I’d also give an A to the puzzles, if
it weren’t for the mildly unforgivable screw-up of the dead ends.
I even thought the acting was top-notch, though there are a couple
of places where Mona drops out of her fetching impression of Teri
Garr in Young Frankenstein. This game, like so many
adventures nowadays, came out first in Europe and I can’t help wondering
if Mona has a comic Bavarian accent in the German version. Draxylvania
is certainly a very cosmopolitan place. There are funny accents from
all over the world. Brooklyn, New Jersey, Minsk, you name it. But
all in good fun and mostly well voiced. As for the grand prize letter
grade, I award an A- to AVS, demoted from
top honors only by its unfortunate technical problems, its excessive
talkiness, and its sneaky “See you next game!” ending. Honestly,
if you played it and were rubbed the wrong way by the glitches, apply
the patch and give it another shot. Mona may be only a campy vampire,
but her heart, and the game’s, are in the right place.

System Requirements:

• OS: WindowsXP/Vista
• CPU: 1.6 GHz Pentium
  4 or Equivalent
• RAM: 512 MB
• Disk Space: 3 GB Available
• Video Card: 256 MB
  Graphics Card, GeForce FX-Generation or ATI Radeon 9500
• Sound: Direct X 9.0c
  Compatible Sound Card
• DVD-ROM: 4x
• DirectX: 9.0 c or Higher
• Input: Mouse, Keyboard
  and Speakers