Futuristic
themes in adventure games used to be a hit couple of years ago when
games like The
Longest Journey, The
Moment of Silence, Perry
Rhodan and Blade
Runner flooded the market. After the theme moved to horror
mystery this year, Alternativa from Centauri Production hit
the market. I’d been waiting for this moment for awhile and hoping
that this game would be better than similar games in the past. My
hopes were raised further after I read that Centauri Production is
a game developer in Eastern Europe. I don’t know what it is with these
Eastern Europe companies. They always make games with good stories
and graphics. So when Just Adventure offered me Alternativa
to review, I took it without hesitance.

This was the first time
I’d used Steam Application to download and play a game. At first I
was a little bit confused about how to use it, then after several
tries I noticed how simple it is to do. Download and installation
takes about 1 to 12 hours depending on your Internet speed. It is
as simple as installation from a box. The problem with this kind of
installation is you don’t have the installation file in your
computer, so I don’t really know what happens if your computer
crashes and you want to install the game again. Everything is done
online. So if you’re not familiar with the system I guess the
regular “buy the game at the store or online” will be better
for you.

The
first time I played the game I was very surprised because I did not
see an introduction movie as in other adventure games. I thought I
chose the wrong option or clicked the wrong button so I restarted
the game twice but still could not see the introduction. Then I played
the game for 10 minutes, went through several sets and voilà,
the introduction showed up. This is brilliant and unique.

The world of Alternativa
is a complex cyber-punk world set in the year 2030. At that time the
world is ruled by two main forces: Endora and The State. The story
of the game revolves around the life of Richard. At the start of the
game, Richard is sacked by Endora and forced to give up his identity
card. In that era, people without proper IDs are the same as dead.

Filled with rage, Richard
tries to find a way to take revenge on Endora. He finds an underground
organization called The Resistance which has been fighting Endora
and The State since the great wars. With the help of a shadowy figure
called NoName, Richard manages to get into The Resistance.

Things turn bad for Richard
when he is accused of killing Prof. Petrenko, an important figure
within The Resistance organization. With the police agents from Endora
and The State chasing him, betrayed by NoName and even by his own
friend Andy, Richard tries hard to find the real reason behind the
killing of Petrenko. The story becomes more complex when the real
killer of Prof. Petrenko sides with Richard. You have to race against
time, travelling between various exotic locations from Eastern Europe
to Brazil, to help Richard before everything goes chaotic.

The
visuals are STUNNING and the cut-scene movies are well done. You feel
like you’re watching Hollywood movies but you are in control
of the main characters. The camera angles are so dramatic that you’ll
feel you’re inside the environments. Some elements of the game, on
the other hand, might not be suitable for everybody, especially for
people under 17. It has very mature content consisting of rape investigation,
cutting an eyeball from dead body and other mature subjects.

The inventory system is
easy and intuitive. Moving your mouse to the top of the screen will
open your inventory; clicking your left mouse button will take you
anywhere on the screen; double-clicking your left mouse button will
make your character run, and left-clicking on an object will open
a circular action icon where you can choose between the standard action,
talk and look icons. In your inventory, you can manipulate objects
or combine objects to create new ones. A help system is available
for those who want a little bit of help in finding objects. Clicking
the ‘tab’ button on your keyboard will reveal all objects
that can be manipulated on your screen. The escape button will open
the game menu. You have only 21 save game slots but you can overwrite
as many as you want.

Most of the puzzles are
good and clever, except one that in my opinion is pure guessing. It
is so illogical that trying to solve it might make you want to pull
your hair out. It is the Endora’s back door entrance key code.
Luckily, I found a walkthrough on the web so I could pass it.

There
are two things related to object interactions and conversations that
annoy me quite a bit. You have to go back and forth using the train
or other transportation within the game just to ask something so you
can move on with your progress. Come on guys, why don’t we just
use a cell phone feature or something? That would make more sense.
Unlike other adventure games, several items are accessible ONLY after
you find information about them. This will add to your travelling
time as well. So check previous locations again and again after conversations,
even if you have searched a location thoroughly before. It might give
you new items or solutions.

The background music and
sound FX are high quality. It is very rare that an adventure game
impresses me in those areas. The Longest Journey is one of
those rare games but now Alternativa proves to be one as well.
On the other hand, the voice-overs are mixed quality. The male actors
are good but the female voices are poorly done. Andrea, the police
agent and the raped woman are good examples of this. I don’t think
you should just translate a foreign language script word-for-word
into English. It will make you laugh when you hear it.

There is a major bug within
the game that could get you stuck. You can move, but can’t do anything.
This happens when you click the ‘tab’ button with the
inventory window open. If the action circle appears at the top left
corner then you are doomed. There’s nothing you can do except load
your last save.

Now
we will talk about the worst part. You are given two options when
you start playing Alternativa: High and Low Difficulty. In High Difficulty
mode you are only given two chances to redo conversations before you
have to restore your game completely, and you will not be given any
hints on solving tasks. In Low Difficulty mode you can redo your conversations
as much as you want. Either way you will die if you make wrong choices
during conversations.

The developer of the game
might have wanted to make the player’s experience more intense, but
to me this is just plain annoying. Death from choosing conversation
replies should be banned completely from Adventure Games. In Alternativa,
you should use the save game feature often because you can easily
die.

The game’s note feature
is completely useless. Why do we have note feature if we’re unable
to review all past information? You can only see two or three of the
most recent notes when you use this feature. That is silly.

Even with all of the flaws
I’ve mentioned, Alternativa still stands out as one of the
best adventure games in 2010. It has a great complex story, a great
environment and an interesting plot. The game’s ending could be a
setup for a sequel; a lot of questions aren’t answered completely.
Just don’t listen to the bad female voice-overs, forgive the annoying
deadly conversation, and forget the back and forth task solution.
Save your money starting now and get ready to play one of the best
games in 2010-2011 (depending on where you live).

System Requirements:

• Windows XP ® or Windows
  ®Vista
• Intel Pentium IV ®
  2.0 GHz or compatible
• 2 GB RAM
• Graphic card with 512
  MB RAM (Shader 2.0 compatible)
• DirectX®: 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 2 GB free
  space
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c
  ® compatible sound card