1954 Alcatraz

Great adventure-game that indeed reminds me of the work of Pendulo Studios. Just like Pendulo there are a couple of interesting and a bit twisted charachters, great storyline with two parallel stories, rich scenery/environment; However user interface could be way better for Mac-users. I often found myself in a situation where the only option was to restart the game in order for the UI to work at all. This leading to annoying setbacks from lack of hitting the save-button in time. Instead of following the story my main focus was aimed at constantly saving the game.

The problem with a point & click game, is the problem with all point & click games. Meaning they're either too easy or too hard, the plot is usually flimsy, & the experience is secondary to the plot, considering it changes from player to player. This game is on the easy side-easy enough to be more of an interactive movie than a game, with the main character constantly telling you what you ought to do next, in case you didn't figure it out yourself. So often times you'll find yourself waiting for the game to allow you to do the things you know you're supposed to do next. The plot IS interesting, & deals with a convinct looking at hard time & trying to escape, while his woman is on the other side trying to prove his innocence. But the plot soon becomes stale, since you spend most of the game with one of the characters, rather than switching between them as advertised. It doesn't help that all your choices are set in stone-you're going through a path someone set for you, rather than be at the helm. Which wouldn't make this too bad a game, if it didn't try to forcefully turn itself into a game for adults. It might have the apperance of a kids' game, or an age-neutral game, but sex is inserted into this game in an extremely over the top & superflous way. We're told the two main characters' relationship is basically a sex marathon, that the convict's best friend is basically Quagmire, constantly trying to convince the convict's better half to cheat on him, that apparantly the local park is rife with sailors hiding in bushes doing the business, etc, etc. Trying to be edgy in that childish "wink wink nudge nudge" sort of way, to prove to us, the players, that this is game is so on the edge, it's practically X-Treme. Its edgyness adds nothing, but does remove the focus from the paper-thin plot & uninteresting characters, & the beta-game feeling. Resolution is poor, animation is jarring, dubbing is lifeless, subtitles don't match audio & audio is poorly recorded at times.

I have yet to experience a Daedalic game that didn't disappoint. The models are beyond ugly, though the backgrounds are nice enough. The story is often incoherent. Be prepared to try every item on everything. Thankfully, the game has a way to highlight intractables, so there is no pixel-hunting.

Which is more than I can say for most adventure games. I'm not near the end yet, but I felt I should give the game a nod for having some...what? Substance, I guess. It's not just some random, cartoony, goof-fest like Deponia and other, similar, games. It seems like someone actually put five minutes of thought into what they were doing here, even providing descriptions for onscreen items and scenery unimportant to the plot. Whether it holds up until the end I can't say at this point, but I CAN say that at 99 cents just the small part of it I've played has been well worth it. (And yes, in my opinion that part does deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as, say, Grim Fandango or Monkey Island...