Posted March 26, 2009
I speak from reasonable experience of the genre : 'The Feeble Files' is exactly average. The story is quite good, the voice acting is quite good, the characters are quite good, and the puzzles are quite good.
To break the monotony, however, I'll reveal that in fact there are some ups and downs to this game. It is, occasionally, very funny - though mostly due to the odd line of dialogue from a minor character. Also, considering this is an Adventuresoft game with 3d artwork whose release preceded the sinfully ugly 'Simon the Sorceror 3D' ("the horror, the horror...") by several years, the graphics are pretty good too.
On the other hand. As is often observed of this game, it's really quite difficult at times - but sadly this tends to be for all the wrong reasons. While the genre as a whole suffers from the occasional failure to distnguish between a clever puzzle and an utterly illogical one, 'The Feeble Files' seems to do this as a matter of course. What's more, the interface is the most irritating and inaccessible I've yet encountered in this genre, and I've played Starship Titanic. It's clear that the developers were aware of this as well - you can actually specifically mute the annoying sound effects on the slow-opening inventory screen to prevent you killing yourself.
In general then, while this game isn't half as good as "Grim Fandango", it isn't half as bad as "Simon the Sorceror 3D" either. Oh hang on though - yes, actually it's both of those.
To break the monotony, however, I'll reveal that in fact there are some ups and downs to this game. It is, occasionally, very funny - though mostly due to the odd line of dialogue from a minor character. Also, considering this is an Adventuresoft game with 3d artwork whose release preceded the sinfully ugly 'Simon the Sorceror 3D' ("the horror, the horror...") by several years, the graphics are pretty good too.
On the other hand. As is often observed of this game, it's really quite difficult at times - but sadly this tends to be for all the wrong reasons. While the genre as a whole suffers from the occasional failure to distnguish between a clever puzzle and an utterly illogical one, 'The Feeble Files' seems to do this as a matter of course. What's more, the interface is the most irritating and inaccessible I've yet encountered in this genre, and I've played Starship Titanic. It's clear that the developers were aware of this as well - you can actually specifically mute the annoying sound effects on the slow-opening inventory screen to prevent you killing yourself.
In general then, while this game isn't half as good as "Grim Fandango", it isn't half as bad as "Simon the Sorceror 3D" either. Oh hang on though - yes, actually it's both of those.
