Anna's Quest is an exceptionally well produced point and click adventure. Its puzzles are of the inventory and conversation based puzzle style typical of the mid 90s LucasArts and Sierra games (Like Monkey Island, Kings quest 5-7 etc). It has a passable but not exceptional fairy tale plot which is very much family friendly and will certainly keep any under 12 players thoroughly entertained. Older players might find themselves a little bored unless they play it in short bursts. The game is worth its high price for the playtime and puzzle quality. You are probably looking at around 20 hours playtime, puzzles which are, on the whole, pretty sensible and the whole thing is backed up by good graphics, a decent musical score and voice acting of professional quality. The reasons I have only given this game three stars are the following 1) Long sections of extremely dull scripting 2) A very, very irritating protagonist To elaborate, the converations with the non player characters are largely dull and frequently irrelevant to the plot. There is virtually no humour in the game. Also at times it feels like a huge effort to find anything the irritatingly pious main character is willing to do. This is especially the case when trying to get her to use her 'super-power'. You'd think this would play a big part in the puzzle design. But no, it is underused and poorly used. In short, get this if you want an old school point and click to play for an hour every evening. Any more than that in one go and you are likely to get bored or seriously annoyed by Anna.
So many games of this era sacrificed game quality in favour of using lots of full motion video. The 11th hour is one of the worst casualties. Some of the gameplay was close to being really good but all the effort seems to have been spent on the full motion video interludes. The gameplay is as follows. You play a man whose girlfriend has gone missing while investigating a series of murders related to a haunted house (Stauf mansion of the 7th Guest). You follow her into the house and explore. The ghostly owner of the house forces you to solve riddles and puzzles and each time you are succesful you have a video clip that reveals some of the background plot. The reason you might want to play it: Some of the puzzles and riddles are really quite elegant - properly enjoyable. The reasons you should think twice about buying it: -About 1/3 of the puzzles are either nonsensical or you are playing a game against a frustratingly difficult to beat artificial intelligence. The hint system is so slow it is near useless. The riddles vary in quality from 4 letter obvious anagrams to things which I nor anyone else I know can fathom. -The game hasn't aged well. Most modern screens don't cope well with the video clips. - The story is ridiculous. They should have stuck to 7th gues cheesiness rather than trying and failing to make this plot serious. - The soundtrack isn't great and the sound balance is completely wrong. Choose between being deafened by the music or not hearing the voice acting.
I played this game when I was about 15 when it was released. At that time I didn't quite appreciate the quality of the puzzles but now it actually feels better than it did then. If you're looking for a complex plot, you aren't going to find it but that isn't the point of the game. It's trying to present a series of mathematical and word based logical puzzles in a frame of an entertaining but silly horror story. There are a few creepy moments and a few gross-out cut scenes but it is all very mild. Add to that a lot of hilarious (deliberately I hope) hammy acting. It's undoubtedly fun but daft. The puzzles should keep you going for a while. One ot two have become too well known to be a challenge anymore but some take a lot of thought. Really good quality here, so much so that I take some to my brightest 17 year old maths students. It's also well produced given its age. The visuals still look good and its got quite a nice soundtrack. The video cutscenes haven't survived that well but they are watchable. So in short, good puzzles, entertaining setting, well produced. Not really scary but good fun.
I know I'm repeating what some other reviewers have said but I feel I should show my agreement. I should also say I really liked 'Dracula 3: Path of the Dragon' so it is very disappointing how low the quality fell for these two. The two games Dracula 4 and 5 together are about as long as you would expect from a single episode of a game. To make it worse some of the puzzles have really odd and unpredictable goals. The mechanic of keeping your character alive through giving her medicine is odd and adds nothing to the game itself. The story could have been built into something really entertaing but it ends abruptly in both chapters and never develops any depth. Paying half price in a sale for Dracula 4 & 5 together I still don't feel its worth the price.
This is definitely a short story. It's a little expensive for the gameplay time so if you want to get it you may want to wait for a sale. I think it took around 5 hours for me to finish. In hindsight I'd only pay around $12 for it. There's a lot going for this game. The graphics are great, the voice acting is excellent and the soundtrack has moments of where it really shines. The puzzle design is pretty good too and the writers have done a reasonable job of using the ability to switch between characters to make the puzzles more interesting. Sadly the plot is dull. There are lots of characters with potential to become really interesting but nothing really gets going. I've played two of the potential endings but they are anticlimactic. The whole thing just lacks substance. If this were chapter 1 of 3 then I'd be more positive. It's just not worth much alone.
The third game in this series is wildly different from the first two. It's turned the sickly sweet overtones on their head and brought in the original villain as the main character. Unsuprisingly after that you need to be ready for a lot of sarcasm a lot of totally crazy side characters and one hell of a lot of mischief based puzzles. I have played this game twice now. The first time I didn't notice the full extent of how annoying and illogical the puzzles could be but we were used to having a lot of poor puzzle design then. Some of the puzzle designs in this game were really poor. Younger point and click fans might get really annoyed with good reason. The main issue is not that the puzzles are hard. The execution is tedious. Theres a lot of stuff you have to collect that seems to be randomly distributed over your landscape. Kyrandia 1 was also like this but it didn't seem quite as laboured. Many people will find this game tries their patience a bit too much. It's a big shame. I loved this game as a teenager and I barely noticed the noticed the annoying bits back then. But although the game's plot and characterisations are really well thought through the puzzle execution is really poor compared to what is available now.
There seems to difference of opinion going on between the people who fell in love with the original series and the younger ones who see better technical productions and have preferred the AGV version. In favour of the remade originals: If you were brought up on the original games, these releases are true in gameplay and graphics to the orignals. It will bring back that smile you had when you were 8 and you rushed home from school to see if you could get Sir Graham to get down the well or past the troll or ...whatever. At the same time the frustration of just getting him up stairs without falling and the annoyance that getting hold of that flaming eagle is still there is droves. There is all the good we loved and the bad we lived with. But that's not how adventure games are now I think lots of us like the most recent offerings. In favour of the new style: Personally there are lots I like about the AGV remakes. A seriously interesting plot is being introduced that (I guess) wasn't in the capacity of the programming in the early-mid eighties. The remade KQ2 and KQ3 offer a plot that brings together and consolidates the whole series including the sadly incomplete attempt at Kings Quest 9. The Kings Quest series should always hold much respect for being an initial example of how to develop adventure games but they have developed into something better.
The tag lines for this game seem to be along the lines of 'Quest for Glory meets Leisure Suit Larry.' Thankfully it is much more like QFG. I guess the LSL comparison is there because all of the female characters have lots of cleavage on show. This game seems to be directly aimed at those kids that loved the QFG series and are now adults. You have three character classes, The gameplay is a mix of puzzles, dialogue and fairly simple combat. It looks like there are multiple solutions for many puzzles and tailored sections for each class of player (mage, thief, fighter). The initial setup is almost identical but your character isn't the silent, nameless guy anymore. You get a selfish, mouthy rougue who's on the run from a baron after being found in bed with his daughter. The other writing aspects of the game are also a long way from Sierra's sickly sweetness. Its full of non family friendly language and references but the jokes aren't cheap (on the whole). It's pretty good writing for a mature audience. The character is suprisingly likeable and although the game isn't quite as funny as the trailers suggest you will find a few laugh out loud moments. He is also played by a really good voice actor. The others vary more but the only really bad ones don't have more than a line or two. QFG fans will find this at least enjoyable and other point and click fans should give it a go even if combat annoys you- it is a minor part of the game really. The only bad point about the game is a mildly bland storyline. It starts off looking intriguing before fizzling out at the end. But it does imply a sequel may be coming to tie things up. One more bad point for a minority of people who might buy this. You have to battle with some really grim giant spiders. They are unavoidable.I know people who really couldn't handle these so check out some screenshots before you buy if you're an arachnophobe.
I have been quite a fan of Daedalic's creations on the whole but I've always wondered why they pick such unlikeable protagonists. I played Deponia and Whispered World whose main characters were heavily criticised and still enjoyed them. But I thought Randal was just too much. This game is really not fun to play. Good points first: The artwork is pretty good. It is cartoony in a way that reminded me of 'American Dad'. The background music is also really well done. I also can't knock the voice acting. The game interface is completely fine: right click to bring out the options and left click to select. Good Daedalic standards. Good technical production all round. Despite the technical good work the story is itself downright dull. This is pushed to unbearable by the main character. Playing this game feels like being stuck in a room with a cranky sarcastic teenager that doesn't shut up. I understand the main character is intentionally a complete a-hole. That would be ok if there were enjoyables bits of story and puzzle. But I'm sorry there aren't. It is just a stream of dull non-sensical puzzles while you get whined at by the horrib;y stupid lead character. As for the geek culture references, perhaps I missed a few when i decided that 3 hours of my life were more than enough to spend on this game. *minor spoiler* Threepwood Street as the main character's address. I suppose the music on this street seems to be a nod to the Monkey Island soundtrack. Sorry, but not neither amusing nor clever enough to make up for the tedium of the rest of what I saw. I hate putting down Daedalic . I love loads of their other games. I also hate the fact that i got so sick of this nonsense that I missed most of Jason Mewes' acting. But I just couldn't sit through the dull nonsense any more. Not worth the price by a long shot.
I'm glad there are institutions like Daedalic making techically sound point and click adventures. But I wish they would get some writers to understand that an annoying lead characters are detrimental to the enjoyment of the game. This game has loads of good things going for it. I would recommend playing it if you like point and click adventures proviiding it didn't cost more than maybe $20 or equivalent. Positives: Pretty graohics, Really good effort here. Intuitive interface, Left or right click does what you need and its easy to figure out from thereon. nice though unexceptional soundtrack, puzzles that are relatively sensible Negatives: Verging on dull plot, (although i think this is in keeping with the initial RPG this was based on) Monotonic voice acting at times. The REALLY bad point: The 'sidekick' character. The player controlled character is a bit dull but not actively irritating. *very minor spoiler coming* Near the beginning of the game you come across a fairy who you try to help. This becomes a large part of the main character's goals. Unfortunately she is clueless at best, unhelpful (if you want to be polite) and eventually a counterproductive pain in the backside. I'm afraid that side character puts a downer on the game. A damsel in distress that ends up being brainless and counterproductive. She is really hard to like. Everything else,is fine. Nothing special but a solid production with one really annoying flaw.
