Here's why: 1. The immersiveness Call me an uncultured savage stuck in gaming Middle Ages (actually - don't), but when I stepped out into the snowy Marcurian streets, I couldn't help but marvel at the grandeur of it. People walking, the guards keeping a watchful eye over the occupied region... I took my time, panned the camera around, taking it all in. 2. The different paragidms Three characters, operating within wildly different paragidms, troubled by completely different thoughts... all facing the same reality (to a degree), their paths intertwined... The "obviousness" switching in a blitz was something I found intoxication, irresistable. One moment you are trying to figure out WTF is going on, as Zoe, dazzled by the wonders around you... the next you're trying to overcome the harsh reality around you as April, plotting your next moves while people's lives rest upon your shoulders... 3. The thrills of discovery Both exploring the places you encounter for the first time and revisiting the ones you remember from the prequel are incredibly exciting. Meeting the people, sneaking through dangerous passageways (both ancient and futuristic !), learning that there is an entirely new layer of depth beyond that which by now is "obvious" to April. I'm going to be controversial here and say that it's as intellectually satisfying an watching the second and third Matrix movies was to me as a future philosopher. Once shocking revelations become obvious hidden truths, it is all the more alarming to find out that what you knew was merely the tip of the iceberg. 4. The audio Voice acting is something notoriously done poorly in games... yet (if memory serves right) it was brilliantly performed in Dreamfall. On top of that - the music or ambient sounds are always there to paint the atmosphere... The sound effects, of course, are fitting as well. The end result is so powerful that parts of the game gave my roommate nightmares... though she never was a particularly brave soul ;P. 5. The humor The worlds are believable but not necessarily serious. The character interaction dynamic itself can be hilarious... 6. The plot It's NOT predictable. As you desperately cling to learned truths, entirely new perspectives emerge, shoving facts, characters and agendas down your throat. Once you accept that even more mysteries lie onwards, the truth becomes your Holy Grail, so woefully out of reach yet beckoning and taunting you with the occasional minor discoveries. 7. The interface I initially thought you cannot make a good adventure game in 3D. Boy, was I wrong... Being able to "scan" for hotspots means there's no more pixel hunt and interacting with objects becomes a breeze. All it takes is 5-15 minutes of getting used to it and it becomes... natural. 8. The emotional impact I'll be honest - I'm an incredibly emotional guy and this is likely the best reason why I enjoyed Dreamfall thoroughly. The emotional roller-coaster it took me on was rivalled only by what I felt throughout the Max Payne series. Taking my few final steps within the game, I sobbed and I shivered. The surge of emotions and thoughts it gave me lasted several hours, as I paced through my room, slowly getting it out of my system. A masterpiece of a game.
Theodicy, attempting to explain why God created a world not devoid of evil, usually states that the world is only perfect as a whole. Leibniz elaborated on this perfection, by stating that it is the biggest possible variety in the smallest space possible. Because of this - I highly doubt he would have enjoyed Syberia. I approached the game with high expectations, but also a lot of enthusiasm (which, as we know, helps leniency). Being the inquisitive and thorough gamer that I am, I scoured every location for exits and items and double-checked every dialogue option on every character. To my amazement - I discovered that the game features LOTS of VERY distinct items I can't use, pick up of look at, characters with one (or LESS) line vocabulary and locations that serve NO PURPOSE WHATSOEVER, being merely eye-candy. We all know the sad consequences of such a focus - the game is from 2002, so my titular analogy (self-explanatory, I hope) just gets more and more true as the time goes by. The story really doesn't help, because most of the "why" questions you might ask can only be answered with either "Why not ?" and "Because he/they can". The characters are bland, shallow and can easily be viewed as mere tools in overcoming obstacles. You don't care about their lives, because they are pitiful, insipid and most of all - unresourceful. They're either hopelessly stuck or in a downward spiral. Oh - and they're lifeless and unimaginative (both as people and as characters). The best proof is that the most lively, driven and witty person you meet is an elderly ex-singer. I kid you not. Also - don't hope for any optional content you can miss. Other than the things required to advance the storyline, the game has basically nothing to offer. Along the way, our heroine is also bound to receive a few phone calls from work as well as from friends and family. This gives us an exciting opportunity to learn about her personal and proffesional life, right ? Character development and all that good jazz ? As scary as this might sound - those are the most painful in-game moments I have experienced. Our call list boils down to four people. * The boss is more and more pissed off at our inability to get the job done. Our quirky vacation/adventure isn't exactly his preferred modus operandi and he doesn't hesitate to point it out. * The mother has the voice of a stereotypical mother-in-law and, believe it or not, she's even more annoying. You're flooded with her monologue dealing with unremarkable nonsense and, to top it all, details of her elderly erotical life. This just screams TMI... * The boyfriend is a self-centered, boring jerk with a huge sense of entitlement, cartoon-like jealousy and extremely weak idea of loyalty. He has the personality of a grown-up jock in a suit. * The "friend" is an airheaded ditz our character knows from work. Her hobbies include shopping, clothes and men. No, I'm not making this up, nor am I embellishing the truth. This leaves us with one person to describe - the main character. What we learn about her, we do from her interactions with the outside world and the people she knows (there's little to no mental monologue we all know and love). The latter certainly doesn't impress - take a look at the list above and imagine her life before the events in the game begin. What's even worse is that her reactions to the phone calls are, albeit in a very courteous way, variations on "I don't give a ***" and "F*** off", making you wonder whether it was the last straw or has she been dealing with this stuff that way for a while now. The former (seeing her interact with the world) can be irritating at times - at one point, for example, she refuses to pick an object up because it has been lying in a crystal-clear river for some time, making it "dirty and wet". If you think the solution would be to make it clean and dry - think again. We simply pick it up with SOMEONE ELSE'S HANDS. A few moments later remarking that we feel a lot like an adventurer. Back in the day, adventure game heroes asked for help when there was NO WAY to overcome the obstacles they were facing... That leaves us with the gameplay itself, the deep core of adventure games - the puzzles you come across. Unfortunately, they're clockwork-like predictable. You see a thing missing, you find it, place it back - done. What's worse is that you usually don't get much indication as to WHAT exactly you are supposed to do, and more importantly - a partial success will give you the same response as a total failure. Call it nitpicking, but I think you should rather get an encouriging response, telling you that while you're not there YET, you're pretty darn close, so you should keep trying. If either the characters, the plot or the gameplay were interesting enough to keep entertained, I would've rated Syberia a 4 and said it was good, but not the greatest. The hellish mixture where everything is surprisingly average yields a score of 3, for an average adventure game.
With a MASSIVE list of things you have to keep track of and time-consuming ways to verify them, Constructor is as unforgiving as real life (except that IRL they don't bury you alive if you fail to build a park... I hope). Time-dependent unit production frequency means that you have to constantly monitor the spawn rate (and everything that it depends on), the process itself (to switch between unit production and money earning, for example) and the outcome (because trying to break the unit cap will get you both instantly and constantly penalized). At the same time, you have to an eye out for your resources and replenish them if need be, erect different types of structures, use owned special units to your advantage, repopulate vacant houses, manage repairs of all the buildings, fend of enemy attacks, furnish houses and gardens, adjust the rent both globally and locally, deal with complaints from the tenants and quickly finish the objectives given to you by the Council. A single mistake or failure to plan ahead can lead to a more or less abrupt game over, even on the easiest difficulty with just one enemy to take care of. So why, exactly, do I like this game ? Well - while it IS challenging, it can be rewarding when (rarely ;P) things go well. Also - the omnipresent humor doesn't get old fast - while you can get used to the all the different messages and unit responses, the least they do is bring a smile to your face once you can afford to notice them. Also - much of the difficulty stems from the fact that the AI cheats all the time (it doesn't really pursue goals, it's simply there to annoy you). This means (as weird as it may sound) that playing agains a real person can actually be SIMPLER. Because of that - if you want a much more relaxed experience - either try playing alone (without the AI) or compete against other players, if you're lucky enough to arrange it.
Introduction I think we can (conceptually) distinguish between two types of gamers and as such - I shall divide this review into two parts. Gameplay It's fast and furious but mostly because that's how you'll want it to be. You are offered a few basic types of moves and abilities and gain additional ones as the game progresses. Most of the time you'll even want to perform some of them simply because of how awesome they look. Even though you can play it safe (at some point - even too safe), you'll want to dive into the action and wreck havoc on your enemies... as well as the environment (ripping banners, crushing chairs - you name it). Speaking of enemies - there are quite a few types of them, so you won't get bored too fast. All of them require a slightly different approach and you'll soon pray for the previously-abundant cannon fodder, as the enemies are also your sole source of health regeneration. As all the damage you'll cause - it both looks and sounds 'authentic' as in - it really does give you a feel of great female power condensed into a single sexy, redhaired and green-eyed fury of a half-vampire. If you like slashing things - it's a must-have. Atmosphere Although you may find the plot lacking - it's bearable. Some trivia might be hard to swallow for the diehard fans of the topic, but you can (and should) leave your past knowledge behind. Once you do so, you'll be left with a powerful femme fatale serving as a one-woman X-filesque strike force. Since our heroine is far from being introverted - the little bits about her personality you'll be forced to learn through infrequent interactions via cut-scenes. What's a lot more immersive is the setting - the environments are quite detailed and mostly destructible, the sounds are nicely fleshed out and the music, as rare as it is, serves its purpose great - when you hear it, you simply KNOW there's something important going on. As much of an action game as it is - it can definitely give some people nightmares. I'm not going to get into much more details, because that might spoil the fun but it definitely can get scary at times. All in all - a nice set of thrills to go through. Conclusion As arbitrary as it is - I'll give Bloodrayne 4/5, even though I've had a great deal of fun with it. If you're an action fan and enjoy TPS games with sharp blades - make that a 5/5 and at the very least check the demo out. If you're a plot-driven person and enjoy the atmosphere of a game more than hectic action - it's more like 3/5, although you might still give it a go just for the chills and a few surprises it has up its sleeve (and you show DEFINITELY check the demo before you buy it to avoid disappointment).
