Published thirteen years after Myst and ten years after Riven, you'd expect this game to have learned from the mistakes so many adventure games have made since then. Unfortunately this game doesn't show a lot of progress. I'll first explain why I scored this game so low and then I'll mention some adventure games that got it right (at least better than Scratches). Graphics (3/5) The often heard critisims: 'It's just an interactive slideshow' can be aplied to Scratches. It's static screenshot after static screenshot. I was briefly exited by the decent opening doors animation but since you do a lot of backtracking that get's old pretty soon. The game get's slightly better during the second act because of the rain effects but most of the game is extremely static. There are no cool transitions from one node to another (7th Guest managed that in 1993 and so did the Journeyman Project 2 in 1995). Sound (3/5) The sound design is the best part of this game, especially in the basement. Unfortunately the voice acting is only so-so. It's not really bad, but it isn't great either. Interface (3/5) The interface works pretty much as you'd expect from a game like this and it even allows you to combine some objects. But it brings nothing new. Games like Lighthouse Dark Being (Sierra online games 1996) would let you look at objects in close up and find new clues. But no such thing here. Story (3/5) There are two stories in the game: the story of the writer who visits the house and the story of it's previous owner. The latter is interesting and scary but the first (which you are playing) is pretty boring. A few scares here and there but you never feel like you're really in any danger. Games like Shivers (1995) and Shivers 2 (1997) managed to give me a feeling of constant dread. The story is also rather short compared to other adventure games. Puzzles (2/5) Most of the puzzles are pretty strait forward and fit in with the game in a logical way. There are no puzzles that stuck with me for being very clever or very entertaining. There are also no alternative ways of solving many of the puzzles. Every object you can pick up is part of a puzzle (no red herrings) and will disappear from you inventory once it's been used. Games like Legends of Kyrandia 3 Malcolm's Revenge (1994) gave us several ways to solve puzzles and it's predecessor Legend of Kyrandia 2 Hand of Fate (1993) allowed you to create potions with funny effects even when it wasn't necessary. Had this game come out in 1996 I'd probably given it a score of 4/5 because of the decent door animations, interesting back story and good sound design. But since it was published a good ten years later I can only be disappointed that they didn't use all the technology available to create a really great game instead of a mediocre game. If you're looking for a scary adventure game I'd advise the following games: On gog.com: - Zork nemesis - Phantasmagoria 1&2 - Gabriel Knight (I prefer the second game, but the first is also pretty good) - Realms of the Haunting (combines adventure with Doom like action) - Sanitarium On Steam: - Amnesia Dark Descent - Penumbra (all games) Elsewhere: - Morpheus - Amber - Obsidian
