This one is odd. Dismissed back then, because - of its first person movement and shooting mechanism, and brown colors - Quake clone this is not. - of its non-linear adventure and obscure puzzles - Myst clone this is not. - of its weird faux history Templars setting and story - Broken Sword this is not. - of its brand new shiny MMX hardware requirements - Tech demo this is not. If someone surprisingly STILL interested in this game, they found a very unique adventure game with tough puzzles, intelligent storyline and an atmosphere so thick you never want to return. I have the original boxed version, so two interesting trivia for you: The box has a novelette by none other than Steve Jackson (you must know this guy much too well). Not essential, but a nice backdrop for the in-game story. The superb music was composed by none other than Kerry Minnear oz Gentle Giant fame (great obscure prog rock band). Be sure to play through General MIDI and not Adlib! Excellent, but ONLY FOR THE EXPERT ADVENTURER.
Talk about long forgotten classics. Yes, we all known the Gold Box games, we all know about Wizardries, Might and Magics and Bard's Tales... ... Uukrul belongs to this supergroup of excellent old RPGs. For the uninitiated: this game is a... - Bard's Tale-style party-based grid blobber - with a tactical GoldBox-like combat system, - with a very original and fun magic system (no AD&D here!), - sporting an unforgiving but very fair difficulty, - and the best ever dungeon design in the history of RPGs. Add a surprisingly usable user interface, and a not-too-terrible presentation, and you have a pleasant winner! A few notes on the party system: the game uses a fixed 4-member party with pre-determined roles. Yep, you can customize your stats, but cannot switch their classes (so no crazy 4mages setup here!). This is intentional, as the game is cleverly designed to take full advantage of your specialized guys. A few notes on difficulty: the game is the Dark Souls of RPGs. It auto-saves constantly, and you have ONE save. If a party member dies, you MUST make an effort to bring the guy back to the living, no save scumming here. All in all: This is not about min-max powergaming -- Uukrul is about heroic adventuring and constantly assessing your options. TL;DR: a very original and sadly unknown RPG sporting the MOST ORIGINAL DUNGEONS EVER. Not for the RPG newbie, but for the aficionado, it is a must buy.
Codename ICEMAN is very hard to recommend. It is a "serious protocol" game, similar to the early Police Quests, that is: in order to succeed, you MUST follow a real-life protocol, no matter how utterly tedious it is (case in point: you are a patriotic army guy here, so you MUST salute the flag every now and then). Problem is, breaking the rules are not fun as in, say Space Quest. Also, it is an "genre expanding" game, that adds a dreadful "simulator" element to the standard adventure fare, supposedly to spice up the game. Bad idea. The submarine simulator is tedious, unresponsive and needlessly hard. Problem is, it is not a good diversion as, say, the arcade segments in the Conquest series. The story is bland. The puzzles are unfair. The hero is not very likable. Hmmm. Better go play the other, less experimental, but much more fun Sierra titles.
To tell you the truth: this game is not that good. However, it is refreshing to play a military shooter, that is SO SIMPLE, yet pretends to be so complex. This is the infamous Novalogic-magic. :) Make no mistake: there are absolutely no tactics in this game. Just go Rambo and have a blast... ... and be amazed by the Indestructible tents and whatnot. Seriously, the game is best played as a sniper-cum-duck hunt: shoot down 3 pixel wide enemies from a distance and walk away, unnoticed. There is also the infamous voxel graphics. This was a state-of-the-art tech back then (no 3d cards!), but nowadays, it is just plain ugly. Again, Novalogic at its best: amazing technical feat, resulting very poor visuals. If you are an ARMA-fan, avoid this at all costs. However, if you still secretly play with your GI Joe action figures when no one watches, you might love this game.
OK, let's cut to the chase. As an adventure game, this one is not so good. The prologue is more or lress traditional (speak to NPCs, solve minor puzzles with items, etc). After that, the game is a looong random item hunt over a huge map. BUT. This is French game, and French do what they do best: style. The story is reasonably interesting (alternate history where dinos and humans live in peace), the graphics are atmospheric mess (surprisingly good early 3d CGI with horribly pixelated, drawn characters), but the music!!! OMG THE MUSIC!!!! If you remember the 90's ambient-worldmusic-Eurodance scene (Enigma, anyone?), you'll feel right at home. So, in a nutshell: everything is topsy-turvy in this game, and surprisingly, it works. Just don't expect the next "old classic", á la Day of the Tentacle.
Make no mistake: this game is a third person adventure game and not an RPG. However: this is one of the best tps 3d adventures I have ever played. - The story is excellent, and fits well in the Elder Scrolls lore. - The balance between swashbuckling, jumping and puzzling is spot on. This is truly an action adventure (Think of the earlier Tomb Raider games, minus the punishing difficulty and much more intellectual puzzles) - The puzzles are generally good and there is one puzzle that is true gaming history: the Scarab Puzzle. Once you get there, you'll know what I mean ;) - The scenery is varied and open and you can roam nearly anywhere (Think of the sci-fi game Outcast) - The music is very good. The original had red book audio, and the main theme captures the high adventure perfectly. Sad, that it was done with a cheap synth, else it would be John Williams (of Indiana Jones fame) quality. Yes, it's that good. One thing though: if you find the swashbuckling too hard, the game control scripts are simple text files and you can cheat easily by altering your sword damage to a one-hit kill.... so that if your reflexes are not that stellar, you can still enjoy the game.
This is a game that will unlikely be produced nowadays. It had well-known talents (Chris Lloyd Tim Curry, HOMER SIMPSON!!!!!), it had production values (Disney-quality animations), it had gameplay (classic point'n'click), it had attitude (sexual innuendo and lowbrow humor) So the game was a huge risk-taking, and it was good. The puzzles are mostly OK (not Lucasarts-quality, but still above par), the game is long (expect 6-8 hours to complete it) and it has a very friendly user interface. However: the game's story and puns are definitely NON-PC, so if you are OK with today's anarchist cartoons, you might have a blast, otherwise look elsewhere. If you liked the original Broken Sword, and you don't mind some gratuitous silliness, give this game a try. This is a gem from the golden age of adventure games, enjoy it!
I recommend this game to adventure newbies, as the puzzles are generally not too hard, the interface is very friendly and best of all, the plot is intriguing. As usual with this type of stories, it starts a bit slow, but after Ch 2 the pacing speeds up. Since the puzzles are very easy, the story flows quite well, right up to the surprising climax. So, if you are looking for an adventure where the story is more important than the puzzles and the challenge, Gray Matter is a worthy purchase. Keep'em coming, Mrs Jensen! ;)
Although I like indie efforts, I have to say this game is much too overrated for what it is. The hyped story is quite simple, really. The supposedly interesting "serious science" part is very basic - do not expect any Clarke or Asimov here. The writing is amateurish, most of the atmosphere comes from the cool retro pixel graphics anyway. There is a plot twist, yes, but it feels tackled on, without any proper exposition. It is more like a classic wtf-moment than a shocking turn of events. The puzzles are decent, but again, the hyped "memory inventory" becomes frustrating quickly. Multiply this with the selectable 4-player approach, plus an annoying interface (designers: never EVER design an interface using mouse hovers!) and you'll get a VERY frustrating game to play. The effort is admirable though, but make no mistake: this is not the revelation in adventure gaming we are waiting for.
While Moebius is nowhere near as great as Gabriel Knight, it is a decent adventure lite game. The story is good (with some reservations): bear in mind that Moebius is intended for a prelude to the Grand Story, but works all right nevertheless. The protagonist is fine (with some reservations): he is not your dime-by-the-dozen likable hero. In fact, he is quite the opposite. Personally I liked the "tainted" hero approach, it made him much more interesting to me. The gameplay is all right (with some reservations): the game focuses on storytelling, and I really appreciated the easy puzzles which kept the story flow at a decent pace... ... up until the dreaded Final Chapter, which was a huge letdown. Fortunately, the remaining 80% of the game is good though. All in all, this is more like an interactive visual novel, and I'm quite fine with that. If you are looking for a hardcore adventure game, look elsewhere.
