Probably one of the oldest examples of hack and slash, an action-RPG full of humor and, above all, a lot of fun to play. Decades after I still launched it to play with friends. Explore a map, similar to a board game, littered with colorful enemies (ratmen... Damn...) that you must eviscerate with your sword to steal their loot and perhaps get your hands on one of the four keys that, once collected, open the way to the final boss. 3 other knights are in the race and are fighting you to steal the hard-won keys. The game allows you to play alone (the other knights becoming NPCs) or up to 4 players (a rarity at the time!) in turn-based mode, but also, and this is where it gets interesting, simultaneously if you decide to face one of the other players. Another innovative idea (for a game from 1991 of course) : enemies become more numerous and resilient depending on your skill level and... depending on the moon phases! As much as gore usually bores me, here it's a joy! The RPG aspect allows the game to last, and even if the game is short (it can be completed in an hour), you only want one thing at the end: kill more trolls.
I didn't play the original game but have done every Frogwares "Sherlock" since "Sherlock vs Jack the ripper". Done in no time and in difficult circumstances that everyone knows, there was reason to be worried about this one and, in the end… Good points : - Rushed but more focused: shorter than the previous games of the license (about 15 hours, however, if you want to explore everything and the DLC), the game is paradoxically closer to the canon of Sherlock Holmes than the previous “Chapter one”, which tried to make Holmes a hero of the 21st century (a Sherlock Holmes having grown up in the Mediterranean and wearing leather and chains… Really?), more Holmsian than "Cthulhu-esque" (where are the fantastic creatures ?), it's also less talkative than the previous one and offers more challenge - The gameplay, directly taken from "Chapter one" without the action scenes, the profiling. Welcome back to the neglected (in "Chapter one") mental palace - A nice artistic direction (special mention for the cinematics) with really bewitching passages (the bayou, Arneson's house, the finale), detailed graphics, realistic environments - Good dubbing work as usual, and quality music / sound design Not okay: - Rigid animations and camera - Lack of connection with the work of Conan Doyle (when are you going to adapt Conan Doyle short stories again ?) In conclusion: not at the level of "Crimes and punishments" but close. Even if the game is not revolutionary, it is satisfying and pleasant to see the improvements made by the studio as the episodes progress (the passers-by look more realistic and it is possible to engage in conversation with them for example). The mix between the good ideas brought by "Chapter one" (less interventionism, worked environments) and those of the "historic" episodes (return to the Holmsian canon in particular) make you want to see what the developers... Will develop later. Slava Frogwares!
I was reluctant to play "Chapter One" after the disappointment that "Devil's Daughter" was for me. The game, however, pleasantly surprised me, even if it is not without weaknesses. The number of investigations here is very large if we include the side quests. In addition, many of the latter are complex, long, interesting. A real job was done on the writing even if I found the dialogues talkative and not as clever as in "Crimes and punishments" which adapted short stories from Sherlock Holmes (not everybody can become Conan Doyle). But the game goes all over the place, wanting to unnecessarily reuse all the fashionable formulas in recent years: open world, infiltration (Assassin's creed is an obvious influence), or addition of action scenes (which take place in identical environments which makes them repetitive). Most of all, this game includes elements... Not subsequently exploited : the mind palace, profiling. So, while the surveys are diverse, the survey mode tends to be repetitive. The open world is pleasant to explore with a real artistic (and historical) touch even if the interactions are limited. I am delighted that the next episode, "The Awakened" returns to a tighter formula. Wait and see...
If it had everything to seduce, this episode, coming after the very successful "Crimes & Punishments" is not remarkable and I was surprised - when playing a second time - to see how much I had forgotten the plot. The + : improved graphics, an investigation system similar to that of "Crimes & Punishments" (which was good) but synthesized. We can also note the introduction of action scenes, and a semi-open world (but is it useful?). The problem with this game is its writing. The dialogues are often poor and the investigations not very captivating (unlike the previous episode, these are not adaptations of short stories by Conan Doyle but investigations written by the studio in the spirit of...). Moreover, this game is full of Hollywood clichés (Sherlock even becomes a kind of Indiana Jones) and Watson becomes sexy (what's the point?) but totally useless (again what's the point?). In short, quickly forgotten. Too bad.
Why don't the devs adapt more Conan Doyle short stories like they did here ? This game is not perfect (it remains a medium-scale production) but it is objectively the best written of the series which went into high gear with the use of a new game engine and reached a certain ideal in terms of gameplay. If the latter was perfected in the following episodes, the investigations were duller and the "open world" orientation quite useless. Here the investigations are varied, captivating and well put together (even those that are not from "the canon" of Sherlock Holmes) and the game is replayable because of its open character. My favorite by far in the Sherlock Holmes series from the Frogwares studio (I also recommend "Sherlock vs. Jack the ripper").
I played this game long after it came out and chronicle it long after I played it... The big negative point of this game is that it was already technically dated for the time due to its lack of budget. The game is very monochrome in particular and the gameplay can be at least... Frustrating. But after a while it didn't prevent me from appreciating the quality of this game : an incredible writing job (the game is faithful to the elements of the investigation around Jack the ripper down to its smallest details). In the end an instructive game, captivating from beginning to end and my favorite in the series with Crimes & Punishments.
I was put off at the time by the game demo due to the lack of humor or its will to put photogenic graphics. Big mistake! This game is well written, pretty for the time with a very good gothic atmosphere and offers (perhaps for the first time in point n' click) puzzles that are neither too hard nor too easy. A little less for the (slow) animations but this game is quite underestimated for me. More writing work will take place on the sequels, highly commendable as well, but that's another story.
Que dire de plus que tout ce qui l'a été… Je ne mets pas la note maximale parce que… Aaarch... Certaines énigmes, comme de coutume à l'époque, sont foutrement retorses. Sinon ce jeu doit être fait par toute personne s'intéressant au point n' click ou à l'histoire du jeu vidéo.
J'ai acheté ce jeu en m'étant raisonnablement renseigné dessus : j'ai lu des critiques (bonnes de manière générale), visionné des aperçus de gameplay qui m'avaient mis l'eau à la bouche. Et au final c'est une déception. "The vanishing of Ethan Carter" tente une fusion entre le jeu d'enquête dont les prémices remontent à la préhistoire du jeu vidéo et le concept moderne de monde ouvert. Pourquoi pas. Mais l'impression après avoir fini le jeu est que le travail de l'équipe s'est surtout porté sur les graphismes, l'ambiance sonore (réussis pour un jeu de 2014), pas vraiment sur le gameplay. Soyons clair, j'aime "ne pas être pris pas par la main" comme le promet le prologue du jeu, mais il y a des limites. Malgré les renseignements pris sur le jeu, les objectifs ne paraissent pas clairs du tout : est-ce un jeu d'enquête (et sur qui, sur quoi ?), une simulation de survie, un FPS???? Rien ne nous est dit ce qui amène rapidement à errer sans but et à trouver l'expérience frustrante. Je me suis aidé de la solution et n'ai pas pour autant trouvé l'histoire passionnante (c'est glauque, vaguement lovecraftien). Je mets deux étoiles pour la volonté des développeurs de dépoussiérer le jeu d'enquête mais "Ethan Carter" me laisse un goût de travail bâclé.
