A three-man activist group has set out to make the world a better place by stealing famous pieces of art in the world's most renowned museums, selling them to private collectors, and donating the money to charity.
Though hunted by police forces, the group manages to stage one successful coup after...
A three-man activist group has set out to make the world a better place by stealing famous pieces of art in the world's most renowned museums, selling them to private collectors, and donating the money to charity.
Though hunted by police forces, the group manages to stage one successful coup after another - until one day a mysterious new client appears and the group finds itself in the middle of a political conspiracy...
Mystery conspiracy adventure game with unexpected story twists
Current, believable game world
Contemporary visual language
Pointed script
Fast-paced, dynamic narration
Interesting technical gadgets that allow realistic interaction with the environment
4 different playable characters on both sides (police & activists)
The game reproducibly crashes in at least 2 places in the Paris catacombs, about 2/3 through the game. The first one (July 7, near passage) I could work around by skipping the cutscene, but for the second (July 8, resistance storage) even button-mashing Esc to bypass the cutscene didn't help, which renders the game unplayable for me. Uninstalled.
The game probably isn't worth your while anyway, b/c even though the plot looks interesting, the writing is rather poor, and the characters have no chemistry at all. Add to that some really uninspired gameplay, and you have a very underwhelming experience.
Bottom line: save your money.
15 Days is a 2009 point and click adventure about a small group of thieves who believe the crimes they commit are justified because they ultimately want to give their ill-gotten gains to charity. It's an interesting take on a modern Robin Hood story that has the player going between the thieves and the cop on the case of a seemingly related crime.
Graphically, 15 days looks pretty good for its time. There's a nice variety of detailed environments to navigate, with some eye-pleasing lighting and animated effects. The character models look good in general but seem a little odd when speaking because they don't seem to change facial expression, even in times of distress.
The game is easy to navigate, with the player usually clicking (or double-clicking) on hotspots to advance from area to area. There's also a little-used map feature that allows fast travel between major locations.
Audio is harder to talk about because it's not mixed very well, especially the dialogue. You'll definitely want to play with subtitles on, as even with the volume turned up, people speaking will often be quieter than the music in the background. Music tracks themselves are pretty good, but nothing particularly memorable. Voice acting is fine, maybe a bit unemotional at times but definitely not bad.
The gameplay really lies in the quality of the story and how well it's told, because there are scant few puzzles here. In fact, sometimes it feels like there should be more to a section but the solution for the problem at hand is usually solved automatically. The plot is kept simple and easy to follow but ends just as the player expects things to really pick up, giving me the impression that there was perhaps a sequel planned that unfortunately never came about.
Overall, it's a good game with a few kinks, but well worth a playthrough if you're a fan of narrative-driven adventure games.
This game is a curious little thing. First off...
THE BAD
The game has a lot of issues, it's like an unpolished beta:
* Most ideas are there, but some story lines have yet to be developed.
* The inventory system still needs to be refined and tested.
* Dialog options have yet to be implemented.
* Many cutscenes have a placeholder with a strange sound effect.
* Some puzzles are broken: The "search" browser thing is really disfunctional, as there are sometimes infsufficient clues not to mention a certain licence plate puzzle.
* And most importantly, there are many game breaking bugs. Some are easy to deal with, but some require a save file from the web.
Additionally, I'll add that the characters were not the kind of person I look up to. I found them rather grating, and frankly was not really rooting for them. The only good guy is rather dumb and keeps getting talked down by everyone and overwhelmed by every obstacle.
Now the good
* The game has great voice acting (othing stellar, but it works quite well).
* The music is good.
* The setting is original and has a lot of character.
* There's a lot of research put into the narrative.
Overall I found the story arc, while predictable, to be quite satisfying. It's an interesting comentary on the issues that affect us today. This is really what I think is their strongest point, that the vision behind this game was very solid even though the execution was more than a bit lacking. This was developed by a good gaming company that was about to go under and was impacted by all sorts of administrative issues (budget and layoffs).
This project was ultimately cut short of the gem it could have been otherwise.
If you can see past these issues it's a fine piece of work, but consider it will crash often, so you'll need to save frequently, and honestly just play along with a walkthrough. Reserve your puzzle solving wits for something else.
