In this classic adventure, you will take on the role of young Scotland Yard Detective Brent Halligan, assigned to solve the puzzle surrounding a mysterious order of Druids and a series of gruesome murders. It appears that the neo-Druids are conducting ritual killings in order to conjure up incredibl...
In this classic adventure, you will take on the role of young Scotland Yard Detective Brent Halligan, assigned to solve the puzzle surrounding a mysterious order of Druids and a series of gruesome murders. It appears that the neo-Druids are conducting ritual killings in order to conjure up incredibly sinister forces.
In the course of their investigations, the engaging anti-hero and his ally, a young scientist, delve into almost forgotten secrets of the past. Aided by an expert on Druids, they will travel back in time. Only in the past they will be able to find the key in order to save the world, but will they succeed?
…end the ritual, before it begins…
More than 50 impressive locations of the past and present
More than 360 interactive scenes
3D characters (up to 1000 polygons)
More than 20 speaking characters
5 hours of voice-overs
Lip-sync dialogues created through phonetic speech analysis
You need to knock out a homeless guy with medical alcohol and apple juice in order to steal to his change so you can use a payphone but here's the thing your office has phones.
Lets not beat around the bush. This game gets a bad rap. I think its a bit like how people hate on Limbo of The lost. They don't have any actual understanding of the game. They just seem to think that they can get by with no literary knowledge and are surprised when the game goes right over their heads. People actually think that lowry is Glitched. That him floating over his seat is a mistake. If its a mistake then why can I see that same "glitch" in the stores screenshots? Because its not a glitch. It's intentional. Purple is a colour that's generally associated with the rich and elite, this is because purple was a really expensive colour to have in your wardrobe back in the day. Therefore it's generally in a characters design because you want to show that this person maybe part of a social elite, above everyone else or just super rich. Thats why Lowry is purple. Its because he's above everyone else. Thats why he floats.
This game also has some of the most intelligent marxist critiques that I have ever seen. Period. When the player character drugs a homelessman and steals his change for a phone call it isn't because its more convenient. (after all Halligan has several phones in his office at the police station) its because he is part of the bourgeois. Not the upper class. The bourgeois. He has been trained by society to step all over those who are less advantaged than he is. And that is disgusting. Stealing from a homeless man is disgusting. Halligan isn't one of your perfect Marvel super heros. He's flawed.
He's like John Wick or JoJo.
The skeleton murders are an allegory for the horrors of late state capitalism. Elitist members of a secret cult are forcefully removing the flesh from skeletons. They are "sapping the life out of the disadvantaged". Like the flesh and the bone we as a society must unite again. For we are divided.
Halligan isn't perfect. He is like you and me.
Also the gameplay is fucking amazing.
Detective Halligan commits a lot of crimes. Which is odd, considering he is a detective of Scotland yard.
Including but not limited to: Theft, lifting evidence, poisoning, robbery, forgery, grave robbery and more.
All of this is presented in hilariously dated 3D (especially for 2001), stilted dialogue, and only the finest moon logic puzzles placed between 275£ worth of padding.
This game is only good for riffing on, which is how I discovered it, via Retsupurae.
I'm not saying not to buy it. In fact, this game is so bad, it's good.
The Mystery of the druids is a game which I first through of as a joke. A mistake which was carried by the sheer absurdity of its cover art. However I was mistaken.
This game had amazing forethought. It has a variety of JoJo's bizzare adventure references which I take as a sign that the creators of the game were influenced by a fair amount of classic literature. In fact the game shouts out Sir Arthur Conan Doyle several times.
Now the game is a fantastic romp throughout the London streets. You play as a down on his luck investigator. This is communicated masterfully to the player through the use of "optional" voice mails in which we learn that he hasn't spoke to his elderly mother in months and that he hasn't paid his Pizza tab. I think that this is a true example of how far this game went for its craft. Its one of the greatest texts to ever exist in my opinion.
Jean Paul Sartre Proposed in his 1946 seminar that Essence proceeds Existence and I would be prone to agree. Basic existential concepts centre around the idea of being and personality being formed or developed. Now you may ask why I am vastly oversimplifying and explaining complex literary concepts. The answer is simple. Our main character experiences Existential dread throughout the entire story. The game is this story.
The idea of existential dread is the concept that when someone looses a hobby or job that was an integral part of their life, they come to the realisation that their identity was in said hobby/job. This means that they are impacted horrifically.
Is not the skeleton murders an allegory for our main characters deep depression? Is not all flesh from the body being shed an obvious metatextual reference for the skeletons experiencing existential dread?
And are we not all woodgators?
I rest my case.
Bought the game when it first came out. It had terrible reviews even then, and nobody would stock it. I've always been fascinated by the Druids historically, the myths surrounding them, and people who currently still practice the religion. Every year there still Druid rituals being performed at Stonehenge. I couldn't find it anywhere but wanted it badly enough that I order it from England. I played it from beginning to the end and loved it. Playing the whole game through was really hard because it was so buggy.
I can't believe it's actually here 17 years later when I couldn't even buy when the game came out, without ordering it from England. You'll only like it if you love Druid lore, and or a hardcore old-time adventure gamer. I'm curious to know if they patched and removed any of the bugs since it came out I guess I going to have to buy this one when I replenish my allocated allowance for games.