Does A Vampyre Story succeeds in bringing back that good LucasArts adventure gaming era ? Yes, it does.
The game was finally released on november 21th, and I finally got to unravel the mysteries of the game. How did it turned out ? Read on.
First and foremost, this game's not for everyone. Those who played Monkey Island series, the ingenious Grim Fandango and Full Throttle have been granted another of those amazing adventures, and it took about ten years to get one.
The game pits you in the shoes of a French opera singer, Mona de Lafitte, who got transformed into a vampire. Your journey is fairly simple ; get out of Castle Warg, and get ouf ot Draxsylvania. But seriously, I don't even want to leave that place ; it's so cleverly designed and about every single of the background palettes you'll be seing are jaw-dropping gorgeous, especially if you're into tim burton's morbid and funny halloween-esque atmospheres.
The game is divided into two '' sections '', and both features lots of things to do. You'll have to find your way out of an haunted ( or not so haunted ) vampiric castle and then try to flee Draxsylvania. Every puzzle you'll have to solve is pretty logic and everytime you'll manage to do something, you'll feel good about it, because it'll never go into the '' non-sense '' side of things. Well, maybe once or twice, but due to Mona's vampireness and comical atmosphere.
Still, if you take your time, you shouldn't have any problems getting through any situations, and yet, it'll still ask you to think. So don't worry, it's not the '' must-have-walkthrough- type of game like Runaway or Myst series. It can be done.
The graphics are a mixed bag. The scenaries are amazingly detailed, and you'll probably want to just stare at it for a while. The animations can be well done ( picking an object and using it ) but the BINK-video cutscenes are grainy and blurry, wich is bad.
The sound and voice actors provide an excellent performance here, and even Mona who'se voice was slighlty annoying at first ( heavy french accent ) finally got me to like her. There's ton of jokes, references hidden everywhere in the world of A Vampyre Story, so be sure to speak, examine and use everything you find and meet.
The game isn't, unfortunatly, lenghty. It can be beaten in 7 to 9 hours, depending on your ability to unmystify the puzzles you'll encounter. By the end of the game, I was left in a '' woah, thats just IT ?! '' mood, because Mona's adventure is clearly NOT over. It could have been just the next set of places you'll uncover, but no, it shows '' end of chapter 1 '' in book closing animation. I'm all for sequels, but i'd like to have a nice feeling of closure with the game, wich isnt provided here, and thats too bad.
Games like this are often a hit or miss ; because what really captured the greatness of the Monkey Island series were the countless laughters you'll drown yourself into and the amazing characters you'll encounter. Most point and click ( or adventure games ) we've had in the past decade simply didn't have any, or lacked something crucial. I've tried to like Runaway and some other adventure games, but I always found myself taking my dusted copy of Monkey Island 3 and 4, and Grim Fandango out of my shelf and play through them once again. Luckily for us, A Vampyre Story is a superb achievement of grand laughters, clever puzzles and hillarious pop-culture references.
Now lets hope that Bill Tiler will actually get us part 2, because I , for sure, am waiting for it. Even while playing big titles like Gears 2, Fallout 3 and such, I still have time for a good old adventure game, and i'm raising my thumb at Bill Tiller's team for brining back good memories to a 22 years old dude who loved playing Monkey Island and Full Throttle, ten years ago.