A good old adventure game ruined
I have been aching to play the newly released Monkey Island games - both the new and the revamped ones. I felt like this could be a warm up...
Already from the beginning I could feel like something was wrong though. Somewhat clunky graphics and slow-paced,rather dulled, not so-well-done voice-acting. I had a feeling right from the start that everything felt sort of cheap. Not a good first impression.
But at times things were not all bad with this game, to be honest. Graphics may look a bit outdated, but it has at least some cartoonish charm. Mr Keane himself is quite enjoyable at times and he and the rest of the game treats you with some quite humoristic moments. A bit later on in the game you also get a chance to play a second character - a femme fatale who actually is hunting down the handsome hero.
But back to the bad things. Voice-acting in this game is an extreme mixed bag. Mr Keane is ok, but many voice-overs are made with an arrogantly slow english accent that goes on my nerves at times. Not to talk about the gravely overplayed india accents that goes on. They sound like Apu from The Simpsons all the way.
Another thing is the interaction. The game is not keyboarded, but good old mouse-clicking. Ok, but when you click on a nearby intem, or person and Jack seems to walk around invisible obstacles just to get to a point right in front of him, something is not right. Bad programmed path-finding anyone? Then there is the characters themselves. They feel really lifeless at times and it is all because of non-existing eye contact. Two characters can stand right in front of each other, talking, and just look out into space. Another thing that makes this game feel cheepish and outdated.
The puzzles - not so much to say about. Can get really hard and annoying to solve at times, but mostly rather obvious (if you get stuck, always remember that Jack is equipped with his trustworthy knife). If you´ve played a lot of games like this, you probably would think the puzzles a piece of cake. But I had to consort some web-help at least a couple of times. But that is just how it should be.
The final verdict just cannot be an positive one. Sorry. This could have been a good game if it was indie made - and ok, Deck13 may not be Blizzard but hell, I cannot look past all the flaws. Most parts and ideas are also stolen from better games like Monkey Island and Broken Sword anyway. The originality of the game does not reach the highest mountain tops to say the least.
It is an ok game if you don´t expect to much - and/or if you´re and die hard adventure-game fan.