jackrabbit
09-28-2005, 07:32 AM
I picked this game up the week before it came out here in the states by buying the uncensored version from the UK. It took about a week to ship so I probably got it around the same time it retailed here, I kind of broke even on that front.
The game itself is very innovative. You control one of 3 characters (the game advertises 4 characters, but one you only have control of for a short 2 minute segment) and experience the same story for their viewpoints. All in all, there are only 2 viewpoints: the Killers, and the Cops. You first play as the killer, doing killer stuff, trying to hide as many clues as possible, escape getting caught, and trying to find out the details behind the killing. You switch off between the killer and the cops, finding clues, trying to catch the killer, and trying to find out the details of the killing. The story builds from both perspectives, but playing as the cops is essentially the same thing. Really you only pick if you wish to interact in the scene as a man or a woman. There are a few personal segments where you learn more about one cop or the other at their homes and in their personal lives, but these are mostly disposable sequences for character building.
The controls are the most unique element of the game. You don't use the common WASD and mouse controls we're all used to. Movement controls are more adventure-game type, where left and right turn you. Actions are made by approaching an opject and performing a simple mouse gesture; the direction indicates which object you'll interact with. Action sequences are done with 8 keys in 2 crosshair configurations. You play through a scene by successfully tapping the crosshair direction that appears on the screen. I found this unnatural at first, but you adapt quickly. I finally got my Xbox controller working on the PC, and for character controls it was superior.
I never felt grounded, or directly connected to the actions scenes, though. While focusing on watching the crosshairs light up, a'la Simon Says, it's hard to get the full effect of the action scene the crosshairs overlay. Additionally, the keypresses only loosely correspond to the action. There seems to be a "success" animation sequence, and a "failure" animation sequence that play out the same until the very end. You get several "Lives" which are closer described as "hit points" since each time you fail at a keypress combination, you lose a "life". Playing the entire game on normal, I never once lost all my lives.
There is no conventional mouselook, or at least, not always. Sometimes you have the option, other times you don't. Neither time allows you to move while looking. This brings up a point: the controls aren't standard from scene to scene. One may have you moving left and right with the arrow keys while the next uses those keys as action sequence keys. The next scene may have the left mousebutton mapped to mouselook, and the scene after that it does nothing. This was fairly annoying since th controls are not intuitive to start with. Further complications only made it unnecessarily complex.
The storyline is engaging, and for the most part, excellently executed. The ending of the game gets a bit weird, and the storytelling comes apart at that point. It feels rushed, or abrupt, like a deadline needed to be met to get the game out the door. The segments prior to the end of the game --about 87% of the game (you have a percentage meter in you status screen)-- are all excellent. The game is 87% great, 13% sucky.
All things considered, it's a really solid adventure game. There's nothing else like it, and good adventure games are rare. Good endings are even more rare, and this game is no exception. It doesn't deliver on that front. The characters are great. The minigames (for the most part) are entertaining, don't break the immersion, and only a few are annoying. There are bonuses to be unlocked which flesh out the characters, scenes, and game. The music is top notch, and the graphics are pretty good. I think most people would enjoy it if only for a chage of pace.
The demo can be found here (http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7441). (or elsewhere, I'm certain)
I rate the game, appropriately, an 87%
The game itself is very innovative. You control one of 3 characters (the game advertises 4 characters, but one you only have control of for a short 2 minute segment) and experience the same story for their viewpoints. All in all, there are only 2 viewpoints: the Killers, and the Cops. You first play as the killer, doing killer stuff, trying to hide as many clues as possible, escape getting caught, and trying to find out the details behind the killing. You switch off between the killer and the cops, finding clues, trying to catch the killer, and trying to find out the details of the killing. The story builds from both perspectives, but playing as the cops is essentially the same thing. Really you only pick if you wish to interact in the scene as a man or a woman. There are a few personal segments where you learn more about one cop or the other at their homes and in their personal lives, but these are mostly disposable sequences for character building.
The controls are the most unique element of the game. You don't use the common WASD and mouse controls we're all used to. Movement controls are more adventure-game type, where left and right turn you. Actions are made by approaching an opject and performing a simple mouse gesture; the direction indicates which object you'll interact with. Action sequences are done with 8 keys in 2 crosshair configurations. You play through a scene by successfully tapping the crosshair direction that appears on the screen. I found this unnatural at first, but you adapt quickly. I finally got my Xbox controller working on the PC, and for character controls it was superior.
I never felt grounded, or directly connected to the actions scenes, though. While focusing on watching the crosshairs light up, a'la Simon Says, it's hard to get the full effect of the action scene the crosshairs overlay. Additionally, the keypresses only loosely correspond to the action. There seems to be a "success" animation sequence, and a "failure" animation sequence that play out the same until the very end. You get several "Lives" which are closer described as "hit points" since each time you fail at a keypress combination, you lose a "life". Playing the entire game on normal, I never once lost all my lives.
There is no conventional mouselook, or at least, not always. Sometimes you have the option, other times you don't. Neither time allows you to move while looking. This brings up a point: the controls aren't standard from scene to scene. One may have you moving left and right with the arrow keys while the next uses those keys as action sequence keys. The next scene may have the left mousebutton mapped to mouselook, and the scene after that it does nothing. This was fairly annoying since th controls are not intuitive to start with. Further complications only made it unnecessarily complex.
The storyline is engaging, and for the most part, excellently executed. The ending of the game gets a bit weird, and the storytelling comes apart at that point. It feels rushed, or abrupt, like a deadline needed to be met to get the game out the door. The segments prior to the end of the game --about 87% of the game (you have a percentage meter in you status screen)-- are all excellent. The game is 87% great, 13% sucky.
All things considered, it's a really solid adventure game. There's nothing else like it, and good adventure games are rare. Good endings are even more rare, and this game is no exception. It doesn't deliver on that front. The characters are great. The minigames (for the most part) are entertaining, don't break the immersion, and only a few are annoying. There are bonuses to be unlocked which flesh out the characters, scenes, and game. The music is top notch, and the graphics are pretty good. I think most people would enjoy it if only for a chage of pace.
The demo can be found here (http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7441). (or elsewhere, I'm certain)
I rate the game, appropriately, an 87%