[lostwolfe]

to be fair, i didn't play the whole of [even] the first game. and here's why:

the idea was wonderful. the mood was incredible. the music was stunning. the graphics were amazing. it was a third person myst-clone, [i actually forgave it for this. as far as it went, it wasn't terrible. and, even in context, this was an understandable sin] but kate walker was terrible.

every time i had to endure her, which was, naturally, for the whole game, i wanted to curl up into a little foetal ball and cry. she was so /bland./ my goodness. it was like they'd fed her a pill and said, "ok, kate. now be the blandest kate you can."

and she had a boyfriend. and a lawyer's office to attend to. and. well. stuff. it just wasn't very interesting. oh yes. and she looked like /every/ girl protagonist over the last three years rolled into one. lara croft? check. april ryan? check. anything else inbetween? check.

to designers everywhere:

please, please, please. your characters, and not just the stories you weave around them, need to be interesting and entertaining. kate walker was neither. the game could have progressed without her and /still/ had an adequate ending. kate [as i'm given to understanding this, and please forgive me, i could be talking complete tripe.] didn't grow or change or particularly evolve over the course of the two games. sure. she broke with everyone she knew. but /why?/ was there ever any compellnig reason for her to do so? [boyfriend aside.] and did she /learn/ anything from her experience? did /we/ learn anything from her experience? i highly doubt it.

i completely understand - to those who dearly love syberia - that i'm being completely scathing and not very nice, but the game simply didn't do anything for me, and almost all of it's issues begun and ended with kate walker.

oh yes. [flame jacket on. i suspect i'm going to get a ton of hate mail for this.]