[allthingshappy]

Well, I just finished Paradise. Here's my thoughts (no spoilers):

1) The Good Stuff:

An excellent story and beautiful background graphics (as to be expected from B. Sokal). I found none of the puzzles (upon having all the needed information - more on that in a second) to be overly difficult - truth be told I overthought most of them. Once I stepped back and thought 'what would I do if I were really there?', the puzzles solved themselves.

A few of the puzzles I would categorize in amongst the most well thought out of any adventure game since Syberia.

While the beginning of the game is very slow (and not in a nice way like Syberia), the last two acts of the game are outstanding and during them you will easily forget earlier frustration.

This game wanted to be great. However, I can only really categorize it as good. The reason's are below:

2) The Bad Stuff

Bugs. The game completely froze at one point - but what was much, much worse was that when I restored the latest save game, it jumped to the frozen point rather than where the game had actually been saved! I had to go to an earlier save game and make my way back again.

Another problem (which every review I've read lamented) is the animated cursor. The cursor changes (like most adventure games) over hotspots, but the change (for example to a magnifying glass for 'examine') is animated. A nice touch you might think, until you realize how slow the animation is. So you don't see the changed cursor until you've passed the hotspot! Incredibly frustrating.

Along with this, the hotspots and paths for the main character to walk weren't refined well enough. Sometimes the animation to show that you can walk to a different area happens just off the screen. You can only tell by pulling the cursor back in time to see the animation reversing. So, while the puzzles aren't hard, getting to all of the areas and all of the items and information you need to solve them can be!

I spent a good amount of time stuck, until I realized there was an entire *area* I hadn't explored because of this problem. After that, the puzzle I was after became easy to solve.

Also, the paths for the character to travel are a bit too complex (far more curves and barriers than Syberia - it is far easier to calculate a path along straight lines) the character makes unexpected movement decisions sometimes when you click on an area you want her to travel to (i.e. how the computers decides to move her there). Sometimes that unexpected decision will take you in the opposite direction and back to a different area!


So, overall, if you love adventure games, this is a definite play - but don't expect it to be without frustration. You may find yourself needing a walkthrough, but not because the puzzles are too hard, but simply because you need that quick hint to let you know where that crucial area or hotspot is that you can't find because of the cursor.

What did you all think?

Tony

[kuze]

I agree with almost all of your points (although I haven't finished the game myself yet) but one: some of the early puzzles were unfair, unfair as in flawed design; e.g. you have to visit a certain place once (where you have been several times before), just to trigger a cutscene.
And yes, the cursors are the worst. For all of those who just started the game and are annoyed already I advise to grab a simple cursor fix. Extract into paradise/cursors/bink, make sure you make a backup first.

[Laser Eyes]

Thanks for those helpful comments. I've been thinking about buying this game. I think I'll think some more.

[EvilMulder]

Kuze, could you upload that cursor fix again? The previous one seemed to have expired. Thanks.

[Kurufinwe]

The animated cursor can be disabled with the recently released (French) 1.1 patch (which also fixes about a million other things). So you should all start bugging your respective publisher, to get them to release that patch for your version as soon as possible.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by EvilMulder

Kuze, could you upload that cursor fix again? The previous one seemed to have expired. Thanks.

It hasn't expired, but here you go again.

[EvilMulder]

Oops, my bad. I saw it was downloaded an even 15 times, didn't immediately see a download button so I assumed it had expired. Anyway, thanks for the fix!

[Aurebesh]

Originally Posted by kuze

For all of those who just started the game and are annoyed already I advise to grab a simple cursor fix. Extract into paradise/cursors/bink, make sure you make a backup first.

Hmmm, your backup warning suggests that this is not an official patch. Who made it then? And does anyone know when an official patch will be available for the UbiSoft 3-CD English release?

Incidentally, one other major design flaw that I find is that when you click on active hotspots, usually you get NOTHING, not even a generic comment. That's very annoying.
And did anyone notice this weird bug when you read the zoology book in the beginning? Some text is actually hidden behind the "navigation" interface! Now that's just stupid.
I also find it annoying that you can't skip the intro, it probably means that I wouldn't be able to skip in-game cinematics either (haven't encountered one yet, so I'm not sure), and that's a necessity sometimes.

There's also something I didn't understand about the story:

Spoiler:

I'm still at the very beginning, and "Ann" doesn't know anything about herself. However, she still wants to go "home" to Geneva very much. Why would she refer to Geneva as "home"? Maybe she just studies there? I assume she knows she's from Geneva because of the student card, but upon seeing it she didn't make any comments... it feels like something is missing here.

[GombeTo]

I just finished it and well, Paradise is just....

It was short, I didn't feel it like I did with Syberia..... In some places there were so much "fake" backgrounds (for example the docks in Madargane, before you enter them etc).

Dialogues.... Well, it looks like Benoa had luck with Syberia, because, truly, all of his stories are NOT unique, they're alike, and about some forgotten places blah blah blah.... with some changed letter (haha like Syberia-Siberia, Maurania-Mauranie etc). And if that's unique and original lol...

And the ending....

Spoiler:

It was terrible like the ending of Still Life... I mean, it was a "5 seconds" video, with a the sound of shot, leaving the only questions: Why she shot her father; is the pather still alive and who did this to it. Well, yea she killed him and the pather is alive - if there's not a sequel.

These short final cut-scenes irritates me!

And these bugs!!!! Ugh... There were dialogue bugs (for example when I talked with the Prince that I'm leaving, it came the same dialogue before a put the leopard in the cage. I got to click the themes again, then click again on the Prince to see the new ones). And this Pixel-Hunting... It's okay if it's a little, but in Paradise the whole game counted on it. The Pixel-hunting was the thing that made the game hard... There were locations that I couldn't find, I was soo lost that i had to use walkthrough, and until I see in the walkthrough, I didn't know there's such locations (for example the birdsplace in the Harem where the favorite girl was; in Maur River the path where I wasn't on the bridge, but on that side where I used the jerry can on the ferry corner; the kitchen on the Black Vault etc). And also these items you have to find and more.... I also was really confused in the mines where I had to put the end of the wire to the plunger, but there wasn't a hot spot on it. I had to replay the whole scene from the start and THERE WAS already a hot-spot.

Well, I enjoyed a bit the game, it wasn't on of the worst I've ever played, but it was nothing original, nothing sensational. Just a thing, you'll enjoy to waste your freetime with it. I still think that Dreamfall IS going to be adventure game of the year -- it looks like there won't be anything better this year.

I give Paradise 3/6.

Edit: Yea, I hated the cursors too. They were AWFUL.. Also when I clicked on the menu "View Cinematics" I couldn't see them. I clicked and clicked OK, then pictures etc. I could watch them!! P.S. And thanx for moving my thread ;[[

[Melanie68]

I agree it was a disappointment after the Syberias. There are some beautiful locations after she leaves the harem but her story was not compelling and I just couldn't get into her character. The cursors were definitely a problem and there was also a dialogue bug with the African chief guy in the last part when it came to healing her leopard (and I was disappointed we didn't get to see the leopard after that). I consulted a walkthrough on more than one occasion.

Sokal definitely needs to work on gameplay for his next game.

Also, they did a sloppy job beta testing this game. You shouldn't rely on the first people to play the game commercially to find your bugs and then say how wonderful customer support is when you release a patch. Most bugs should be fixed before release.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Aurebesh

Hmmm, your backup warning suggests that this is not an official patch. Who made it then?

Me. I'm also trying to figure out the file structure of the packaged scripts, to be able to fix some more annoyances. When a proper patch is released, you probably should replace my cursors with the backup, since there will be an option to disable the animation.

[kuze]

Allright, doublepost.

I figured out the structure (non-compressed, 16byte header, dir struct, fileblock), my OPK reader now reads the info stored in the Paradise script.opk and background.opk files, here is the log for script.opk.
Version 0.2 will have an extract function, and 0.3 a pack-back-together function (although I doubt this will be necessary).

[kuze]

Wee, triplepost (last one, I promise).

opkreader 0.2 is ready, fresh from the compiler (since some have already shown some interest in it). Go and grab it.
It unpacks the paks, you don't have to pack them back together to play.
READ THE README, tell me if there are any segfaults, enjoy.

[peb]

I just finished it and my main problem with it is a lack of exposition in the story. O.K. We understand Ann has amnesia. But why does she act angry one second and relaxed the next? Her development through the story was sketchy yet at the end...

Spoiler:

we are supposed to believe that she has worked up enough anger to kill her father who she doesn't even remember? Come on.

Paradise didn't stray far away from the Syberia game model, but to me, it was just a weaker copy of that. Which is disappointing because it had some good moments.

[Cathy1]

There is a No Intro Fix (patch) here. I haven't played the game so I'm just assuming that it will let you skip the intro.
Cathy

http://www.actiontrip.com/cheats/paradise.phtml

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Cathy1

There is a No Intro Fix (patch) here. I haven't played the game so I'm just assuming that it will let you skip the intro.
Cathy

http://www.actiontrip.com/cheats/paradise.phtml

No, it just removes the intro before the game menu (by replacing the videos with empty dummies).

HOWTO MAKE MOVIES SKIPABLE:

1.) Download my opkreader, execute it (follow the README!)

2.) Open Paradise/script/cinematicplayer.lue with notepad

3.) Insert a new line after "function OnInit()"

4.) Paste following into this line: OPInput.RegisterListener(EVENT_KEY_DOWN)

5.)Go to the end of the file, insert a new line and paste:

function OnKeyDown(key)
if (key == 27) then
OnBinkEnd()
end
end


6.) You can now skip videos by pressing ESCAPE

Umm, I'll probably make a patch for all this later...

EDIT: Allright, here is the patch. If you haven't yet used opkreader, just extract everything into Paradise/paks/ and execute patch_skipable_movies.bat.

Before applying the next official patch (is there one out yet, for us non-french people?), delete Paradise/script/ and rename Paradise/paks/script.opk.bak to Paradise/paks/script.opk.

[Putrid Moldyman]

I've decided to skip Paradise. The many negative reviews (amateur and professional alike) have made this an easy decision for me. I actually wasn't so much a fan of Syberia, so for people to say that this game isn't in the same league tells me that I should stay far, far away.

[Chad316]

Paradise was a good game. Shame it was full of bugs and i spent days with that friggin drum when it was a game error! I was looking around for nothing and that pee'd me off. Luckily i still had a save before it cause i wudnt of gone through it all again. It was definitely worth playing though, Benoit Sokal always delivers, just a shame he didnt test his game for errors and fix them before he released it. Navigation was poor also but with that changed and the errors fixed, this game would of been great. Still enjoyed it regardless, not better than Syberia but still good.

[Wouter]

I have a bit of a technical question. I played Paradise on my 1280*1024 lcd monitor and the image was stretched across the screen.

I'm told that i can change my gfx card settings so that the image isn't stretched when i play (meaning black borders).

It is even explained in the manual how to do this but i can't find where i have to change this.

My gfx card is an ATI Radeon X800 with 256Mb. So presumably, i should be looking in the ATI control center (i've got catalyst version 6.2 installed) but i can't find any setting where i have to input height/width = 4:3.

Any help on the matter would be helpful!

[Dasilva]

Just finished Paradise...

Poor soul.