[Hamham Chan]

German website Adventure-treff has a preview of a really cool looking new game called Goin' Downtown. Anyone know if this game is getting an english language version?
Unfortunately i don't sprechen any deutsch so i don't understand any of the text on Adventure-treff.de. Maybe someone here can tell us a little of the game.

[Kivie]

Rough and ready translation:

They're productive - you have to give them that. The Games Company is shortly publishing the third adventure of the in-house developer Silver Style after 15 months. After Simon the Sorcerer 4 and Everlight, which were thematically very similar, they tried something completely different. A sci-fi scenario, a serious story for adults, drawn-out backgrounds - someone wants to prove that they don't just do fantasy with sledgehammer humour.
We made a call on TGC in Berlin, to see the first preview version of the title, which should be released on May 15th.

There's a lot of info. It looks like it's set in 2072, and has a dialogue-based combat system. Looks interesting.

The story doesn't begin happily. A stranger sits in an electric chair and ponders his past shortly before his execution. Next scene: Jake, the alter ego of the player, sits on the bet of his apartment of a New York skyscraper and grieves the death of his wife. Suddenly an explosion shakes the street in front of the building. Jake runs to the place of the occurrence and finds an unconscious woman on the sidewalk/pavement. He takes the beauty, later introduced as Rose, into his flat and puts her on his bed ("for the purpose of recovery").

Then he dozes off, which turns out to be a mistake. When Jake wakes up, Rose has disappeared from his bed and the window is open. The woman (a prostitute, it seems) has obviously committed suicide, which the atmosphere of the recently-arrived cops confirms. On the street stands a female colleague examining the fall. There in the distant future - Goin' Downtown takes place in the year 2072 - the willingness of the police depends on the social status of the victim, and so the fall is officially no longer followed up.

But that soon changes. Jake discovers links with a range of other prostitute deaths that make the milieu uncertain, and which came out of sinister machinations.

...

Fights: Also, a few man-against-man fights appear in Goin' Downtown. These are not, however, won with nimble fingers, rather, in true Adventure tradition, through cleverly led dialogue, in which you aim to attack the weaknesses of your opponent. Success and failure are then displayed in funny animations.

...
At any time the player can switch between day and night with the touch of a button. So all backgrounds exist in multiple versions: one with sunlight and lively streets, another with the night-life.
...
A further feature is the 'simulator'. Jake gets to know a scientist in the game, who has developed a machine, with which he can see into the past. The device draws the whole town out with 3D information and allows you to enter this reality. The simulator is futuristic observational equipment, a bit like in the film Deja Vu. So there's a third version of every background - the simulated version. With the simulator, Jake has the ability to examine the events of the last days more exactly. He mustn't be discovered, however: if he were noticed by a virtual figure, he would fly out of the simulation and would have to get in again afresh.

[Hamham Chan]

Kivie:Thanks for the translation.
The graphics for Goin' Downtown look freaking sweet!

[TiAgUh]

"While you're down there babe ..."


Uh, sorry for that..

Originally Posted by Hamham Chan

The graphics for Goin' Downtown look freaking sweet!

Indeed, the drawn-out backgrounds .

[beverheim]

Is there any chance for an English language release anytime soon? Or is it another German adventure that will take forever before, if at all, translated to English?

Or do I need to refresh my rusty German language skills one more time? Yes, I did it before. Last time when I got tired of waiting for the English verson of Undercover: Operation Wintersonne.

Well....it sure adds some extra challenge to solving the game

[Gabe]

A (voiceless) english version released anyone playing,any good?

[900Mhz]

I am. This game is very good, if a little short. The animation is the best I have seen in adventure game for a long time. The rest of the graphics are colorful and well drawn, the style is similar to Lost Horizon. There is also a lot of close-ups during conversations and other neat cinematic tricks adding depth to the game. There is background characters too, doing their own things, which is nice.
The game has German voices that are turned off by default, but they are well acted and add atmosphere to the game, and at least for me it wasn't any trouble reading the speech bubbles, except when the characters move they tend to bounce around a bit, and in a few close-ups they were missing, but no important bits of text is missing. The translation is also quite well done. The music is a bit repetitive and one of the weakest links.

The story is ok, not the best in the world, but not a boring one either. The theme is targeted towards a mature audience, so the language and some scenes may not be suited for the younger among us. Somehow Rise of the Dragon comes in to mind when playing this.
The puzzles are very logical and on the easy side. There is no action, but a Monkey Island style conversation-battle system, which is quite fun, but not silly.
The main character has depth, meaning he feels actually like a person with a past and experiences, not a static dummy.

I would rank this one on the same level with Gemini Rue, which was also released recently to the Cyberpunk genre. Gemini Rue had a bit better story, but the presentation of this game is much better. One of the better adventures released for a while, it's well worth the small amount of money it's going for.

[Lee in Limbo]

Sounds intriguing. I was a little worried that it was a poor attempt to get a bit of that GTA vibe into an AG, but perhaps it really is something I might enjoy.

[Gabe]

Game's visuals pretty satisfying for an ag(like BOUT) but then
why cant find 3 guys for english dubbing(like BOUT again)beats me..

[terhardp]

I'm thinking about playing this game. I haven't played anything for a while, except of the BTTF episodes when they come out, and I'm still impatiently waiting for several new games scheduled for this year to be released. There are some other new titles that caught my attention, though.

Style-wise, this game reminds me on "Runaway" series and the upcoming "The Next Big Thing", so it looks appealing to me. Also, the story seems rather interesting. The fact that it isn't voiced in English is a bit of the problem. Not because I don't speak German, but simply because I'm just so used to hearing the voices in English, when it comes to games and films. Of course, that the language has nothing to do with the potential quality of the game itself.

[900Mhz]

I was wrong when I said the puzzles were easy. The game gets a lot harder towards the end. There's a lot people on Gameboomers playing this as well and everybody seems to love it as well. There's also a hint thread for those who get stuck.
Still, a fantastic game!

[Gabe]

That's one of the sleek ag ever indeed,no cumbersome menus, fixations and backtrackin.Instant map and hint options always keeps you focused, best design for a point&clicker confirmed.

[Hamham Chan]

Originally Posted by Gabe

A (voiceless) english version released anyone playing,any good?

Excellent news! Been wanting to play this game for so long.

[rayvio]

looks interesting but does anyone know if a voiced english version will be made? I'd hate to buy it then have to buy a voiced version soon after because I didn't wait