[Legolas813]

IGN released a review today for TMOS and gave it a 6.9. The review is basically a big list of complaints about what's wrong with the game. What do you guys think about the review?

http://pc.ign.com/articles/593/593774p1.html

[Draco2.5]

A bit harsh but ehh...I kinda agree. Of course I only played the demo so I dunno.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I've only played the demo, but I feel the reviewer's arguments are almost all legitimate. And this is because the game adheres FAR TOO BLINDLY to the typical and conventional constraints of the adventure game genre - and the stupid annoying problems those constraints leak out in effect. Just about every grievance makes sense in the review - watching the character take 10,000 years to cross one side of the screen to the other, clicking every single inventory item on an NPC to get any kind of response from them, hovering the mouse cursor over every single square milimeter of the screen to make sure you haven't missed anything. These are genuine technical and design flaws.

I remember experiencing the same frustration playing The Longest Journey. Clearly this indicates that there's a much better, more efficient way to design this type of game.

I do like and admire MoS for its overall polish and its intriguing theme, but I do agree on this review as it helps magnify many of the genre's blemishes. Gaping flaws that could have been worked on years ago.

....the mechanics are awkward and progress too tedious for anyone not already partly conditioned to the adventure genre's trappings. If you're already a fan of this stuff, you'll probably be able to tolerate MoS's shortcomings and find a rewarding experience underneath its issues. For the rest of us, however, the fun-to-frustration ratio puts it low on the gaming priority list.

This perfectly sums up my sentiment about how conventional adventure games might, just might, alienate a potential demographic from being drawn to them and enjoying them. Everyone else is NOT conditioned to the adventure game's trappings, and since the genre is badly in need of making more money in order to make better games, how do you address this?

[artwking4]

IGN rated it, so that means someone here in the US actually got the TAC version of the game, then. Where is it?

[crabapple]

....the mechanics are awkward and progress too tedious for anyone not already partly conditioned to the adventure genre's trappings.

You could say this about any genre.

Their reader average seems to be a lot higher than their reviewer's grade.
Until I play the game I have no idea whether I'd agree with the reviewer or not.

[Antoinetta]

It sounds as if this reviewer could have a point, some of the technical-based issues, such as blocky character rendering, or having the game character walk around the room to get to an object two steps away, or awkward conversation trees are issues that have essentially been worked out at this point in the evolution of the technology and the experience of game developers/designers.

On the other hand, I can't see the problem with setting it 40 years from now. The game appears to be of the futuristic "Where will we be in 40 years?" speculative variety in which our tale unfolds.

And I'm wondering if the author of the review also assigned the ratings at the bottom of the column. In the review he pans the characterization as "blocky" among other things, and the interface as "awkward", yet, in the ratings section "Presentation" which he rates an 8.2, he praises "clean interface and subtle characterization."

Also, since the "Overall" rating is not an average of the five specific scores above (which, by the way is 7.7), what is it? And who constitutes the "Reader Average" which gives the game a whopping 9.0 thumbs-up?

At any rate, as several have said earlier in the thread, I'll find out when I get the game and play it myself.

Antoinetta

[Legolas813]

^ The reader average is just the average score that people submit. Anybody who has an IGN account can submit their own score for the game.

[GreatPumpkin]

Originally Posted by artwking4

IGN rated it, so that means someone here in the US actually got the TAC version of the game, then. Where is it?

This question is getting buried, but I want to see an answer as well. Best Buy and CompUSA are basically the only stores around here that carry adventure games and neither one even has it in their systems yet. Has anyone been able to walk into a store and buy this game?

[SoccerDude28]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

I do like and admire MoS for its overall polish and its intriguing theme, but I do agree on this review as it helps magnify many of the genre's blemishes. Gaping flaws that could have been worked on years ago.

Ditto to that Trepsie

Now where is the chapter 3 of the highly anticipated "The Cold Hotspot".

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Yeah guys, I agree about holding off until we ourselves have played the full game. I certainly do want to get it, but it's not exactly on the very top of my list as I have a few titles of other genres ahead of it (Jade Empire and Psychonauts among them). But MoS and Still Life are definitely THE adventure titles I want in the next several months.

Originally Posted by SoccerDude28

Now where is the chapter 3 of the highly anticipated "The Cold Hotspot".

Erwin is supposed to be putting it out this week. There may have been some technicality beyond him, so consider it a tad bit late.

[newyork]

Eb games has mos here you go http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/256053.asp

[Legolas813]

^ Gamestop.com also has it, but I think some of us would rather get it in store. That's why we are complaining about not being able to find it anywhere yet.

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

I do agree on this review as it helps magnify many of the genre's blemishes. Gaping flaws that could have been worked on years ago.

Franckly, this is getting old. Why generalising MoS flaws to the entire genre?
Myst 4 or Return to Mystery Island (not to mention most older games), for example, are completely flawless and fun. And games like the Black Mirror have completely different flaws. Of course if the only recent game you've played is Syberia, then I can understand your generalising, but still...
MoS failings, which are numerous, are it's own fault, not a consequence of it belonging to the adventure genre.

Quote:
....the mechanics are awkward and progress too tedious for anyone not already partly conditioned to the adventure genre's trappings. If you're already a fan of this stuff, you'll probably be able to tolerate MoS's shortcomings and find a rewarding experience underneath its issues. For the rest of us, however, the fun-to-frustration ratio puts it low on the gaming priority list.

That I completely agree with (after all, I completed and liked the game), but note that the guy doesn't talk about "typical and conventional constraints", rather about trappings. That's an enteriely different issue alltogether.
I do think that our genre has traps, and what I'd like all new games to achieve is to successfully avoid all these. Then they would be just fun and never frustrating. Which some new games already are (I'll jump upon this occasion to recommend Return to Mystery Island as a game that "does things right").

EDIT: By the way, as I've already said in the past, 7/10 is quite representative of the game's worth, in my opinion.

[Henke]

I have played through a large part of the game and I think this review is very accurate. I have read other reviews which I think is totally wrong but this one was actually good. Moment of Silence is partly fun but has its flaws.

[TigerShard]

I am annoyed that he didn't even present any of the story in the review, or talk about any of the puzzles. If what he says is true, that most likely only people who play adventure games will pick up MoS, then give the adventure gamers the information they want to hear.

[Martin Gantefoehr]

I won't kill myself (or anybody else, for that matter) because of this review.
There's one of his points, however, that I really have issues with:

And if you accept the argument that science fiction's role is to explore how technology can affect our society--Alfred Bester, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson--then there's nothing to the central mystery that's unique enough to dedicate a game to.

What's unique enough to dedicate a game to is of course debatable -- maybe I have underestimated how badly mankind is in need of another couple of shelf meters of games about Mars colonies, Vietnam and mutant zombies.

I don't claim to be William Gibson, either. But if MOS isn't about how technology can affect society and politics, then I seriously don't know what the game is about. *shrug*

[artwking4]

The adventure genre's "trappings" (or shortcomings) hasn't stopped me from enjoying these kinds of games so far. I don't expect it will this time, either.

[Fantaz]

It seems as though IGN hates all adventure games and gives low scores to every game in this genre. It's unfortunate that they want the genre to die out so quickly. I've played MoS and it is a great game! All of you here should check it out.

[Legolas813]

^ Well at least they did pick a reviewer who was an adventure game fan. That way there is less bias in the review.

"I'm a big fan of the LucasArts tradition of adventure gaming. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Monkey Island series, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango and others. I've also played my fair share of game that didn't quite hit the mark. While The Moment of Silence isn't a bad game, it has several design decisions that prevent it from being recommended to anyone outside the dwindling genre fanbase."

[Martin Gantefoehr]

It seems as though IGN hates all adventure games and gives low scores to every game in this genre.

Naaah, I don't think so. E.g. Syberia II got 8.6 on IGN, they do give high scores as well.

The reviewer of MOS obviously didn't like it a lot, but he didn't hate it either. And when I look at MOTD's review on IGN, not being hated anymore is definitely an improvement.