[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by Jackal

At the end of the day, it comes down to judgement about whether a game has enough to warrant the "adventure" label. MCL did not. Too much PaRappa the Rapper, not enough Laffer. Really, we wouldn't have given that game a second thought if it didn't sport the LSL name.

Evan felt BeTrapped earned the label, though. And hey, if you consider an adventure a combination of story and puzzles, then BeTrapped clearly qualifies - just in much different proportion than traditional adventures (and with only one repetitive puzzle type).

Okay, fair enough. Let's just say I disagree with him then. I'm eagerly awaiting the Half Life 2 review because of it's story and puzzle elements.

In all seriousness; I don't have a problem with Evan labeling BeTrapped as an adventure. That's just his opinion. My main concern is, as explained, the general attitude of the review.

It's also the first review I read with a score that didn't, in my eyes, complement the review.

Instead of Gray Matter, we got Gray Area.

Hehe, true.

--Erwin

[Jackal]

I understand, Erwin. I was just clarifying the apparent policy discrepancy. The other issues Evan would have to address himself. I can't even speak personally about the game, since I only played the demo (the whole hour! Really!! )

Nah, we won't be reviewing Half-Life 2 or anything even remotely similar, but I can assure you that there will be plenty of thinly veiled references to it in our posts.

Spoiler:

The gravity gun is awesome, and far more fun than Minesweeper.

[Kolorabi]

Originally Posted by fov

Out of curiosity Laura (or anyone who's played it) - is BeTrapped similar to Missing / In Memoriam in the way it combines a story with "casual" gaming?

I doubt it, Missing has a lot of really clever (and quite difficult) puzzles. Don't buy the story about it being an arcade game with some movie bits.

[stepurhan]

Originally Posted by Jackal

You're right that we could have called it "Fruit Loops", and it would still essentially be a review. The point of making it a feature article is that it will never be listed in our review list of pure adventure games on AG.

Cross-pollinating from the LSL:MCL thread can we call all "review-thingies" Fruit Loops from now on so we're perfectly clear on what we're getting.

Since BeTrapped IS a review, does this mean it will go into the review archive in the same way LSL:MCL won't?

[Jackal]

Originally Posted by stepurhan

Cross-pollinating from the LSL:MCL thread can we call all "review-thingies" Fruit Loops from now on so we're perfectly clear on what we're getting.

Seems that name has been trademarked. My bad. We're looking into "Whatchamacallits" as an alternative.

Since BeTrapped IS a review, does this mean it will go into the review archive in the same way LSL:MCL won't?

Precisely.

[fov]

Originally Posted by Kolorabi

I doubt it, Missing has a lot of really clever (and quite difficult) puzzles. Don't buy the story about it being an arcade game with some movie bits.

I'm midway through Missing, actually, and am quite enjoying it.

I guess I'm just trying to understand why one game that's basically just a story told in chunks triggered by non-adventury mini-games (Missing) counts as an adventure game, when another one (BeTrapped) doesn't. Because Missing's story is more in depth? Because the mini-games in Missing take more brainwork than in BeTrapped? (I know there are some people who wouldn't consider Missing an adventure, though.)

-emily

[arczangel]

I played betrapped for a good hour before i finally gave up on it. It's a terrible game, i don't think it even deserves the 3 stars it got.

[Simo Sakari Aaltonen]

Jackal wrote:

Seems that name has been trademarked. My bad. We're looking into "Whatchamacallits" as an alternative.

Sorry, Jackal, but that doesn't work. Whatchamacallit is a magazine I edited for a couple of years. (Seriously. )

[Jackal]

Originally Posted by Simo Sakari Aaltonen

Whatchamacallit is a magazine I edited for a couple of years. (Seriously. )

Argh!!

Thingamajig?

[Tanukitsune]

I was finally able to play Betrapped, why on Earth did Real Arcade wait so long to include this game in their catalog is a mystery, but hey, at least I got it cheaper than anywhere else....(Free if you don't count my monthly fee)

The adventure part was pretty weak, I never got stuck for a second, and I was dozing off near the end...

Not that the game was boring, I just wake up really early for work...

Arghhh, I could see the cuplrit way too easily...

Spoiler:

The Countess pretends to be Spanish and she says "bambino" which is Italian, the maid knew about the button thing...

Of course, let's remember this is a "casual" game, so it had to dumbed down to attract casual gamers, but I've played kidde games that are moe challenging, even the "minesweeper" thing is easier since you have 5 lives and 5 tries...

Am I saying it sucks? No, I'm just saying it's not that good, that is all, but I never expected that much from a "casual" game you can get from Real Arcade....

[baba]

I think the biggest problem of Betrapped! is its ambiguity with who exactly is the target audience.

I actually started playing it because I wanted a good puzzle game and this seemed like a great little distraction, a glorified Minesweeper game. I started with an Adventure game not really expecting an "adventure", just some little story which would loosely follow increasingly tougher levels.

When I came upon the first "clue" which triggered some sort of eavesdropped conversation, I quickly clicked through it, not wanting to be bothered. When I came upon the first character and the real choice-based conversation sprung up, I was getting irritated - enough yadda-yadda-blah-blah I want to get back to the fun trap-disarming parts!

Luckily, my adventure game-fan insticts started to kick in so I decided to restart the game and this time around pay attention to the clues and talking and all. After a while quite a surprising thing happened - I actually started to care about the story but found out that I was quite irritated with endless disarming of all the traps lying around!

To sum up, this game is for a small intersection of game audience who actually likes lightweight puzzle games AND adventure games both. And even that is not quite right - I am a member of that small group and nevertheless I found it almost impossible to enjoy both aspects of the game at once.

[fov]

Welcome to the forum, baba!

Thanks for sharing your perspective.