Betrapped review
 

Let's cut to the case: In my opinion, this is not one of Evan's best reviews. Maybe it's his worst, but I can't say I've read *every* review of his.

And here's why:

First of all, Evan starts off patronizing, or rather insulting, the dear readers of AG with snappy comments like: You are, I'm sure, quite skeptical at this point, likely having either a) played the game's one-hour demo for five minutes and then told everyone that you played the full hour, or b) read the post of someone who accomplished a) and then claimed to have done it yourself.

Well, it's nice to know how the editor-in-chief thinks of his loyal readers and visitors of this community, that made AG what it is today.

Second point: I get the strong feeling that if this game wasn't designed by Jane Jensen, Evan wouldn't have been so forgiving and patient:

I was not at all happy with BeTrapped for about the first hour and a half that I played.

3 STARS for a game that wasn't very enjoyable for the first 90 minutes?

To be honest, this whole review reads as an excuse letter for Jensen, instead of a real review, with Evan throwing in defending remarks like: I hope you'll realize, though, that this isn't an act of treason by Jane Jensen and So don't be offended if you think that Jensen has abandoned you; she's only trying to convert more into the fold. What the heck? I don't think I've ever read that before in any review. This smells like fanboyism.

Fortunately I've read some some good points in this review too, and at least Evan isn't trying to portray the game's adventure mode as a 'real' adventure, like some of us (ha ha) expected.

One more comment to conclude my rant: I don't know why Larry MCL was published as a 'feature' and BeTrapped, which falls into the same category, as a review. Confusing policy, I must say.

--Erwin

Hmmm... I thought the same thing when I read the review. At the end, it really does seem like one of the main reasons why BeTrapped gets a three star score is because Jane Jensen is more likely to make "another epic adventure game" if it becomes a success.
And, as you said, it felt like most of the review was spent on making excuses for what is lacking.
Kind of an awkward review, especially after Evan's response to timcclayton in a recent thread. =/

Well, I don't agree with Timclayton in that thread. I don't see Jane Jensen as a big sellout or something. She's a game developer, she should develop whatever games she wants to develop.

I even don't mind AG reviewing games like LSL MCL and BeTrapped, because I can see the relation. I just expect an honest, objective review, that's all.

--Erwin

Almost exactly my thoughts, Erwin. I just wouldn't get that personal. I thought about starting a thread with similar themes but remembering the Incident, decided to wait.

Well, I don't, either. That's not what I meant, but when I posted there, I thought this review would have been more objective as well.

Yeah, I see what you mean. But you see, I'm not only disappointed, but also angry and irritated because of the generalizing way Evan speaks of people who, like me, played the demo and don't agree with his view on the game. It's all right to disagree, but not with stabbing remarks like that.

--Erwin

So we definitely know now that MCL is NOT an adventure game, but with these two different wordings, I'm still confused on what BeTrapped actually is. Is it a puzzle game? A puzzle game with adventure elements, even though those adventure elements are only dialogue to connect different minesweeper boards?

I'm not sure I understand still why a game like BeTrapped, which definitely seems to me to be a Casual Puzzle game, would be covered and not something like Psychonauts, which the editors have assured will not be reviewed. If we're talking an adventure heritage, then Tim Schafer definitely has one as much as Jane Jenson does. Adventure gamers will no doubt be interested in Psychonauts, even though it is a platform game, though I bet with adventure elements. They will be interested to see what AG thinks of the game.

Maybe the difference is that people were confused about the extent of the adventure game elements in BeTrapped, hoping for a separate adventure mode, and people are not confused about the extent of the adventure elements in Psychonauts.

There is obviously a fine line on what is and is not an adventure game, and I certainly don't want AG to become AG+, but what is the criteria for evaluation whether something is or is not an adventure? It's obviously a case by case eval. But if our adventure gods have moved on to other genres of gaming, does that mean that AG covers their work, even if it IS a brief stray from the adventure genre?

Maybe the marketing of a game can help determine the coverage of a game. Is BeTrapped advertised as an adventure in any way?

Anyway, sorry, I don't want this thread turning into a corollary to the other thread.

Well, BeTrapped has an 'adventure mode', so yeah- I think it's good AG takes a look at it to check out if it's anything like that.

--Erwin

Hmm...It's too bad that label for the most part turned out to be false advertising. I wonder, should AG judge this game based on it's adventure elements or should it judge the game just in general?

Obviously, on a website strictly about adventure games, a game should be judged just as much on the adventure elements as the game in general. Especially if it is being marketed as one.
That's my views, anyway.

I'm sure Evan didn't mean this to sound as nasty as it does. Maybe he is confusing the site's general readership with a few vocal forumites. I don't know, but it's really not very likely at all that a majority of the people who read this review have done either a or b. Most readers will probably not have played the game or said anything about it at all (I haven't played it, and I can't remember ever mentioning it on the AG-forum either).
Hmm, this is interesting, since a (so-called) casual game that doesn't hook the player within the first half-hour is doomed to be a failure. The single most important thing for these games is that they're addictive right from the start.

Edit: Didn't notice that the quote was taken out of it's original context. Sorry about that, my mistake.

I didn't find the review offensive, personally, though it is somewhat caustic. I agree that it was probably not intended to be nasty and probably came across that way due to some of the conversation surrounding the upcoming review. Also, I think the quote about not enjoying the first 90 minutes of the game has been taken out of context.

I took this to mean that he was not happy with BeTrapped because he had previously believed (and led others of us to believe) that there was a pure adventure mode, and as he played the first 90 minutes of the game he saw that this was not true.

-emily

ps I would have liked to know a little bit more about BeTrapped's story.

I don't understand. What did he discover after 90 minutes? There still isn't a real adventure mode, is there? Okay, the story and dialogue is Jensen-quality -I got that. But it's still the same puzzle gameplay, right?

--Erwin

Grim Fandango is an awesome game.

Oops! Wrong thread.

Yes, yes it is! I want a new review in which Tim Shafer is personally praised for this masterpiece!

As a Tim Schafer fanboy, I'm greatly disappointed that his name hasn't been mentioned once in the entire GF review, while Jensen fans are being served with a mention of her name multiple times. I feel discriminated!

--Erwin

My read was that it took him 90 minutes to get over the disappointment / annoyance of there not being a pure adventure mode.

-emily

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. :D 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).

Instead of Gray Matter, we got Gray Area. ;)

Ohhh Jack, that is so good.

I just played through the full version and it is an adventury desk top. More of a good game for the mobile gaming market. I think the linkage (JJ) and general curiosity warranted coverage - but as one of those "games of interest to our readers" sort of games.

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?

-emily

No It's not like Missing, that was an arcade game wrapped around some high quality movie bits.

BeTrapped is a game of "Clue", with a few inventory items scattered around, some people to question, wrapped around a game of minesweeper.

EDIT: just realized you may be right. I would have to say Missing is a full sized game, though one with painful challenges like wack a bug. BeTrapped is much more gameplay lite.

At the end you answer a few questions and find out if you are right about who dunnit and why. It was Miss Scarlet with plasma gun in the play room, because she just felt like it.