I get what you are saying.

Riven isn't an adventure game :D

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Syberia

Classic game of Automatons, Mammoths and an epic train journey. You are Kate Walker, lawyer, in search of Hans Voralberg in Syberia.

I credit this game with getting me back into adventure games after a gap in the early 00's. It's georgous graphics and haunting soundtrack drew me into the strange world of Automatons as we went from one great location to another.

Most of the locations revolve around trying to find ways to wind up your clockwork train and range from a university to a space port.

Unfortunatly, the georgous visuals are great to look at but lack interaction. There are very little hotspots in the game making the game seem empty. It is frustrating to run through 5 screen of lanscapes with nothing to do, hit a dead end and have to run all the way back.

Puzzles are, for the most part very simplistic with only one that stretches the grey matter (The Blue Helena puzzle).

The characters and story are pretty decent. There is some decent background info to be found on the Hans/Ann story as you go from place to place. You meet some decent characters along the way that will help or hinder your progress. Your mobile phone remains a link to Kate's past and over the course of the game you start to wonder what the hell she was like back home as other than her mother all her other contacts are idiots. Her annoying arse of a boss, her fiance is a stuck up git and her best friend bonks her fiance after Kate is away for a couple of days. With friends like these i'd run off to Syberia as well.

Overall it is a pretty simple game with a decent story and georgous visuals. The ending felt more like a mid interval break than a true ending, but I can forgive it because they did make a sequel.

4/5

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Walking Dead - Episode 1

I'm a big fan of the comic book series, it's one of the best ongoing comics in recent years and it is known for it's shock value and nobody is safe atmosphere. Kirkman is not shy about maiming of killing off main characters.

So when Telltale announced they were doing this game I was slightly skeptical. Up until that point all there games had been cartoony, type affairs. Could they pull off something edgier?

While there are plenty of Zombies in the world of the Walking Dead. The comic has always been about more about the humans and less about the Zombies. They are the threat and the background in which the human drama is unfolding, but the chatacters and their actions are always the main meat of the story.

So it was great to see that the game focuses more on the small group of survivors and is mostly a dialogue based affair with some puzzles and a few action sequences. It's not Left for Dead.

You play as a convicted criminal who escapes in a great intro sequence as the world goes to hell in a Zombiepocalypse. You quickly run into Clementine ,a young girl, and become her protector. After helping out a couple of guys you end up in a familiar location for a little while before being dumped in a pharmacy where most of the action in this episode takes place.

Talk to all the characters to gain background and a sense of who they are and they will remember what actions you have taken, who you supported at crucial times, whether you confronted them or lied to them etc etc. This makes the game replayable to see if you missed anything and whether the choice you didn't take was the better option.

Unfortunatly branching storylines like this mean that the action lenght of this episode seems SUPER short. I managed about 2.5 hours in the first playthrough. On smaller episodic type games it probably means that a 4 hour linear game is turned into a shorter experience with replayability.

Graphically the game still looks dated, but the cell shaded characters do give it a comic book feel that enhances the atmosphere of the game. The game world is pretty, but sparce of actual interactivity. There is a limited area in which to walk around keeping exploration to a bare minimum, but heightens the feeling of being trapped.

In keeping with most Telltale games of late there is little in the way of actual adventuring. Puzzles are few and far between and the couple that do exist are extremely easy to the point of insulting. It does have some actiony sequences, but thankfully they are constrained to a few situations and avoid the Jurassic Park nonsense.

As an interactive experience set in this world, it hits all the right notes. The world feels authentic, the characters interesting, the art stlye adds to the comic feel and you spend most of the time talking to other characters.

As an actual game...it's too short and waaaaaay too easy.

3.5/5

Better Than: Jurassic Park
Worse than : Sam & Max

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Syberia II

Playing this game so close to the original just highlights for me the fact that this is a continuation of the last game rather than a sequel. It's as if funding ran out half way through the game and we ended up with the weird rushed ending of the first game and now it picks up straight after that ending in game 2.

Kate, having found Hans, is now escorting him across the wilds of Russia to find Hans's dream of riding a Mammoth.

The same rules apply to this game in that the graphics are georgous, but ultimatly empty screens with little interactivity. There are neat touches like footprints in the snow etc. The character models are improved, but Hans now looks like a creepy old man.

The puzzles are fairly straight forward, but there are a few challenging ones towards the end. This time around the constant winding of the train is replaced with the frailty of your companion requiring a lot of health care as the prefered puzzle of choice.

Locations are larger than the previous game, but can become confusing in their layout especially in the youkal villiage near the end.

The ending this time seems more appropriate with it's bittersweet finality to the journey.

It did however have a few problems. It was nice that they played down the constant phone calls, however the tedious and ultimatly pointless private eye cut scenes fizzle out into nothing. You never see him and he has absolultly no bearing on the storyline (I hope the bear ate him).

What was Kate planning to do next? Is she going to replace the lookout she pushed over near the boat dock :D Is she going to try and sail back by herself or is she going to join Mammoth society?

However in a game that is about clockwork devices, Mammoths and other wonderful fantasy visuals. Why does the fact that 4ft penguins seem to be in the wrong hemisphere bug me the most.......Damn penguins only live at the south pole :pan:

Overall though it is an enjoyable ride and I will miss the lovable Oscar, the creepy old man and the way Kate emphasises "Stuck" when she can't interact with things.

4/5