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Old 09-16-2005, 10:51 AM   #1
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Default Still Life Review

I wrote this for InsideGamerOnline.

http://www.insidegameronline.com/pc....reviews&id=879

When we played a demo of Still Life in March, we were pleased by the game’s combination of some arty visuals, and a seedy, oppressive atmosphere that clung to the opening milieu like a leech. Beautiful art direction aside, the minimal control interface didn’t please us and the few puzzles we encountered were easy, but we felt Still Life could lift adventure games out of the mire somewhat. We still do. Having completed the game in its entirety, Still Life’s combination of old school sleuthing and interesting conundrums will please purists. Any newcomers who wish for the little gray cells to be tested will find Still Life a worthy, rewarding experience, too.

The game’s opening cutscene paints a picture of the sorts of events you can expect. We see a killer dragging a victim through a seedy lair, and a man splashing red paint onto canvas. Herein lie two of Still Life’s main focal points: art and murder. Although the former isn’t apparent until you delve deeper into the story, the player must immediately get to grips with Still Life’s gruesome depiction of death. Even in the opening section, there is a brutally eviscerated body to be examined.

It’s probably safe to say that Microids has tried too hard to enforce a sense of maturity on the player. Many of the characters will voice profanity, for instance, and we’d certainly have sacrificed the “F” words for better voice acting. Indeed, many of the characters sound comedic enough to belie Still Life’s otherwise adult nature; what with some gratuitous scenes depicting slain woman, wet with blood, it’s safe to say this isn’t a game for your ten-year-old grandson.

The plot tracks the events of Victoria McPherson and her grandfather, Gus McPherson. Victoria’s story takes place in modern Chicago (we’d hazard a guess at the year 2010) as she looks to track down a ruthless killer with a penchant for prostitutes. This seemingly tried-and-tested story envelops a rather more complex formula when her grandfather (Gus) enters the fold and we learn of events that occurred in 1920s Prague. Both these cases are eerily connected, although it’d be churlish to spoil anything.

No matter what your age, if the game didn’t incorporate a diary system to track dialogue and events, you’d forget much of the plot. Still Life has the annoying habit of introducing characters by way of dialogue so that you’re likely to forget their name within hours. It’s perfectly possible to put Still Life down for the evening, wake up the next morning and say, “who?” when Victoria mentions someone. The diary setup is a godsend then. Both Victoria and Gus will communicate their thoughts into the diary, and this can often serve as a clue as to where you should go next. Additionally, all of the game’s dialogue is recorded, so if you’re particularly thorough, you can scrutinize past encounters with the game’s multitude of characters for information you might have previously missed. As we mentioned in the third paragraph, the voice acting is rather terrible in many cases, although both Gus and Victoria have appealing voices. It’s just as well you hear these two characters most.

When puzzles do crop up, they’re good enough to keep players satisfied, although there's a huge discrepancy (difficulty wise) between many. The interplay between the frustration of being stuck and the elation at finally solving the offending puzzle is at the core of adventure gameplay, and Still Life manages to keep a nice balance most of the time. However, there are cases when Microids seemingly threw caution to the wind, and allowed their minds to utterly and completely unravel on a puzzle. Resultantly, there is the odd conundrum that is so mind-numbingly difficult it’ll likely force the player to resort to a walkthrough – these are usually played from a Myst styled, first-person perspective, and involves trial and error. Moreover, there is a gameplay sequence toward the dénouement that requires a steady hand and quick reflexes. It’s here that the ability to switch between the default mouse setup and the keyboard control system is handy. And guess what, we’ve conveniently refrained from speaking in-depth about the game’s interface until now. For the most part, you’ll want to control Gus and Victoria with the mouse – the exception being the gameplay sequence, which is such a diversion from previous exploits, it might have some gamers toppling off their seats in surprise. The mouse cursor itself will change when moved over objects of interest. In these cases, a magnifying glass will pop up and the player will have the opportunity of taking a closer look. From here on, there are likely to be objects to pick up. Using an item in your inventory with an object in the gameworld is a rather problematic process. It involves reaching an enhanced view of the object in question, entering your inventory by way of the right mouse button, clicking on the object and then the clicking the use hand (also in your inventory screen).

The act of interacting with a character via dialogue is handled in a simple way. The left mouse button can be pressed for topics on a professional, formal basis. The right mouse button can be pressed for an informal, off-topic subject. Consequently, the game is thankfully devoid of any dialogue trees, but you lose the freedom of dictating the direction in which the conversation proceeds. Essentially, every piece of dialogue recorded will be heard by the player. Informal chats are limited too, and conversations in general must be prompted by the continual clicking of the appropriate mouse button. It’s strange that when there are no other ways in which the conversation can proceed, the game simply doesn’t let the talk flow, instead of forcing the player to continually click. Although this might enable players to leave their seats at certain junctures, it would have been more coherent and fluid to be simply able to pause the game when you wished.

Put it like this: Still Life retains the feel of many classics, but both LucasArts’ and Sierra’s titles had control systems that allowed the player more freedom. When you couple in the fact that Still Life is as linear as a train-track (for instance, you won’t be able to pick up a fire extinguisher until the end of the game, and for no good reason) you have to content yourself with playing a game that Microids have envisaged. As we predicted in our preview, there are no multiple endings. And, on the topic of conclusions, Still Life ends on a huge cliff-hanger that sadly leaves a rather stale taste in the mouth.

The odd sojourn between Gus’ existence and Victoria’s is satisfying and provides welcome diversity. Gus’ part in the tale isn’t simply to provide the artists with a chance to paint many more brooding, depressing locales either. However, it is undeniable Microids poses some fine craftsmen, people that can weave magic with a paintbrush in hand. Still Life’s backgrounds are all pre-rendered and painted, but beautifully so, with delicate brush strokes and a myriad of grays and dark, menacing colors. However, there are times when the backgrounds do seem rather grainy and this is, sadly, the price you pay for using pre-rendered paintings. However, comparatively speaking, Still Life doesn't match Syberia or its sequel, and we put this down to poor compression on Microids' part, since the artwork to be viewed during the game (there is a gallery in Still Life where paintings hang) is exceptional. Unfortunately, Victoria, Gus and all the NPCs (non playable characters) have been rendered in 3D, and they clash with the backgrounds. From a 3D standpoint, they don’t look particularly well chiseled either, and animate rather badly.

Music is a mixture of operatic requiem and well…operatic requiem. If the locales paint a depressing picture, the sound strikes a mournful chord, and the more disturbing scenes are disturbing because the music is so effectively spine chilling. The voice acting is, again, disappointing, and the script can be wooden and clumsy at times. Some of the more over-the-top characters (such as the gigantic, Peter, for instance) just sound too unbelievable to fit in a game that so obviously takes itself seriously. The music alone warrants a ten, but it’s been brought down by the poor vocal performances.

The game does have a few odd quirks to it too. On one occasion, Victoria mentions – in her diary – a photo that the player won’t encounter for a few minutes. It’s only a minor irregularity, but it’s enough to cause confusion. Also, we picked up a few grammatical errors in a note Victoria reads at the end of the game. This was nothing major, but it was surprising to see all the same.

Despite the above criticisms, Still Life is a solid title and the inspired artwork elevates it above its recent peers. Fans of the LucasArts line of games may dismiss Still Life as a pretentious adventure that takes itself far too seriously, but they’d be missing out on a title with some genuinely ingenious conundrums. The attention to detail present is also quite marvelous (standing still for a prolonged amount of time, for instance, will prompt the main characters to perform a perfunctory action, such as tapping their feet or sneezing) and it’s obvious that the graphical artists have lavished time and effort in making Still Life look good. The musical score, beautiful art direction and the damn good yarn means that if you’re looking for this sort of game, it’s the best out there currently. Truth be told, Still Life is inspired by greats such as Gabriel Knight, and although it doesn’t match the greatness embedded in the original Gabriel Knight adventure, this has nostalgic value. With the current state of the genre, that is priceless.

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Last edited by AudioSoldier; 09-16-2005 at 11:23 AM.
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Old 09-16-2005, 11:20 AM   #2
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Nice review. You didn't give away any spoilers yet described the game in detail. One thing though: the game was set in Chicago, not New York.

Incidentally, what score would you have given the game out of ten? I personally would have given it about 6 or 7.
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Old 09-16-2005, 11:21 AM   #3
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Aah, good point. I gave it a 7.2. If you click on the link you'll see. Thanks for the warm comments, incidentally.
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Old 09-16-2005, 01:59 PM   #4
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I enjoyed the read, very well written in my opinion. As a bonus it also fits very well with my own opinion of the game, so I have no real objections to anything you mentioned.

Thumbs up! ^_^
 
Old 09-16-2005, 11:29 PM   #5
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Nicely written review!
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Old 09-17-2005, 02:44 AM   #6
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Thanks guys. As a budding journalist encouragement is exceedingly appreciated!
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